Gaming and NFTs are two areas of digital entertainment which have a bad relationship. While NFTs certainly have a place in our digital future and a versatility that many don’t yet understand, there’s no denying they have a bad rap at present. As such, many game studios are wisely avoiding the topic wherever possible. Not Off the Grid NFTs fans, Gunzilla Games, however. Instead, they’re going full tilt into a blockchain alliance with Avalanche.
Gunzilla Games is an independent game studio that come out storming with the announcement of Off the Grid. A high calibre looking FPS blending massive multiplayer battles with single-player espionage, Off the Grid has consistently looked as though it has a chance to be something special. There’s many reasons why you should be excited for Off the Grid. Today’s announcement of Off the Grid NFTs, however? That’s not likely to be one of them.
Get them GUNZ Out
The launch of GUNZ, an ‘innovative and sustainable blockchain-based digital economy platform’ was not the next stage in the PR grind we were hoping for. Built on an Avalanche Subnet, which ‘has been customized to enable seamless gameplay’, GUNZ will utilise only in-game tokens for gas fees. ‘Blockchain’ may be another bad word in the gaming community, but this in itself is not a bad thing. For the uninitiated, it basically means that transaction fees will be covered by in-game currency, not your credit card. However, compounding the issues of poor insight, the announcement further dives even deeper. ‘Web3’, ‘NFT minting engine’, ‘companion app’, ‘marketplace’ and more. It hams up the buzzword bingo to the point where it feels like meaningless spin.
Off the Grid NFT Impact
So, what exactly does this mean for Off the Grid as a game? Well, we don’t actually know yet. The announcement goes into detail on the technology being used, but little on how it will actually affect the game. It does suggest that there’ll be layers of complexity that hadn’t previously been expected.
One such layer is summed up in a short mention at the end of a sentence: ‘build and launch their own projects on GUNZ’. This suggests that Off the Grid will have a community content creation aspect of some sort. Will we see mod compatibility, or will it be more like Halo Infinite‘s Forge? Will it be in-game, or will it require knowledge of development engines and toolsets? Sadly, we don’t have the information on exactly how this will be executed.
What we do know however, that Off the Grid will be based around the ‘play-to-own’ mechanics of NFTs. Though this will be ‘optional’, according to Gunzilla Games:
“Designed with the gaming community and blockchain enthusiasts in mind, GUNZ aims to give players the option to get involved in Play-to-Own mechanics by offering verifiable transparency.”
Buzzword Bingo NFTs Isn’t what we Wanted for Off the Grid
There’s nothing inherently wrong with the ideas presented in the announcement. However, it was delivered in such a fashion where the use of the technologies outweighs any positive impact on the game. What are the benefits of using blockchain? Why are there going to be Off the Grid NFTs? Why will there be gas fees at all? It’s an entirely misdelivered announcement that pulls away from the exciting potential of a hybrid single-player/multiplayer experience into something altogether more unwieldy.
Little could sum up the willful ignorance of community perception more than the statement from Gunzilla Games CEO, Vlad Korolov. If you’re looking for a nonsensical quote that packs in the buzzwords and ends up meaning nothing, he’s delivering in spades:
“Our partnership with Avalanche not only allows us to leverage its highly scalable and secure blockchain infrastructure but also ensures a seamless, low-latency gaming experience for our players,” explained Vlad Korolov, CEO and Co-Founder of Gunzilla Games, “By building GUNZ, we aim to revolutionize the gaming landscape with a transparent in-game asset management system by providing a number of market-standard features for game developers who are creating their economy on blockchain.”
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