S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl announced its own metaverse complete with non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and to the surprise of nobody, fans are livid about it.
Later this month, anyone can register for “item drops” that will begin slithering into existence sometime in Jan. 2022, and among the prizes will be a chance for someone to become the “first-ever metahuman” that will become an in-game non-playable character. Which is a fancy way of saying they’ll scan your face and plaster it on a shopkeeper. It’s not nearly as cool as they make it sound.
GSC Game World isn’t the first studio to attempt shoving blockchain technologies into its games, but it is the latest to face significant blowback from its community over adding NFTs. Dead By Daylight fans dragged Behavior Interactive through the mud for doing something similar, and Ubisoft received overwhelmingly negative attention for implementing similar into Ghost Recon: Breakpoint.
Welcome to the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Metaverse!
– S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is not a blockchain-based game
– No influence on gameplay
– Completely optional
– There will be free giveaways for the community members
– All tokens to be activated before the release https://t.co/gZVUEJ5swe— S.T.A.L.K.E.R. OFFICIAL (@stalker_thegame) December 15, 2021
GSC Game World CEO Evgeniy Grygorovych tried to weather the storm a bit ahead of time by making it sound like the company is giving back to its community.
“Considering the global trends in gaming, we can do more than just offer an immersive game experience,” Grygorovych said in a press release. “Our players can get a deeper presence in the game, and we will give them this opportunity by presenting the first AAA game with a unique meta experience.”
Naturally, people aren’t buying into the damage control. Below you’ll find a list of some of the most vocal naysayers. As someone that was greatly looking forward to S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl, I’m right there everyone that’s catastrophically disappointed.