[NFT World]The Future Of NFT Worlds
The Future Of NFT Worlds 🌎
Read our statement below through the attached Twitter thread, or here
A thread 🧵👇
On July 20th, 2022 Mojang decided to, without warning, outright ban all integrations of blockchain technology and NFTs within Minecraft. This decision completely disrupted emerging Web3 based game platforms built on top of it, like NFT Worlds.
NFT Worlds is a cryptocurrency enabled games platform launched in October, 2021. It’s enabled an ecosystem of the first interlinked but independently owned worlds operating under a single unifying game currency, dozens of newly developed gameplay modes for Minecraft by creators and emerging free opportunities for players to earn exciting items, access to top quality content and more just by enjoying and playing these games built on our platform - all free to play so long as players owned a copy of Minecraft.
NFT Worlds gave the world a vision of what Web3 technologies could positively bring to existing and new games at scale.
To date NFT Worlds consists of nearly 200 independent teams from projects building on our platform, a rapidly growing player count of almost 100,000 players who have registered and were actively playing across worlds, and dozens of creative Minecraft development teams being able to provide exceptional full-time wages to their teams for, in some cases, the first time in their development history. All because of the excitement and opportunities the NFT Worlds ecosystem provided.
Microsoft, Mojang, and Minecraft have signaled they have no regard for creators, builders, and players if at any moment a new idea or vision conflicts with any internal politics or opinions oft heir power holding minority; regardless of their public-facing ideals around creators and developers they say they uphold.
This is not the first time Microsoft and Minecraft has enforced a new crippling policy or agenda based rule enforcements on creators within the Minecraft ecosystem, and certainly won’t be the last.
Coming from a decade worth of enjoyable experiences playing and building within the Minecraft ecosystem, this stings and feels like a violation of the true creative spirit Minecraft was supposed to embody and enable.
Minecraft is no longer a welcoming place for us or creators involved with our platform. For many, this would be the end - but not for us. We’ve seen the glimpse of something too special to abandon. Thousands upon thousands of others have too.
We’ve already started bringing together the top visionary developers within the Minecraft development ecosystem to join NFT Worlds as we move into the future. We’re diving head first into this with a fantastic team, a thriving community fully supporting us, a warchest of funds to sustain us through the process, and a core belief that it’s time for a change.
We’re creating a new game and platform based on many of the core mechanics of Minecraft, but with the modernization and active development Minecraft has been missing for years. This is not a rewrite of some open source Minecraft clone, which likely would violate the EULA or still risk legal action, this is entirely from the ground up. This transition will additionally come with a public facing brand identity change that is more player friendly.
While the playstyle, look and feel of this will be very familiar to Minecraft players; the game mechanics, graphics, performance optimizations and overall improvements will usher in a more accessible, ownable and enjoyable playing experience. Best of all, we’ll be completely untethered from the policy enforcement Microsoft and Mojang have over Minecraft. We truly become our own open game and platform.
Game access will be 100% free for players and there will never be any credit card pay barriers for content. NFT Worlds was built on the idea that all players should have access to earning, purchasing and owning items and content through in-game play mechanics and currency rewards.
Finally, we’ll prioritize backwards compatibility with existing Minecraft server development plugins and practices. This will allow for a smooth transition for our creator’s existing content when the time comes. We encourage creators to continue building NFT Worlds content within the requirements of the new EULA until our game is ready for the transition.
With the recent policy changes, worlds are still allowed to operate and be played but cannot integrate blockchain based functionality, nft support or game currency.
As we go through this transitional period, the launcher & play pages for NFT Worlds will continue to stay up and be developed to introduce new non-crypto player attracting features while our coming game platform is under development.
Make no mistake, this is a web2 vs web3 battle. It is a battle between two different visions of the future of the web: one that prioritizes shareholder value and profit margins above all else and one that prioritizes the spirit of innovation through independent creators. It is both a philosophical conflict over what the Internet represents, and a technological struggle over who will have ownership of digital assets. Microsoft has made it clear they will always act in the interest of their shareholders and balance sheet, to the detriment of innovation, player experience and creators. We believe an open, free, evolved version of what Minecraft brought to the world will be a better future for creators, developers and ultimately gamers.
We’re fighting for a future with a player owned and operated economy, where all participants benefit from their contributions to the ecosystem. We recognize this is a monumental task. If you’re a creator, builder or player who wants a future where the ideas that Minecraft brought to the world are evolving, free, open and accessible to all - join us.
