Stalker is a sport about desperately scrounging by way of the shattered stays of a ruined world searching for elusive, ethereal artifacts that may be offered to sketchy merchants for a fast buck. In that context, I assume it is sensible that Stalker 2, coming in April subsequent yr, will incorporate NFTs that allow gamers to “personal” distinctive gadgets within the sport, and even turn into an NPC.
Beginning later this month, gamers will be capable to register for “merchandise drops” that may start in January 2022—not a drop within the normal videogame sense however a web-based public sale. Among the many NFT gadgets up for grabs will probably be what GSC Sport World describes as “the first-ever metahuman,” which sounds cool however is in truth simply an NPC with the proprietor’s face scanned onto it. Echoes of Tyler Wilde as the world’s worst basketball player, I suppose, besides you will not really be capable to play the sport as this character: As an alternative, it should seem as “a bartender, a comrade, or an enemy… there for everybody to see.”
“Contemplating the worldwide traits in gaming, we will do extra than simply provide an immersive sport expertise,” GSC Sport World CEO Evgeniy Grygorovych mentioned. “Our gamers can get a deeper presence within the sport, and we are going to give them this chance by presenting the primary AAA sport with a singular meta expertise.”
The second spherical of drops will happen in February and have “extremely secretive genesis packs.” Particulars on that will probably be introduced through Twitter and Discord, however no matter they’re, GSC Sport World mentioned they and different such drops will not affect gameplay or present any type of benefit over different gamers.
They are going to, nonetheless, be tradeable on DMarket, an NFT buying and selling platform and market for CS:GO, Dota 2, and Crew Fortress 2 skins and cosmetics. There’s presently no pricing info on DMarket’s Stalker 2 page, but it surely does promise to “provoke our Metaversial bridge, providing three fortunate followers a capability to attach with 10+ (and even 100+) thousands and thousands of avid gamers worldwide as a non-fungible token,” which actually feels like one thing.
I have been wanting ahead to Stalker 2 for a really very long time now—since effectively earlier than it even existed—and to be blunt, this actually places me off the entire thing. I do not care if different gamers wish to be the man standing in a darkish nook providing to promote me low cost vodka and moist ammo, however as many others have identified earlier than me, NFT expertise is completely pointless for any of what is being supplied right here besides as a method for the builders and merchants to generate profits off of individuals whose sense of possession has been irretrievably warped by over-immersion in digital ephemera. I am actually unsure I can get behind a sport that goals to reap the benefits of that.
Possibly I am fallacious—possibly this actually would be the subsequent huge revolution in gaming. However I do not assume so. Stalker 2 is ready to launch on April 18.
