Is Evil Genius Games Doubling Down On NFTs & Blockchain?

Evil Genius Games' Dave Scott presents to a panel of judges at a cryptocurrency convention in May 2024​

Earlier this year, it was revealed that Evil Genius Games--publisher of the d20 Modern inspired Everyday Heroes TTRPG--was considering use of certain controversial Web3 technologies, such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and blockchains. In response to that, EGG published a manifesto on February 6th, 2024, which they called their 'Technology Code of Ethics' in which the company pledged not to use blockchain or cryptocurrencies (along with AI, and other pledges). Indeed, Scott himself told me back in February that the company had decided not to use blockchain technology. For a full background on EGG and recent events, you can read more in The Rise And Fall Of Evil Genius Games.

#2: Evil Genius Games will not use Blockchain or Cryptocurrency technologies in the building or operation of its technology platform.

At the end of 2023 and the start of 2024 numerous employees resigned from Evil Genius Games citing--amongst other things--ethical concerns with the technologies that the company was planning to use, something which Dave Scott made public assurances that they would not do. At the time Scott said: “We made the decision not to do AI in October, and then not to do Web3 in December. But apparently, it wasn't enough to allay any concerns. So after the resignations, we brought the team together to discuss. And we felt a public and permanent statement on this issue would be useful. That's why we drafted the code of ethics after the fact.” In fact, back when I spoke to Scott in February of this year, one of the questions I asked him was why the staff who had recently resigned from EGG did not believe him when he repeated that the company did not intend to use those controversial technologies, and he indicated to me that he didn't know why that was the case.

EGG Pitches At Consensus 2024
However, last week, EGG participated in a pitch competition at an event at Consensus 2024, a convention in Texas run by Coindesk. Consensus describes itself as "the world's largest, longest-running and most influential gathering that brings together all sides of the cryptocurrency, blockchain and Web3 community". EGG's owner Dave Scott pitched a future for their TTRPG offerings which leaned heavily on both blockchains and on non-fungible tokens. Scott introduced the company and told the attendees that "we make turn-based RPGs on chain based on famous Blockbuster movie franchises that we all know and love."

Interestingly, Scott also stated that Jeff Grubb (Dragonlance, d20 Modern) works for the company and describes him as "the father of modern day Dungeons and Dragons"; Grubb made it clear earlier this year that he had no current involvement with Evil Genius Games. In my previous delve into EGG, it turned out that Grubb's participation in Everyday Heroes was that he wrote the foreword in 2023.

I'm not the best person on the staff. Meet Jeff Grub. Jeff Grub is the father of modern day Dungeons and Dragons.

So how do NFTs fit into this vision? Dave Scott described it as follows:

Imagine a scenario where you could actually buy NFT utilities that are exclusive to these licenses you could actually pilot Gypsy Danger, you can carry Rambo's M60, all of these that have value that can be bought sold and traded but more importantly in the Roblox fashion we're going to allow other people to actually create their own NFTs which can be thrown onto a marketplace where they can buy, sell and trade those adventures as well.

Scott's pitch can be watched below--in the video the CEO presented an NFT and blockchain powered future for Evil Genius Games' tabletop offerings in front of three judges, who then proceeded to ask him questions about the pitch.

During the Q&A which followed, Scott confirmed that there was no actual NFT technology in place yet, indicating that "we've just started to set up the infrastructure to be able to create the NFT program". He also claimed that the company has made $1.2M in revenue in the last year based on sales of digital products.

When asked about the blockchain components of the setup, Scott described the content creator marketplace.

All the Creator Marketplace components of it, the UGC components of it, the entire utility is on chain. If you've actually played RPGs before there's a character sheet, all the components of the character sheet will have objects on it, all the objects will be NFTs. In addition to that the actual character sheet itself will be minted as an NFT as well so what that means is that if we use your character as an NPC in a future game we'll actually pay you royalties on the character itself. So the whole thing is based off of objects which are have NFT components to it.

He went on to describe some of the more technical aspects of the platform, including the use of a 'wallet-as-a-service' company called Stardust. Stardust's mission statement is to "democratise blockchain technology for developers and players at scale".

What we're really excited about is the idea that we can use blockchain to be able to control the value and to create value around the objects which make up your character, that's going to be a really important component of it so if you actually create for example an adventure on our system that'll be something that you own as the creator from here on out but the experience we're going after is a Web2 experience which means that we don't want to expose the wallet, we're going to be using a company called Stardust be able to create custodial wallets for that reason.

​

This was part of a competition, which--as it happens--Evil Genius Games won!

To Pledge Or Not To Pledge?
Whether or not one supports the idea of blockchains and NFTs, Evil Genius Games did make a very public pledge not to use blockchains--and reiterated to staff, to me, and on forums that they did not plan to go ahead with that course. This presentation appears to indicate otherwise, with CEO Dave Scott declaring his intentions towards both blockchains and NFTs in a very public venue.

EGG's technology Code of Ethics, published in February 2024
​

 

[UngainlyTitan]

So, a serious question (not trying to bait here, I swear). You, and a lot of people, seem to really be against NFTs on principle. What is that principle?

I understand that NFTs were a big scam at one point; trying to get people invest stupid money, then unloading and walking away. But I feel like we're past that point. No one is dumping huge amounts of capital into them as a scam anymore, and the overhyped fake value is obvious to anyone who cares to do a basic google. Also, I understand that there's a moral point that EGG promised not to get into NFTs, and now they're going back on that word. Which is problematic for EGG, but isn't really a problem with the NFTs themselves.

So, what's the real beef with NFTs? Why are they worse than any other gimmick, like buying a fake "lordship title" or buying yourself a star (either in the "registry" or on the walk of fame)? I understand that they may not be necessary, and I'm not saying they're "good" for any particular reason. But what makes them "bad" in a way that's any worse than the rest of capitalism in general?

I know, that I am not the one you asked, and my objections are not principled as such, but I have never seen a proposed use case that really justifies their use.
NFT depend on cryptocurrencies, and I have some real issues with those. Proof of Work is computationally expensive, and Proof of stake is resource intensive, and both ultimately result that what gets added to the blockchains (in time) is decided by those with the resources to burn.

Edit: Plus their existence really thrashed the videocard market.

 

[timbannock]

So, a serious question (not trying to bait here, I swear). You, and a lot of people, seem to really be against NFTs on principle. What is that principle?

That whatever the benefits of NFTs and the blockchain in general, they are likely not the best solution for the problems they are trying to solve. Which are mostly problems that vanishingly few people see as problems in the first place.

 

[CleverNickName]

So, a serious question (not trying to bait here, I swear). You, and a lot of people, seem to really be against NFTs on principle. What is that principle?

Guilty as charged. Since you asked in good faith, I'll respond in good faith...but before I do, I wanna be clear that I don't want to turn this thread into another "What Is So Bad About NFTs?" thread. We already have several of those on ENWorld.

So to answer your question:

• The way they're marketed. I don't like the predatory nature of their promoters, and the shady means and methods they use to convince investors to buy in. The same "get rich quick" whale-bait, but also false promises, pyramid schemes, viruses and browser-jackers to mine cryptocurrency, scams, "pig-butchering," you've seen what I'm talking about.
• The way they function. NFTs are rife with plagiarism, counterfeiting, money laundering, and fraud. Whenever tokens reach any real monetary value, they are quickly copied and faked, causing their value to plummet. People using them have very little protection on their investment from bad actors--and it's very easy to act badly.
• The impact on the environment. The energy needed to power cryptocurrency "mining" alone is irresponsible and wasteful--banks of dozens (hundreds?) of computers running full time 24/7, for a single user. I've heard the argument that this is only a temporary problem, that technology will soon improve so that computers will use less power--but that will only enable people to use even more computers, not less power.

Your mileage may vary, depending on who you ask.

 

[CandyLaser]

So, a serious question (not trying to bait here, I swear). You, and a lot of people, seem to really be against NFTs on principle. What is that principle?

I understand that NFTs were a big scam at one point; trying to get people invest stupid money, then unloading and walking away. But I feel like we're past that point. No one is dumping huge amounts of capital into them as a scam anymore, and the overhyped fake value is obvious to anyone who cares to do a basic google. Also, I understand that there's a moral point that EGG promised not to get into NFTs, and now they're going back on that word. Which is problematic for EGG, but isn't really a problem with the NFTs themselves.

So, what's the real beef with NFTs? Why are they worse than any other gimmick, like buying a fake "lordship title" or buying yourself a star (either in the "registry" or on the walk of fame)? I understand that they may not be necessary, and I'm not saying they're "good" for any particular reason. But what makes them "bad" in a way that's any worse than the rest of capitalism in general?

Adding to what others have said (and which I largely agree with) I'd add that as you say, NFTs were a big scam. What they are now is still a scam, just not as big; it's a pool of ever-more desperate grifters preying on an ever-diminishing mass of true believers and gambling addicts and increasingly few new converts. People talking up NFTs are, either wittingly or unwittingly, perpetuating this scam. That ought to be combated.

 

[cbwjm]

What was described sounds interesting and I'd be interested to see how well it works in practice, but even then, I'm so not interested in NFTs that I doubt I'd get into it. I also don't really know what Evil Genius Games does in the RPG space, I think I've seen the name but don't recall anything about them.

 

[Spectral Anomaly]

I also don't really know what Evil Genius Games does in the RPG space, I think I've seen the name but don't recall anything about them.

Somebody really should write an article about who they are and maybe give a bit of their history, particularly around this whole NFT thing...

 

[Meech17]

I been hacked..

All my +5 Holy Avengers Gone. This just sold. Please help me

 

[Helena Real]

So, a serious question (not trying to bait here, I swear). You, and a lot of people, seem to really be against NFTs on principle. What is that principle?

I understand that NFTs were a big scam at one point; trying to get people invest stupid money, then unloading and walking away. But I feel like we're past that point. No one is dumping huge amounts of capital into them as a scam anymore, and the overhyped fake value is obvious to anyone who cares to do a basic google. Also, I understand that there's a moral point that EGG promised not to get into NFTs, and now they're going back on that word. Which is problematic for EGG, but isn't really a problem with the NFTs themselves.

So, what's the real beef with NFTs? Why are they worse than any other gimmick, like buying a fake "lordship title" or buying yourself a star (either in the "registry" or on the walk of fame)? I understand that they may not be necessary, and I'm not saying they're "good" for any particular reason. But what makes them "bad" in a way that's any worse than the rest of capitalism in general?

I could try to explain... But Dan Olsen already did in a much more detailed and entertaining way than I ever could


tl;dw NFTs/"AI" = MLM schemes for middle class cis white men

 

[trancejeremy]

And if you think there isn't a market for this, right now Steam is being overtaken by a banana clicking game

What is the 'Banana' game and why it has over 600K concurrent players on Steam

This free-to-play clicker game is going viral

www.tomsguide.com

Basically because it spits out sellable skins.

 

[Deset Gled]

Guilty as charged. Since you asked in good faith, I'll respond in good faith...but before I do, I wanna be clear that I don't want to turn this thread into another "What Is So Bad About NFTs?" thread. We already have several of those on ENWorld.

So to answer your question:

• The way they're marketed. I don't like the predatory nature of their promoters, and the shady means and methods they use to convince investors to buy in. The same "get rich quick" whale-bait, but also false promises, pyramid schemes, viruses and browser-jackers to mine cryptocurrency, scams, "pig-butchering," you've seen what I'm talking about.
• The way they function. NFTs are rife with plagiarism, counterfeiting, money laundering, and fraud. Whenever tokens reach any real monetary value, they are quickly copied and faked, causing their value to plummet. People using them have very little protection on their investment from bad actors.
• The impact on the environment. The energy needed to power cryptocurrency "mining" alone is irresponsible and wasteful--banks of dozens (hundreds?) of computers running full time 24/7, for a single user. I've heard the argument that this is only a temporary problem, that technology will soon improve so that computers will use less power--but that will only enable people to use even more computers, not less power.

Your mileage may vary, depending on who you ask.

Thanks to you and all the others who have responded. I have to admit, what you describe doesn't sound any worse to me than, let's say (in reverse order), single use plastic packaging, pay-to-win phone games, or professional wrestling. But I guess it really is just a question of degree and/or how much energy people want to put into fighting it. And, like you, I also have no desire to get deeply into a thread about it. So I'm happy to leave the discussion there.