Chaosium Suspends NFT Plans

After widespread backlash across social media, Chaosium has announced that it has suspended its plans for future NFT releases.

All of us at Chaosium are deeply concerned by the issues raised around the VeVe digital collectable releases from last July. We take these concerns very seriously—our fans and the communities built around Chaosium are our lifeblood. We go back a long way, and that means a lot to us. We want to make sure you are comfortable with the way we do business.

While we address the concerns of the tabletop gaming community we have halted our plans for future NFT releases.

Let’s go through what’s happened to date:

• In early 2019 we began discussions with VeVe. At the time NFTs and digital collectables were relatively unknown tech (at least in the TTRPG sphere).
• VeVe is managed by long-time fans and collectors, and we completed multiple rounds of due diligence before deciding to move forward and granting VeVe a license to sell digital collectables based on our IP. It is notable that VeVe’s other NFT licensors include Disney, Marvel, DC Comics, Warner Bros., Star Trek, Star Wars, Cartoon Network, Adventure Time, James Bond, GhostBusters, and many other leading popular culture brands. VeVe even has a license from the United States Postal Service.
• The environmental impact of VeVe's NFTs was crucial in our decision making. VeVe operates on a blockchain platform, (Immutable X), that is carbon neutral. The creation of VeVe NFTs, and their trading takes place “off-chain,” reducing the environmental footprint of VeVe NFTs by 99.9% when compared to those minted on Ethereum.
• Chaosium publicized VeVe’s initial offering (July 2021) across all of our social channels. Our announcements didn’t receive much attention from the gaming press or TTRPG community, but the release was successful and well received, demonstrating an enthusiastic and sizable community of Cthulhu fans on VeVe.
• With our licensee TYPE40, we built an NFT creation model that is protective and respectful of the artists involved—the digital collectables created for VeVe are all entirely new and original. The artists involved share fully in the proceeds of their sale.

However, we understand that a lot has changed since we started down this road in 2019. The issues relating to NFTs are increasingly complex and controversial. In recent months, the debate has become prominent and contentious. Bad actors in this sphere have received widespread coverage. Many people are justifiably baffled, incredulous, and deeply skeptical.

Based on both our research and experience with them, we believe that VeVe is an ethical company, pioneering a new digital community for collectors which uses this distributed ledger technology in a legitimate, meaningful, and environmentally responsible way.

We appreciate that many of our fans are angry and disappointed. We hear you. Your concerns must be listened to and addressed. That is why, in cooperation with TYPE40 and VeVe, we have made the decision outlined above. We do not have another scheduled release on VeVe or any other NFT marketplace. We will never require anyone to own an NFT/digital collectible to enjoy any Chaosium product or game.

Thank you for sharing your feedback. Thank you for patiently waiting for our reply. So much passion for what we do is a good thing. It’s been that way since 1975, and in this digital age we remain The Chaosium.

 

[Bohandas]

My understanding is that recipes generally aren't protected by copyright

There's a legal distinction but my point is that there isn't a moral one.

D. Which leads to the most important point. Eating meat might be bad for the environment, but still provide calories. Extracting oil may be terrible, but it's providing energy. I have yet to see a positive case for this- it's a technology that literally depends on extreme energy use for value. It has no other intrinsic qualities. And it solves no problems.

As an addition to this, this is also one of the reasons why fiat currency is superior to the gold standard. As gold gains its value the same way. It's a pain to find it and get it out of the ground and that the only reason it has any value. It's almost completely useless (although admittedly not quite as useless as bitcoin mining or NFTs)

 

[Staffan]

Have you written and published your cook book yet? If not . . . you need to!

I'm afraid that my florid recipe prose is the work of one Douglas Adams, not myself. It's from the recipe for a Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster.

 

[Dire Bare]

I'm afraid that my florid recipe prose is the work of one Douglas Adams, not myself. It's from the recipe for a Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster.

I really, really should have picked up on that!

Well, maybe a licensed "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Kitchen" . . . .

 

[Teo Twawki]

Certainly, folks get taken in poker games. There are sharks who swim in those waters. And, of course folks have already been taken in by scammy NFT deals. Chummed, shark-infested waters.

Doesn't make the game of Poker a scam, or anyone who thinks they are good at Poker the "sucker". Doesn't make all NFTs scams, or those who sell or purchase them all "suckers" or "scammers".

This is the over-reaction in these threads that bugs me. The leap from "we disagree" to "you're wrong and you're an idiot, we've laid it out so clearly for you".

1) There is ample evidence that all NFTs are a scam.
2) Show me anywhere in my message that implies in the slightest that I called anyone an idiot.
3) Over-reaction bugs you (welcome to three decades of web commentary) and yet you use hyperbole to make a point about something that wasn't present in the comment you replied to...?
4) From your hyperbole it seems that you take singular analogous examples to be encompassing declarations.
5) In this vein, from your examples, should I believe that all sharks are horrid, dangerous, human-eating-machines? Again, hyperbole that clouds any reasonable point you are attempting to make.

 

[Tally Isham]

I am the owner of a Type40 limited edition Call of Cthulhu leather document wallet with book.
This required the slaying of an animal and tree to make, and maybe one day I will resell it.
Why does this get a pass, but not a renewable energy sourced NFT?

If I buy a Star Spawn or Tiamat NFT to showoff in my apartment in the metaverse, and am happy with my purchase, how is this "a scam?" Who is being scammed?

 

[Professor Murder]

Here's to hoping lots of rich people buy in and it all crashes, wiping out all the "wealth". Then maybe we can get some good things done.

For me, this is the crux. NFT/Crypto is just the endgame of the wealth circle-jerk. We can blithely state that "money isn't real" but there are degrees of unreal.

But all this fails to strike at the real issue for this forum. What value can NFT/Blockchain tech have for gamers? I argue zero. It's a scam.

 

[darjr]

And if you still have any questions about NFTs, I give you.

From @David Flor

 

[OblivionDrive]

And if you still have any questions about NFTs, I give you.

View attachment 152067

From @David Flor

Literally was only a matter of time. Well… there we have it folks. All the proof we need that it’s a scam.

 

[macd21]

I am the owner of a Type40 limited edition Call of Cthulhu leather document wallet with book.
This required the slaying of an animal and tree to make, and maybe one day I will resell it.
Why does this get a pass, but not a renewable energy sourced NFT?

If I buy a Star Spawn or Tiamat NFT to showoff in my apartment in the metaverse, and am happy with my purchase, how is this "a scam?" Who is being scammed?

First of all, you are, because you were overcharged for your artwork. You paid a premium because your artwork was an NFT. It’d be like someone charging you double for your limited edition book because they included a receipt written in neon green ink. You may still be happy with your purchase, but that doesn’t change the fact that you were scammed.

Second, part of the scam pertains to the idea of NFTs as investments. The NFT scam isn’t just the idea that NFTs are worth more than other forms of digital art, it’s that NFTs are being promoted as things that will inevitably rise in value. Products like your limited edition book have potential investment value because people like you want those books in and of themselves. Someone might buy one, then wait for demand to go up and sell it to you. But NFTs have investment value because people have been told they have investment value, not because of the inherent value of the product themselves. People have been buying them because they’ve been told that people like you will in the future want to buy them to show off in your metaverse apartments, but there’s no evidence such a market exists. It’s basically a pump ‘n dump: convince people that a worthless product has investment value because it has real inherent value, the price shoots up, you cash out and then the poor sucker is left with the worthless product.

 

[Jaeger]

I had no idea what an NFT was until I clicked this thread and didn’t understand what people were even talking about.

So I searched the internet for answers!

A few clicks and less than sixty seconds of reading about non fungible digital frippery that sells for 5 to 6 figures, and all was made clear...

NFT = Yet another digital money laundering scam...