Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

“Play-to-Earn” and Bullshit Jobs

paulbutler.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

561–570 of 700 posts

Re: “Play-to-Earn” and Bullshit Jobs

#561

Post by meheleventyone »

chii wrote: post #415
dqpb wrote: post #406

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Play-to-earn would be a coherent concept if the playing produced something of value. HN is play-to-earn. Except all you earn is worthless non-exchangeable karma.

> playing produced something of value. some games manage to do this - EVE Online has a play-to-earn model, and those who grind to earn become gameplay elements for other players (the whole game is PVP non-consensually).

EVE definitely doesn’t have a play-to-earn model. It has a way to pay your “subscription” via the in-game currency but this transaction is still one way and you can’t redeem the playtime token outside of the game for real money (without breaking T&Cs). The play-to-earn elements are the same as all MMOs, in the meta-game with gold farming which CCP still crack down on heavily.

Re: “Play-to-Earn” and Bullshit Jobs

#562

Post by zivkovicp »

apatters wrote: post #559

I don't get how this is a bullshit job. Gamer #1 likes to play the game. There are some parts he likes more than others. Gamer #2 comes along and says, OK I will do the parts you don't like, and I'll sell my output to you for $XXX. Gamer #1 agrees, the transaction takes place, it is entirely voluntary, and both participants find the outcome to be valuable for them. How is this bullshit? This is pretty much the reason…

I'm not familiar with the game in the article, but I think the author is referring to the inclusion of in-game tasks that have no benefit or reason to exist other than to create an artificial "requirement" for work of some sort.

Honestly though, who cares? Even if it's a "bullshit job", you can perform it from the relative comfort of your home, mostly on your own schedule; so it's better than most BS jobs in the real world. In my opinion, the more opportunities afforded to people to earn money, the better.

Re: “Play-to-Earn” and Bullshit Jobs

#563

Post by ctchocula »

Animats wrote: post #151
gitfan86 wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what people don't seem to understand about BitCoin. It is cashflow negative, Money has to keep coming in to keep the price up due to paying miners. It is totally fine if you think BTC is better than the USD or Gold for whatever reason. But Bitcoin is still cashflow negative. You have to keep pumping money into it to keep up its value. Where is that money going to come from? Is it coming from Tether? Is it com…

Bitcoin has a use case for money laundering, tax evasion, evading China's exchange controls, and drugs. That market turned out to be larger than expected.

Gold has a usecase for jewelry, manufacturing electronics, dentistry and glassmaking. Yet not even the sum of these applications can justify its market cap of $11.73T, so the difference must come from speculation. I suspect the same is true for Bitcoin.

Re: “Play-to-Earn” and Bullshit Jobs

#564

Post by jamiek88 »

KarlKemp wrote: post #176
jayd16 wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still don't get it. We already sold digital assets so why do we need NFTs or Blockchain? What does it add here?

You need NFTs to have something to trade with your cryptocurrencies. And you need cryptocurrencies to trade NFTs.

Yeah. It’s for those don’t wanna buy drugs.

Re: “Play-to-Earn” and Bullshit Jobs

#565

Post by pydry »

talove wrote: post #427

Axie Infinity isn't interesting as a game, but as a model it is. The other day I was going through air port security. I had to wait 10 minutes for one of my bags to be screened a second time. I happened to be waiting while some type of manager was doing a huddle for a new shift of employees about to start. The dumb shit the manager was telling the group of 12-15 TSA workers was abhorrent. Just really vile statements…

The TSA was created and Afghanistan was invaded because America felt like it needed a proportionate response to 9/11.

Locking cabin doors was sufficient to prevent it but didnt "feel" like nearly enough.

Re: “Play-to-Earn” and Bullshit Jobs

#567

Post by imtringued »

toomanydoubts wrote: post #434
gitfan86 wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what people don't seem to understand about BitCoin. It is cashflow negative, Money has to keep coming in to keep the price up due to paying miners. It is totally fine if you think BTC is better than the USD or Gold for whatever reason. But Bitcoin is still cashflow negative. You have to keep pumping money into it to keep up its value. Where is that money going to come from? Is it coming from Tether? Is it com…

How is that different at all from fiat currencies? Every electronic transaction you make, like credit card or money transfers, has fees. Central banks have to keep pumping money into the economy so we can have the same nominal amount of cash in the system(albeit with lower value, because inflation). So, my question is, is fiat currency cashflow positive? How?

We devalue currency by 2% per year so people have an incentive to work = keep pumping. That work creates goods and services in the process.

The problem with Bitcoin is that if it goes up in value the additional time spent mining is ultimately a waste of time.

Re: “Play-to-Earn” and Bullshit Jobs

#568

Post by lxxpxlxxxx »

firekvz wrote: post #424

I didnt read much of the thread but I will assume that most of the people here is aware of how every single NFT game is just a ponzi. But I've lived myself, what the author mentions as a "way to lift people out of poverty.", from the era before NFT or "play to earn" games existed. I come from Venezuela, a full 3rd world country and I was "lucky" to play an MMO (lineage 2) during my young days and somehow I was good a…

Esa era la mejor era para ese tipo de juegos, entretenidos y se sacaba un rialero, por aqui haciamos lo mismo, con Silkroad y Mu.

Esos de ahorita son diferente, parece hasta macabro. Dan "becas" para que otros "jueguen" y ganen por ellos prometiendoles una parte de la ganancia, eso si, siempre y cuando el nft no caiga.

De vez en cuando conocidos me preguntan que si es bueno entrar en esos juegos nft a todos les digo que ni locos se metan ahi, da mas plata y es mas estable sembrar.

Re: “Play-to-Earn” and Bullshit Jobs

#570

Post by imtringued »

nightski wrote: post #162
gitfan86 wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what people don't seem to understand about BitCoin. It is cashflow negative, Money has to keep coming in to keep the price up due to paying miners. It is totally fine if you think BTC is better than the USD or Gold for whatever reason. But Bitcoin is still cashflow negative. You have to keep pumping money into it to keep up its value. Where is that money going to come from? Is it coming from Tether? Is it com…

You aren't talking about the intrinsic value of Bitcoin. You are talking about it's value relative to USD. These are completely different things. Bitcoin has intrinsic value outside of the fiat system. It can be used entirely independent of fiat. Whether that will become common is another matter, but the value of Bitcoin does not have to depend solely on it's value relative to USD.

Money doesn't have an intrinsic value. Money is just an accounting system, it is a balance sheet. People used physical gold as tokens or entries in that balance sheet.

Ultimately you are depending on another human who is actually doing work. This is why the credit theory of money is so appealing.

Money has value indirectly because someone obligated himself to give you value equal to the money created. When you add up debts and credits then you end up with nothing because money is just an agreement and not a commodity.

Post reply on HN