After millions in NFT sales, the hyped “play to earn” game was effectively dead in weeks.
See full article...
See full article...
How Legacy became a costly crypto bust for players and a business win for Peter Molyneux
- Thread starter JournalBot
- Start date
Look, I’m very anti scam, very anti fraud, and don’t think there is enough consumer protections.
But
At what point do we say anyone choosing to buy an NFT isn’t the victim of a con artist, they’re just trying to fool themselves?
But
At what point do we say anyone choosing to buy an NFT isn’t the victim of a con artist, they’re just trying to fool themselves?
Upvote
137
(139
/
-2)
Time to start a new gaming company!
But it's sad to see people scammed this badly, reading this bit was really deflating. It's the same old story of any scam.
It was a Ponzi scheme from the get go, and yet no one will be punished for manipulating these naive "investors".
Code:
NewIdea = OldIdea.replace("crypto", "AI")But it's sad to see people scammed this badly, reading this bit was really deflating. It's the same old story of any scam.
It was a Ponzi scheme from the get go, and yet no one will be punished for manipulating these naive "investors".
Upvote
110
(110
/
0)
If you haven’t learned anything from Molyneux’ more recent ventures and are naïve enough to drop tens of thousands on NFTs… I’m sorry to tell you I’m fresh out of sympathy.
Upvote
90
(91
/
-1)
Interesting article, thanks Kyle.
Personally I'm very wary of the Molyneux Hype Machine ever since Black & White did not exactly deliver. And it got only worse since (with Fable being possibly the one exception); Curiosity, Godus, Legacy - they only cemented Molyneux's image as a pathological liar.
I'll be keeping away from Masters of Albion and would suggest to wait for the game to be actually finished before it's praised for any of its mechanics or gameplay.
I think a lot of people said that already back in 2021 when NFTs exploded thanks to idiocies like the Bored Ape Yacht Club or Grimes's "art". Then again, I feel that in such "get rich quick" schemes both parties are to blame.
Personally I'm very wary of the Molyneux Hype Machine ever since Black & White did not exactly deliver. And it got only worse since (with Fable being possibly the one exception); Curiosity, Godus, Legacy - they only cemented Molyneux's image as a pathological liar.
I'll be keeping away from Masters of Albion and would suggest to wait for the game to be actually finished before it's praised for any of its mechanics or gameplay.
I think a lot of people said that already back in 2021 when NFTs exploded thanks to idiocies like the Bored Ape Yacht Club or Grimes's "art". Then again, I feel that in such "get rich quick" schemes both parties are to blame.
Upvote
67
(68
/
-1)
Wait, there people who actually believed him? Were these people idiots?
That's certainly one way to describe the man...
Upvote
31
(32
/
-1)
Funnily enough, "a proto‑idle‑tapper" was also the description most reviewers have given to Molyneux's newest
Upvote
21
(21
/
0)
I'm not going to go as far as calling Molyneux a scam artist (this NFT BS aside) but he's been the definition of "over promise, under deliver" since at least the late 90s. You should know what you're getting into with him by now, and the addition of an NFT angle should have been a blaring warning sign.
On a completely separate note, who else is still getting promos for Ars' piece on Callisto Protocol when they visit the site / read gaming articles? Given that game fell flat on its face, perhaps it's time to change the algorithm to deprecate that video for promotion, or high time for a new video on a good game that the site can promote.
On a completely separate note, who else is still getting promos for Ars' piece on Callisto Protocol when they visit the site / read gaming articles? Given that game fell flat on its face, perhaps it's time to change the algorithm to deprecate that video for promotion, or high time for a new video on a good game that the site can promote.
Upvote
39
(39
/
0)
This instance of an otherwise freely available, infinite resource, is going to appreciate in value because you can prove you paid for it.
Mmh. Good luck with that.
Upvote
36
(36
/
0)
How much do we have to pay to ensure Molyneux stays out of the industry? Because that is a go fund me that many people could get behind.
Upvote
27
(27
/
0)
The thing is, while Molyneux's reputation is well-enough known in the gaming community to be a staple of YouTube listicle videos and such, Web3/Play-to-Earn gaming primarily attracted people who weren't part of that community.
Now, whether people should have invested 7 figures into a game without doing some research into the game's chief designer is a separate question...
Upvote
46
(46
/
0)
I enjoy idle games. Most are more playable than Molyneux's and cost less than $20/month. A scam is a scam.
Last edited:
Upvote
7
(10
/
-3)
Kyle is a master of self-control. I wouldn't have been able to write this article without about forty uses of the phrase "infamous grifting sack of shit".
Last edited:
Upvote
37
(37
/
0)
I'm not here to victim blame but "a pale shadow of what was promised" is frankly the best case scenario of anything Molyneux has had his hands on. The man is gaming's premier snake oil salesman and I could not think of a person whose pitches I'd trust less to invest tens of thousands in.
Upvote
35
(35
/
0)
Recent ventures? Black and White came out 25 years ago. Molyneux' overhyped projects are old enough to rent a car.
Upvote
37
(37
/
0)
I know of one, just one, scheme that sold NFTs and wasn’t a scam.
The Cologne Cathedral in Cologne, Germany is completely self financed. No money from the state or the Catholic Church. If they need repairs or maintenance they need to collect donations.
They decided to create NFTs and sell them. They took about 30,000 pictures sized 1ft by 1ft, put them into nice SD cards with a nice inscription and sold them for about €200 each. They made it very very clear that this is not an investment but a donation to the church, and that you will never ever make a profit. You can buy them only at the cathedral itself, not online.
So for €200 you get a very nice SD card, likely with a picture of a beautiful coloured glass window, and the knowledge and proof that you made a donation to an excellent cause.
The Cologne Cathedral in Cologne, Germany is completely self financed. No money from the state or the Catholic Church. If they need repairs or maintenance they need to collect donations.
They decided to create NFTs and sell them. They took about 30,000 pictures sized 1ft by 1ft, put them into nice SD cards with a nice inscription and sold them for about €200 each. They made it very very clear that this is not an investment but a donation to the church, and that you will never ever make a profit. You can buy them only at the cathedral itself, not online.
So for €200 you get a very nice SD card, likely with a picture of a beautiful coloured glass window, and the knowledge and proof that you made a donation to an excellent cause.
Upvote
51
(55
/
-4)
This is why NFTs, web3, play to earn and the entire cryptocurrency scene can go get fucked. Ownership of a database entry means absolutely nothing if you can't do anything with that entry. Legally enforcing that ownership is another matter.
I can't believe people in 2021 and 2022 fell for this self-inflicted scam. Anyone who's ever played an online game would know that inventory items or skins are worthless without a game to use them in.
Meanwhile, Chris Roberts is raking in millions through conventional means without any crypto malarkey - a subscription to a game that will never be finished because he keeps moving the goalposts.
Upvote
32
(33
/
-1)
Remember when people played games as entertainment, because they were fun, and not as an investment?
Also, "legendary"? I think "infamous" might be the better descriptor for Molyneux.
Also, "legendary"? I think "infamous" might be the better descriptor for Molyneux.
Upvote
38
(38
/
0)
Upvote
25
(25
/
0)
Molyneux has been a grifter for a long, long time now.
Every time I hear his name I can only think of this legendary 2015 interview by John Walker of RockPaperShotgun, which opens with the question “Do you think that you’re a pathological liar?” - such was the state of Molyneux’s reputation 11 years ago.
I wasn’t the least bit surprised to hear that he got in on the crypto/NFT grift as well.
This will be his last game… Until he thinks of a new way to somehow wring even more money out of his absolutely tattered reputation.
Every time I hear his name I can only think of this legendary 2015 interview by John Walker of RockPaperShotgun, which opens with the question “Do you think that you’re a pathological liar?” - such was the state of Molyneux’s reputation 11 years ago.
I wasn’t the least bit surprised to hear that he got in on the crypto/NFT grift as well.
This will be his last game… Until he thinks of a new way to somehow wring even more money out of his absolutely tattered reputation.
Last edited:
Upvote
35
(35
/
0)
When I was a kid playing Fable (one of my faves of that era) I'd always assumed Molyneux was like their top guy, making all the cool design decisions etc, but now I realise he's just a salesman, right? He just happened to be attached to some games that were successful because of other peoples' work, and now he's attached to a scam studio. Delusional/scam, but you don't release something as shoddy as Legacy without knowing.
Aware I am a few years late in this realisation! Think I still clung to some fondness because of Fable.
Aware I am a few years late in this realisation! Think I still clung to some fondness because of Fable.
Upvote
9
(9
/
0)
The sad thing is that Black and White was so very nearly a good game. One small change would have made all the difference - that being that when you punished/rewarded the creature it should have applied to the action the creature just did - not what the creature was currently thinking about doing .
The result was your creature would eat a peasant and you'd smack it but rather than learn not to eat peasants, all you'd do is get a constipated creature because by the time you smacked it it was thinking of taking a shit.
Upvote
29
(29
/
0)
"You don't get what you paid for" could be the descriptor for every and any NFT. Add our good friend Peter Molyneux into the mix and... well... even a boilerroom con man would blush at the audacity of the scheme.
Upvote
8
(8
/
0)
Lets pretend that Legacy wasnt a failure and a scam for the briefest of moments… does anyone really want to play a game where you are at a permenant handicap compared to this who got in at the ground level? “Oh this looks fun but sadly it came out 3 days ago and now all the best artificial scarcity is accounted for”. Imagine if all the good runes in Diablo 2 dropped for 1 week. Who wants to invest their time, let alone their money, in that?
Upvote
25
(25
/
0)
Who the hell trusted Peter Molyneux after the Godus debacle? Stop giving that guy money!
Upvote
7
(7
/
0)
"Over promise and under deliver" only really held true up to Lionhead games. 22 Cans' output includes Curiosity which was a pay-to-win game that promised a share of profits from...Godus, which was a kickstarter that only produced a broken mess and never released (hence, no payout to the Curiosity winner either), and Legacy which was a NFT pyramid scheme.
Now, I am fully willing to give the benefit of doubt to Molyneux and believe that the cause for all of the 22 Cans debacles was due to his usual behaviour of enthusiastic over promising rather than an intent to scam anyone. However, the effect was so fundamentally different due to the shift from selling finished (but under delivered) games to the alternative funding models applied that I wouldn't blame anyone for calling the end result scams.
Upvote
12
(12
/
0)
He was the "ideas guy" behind the games. Unfortunately his ideas were often well out of scope of what the studios could do with the tech, money, and time alloted.
He's also got big "blue sky thinking" energy when on camera. No filter, all sales. He often mixed up, "we are doing this thing" with "in an ideal world I would have liked us to do this thing".
In his defence, he was given that sense of entitlement and genius from early gaming journalists. They never really pushed back until all players started to reject his patter.
Upvote
13
(13
/
0)
At least all those affected can console themselves that they now have a hot MAGA online girlfriend to pour their hearts out to.
Upvote
2
(2
/
0)
What I'm about to say is in absolutely no way an indictment on the author of this piece or their skill or ability. This is purely about the subject on hand here:
Every single paragraph in this article was stupider than the last.
Every single paragraph in this article was stupider than the last.
Upvote
19
(19
/
0)
That's crazy, where do these people get this money?
Where do these people get this money?!?! Gambling on other stuff?
Upvote
29
(29
/
0)
MilanKraft
Ars Tribunus Angusticlavius
Mostly I agree but there is an element of, some of these people getting taken likely don't understand the technical aspects (on a generational level). But yeah, for anyone under the age of 60 buying NFTs, tough to feel sorry for them. Do your homework, etc. I suspected from the first instant I read about them, that NFTs were a by-design scam vehicle piggybacking on the concept of rights ownership. There are surely other metastasizings by now, and someone may downvote me on an obscure corner-case of "but, but not ALL NFTs are like that - this one over here is legitimate!" angle, but yeah... hard pass on all things NFT.
For any given variant, when you peel away the layer of hand-wavy salesmanship bullshit, one will always find a buyer beware scenario lurking. On its face the concept borders on idiotic.... OK, so I'm going to pay a person thousand$ or million$ using real money and a blockchain transaction, for some purely digital asset found online, on the theory that I will then "own the rights" to it afterward. Yet the thing itself is almost always spread across the Internets already (the value usually stems from the thing's popularity), which means the buyer has zero actual control over the asset's use or distribution, and because the NFT itself is not something widely recognized by financial or legal institutions, you have no legal recourse if someone uses or distributes the "thing you own the rights to" (but really don't own the rights to) in a way you don't like or intend. In fact, AFAIK there's nothing stopping the originator from generating more NFT variations for the same works and selling them to other people.
An equally stupid but more visually satisfying way to mismanage your hard-earned money is to create a huge pile of it in your driveway, douse it with gasoline, then set it on fire. In doing so, you will have the same level of rights ownership and enforcability as an NFT.
My favorite example was the artist guy who, while he wasn't a scammer, had made a 1001 of these simplistic 3D scenes in Cinema 4D (called "C4D Once a Days" or similar), and it was just this thing that started out as, "you learn this software by tinkering, so once a day, make a simple project and eventually you will get good at it." Well, that was cool enough and harmless obviously, and it became this sort of iconic thing in the 3D arts space. Eventually, with the advent of NFTs, the artist guy parlayed these relatively simplistic works into some bat-shit-crazy deal he literally conjured out of thin air (because that's what NFTs are). He sold the "rights to his dailies" (or maybe his whole "catalog"?) for $60M+ (!!!) Yet, I could go online x weeks / months / years later, find some or all of those same artworks, download them, put one them on a commercial web site as my business logo, or put a dozen of them on t-shirts and sell them, whatever I wanted.... and the "new owner" wouldn't have a single thing to say about it.
NFTs: Just Say No.
Last edited:
Upvote
6
(7
/
-1)
- Add bookmark
- Featured
- #37
Well, it's crypto, so much of it is made up money whose value is only tied to how others think of it. If you got in early and made a ton of crypto-profit, you could then "re-invest" that "profit" into new ventures. It's not real money as we often think of it because there's not much else you could do with it. So maybe they're out $1000 from their initial GALA investment or something.
On the other hand, most people paid cold hard cash to get in, and from the sounds of it they paid a significant amount. They got suckered in by the FOMO and the promise that their investment of real cash would somehow pay dividends. Sadly the article doesn't really say whether the people quoted are part of the former or latter group, so we don't know if the guy who "lost seven figures" lost real money, or just the promise of real money through the loss of his crypto holdings.
Upvote
7
(7
/
0)
I don't have any sympathy for anyone dropping pennies on NFT's, let alone thousands.
I get the idea of paying money for "nothing" if it's an entertainment thing, like video games. Technically, you don't own shit in a video game. It's not something you can keep playing after the game folds, after all. But it's fun to play so you're paying for that entertainment value.
But NFT's? That's actually WORSE than buying tiny plots of land on Mars. At least the tiny plot of land on Mars EXISTS, even if you'll never get to visit it. But electrons in a data storage device?
To me, if someone is selling you on something you can't hold it in your hand, you don't own it.
Upvote
0
(2
/
-2)
Not even just the recent ones -- name one thing Molyneux produced which wasn't hugely not what he promised. I wasn't around for the release of populous and dungeon keeper, but I know Black and White wasn't actually what he described, and neither was Fable.
Both were good games, but they weren't the vision he had in his head and sold to many.
Upvote
4
(4
/
0)
I remember dumping countless Hours into CS1.6, StarCraft, and Left4Dead because they were inherently fun, not because I need to grind xp to unlock stuff in a battle pass.
Upvote
13
(14
/
-1)