The Epic Store saw the release of its first NFT game today, Blankos Block Party (opens in a new tab)a sort of Roblox-like crafting game powered by everyone’s favorite tech snake oil, Web3, and blockchain.
First, an acknowledgment: We featured Blankos Block Party at The PC Gaming Show in 2020, a time when the idea of blockchain-based gaming was still in its unassuming infancy, unlike its current scam, speculative, bouncing back from the -recent-adolescence-crypto-crash.
our writing (opens in a new tab) at that time it contains dark foreshadowings of what was to come. “Since some Blankos are seasonal or limited edition, there is a certain weirdness to certain characters. It follows the same logic of collecting physical designer toys in that sense,” PC Gamer wrote that year. If only we had known.
There are definitely some attractive fundamentals for Blankos. After all, Roblox is a mega-hit with some great ideas: What if someone did something like that that didn’t look, you know, like that. The “Social Multiplayer Party Game” has a robust looking level editor, one that reminds me of Fortnite Creative or Little Big Planet and could, under the right circumstances, foster a similar environment of user creativity.
Blankos has the look of a nice and charming multiplayer playground, but I find it hard to see it as more than just another example of a very negative gaming trend, one that a previously rather optimistic Ubisoft recently distanced itself from. (opens in a new tab). A quick YouTube search for the name of the game doesn’t turn up examples of cool community projects, but rather a litany of guides on how to make money while playing.
Steam took a hardline stance against blockchain games, while the Epic Store left the door open for NFTs. (opens in a new tab). Time will tell if Epic will reap the rewards with some mega hits from Web3. According to WorthPlaying, Blankos developer Mythical Games claimed to have reached one million player accounts in December 2021, but its footprint on YouTube and Twitch seems quite small, with just 41 concurrent viewers on the latter platform at the time of writing. this article.
But maybe my skepticism is unfounded, especially when Blankos has apps as amazing as Minny B. (opens in a new tab) Winged donkey-look leather made in collaboration with Burberry. It’s also only $900, an absolute bargain.