| From the article: > Now nostalgic gaming brands like MapleStory, Neopets, and Atari are still trying to promote their blockchain initiatives [..] I'm not familiar with the history of MapleStory but Neopets was infamously sold off at the time and the only thing classic about Atari at this point is the name since it has been bought and sold numerous times since the classic period the name evokes. So I guess at least as far as these two names are concerned the obvious answer is "because people are sitting on those famous brand names they bought and still trying to figure out how to milk their nostalgia for money". In other words, they were a perfect match for the NFT cashgrab period and the companies owning those brands aren't willing to give up on that opportunity yet. Framing this as "classic gaming names [..] going in on the blockchain" evokes the idea of long-standing companies or even former giants turned underdogs seeing some kind of technological merit in the blockchain when instead it seems more like investors bought some IP and are desperate to find new ways to milk it. Of course in a way Neopets was the original ape NFT collection, just without the rampant money laundering and speculative investment ponzi scheme. EDIT: Looks like MapleStory is a pay-to-win/pay-to-play MMO so it's literally built around milking people for cash. So their motivation is pretty clear, too. None of these examples demonstrate any usefulness in blockchain (regardless of whether any such usefulness has been demonstrated elsewhere) beyond trying to get people to spend money. |