Activision Blizzard hasn't been cast in the cleanest of light as of late, with endless accusations of misogyny, sexual harassment, and bullying within the company hierarchy. As if deciding to go for broke now that its reputation is in tatters, the publishing giant has now pushed out a questionnaire to the remaining fans to ask them what they would think of it started dabbling in NFTs and cryptocurrency.
That's not all the questionnaire was about, but it formed a big chunk of it. It asked players what they were most interested in seeing in future games, and alongside the option of photorealistic graphics, cloud streaming, game subscription services, metaverse gaming, and artificial intelligence, was the option of NFTs and play to earn gaming via cryptocurrencies.
Responders could select their level of interest in these topics, before winging it back to Activision Blizzard for a swift thank you, alongside a link to the online Blizzard store. It's not clear what the intention there was, other than to encourage purchases, though what it was in the survey that Blizzard thought would inspire people to buy existing games, is anyone's guess.
This survey doesn't mean that Activision Blizzard is pursuing NFTs in games at this time, but it's a continued worrying trend that major publishers see this as a way to milk further compensation for their games from players, alongside existing currency stores and unlocks.
Once you start crafting games with the idea that players will earn money by playing, the idea that the game needs to be fun starts to become heavily diminished.