Illuvium controversy, Aurory Prologue review, Fornite CEO salty, Assassin’s Creed NFTs: Web3 Gamer

Illuvium’s many marketing controversies, Assasin’s Creed’s NFT cubes, Fortnite CEO salty about death of metaverse, Aurory Prologue review.

Illuvium CEO: controversial comments a win/win for the project

Illuvium CEO Kieran Warwick has once again been in the thick of a controversy, this time taking aim at applicants seeking to join Illuvium DAOs marketing sub-council.

Warwick, who is not coincidentally also the game studios chief marketing officer, took to Twitter on May 9 to say that the DAO faced a significant challenge, with the sub-DAO hopefuls vying for the gig as they need to possess the requisite marketing experience. This upset the hopefuls, given the backhander about their lack of experience.

Not one to let an opportunity go to waste, Warwick then issued a media release about the controversy stirred by its CEO, Kieran Warwick.”

The marketing sub-council is one of four sub-councils within the Illuvium DAO focused on particular tasks related to developing Illuviums products and community. The others relate to community, game and strategy, with the idea being to draw on community expertise to develop the project.

Sub-council members are paid in Illuvium tokens.

The vote ultimately went ahead. The CEO and co-founder of game platform Arcade2Earn, Josh Poole, and former Love Island contestant and DJ Sam Withers joined Warwick on the sub-council despite the media release stating Withers had withdrawn his nomination due to the criticism. Two pseudonymous members of the Illuvium DAO, Fight4ETH and Kingscoriox (they gave their first names as Kenneth and Jason, respectively), were also elected to the sub-council.

The new additions to decision-making on the marketing front may result in a change of strategy from garnering headlines from Warwicks entertaining but controversial Twitter barneys.

In a discussion on Discord about his sub-council tweet, Warwick sensed an opportunity in the downvoting he was receiving, stating that it warranted contacting friends at coin telegraph. Thats us. He also suggested that Withers decision to temporarily rescind his nomination could be a media opportunity.

Maybe this was a big brain marketing move by Sam and its going to get picked up by coin telegraph Kidding (slightly) but I have reached out to Sam and apologized, he said.

The press release also highlighted a previous controversy in February, when Warwick proposed partnering with Su Zhu, the disgraced founder of Three Arrows Capital, for a crypto gaming session.

He described the Su Zhu incident as a win/win situation on Discord at the time due to its potential for multiple articles, DAO coordination and exposure to new audiences.

In actual game news, Illuvium launched its Overworld Beta 2 on May 18, bringing new features and 30 new Illuvials to the game. The number of beta participants will also expand from 30,000 to 75,000. It claims it has two million registered beta users. It is also planning to bring out Illuvium: Zero on mobile this year.

Is ownership in Web3 gaming ‘bullshit’?

The idea of ownership in Web3 games may be hurting adoption more than it is helping, according to a Twitter thread and article by Vader Research, a consultancy company for Web3 gaming economics, that ignited some debate among the Web3 gaming community.

Our industry is misleading players and investors with the ownership narrative, the company argued on Twitter.

Despite someone holding an NFT in a wallet, game devs retain significant control over the asset, including the ability to change metadata and the ability to blacklist NFTs.

Web3 gaming has certain benefits but also has limitations. Exaggerating the capabilities of the technology will likely increase the polarization between NFT haters and NFT maxis. Acknowledging limitations and weaknesses will help us attract more developers and players from web2 gaming, Vader Research wrote.

But while there are nuances to be aware of if a game shuts down, your items shut down with it Magic Eden Chief Gaming Officer Chris Akhavan still says ownership is the right word.

Just like in real life, there are limitations with what you can do with things you own. You can own a plane, but that doesnt mean you can use the plane in ways that violate FAA regulations, he told Cointelegraph.

What Web3 ownership gives you is the freedom to control your ownership of game items, whether you want to buy, sell, trade or gift an item to a friend is all up to you. Thats absolutely fundamental to the concept of ownership.

Assassins Creed smart collectibles promise customers real-life cubes

Assassins Creed, one of gaming giant Ubisofts most popular titles, is getting an NFT collection. Like many Web2 crossover projects, its using a fancy name that is not “NFT.”

The smart collectibles, which will debut on Polygon, are the brainchild of Integral Reality Labs (IRL), a United States-based Web3 company.

Those that snag one of the 1,500 passes will gain access to exclusive perks via IRLs companion app. They will also get a physical 3D cube featuring unique traits and containing an embedded near-field communication (NPC) chip.

Ubisoft is considered one of the more NFT-friendly Web2 gaming behemoths. NFT collections have also been created based on its Rabbids franchise.

The NFTs will not be useable in actual Assassins Creed games and IRL noted that there is no direct link between Assassins Creed games or game content and IRL Smart Collectibles.

Epic Games CEO salty about the death of the Metaverse

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has taken exception to a Business Insider article by Web3 critic Ed Zitron about the death of the metaverse.

He suggested organizing an online wake so that we 600,000,000 monthly active users in Fortnite, Minecraft, Roblox, PUBG Mobile, Sandbox, and VRChat can mourn its passing together in real-time 3D.

The article in question posits that metaverse hype has been replaced by the new, more promising trend of generative AI. If you go by how many self-styled crypto experts have updated their LinkedIn to AI expert, its an easy concept to get on board with.

And with Mark Zuckerberg as its number one promoter, it is hard to take the metaverse seriously. The word has become synonymous with his badly-animated cartoon avatars that resemble something from a budget childrens TV show as opposed to a groundbreaking technological feat.

But both Zitron and Sweeney are talking past each other because they have very different definitions of what the metaverse is. Zitron at one point compares it to platforms like Fortnite, which he describes as large online games, while Sweeney thinks theyre the same thing.

Until everyone can agree on a definition, the metaverse continues to be a confusing, nebulous concept. Blockchain companies continue to strive for progress toward the idea, whatever it ends up being.

Game review: Aurory Prologue for Adventures

Aurory launched its highly anticipated Prologue for Adventures last week as a closed alpha offering a sneak peek at its upcoming Adventures game.

Players can explore the village of Blanche in the Solana-based games fictional world of Tokane. Its still quite limited and theres not much to do except for bet tokens on Speed Blitz, a 1v1 auto-battling game.

Whether it works depends on whether theres a player available betting the same amount to compete against. It took a couple of attempts for this reviewer to find the time when other players were online (morning UTC+8 bad, evening UTC+8 good).

While you get to choose the Neftie (a Pokemon-esque creature) and the amount you want to bet, thats pretty much all the control you have over the outcome, and the battle happens so quickly its a bit of a mystery what even happened at all.

Part of the lack of players is likely down to the high cost of obtaining an Aurorian to try out the game. The collections floor price currently stands at a hefty 20.98 SOL ($423).

Truth be told, theres minimal gameplay in the alpha, which is expected. The ability to text chat with other players is a nice touch considering how many MMOs arent adding it in early versions.

Overall, for an early look at what the team is building, its satisfying enough and warrants a return when more features are added.

Adventures is ultimately the game that Aurory believes will have the broadest appeal. It follows the release of turn-based strategy battler Tactics, which came out late last year.

Other Stuff

My Pet Hooligans alpha 1.5 release has been delayed due to uncertainty about how long it will take it to go through Epic Games QA process, according to a tweet by the company on May 11.

Axie Infinity: Origins has finally made it to the Apple app stores in Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Mexico, Venezuela, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam. Sky Mavis announced on May 17 that it would join the computer-based Sky Mavis Hub and some regional Google Play Stores as a way of accessing the still-popular game.