Players from developing countries could work as NPCs in richer player worlds, according to a gaming consultant.
“With cheap labor from a developing country, you could use the people of the Philippines as NPCs (non-playable characters), real-life NPCs in your game,” said Mikhai Kossar, CPA and WolvesDAO member.
Kossar said Rest of the world that players in developing countries could “just populate the world, maybe do some random work or just walk around, fish, tell stories, be a trader, anything is really possible.”
According to WolvesDAO’s membership application form, its mission is to “equip the blockchain gaming sector with knowledge, education, and key tools to build the games and communities of tomorrow.”
That future community, apparently, could be a dystopian one.
Some find the idea of having real-life people around the world role-play as automaton NPCs dehumanizing.
“People come up with new ideas about how Third World citizens can be used productively by wealthy Westerners,” veteran video game journalist Andy Chalk wrote. “It’s a hateful idea, perfectly in keeping with the NFT camp and quite literally the dictionary definition of exploitation.”
It also raises questions about the ethics of Web3 games in general, where “scholars” in developing countries already play with NFT they cannot afford to own play to win blockchain games, while NFT owners get a percentage of the profits.
The potential for sentience and the ethics of exploiting NPCs as disposable beings has been a staple of science fiction, recently explored in HBO’s “Westworld” or the Ryan Reynolds-directed Hollywood action comedy “Free Guy.” last year.
But RPGs like NPCs aren’t necessarily dystopian in every context. Players on role-playing game (RP) servers for “Grand Theft Auto V” such as no pixel, for example, already volunteer to act as characters who work in various positions in the virtual world. Whether as a mechanic, stripper, or bartender, they are effectively playing as NPCs for free. Some RP servers are highly selected, with waiting lists of applicants who want to get in.
when it comes to payment metaverse employment, there is also a whole world of virtual jobs in games like ‘Roblox’ which does not use any cryptocurrency. But some argue that the underage creators of ‘Roblox’ are being exploited and they don’t take home the salary they deserve.
What metaverse new worlds hit the market, so can a whole new field of employment, but some jobs are sure to draw more attention than others.
Kossar has not yet responded to deciphercomment request.
