What a ride it’s been for Call of Cthulhu publisher Chaosium. Recently, the RPG maker began getting flack after it announced plans for another batch of Cthulhu mythos-related NFTs to be released. Another you say? That’s right. Last July, Chaosium, partnering with New Zealand based NFT company Veve, announced plans to mint and release two different models from the Cthulhu Mythos in Veve’s digital showroom. The models were the Necronomicon and Cthulhu himself and the drop occurred with mostly little fanfare. Buyers could view the two models in Veve’s digital show room. Or you can see them right here, no money required.
Yet somehow their tweet from January 10th and 30th surfaced this month and people finally took notice of what was going on. As expected, Chaosiums fans were not happy.
Don’t buy a single thing from @Chaosium_Inc again, folks. What utter trash. https://t.co/1Q0GPMftce
— Mark Meredith, Boy Wonder (@MarkMeredith) February 10, 2022
(removes $300 worth of @Chaosium_Inc products from Amazon wish list) https://t.co/cDCQiFdOm5
— Jerry Behrendt (@Dungeonleft) February 10, 2022
The fact that Chaosium was diving into NFTs spread like wildfire, as things tend to do on social media. Leading to popular RPG site, like Drive Through RPG, denouncing NFTs in general.
In regards to NFTs — We see no use for this technology in our business ever.
— DriveThruRPG (@DriveThruRPG) February 7, 2022
Well apparently Chaosium heard the outcry, because it announced today that it has suspended its plans for any future NFTs.
From the press release:
“All of us at Chaosium are deeply concerned by the issues raised around the VeVe digital collectable releases from last July. We take these concerns very seriously—our fans and the communities built around Chaosium are our lifeblood. We go back a long way, and that means a lot to us. We want to make sure you are comfortable with the way we do business.
While we address the concerns of the tabletop gaming community we have halted our plans for future NFT releases.
We appreciate that many of our fans are angry and disappointed. We hear you. Your concerns must be listened to and addressed. That is why, in cooperation with TYPE40 and VeVe, we have made the decision outlined above. We do not have another scheduled release on VeVe or any other NFT marketplace. We will never require anyone to own an NFT/digital collectible to enjoy any Chaosium product or game.”
———
Chaosium isn’t the first tabletop publisher to venture into the NFT space. Exploding Kittens publisher announced the plans for a Happy Salmon NFT, and CMON partnered with Monsoon Digital for an NFT trading platform, and Van Ryder games also released NFTs for their Popcorn Dice board game. There have also been rumblings that Magic: The Gathering publisher Wizards of the Coast is preparing to launch their own NFTs.
If I may editorialize for a bit, I’ll go on record saying NFTs are a giant scam and don’t really have a place in the board gaming space (or any space for that matter). Every company that seems to be reaching for NFTs is using it as a solution in search of a problem. They have yet to provide/improve and useful service. NFTs can also have a negative environmental impact, have caused many artists to have their work stolen and sold, and a buyer doesn’t really get to own anything after buying one. If you’d like to further educate yourself on the subject, I’d recommend watching this video.
Ooooooh weee. Props to linking that video. That is incredibel