The Sims as NFT's

@dmands361 

What does NFT mean?  I've haven't seen that acronym before so what does it stand for?

@CGrant56I think it means Non-Fungible Token and these can be used as a digital currency to buy or sell creative expressions. It could belong to a blockchain where, for instance, I sell my lot in the gallery and will be able to buy Sims or households with the proceeds of my creative effort. The problem with this, in my opinion, would be, how to value the creative effort of creating a lot or a Sim for that matter.

I am not fond of using this method in the Sims and i even think it is contrary of the community spirit.

But that said, an explanation by @dmands361 would be very helpful.

I think it was good for the cc and I think about The Sims in-game market place which selling a cc from various creator in a limited number for each item for avery long time. I think this suit for NFT.

@dmands361 : 

That may be the most interesting (while still being relevant) question I've seen on the forum!!   AND, this might be the first time the topic of NFTs was raised and I didn't immediately roll my eyes. ('Fungible' still got a snicker.) .

Definitely the type of question that just might send me down a very satisfying rabbit hole.  (:  But there's no dearth of rabbit hole initiation events in Suzushka-land, so, here's my initial thoughts (fwiw):

• In addition to the nice summary from @Trismagistos, I think NFTs are by definition also unique(?).
• Even if all technical criteria could be met, you would want to have a close look at applicable terms of service.  Ditto for your lawyer if you have intentions of actually moving into the public domain.
• As a form of 'currency', the question of value that was raised seems very relevant for this application.  Beyond a preliminary first-mover bump, you would need some type of hook to imbue any sustainable value. Otherwise, if you had any success, your 'market' get insta-flooded (it's not like it's difficult or time-consuming to randomly generate unique Sims).  Celebrity look-alikes in Met Gala garb, maybe? (lol - ok, maybe not - I just wanted to illustrate what I meant by 'hook' and that was the first thing that came to mind).

If I do end up down that rabbit hole and happen to emerge with anything further of value to add, I'll try to follow up.  In the meantime, please feel free to share more on what you're thinking.  It would probably inform the responses you get (plus, my curiosity is piqued).

Cheers.

Oh, that was an old thread.  What is the term?  Walking Dead? 

Well, dang. I was excited.  And curious.   😕  

(I'm not sure what it says about me that I can't believe the discussion died after only 3 replies. 🙄 )

@suzushka  I think we were still waiting for an explanation.

That is probably why this thread is so short. I would still like to know @dmands361's ideas on how to use these NFT's and if my thoughts (explanation on the abbreviation) are correct.

@Trismagistos I just noticed your reply. Apologies for the delayed response, though if I'd responded earlier, it would have been less interesting.  Clearly, fate intervened.  (winky emoji)

I have a feeling the thread may be short b/c we're outliers. lol. fwiw, I don't think being an outlier is a bad thing. (:  And I think your explanation was very good.  Accessible and to the point.  The only thing I thought might be a useful addition was that I think NFTs have to exist as a unique, non-reproducible entity. (In theory, should be easy enough to do digitally.  I just don't know enough about the construct of a 'Sim' to know if/how that would be accomplished.) 

I recognize this is a fairly technical conversation that's also veering off the topic du jour (Sims 4), but I was going to add one last thought. Assuming it won't veer back on topic, I'm open to continuing the discussion offline.  Feel free to message me.  The phrase 'getting into the weeds' I think was meant to convey a negative connotation, but for whatever reason, I don't have much of a problem cultivating curiosity.

NFTs came up on the podcast Pivot last week, just as a brief aside, but it lodged in my mind and I've been mulling it over since. I had always considered the concept of NFTs to be pretty funny, in an absurd way.  Like a cheap knockoff of the Bitcoin phenomena, but with no purpose other than a hope of creating some market value from nothing more than an obscure technical theory.  I think I was wrong...maybe?  Apparently it's an established assumption that NFTs will be the currency of the metaverse. (Wait...what?? Metaverse??  Somehow not surprised we have Neal Stephenson to thank for that term.)  Anyways, still collecting the shards of my blown mind.  lol.  I just did a quick google search => signing off with a couple relavent links for @Trismagistos and anyone else who's curious - it'll be faster than queueing up a string of recent Pivot episodes hoping to catch the aside. 

Cheers 

(PS it prob would be ok to close out this thread.)  (PPS @CGrant56 congrats on the new title - I've always appreciated the quality of your posts and tech guidance. Much deserved. Dunno what admin rights were conveyed, but since you're on the thread and I saw the star, I thought I'd call you out.  Mostly to say congrats. (:  Closing the thread was a suggestion mainly intended to offer protection against me replying off topic again.  I do try to be good.)

Washington Post on metaverse (NYT has one too, but you can google it if you want it.  I'm a WaPo girl.)

Bloomberg on NFTs and metaverse 

Motley Fool defines metaverse (youtube) 

Edit: removed ugly winky face emoji

If anyone finds out there's something to the Sims as NFTs idea, can you ping me??  I have a great Nina SIMone!

While it is a very interesting topic, I think it's an absolutely HORRIBLE idea.

So, how would this work? All items on the gallery would then cost... what? SimCoins? How do you get these? I can only see two methods...

1. Uploading your own creations gives you 'x' number of coins.

2. Purchasing them with real money.

Number 1 is bad because it would just end up FLOODING the gallery with a ton of crap so people can get SimCoins so they can download something they want.

Number 2 is bad because that's basically Microtransactions. EA is greedy enough as it is and it would just turn the gallery into a Paid service and would mean I would never use it again.

Hey, fellow curious-about-sims-and-NFTs chums! Just wanted to float that Mods would probably be the most likely/viable place we might find room for the early development of an NFT model within the Sims 4 universe, at least for now. Whilst NFT’s are arguably now a significant and established thing (Sotheby’s auction house held a digital sale of NFT’s earlier this year), I can’t see EA figuring out what it would mean for their own financial plan in time for this tech to make it into the base game itself. Maybe a patch in 80 years 😅.

Although this is only my estimation based on the technical canniness of our modders verses the more “steady” pace of EA😅 Plus I think the existing Mod community framework has great bones for becoming an NFT platform…

Super interesting topic though. Watch this space, I reckon. If anyone wants to chat about it let me know. 🤓