Review Bombing on Steam; Storybook Brawl Takes Flak for NFT
Storybook Brawl has been review bombed on Steam. All because the developers of this title were bought by a cryptocurrency company.
The phenomenon of review bombing is an increasingly popular tool used by gamers, aiming to make their dissatisfaction about a given game or some of its elements or the actions of its developers as known as possible. Recently, Storybook Brawl has become the victim of such an action.
What is Storybook Brawl?
Storybook Brawl is a free-to-play card game developed by Good Luck Games, the rules of which resemble Hearthstone's Battlegrounds mode. During the game we take on the role of one of the available heroes with unique abilities and use gold to recruit new supporters, many of whom are known from fairy tales and myths. We set the helpers in formation and observe how they fight automatic clashes with the opposing teams.
The title may not be the biggest on the market, but daily activiti figures oscillate slightly above 1000 people. It has also been collecting positive notes for a long time. In the last 30 days, however, players have posted 725 reviews, of which only 17 were positive. What was it that upset the fans so much?
Enter NFT
Here's the thing, last week the cryptocurrency exchange FTX US announced that it had bought the creators of Storybook Brawl, studio Good Luck Games. In a release, the new owner announced that this was a great opportunity for them to "be at the vanguard of ethical integration of gaming and cryptocurrency transactions" (via PC Gamer).
Also speaking on the topic was Matthew Place, founder of Good Luck Games. In a special video (available below) he stressed that the acquisition is a chance to increase the studio's budget. He also admitted that he does not know yet in what form blockchain technology will be introduced to Storybook Brawl. However, he stressed that it will be done in an "ethical" way and will "keep players entertained."
Angry players
This has not reassured the gamers. People giving negative reviews on Steam insist that while they enjoy the game, they are abandoning it precisely because of the upcoming integration with cryptocurrencies. Let's take a look at some of the reviews.
"I really enjoyed this game for a long time and was pretty active in the community discord. I even qualified for a few of their tournaments. Unfortunately, they just announced that their company is being bought by a crypto entity and that they will be bringing blockchain technology to SBB. I like the rain forest where it is. I would return if they walked this back but it seems unlikely."
"The developer was recently bought out by a crypto company (FTX) that plans to use the game as a testbed for NFT monetization strategies. No thanks."
"It's incredibly disappointing that Storybook Brawl has been sold off to a Cryptocurrency exchange company after having become one of my favourite Autobattler games after I quit Hearthstone last year (Due to Activision Blizzard also engaging in some questionable practices)
There is no practical application for cryptocurrency or NFTs which isn't already solvable by more efficient and less volatile means and it exists purely as a way to gamble away money on speculative assets and exploit customers through a system which is essentially just Microtransactions on steroids.
NFT peddlers will cite things like assets still being ownable after a game shuts down or similar such bold and impractical claims. The reality is that when an NFT game shuts down the proof that you own the now defunct assets is entirely meaningless and at best the value of those assets would immediately tank to 0 as the product is no longer officially endorsed, in the most likely scenario any attempt to continue to use those digital assets after a game shuts down will be met with copyright litigation in the same way that most attempts to recreate old games currently happens."
Interestingly, one review also says that while the person posting it supports the game's NFT implementation, when he went on the game's Discord channel, trying to explain his point of view to the community, he was mocked. Therefore, he gives a negative rating for the way he was treated (via PC Gamer).
Ban on Steam?
In some places there were even voices saying that the game should be removed from Steam. All because it violates the rules of this platform, which clearly states that you can not publish app based on the blockchain technology that emit or allow the exchange of cryptocurrencies or NFT. Therefore, it is possible that the whole transaction, instead of bringing benefits to developers, will only cause them trouble.
