Dr Disrespect’s Midnight Society Planning For Tradeable In-Game Items, Promises Carbon-Neutrality On The Blockchain
It’s been a little while since we’ve heard about a new feature for Dr. Disrespect’s first foray into gaming, but now we’ve got some exclusive new information on “Project Moon”, the flagship FPS offering from Midnight Society.
For those who don’t already know, Midnight Society is leaning heavily into blockchain technology to ensure that players truly own the items and unlocks they earn in-game, and that’s being powered by their partnership with Polygon Studios – a hub for Web3 development and strategy.
The Two-Time and Midnight Society have made headlines left and right since the studio and it’s core development strategies were unveiled, and it wasn’t long before major gaming media outlets began to decry the inclusion of NFTs and blockchain technology into their business model.
As you might imagine – the actual fans who wanted to get in on the ground floor of such an ambitious project paid no mind to the noise, and Midnight Society’s Founders Pass program was flooded with over 400,000 applications in just seven days.
Making True Ownership a Reality
Per a press release, Midnight Society says that out of the near-half million applicants, 97.5% of them wanted an option to own in-game items outright and were interested in the ability to “collect, upgrade, sell, and trade” the items that they purchase or earn in-game.
Midnight Society and Polygon Studios both describe the blockchain-supported elements of “Project Moon” as an “opt-in” experience, and state that features of this and future titles can be experienced “on and off” the blockchain.
We’re thrilled to be working with Midnight Society as they expand the realms of possibilities in gaming. Blockchain-based games are quickly becoming the biggest focus of the gaming industry. Project Moon is entering the space by providing an off-chain and on-chain experience, allowing gamers to have the best of both worlds. They can own, monetize, and transfer digital assets in-game through the opt-in NFT experience, without it being an obligation.
Ryan Wyatt, CEO of Polygon Studios
As someone who could care less about crypto, NFTs, the blockchain, and every other buzzword out there that makes gaming journalists shiver themselves to sleep and whips half of Twitter up into a frenzy, I gotta tell ya… All of this sounds pretty damn cool to me. The aspect of true ownership when it comes to components that you purchase or earn in-game will never not be fascinating to me, and I’m truly intrigued to see what Midnight Society serves up when it’s time to finally deliver the finished product to fans.
Of course, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen tradeable in-game items for a multiplayer title. CS:GO has been doing this for years, but the blockchain element is certainly unique. For more on that, let’s hop on over to our resident CS:GO expert – Dr. Bob. Bob, what do you think?
The Gold Standard
Bob here! As Dom alluded to above, he isn’t one to dabble much in the intricacies of crypto, NFTs, or the blockchain. I however, like to lord over these keywords to instill fear and a general sense of panic and unease into the minds of the “videogame journalists” who tweet daily about the crypto space “invading” gaming.
Ownership of in-game items has existed for over a decade now, so the argument for these types of transactions entering into the gaming landscape will hurt the industry as a whole, is asinine. Some of the most successful longstanding games in the history of gaming have real world value to their in-game acquisitions. Runescape has quite literally provided for sources of income to players in countries where jobs may be scarce or the value of their currency is diminished. Runescape gold farming put food on the table for families in Venezuela when their economy collapsed through bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies alone.
The other notable success story is Counter Strike Global Offensive. There is a reason why Counter Strike has sustained for nearly two decades. The competitive scene is arguably the most voracious in terms of players AND fans, but also the skin marketplace kept CSGO on life support during a few of its player dips in the past. Before CSGO went free to play on Steam a few years back, CSGO was seeing minor dips in the active and consistent player base. Matchmaking for the casual player was stagnant and the more competitively inclined would use 3rd party software such as FaceIt or ESEA to play. During those times of minor respite, however, the content creators who focused around buying/opening cases, massive risky trade ups, or creating extensive catalogues would post video after video with millions of viewers fueling the relevancy of not just the skins, but the game itself. I have been saying this for years, but more games should have an active, living breathing marketplace like Counter Strike does. Valorant missed out immensely (even though I’m sure they’re making money out the ass for their skins) by not implementing a rarity/float/pattern system to their skins and allowing for a marketplace to exist where players could sell and trade.
Dr. Disrespect, Midnight Society, and Polygon Studios are the finally living up to the standard that a game like Counter Strike was able to create. A friend of mine (former QuakeCon Champion John LaSala) told me years ago that some day studios would put in game items such as skins on the blockchain so buyers could go out and purchase their favorite AK Vulcan Minimal Wear skin off of their favorite streamer (Anomoly for example). This is all achievable with what Midnight Society and Polygon studios are looking to do and I have been on board since day one.
No matter which side of the fence you’re on, it’s clear that Midnight Society is setting out to make good on all the promises they’ve made since the studio first emerged. We’ll be sure to keep you up to date on everything new we discover about Doc’s FPS, so keep it locked right here to WGG for the latest.
To keep up with all things Midnight Society, you can check out their website, Twitter, and Discord.
