A whole lot of companies are exploring blockchain integration right now. Some have already done it, such as Ubisoft's wildly unpopular NFT market in Ghost Recon Breakpoint. Another example is Ni No Kuni: Cross Worlds, an MMO that just saw its global launch last month, having been available in Japan and Taiwan since last year.

However, looking at the reaction from players, it looks like the blockchain and play-to-earn elements are creating far more trouble than they're worth. According to fans, the MMO is "overrun" with bots, causing long queues for legitimate players. The in-game economy has also come under fire, with another player saying there's "no point" in picking up the game if you're not prepared to sink a lot of money in it.

Related: Ni No Kuni: Cross Worlds Preview - Much More Than Just Another Mobile Spin-Off

This story first got attention when this tweet claimed that players were being asked to purchase a queue skip pass to get around the bot problem. Since then, however, players have come forward to shed some more light on the situation.

As Resetera user Toma explains, the pass was not introduced to counter the bot issue, but the game still has unpopular monetization practices regardless.

"The game deserves getting trashed on, mostly because of its Crypto implementation and rather scummy monetization practices", they said. "The login/bot thing has recently become an issue[...]I can imagine many people will be put off by it because the activity in the game is already declining quite heavily."

territe-ni-no-kuni

Judging by the Ni No Kini website, the MMO is truly going for the play-to-earn crowd. As the above graphic explains, the in-game currency Territe can be exchanged for cryptocurrency, which in turn can be exchanged for actual money. With this money-making opportunity in mind, it's not surprising that the servers are full.

"It's 100% a game [where] you just get nothing if you don't whale", says user Zafir, referring to a term used to describe those who gamble with large sums of cash. "The rates are garbage and you need many duplicates if you wanted to compete in PvP".

Zafir continues, saying that the issue has only gotten worse since blockchain integration was added. "The grind is ridiculous since they added the stupid cryptocurrency Territe so you'd constantly have to either grind that, or grind gold on top of already being bottlenecked by the usual upgrade items."

It's much the same story over on the Ni No Kumo: Cross Worlds subreddit. There, the most popular posts are players expressing their frustration with the state of the game, and even abandoning it altogether.

Ni No Kumi: Cross Worlds is available to play now, exclusively on mobile and PC.

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