Popular streamer and content creator Charles Christopher White Jr., known by his online alias MoistCr1TiKaL or simply Charlie, dissected Deadrop. Deadrop is the game spearheaded by Herschel “Dr. Disrespect” Beahm IV, and why the blockchain-riddled game is a horrible idea.
What is Deadrop?
Deadrop is described as a “Vertical Extraction Shooter, or VES, that combines the arena shooter level design with the scale and scope of a Battle Royale and the strategic minute-by-minute gameplay of an extraction shooter.” It’s being developed by Midnight Society, the game studio founded by Dr Disrespect and is comprised of a “team of [game development] industry veterans.”
Closed beta builds are currently available on PC, and release on Xbox Series X | S and PlayStation 5 are projected. Those with the Founder Access Pass currently have access to the early builds, wherein regular updates to the game are being published. A final release date has not yet been announced.
The game itself is similar to Escape From Tarkov where you drop in, collect items, die, then repeat. Instead of gear, Deadrop allows players to find NFTs in the world, which when extracted, can be sold on the blockchain. The game is free to play, and ideally players do not have to make money off the game to enjoy it. On paper, it’s a cool concept: a fun game where you can make money if you wish to do so, or take it leisurely and enjoy the gameplay.
The dev team insists that Deadrop does not and will not require players to buy NFTs and interact with the blockchain, and they even have a blog post up explaining “how this all works.”
MoistCr1TiKaL on Deadrop: “It’d be stupid not to cheat.”
On a video titled “Dr Disrespect’s Game Has A Huge Problem” uploaded on MoistCr1TiKaL’s YouTube channel penguinz0, he outlines the potential challenges Deadrop will face and primarily focusing on a big one: cheating.
He began by attacking the foundation of the game, saying that the buzzwords associated with the game such as “NFT,” “play-to-earn,” and “blockchain” has become “beyond detrimental” to the hype of any project lately. He even goes as far as saying that the mention of these words has become synonymous with people being scammed, losing money, and getting deceived.
While this may be true for some, Charlie is genuinely happy for The Doc and he doesn’t think Deadrop is a scam. According to him, it would be career suicide for Dr Disrespect to scam his massive following. Charlie believes that The Doc wanted to make an honest-to-god unique game and experience. But he also doesn’t see a good future for Deadrop, saying that “cheating will be a full-time occupation… it would be stupid not to cheat,” especially when the in-game items can reach upwards of $100,000 USD.
MoistCr1TiKaL pointed to the example of Axie Infinity, another play-to-earn game which he described as “an absolute god-damn f*****g disgusting yucky cesspool of cheating [and] exploitation.” Axie Infinity and other play-to-earn games have become this vehicle for exploitation and has attracted bad actors – and he believes that this is also the eventuality of Deadrop.
Dr Disrespect thinks that normal players will play Deadrop because of its core gameplay and the fact that it’s free to play, but this line of thinking is what Charlie called a pipe dream. “Do you really think Darren and the boys on the JV football squad are gonna be hopping in to try and duke it out in the battleground legitimately and with honor? Absolutely not.”
The game being built on top of blockchain presents problems as it will not be possible to “uncheat” drops. Charlie says, “imagine the frustration, the misery, and the unbearable sinking feeling of finding an expensive item only to have it taken from you by someone playing unfair.” Games like CS:GO, another one that he pointed to in his video, allow people to work full-time for skins but they do not compete for the skins. Hours in-game in CS:GO do not directly translate to rare skins, and in turn, lots of money. He suggests that it would be better to drop the blockchain altogether and instead verify owners of the drops outside of it.
The ideality of Dr Disrespect’s vision is something that Charlie respected in the video, as Deadrop hopes for long-term functionality: “Imagine having a digital collectible that has functionality in a completely different game that comes out 7 years later,” Dr Disrespect wrote in a tweet. This is something cool according to Charlie, but is unrealistic to expect and again, can work outside of the blockchain.
Overall, MoistCr1tikal believes that Dr Disrespect had good intentions with the game but is concerned that it will be ruined by cheaters. He doesn’t think that Dr Disrespect is trying to scam his audience, and he appreciates the ambition of the project. However, the idea of making a living out of a game will always attract those who take the easiest path. It’s no surprise that in a game where there’s $100,000 on the line, everyone will try to cheat. Without any explanation for combating cheating, it’s hard to see how Deadrop will succeed.
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