Prolific video game voice actor Troy Baker cancels his NFT partnership in a recently made announcement on his Twitter account regarding his partnership with VoiceVerse Origins, an Ethereum-based NFT project.
“Thank you all for your feedback and patience. After careful consideration, I’ve decided to not continue the partnership with VoiceVerseNFT. Intentions aside, I’ve heard you and apologize for accusing anyone of ‘hating just by simply disagreeing with me,” Baker said in a tweet.
In his initial January 13 announcement, Troy Baker expressed enthusiasm at how the project could “bring new tools to new creators to make new things,” but he also made a bizarre statement that implied VoiceVerse would help people “own & invest in the IP’s they create.” He ended the announcement by stating “You can hate. Or you can create.”
Judging by the ratio of likes to quote tweets, the overwhelming majority of Twitter users chose to hate. Baker’s statement was echoed by the official VoiceVerse NFT account, who confirmed the parting was mutual and that their project would continue without him.
“We have mutually decided to end our partnership with Troy Baker, and will double-down our resources and efforts to execute on our roadmap, further our vision as the voice of Web3.0, and strengthen our community as well as the broader NFT ecosystem,” the company said.
VoiceVerse is a project that aims to mint NFTs with AI-powered voices that owners could use in the metaverse. It’s an ambitious project with unique applications, but it attracted controversy almost immediately. By using the power hungry Ethereum blockchain instead of a Proof-of-Work chain, they attracted the usual backlash from environmental advocates. However, they also stirred controversy among the voice acting community through their use of AI-generated voices, which is considered an existential threat to their industry.
Once again, an influential figure in the gaming industry has been met with harsh backlash after expressing interest in NFTs and the metaverse. The most significant criticism seems to be directed towards Baker’s tone, which mirrors the negative reaction Ubisoft received in their response to criticism surround Quartz and Digits.
However, it’s also possible that tone policing may just be an excuse to direct hate at this new technology and anyone who dares to approach it with any amount of optimism, due to a form of learned helplessness acquired by the gaming community in reaction to countless stories of technological developments negatively affecting their gaming experience.
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