Wildworks betrayed the Fer.al community (update!)

I’m going to save the most important question of all for last: WHY. Why are we embracing NFTs and a blockchain-driven game economy in our new game? If you’re just here for that answer, skip down a ways and save yourself some time.

Here we go:

NFTs are damaging to the environment because of the enormous energy consumption they require

I agree this is true of the dominant blockchain in the NFT space, Ethereum. Ethereum, like Bitcoin, depends on a “proof of work” system that requires ridiculous amounts of computing power to validate transactions, and consequently consumes ridiculous amounts of electricity to power, cool, and secure those computers. Most of that electricity is generated with fossil fuels, and the combined carbon footprint of Bitcoin and Ethereum exceeds that of many developed countries.

However, [the next part is edited in] I am no longer interested in what you have to say

• Cuteypie  — 28/11/2021
  We were taught to love and PROTECT the environment, yet this is how we get treated when we speak out? Just food for thought /gen
  
  
• crime | carnivore collective  — 28/11/2021
  Fer.al's development has been paused while still during beta. Is this because of cinder? Is fer.al going to be a cancelled project or is this just a hiatus?
  
  
• daisy !! ♡  — 28/11/2021
  You have ONLY provided sources FROM Solona, you need multiple sources to gather a proper idea. This is a BUSINESS DECISION, you should NOT be counting on your fanbase to do your research for you, thats irresponsible on SEVERAL levels. You say that this is going to be part of a game not marketed for children, but as many games and franchises not meant for children have learned, lil dudes are going to follow it anyway, especially when it has a pipeline from children-based to adult. Please, as someone who has played animal jam since the Beta, i genuinely hate to see you go down this route. just, put the money aside for once. and give your POC workers a chance to shine and put in their two cents, because their voices would have been important for a younger me to hear as a poc with little rep growing up.
  
  
• Jahgoda  — 28/11/2021
  Stop ignoring IMPORTANT QUESTIONS REGARDING OUR FUTURE ON THIS EARTH + How is a NFT based game HELPING THE ENVIRONMENT???? You LITERALLY STATED it'll be LESS harmful which is still harmful??? How is that helpful????? How will that actually BENEFIT the environment? You are contradicting yourself. + Proof Solona is on the route to being carbon neutral by the end of 2021? + What happens if reports end up being wrong and Solona is NOT carbon neutral by the end of 2021? How will you compensate for this environmentally? * again (shouldn't even have to say this), please provide a source OUTSIDE OF SOLONA'S OWN COMPANY SO WE CAN GET MULTIPLE SOURCESliterally even a 5th grader knows multiple sources are important when researching * Stop asking us for information. You are a grown adult. You can do it yourself.If you are unaware of what we are saying that alone proves you have not done enough research.

• liyro | IGN: Ballbreaker  — 30/11/2021
  Fer.al racism / appropriation list incase you need evidence of it! This is only the stuff I know, so if you know anything more, feel free to tell me and i'll add on. >headdresses and feathers >approving artwork with nazi imagery or from pro nazi artists [hyenine1] >butchering EA myths such as the kirin and having almost all asian myths in game, despite being an incredibly white company >hat with dreads >south east asian and soul food inspired food the myrefolk have [pheasant feet, eyes, bone broth etc] are constantly bashed and seen as gross by all species >kawaii set. treating japan like its trendy and cute >twiggles being treated as lesser humans which. Screams of racism >blocking BLM in chat filters but cop and blue live matters isnt >sparks being white/colonizer coded. the sparks own most of the shops and rule over feral, which screams of colonization. >dahlia being whitewashed. she was originally dark skinned, but now she's pale pink with euro features >ignoring POC/SEA whove said time and time again that constantly bashing their food is. Despicable >rat king masks looks eerily like traditional african + African american masks, komodori/rat religion being seen as creepy >all white staff in an area said to have racial diversity, not uplifting many POC jambassodors from my knowledge >drawing offc art of white jambassodors wearing headdresses >fero headdress pfp >making an item set based on dotd and calling it “spooky” as if honoring the dead is something to be afraid about  >released a promo box in 2019 called “wild summer” that depicted a lot of cheesy “native aesthetic” with one of the promo art animals wearing a head feather >adding onto the first point, despite their claims of removing the items and feeling sorry from clark, headfeathers were added again to AJPW + still in store sale today >scottish fold cat bundle in AJPW advertised with a celtic knot, which is traditionally irish, not scottish. >peddler set, SEA stereotype >the matroyshka hat is actually a kokoshnik with very poorly made matroyshkas on it. The fact they don't call it something like matroyshka kokoshnik or just a kokoshnik is very disrespectful (I'm not even sure anyone puts matroyshkas on a kokoshnik) >Ushanka hat/furry hat.They call it the furry hat in AJC and in AJPW, call  it the ushanka hat, which is saying ear flap hat hat. Also the way the snowflake is placed kinda looks like how hammer and sickle logos would be placed on ushanksas in real life. >posting CLEARLY when the hyenine reports were at their peak a "no drama llama" post, directly targeted at victims/people who were trying to shed light on his predatory and pedo behaviors + him being a nazifur >No proof of a Native American tribe saying Headdresses and feathers [which can still be bought in PW] were OK ingame. Which tribe? When did they contact you? Do they have headdresses and feathers as a custom in their culture? >Komodori are immigrants but depicted as dirty, constantly have their religion dunked on and are known thieves and criminals. They are also depicted as "sneaky lizards", such as them being in an unknown Secret Society and being pirates.

• Creative_Creature
  If you guts at ww are reading this, how do you guys genuinely feel about the situation/NFTs in general? (If you can say anything about this, that is)
  
  
• wwadmin (In reply to Creative_Creature)
  I am reading and I'll give you my honest thoughts.
  I think that many NFTs being created in the world right now are trash and will lose their value. I think NFTs in games have TON of promis, and are something I'm really excited about.
  Would I spend thousands of dollars on some weird piece of artwork NFT? No. I would not and have not.
  Would I spend money on NFTs for some games I think look cool? Yes, I have and I will continue to do so.

• Minshi
  I mean this is the nicest way possible, but will we ever be getting another community manager?? Someone we can have more contact with who can listen to our feedback?
  
  
• Yaamstrocity | Loki
  i respect y'all. and what you're trying to do, saying to be kind. but as some have said. we've sent feedback over the entirety of ferals development and there's a lot of it that's been entirely ignored. important questions we're asking now aren't being answered (not just here)
  
  
• WWadmin (In reply to Yaamstrocity | Loki)
  Come on... The team has implemented so many things you all suggested. Like, a crazy amount. We simply cannot respond to every feedback, criticism, question or comment. It's not possible.
  
  
• Lizzy Fizzy X3
  Looks at Yandere Dev
  Looks at this situation
  
  
• Thesuncatcher | Dreamer
  We talked directly to Clark but he didn't care. Why does CinderNFT keep silencing people. What is Feral's state.
  Bumping this yet again.

• TwistedHeart
  Unless there is crypto that doesn't harm the environment, there will never be support from us. If you're saying Solana is less, that still means it's harming the environment.
  
  
• wwadmin (in reply to TwistedHeart)
  But you support using Discord? Swiping your debit and credit card? Driving a car? Having lights on in your house?
  
  Nearly everything we do as humans hurts the environment. We each have to do our part to limit the impact. To say "I'm never going to support NFTs/or crypto until they don't harm the environment" means you also can't support anything that uses electricity

Phase 1:

• Beta development and testing
• Cinder branching complete
• Cinder Fae NFT production complete
• Solana blockchain & wallet integration

Phase 2: - November 2021

• Cinder announcement
• Cinder.io launch
• Influencer partnerships
• Discord/Instagram/Twitter launch
• Countdown to mint!

Phase 3: - January 2022

• Cinder NFT avatar drop
• Cinder.io game portal live
• Cinder game live
• Roadmap reveal

Phase 4:

• Avatar editor beta
• Room editor beta
• Live events for NFT owners announced
• In-game personal NFT galleries
• Countdown to new avatar mint!

One final point bears mentioning, however. Participating in uninformed cross-network online lynch mobs entails far more energy consumption than Solana NFT transactions. At the end of the day, our path to global decarbonization requires all of us to individually examine where our electricity comes from and how much of it we use for everyday tasks. WildWorks is looking for innovative ways to reduce our games’ carbon footprint, and NFTs will be one way we do that in 2022. What are you doing?

• ArchaicArchaeologist  — Yesterday at 04:16
  Stage 1:-WildWorks CEO Clark Stacey announces that a new, NFT-based, block-chain game will be in the works, and has been for a bit. -Everyone, knowing the NFTs are cryptocurrency and highly immoral (dangerous to the environment and highly dangerous security wise), disagreed. -The discord has been up in flames for about a week in protestStage 2: The Announcement-Pending lack of formal communication in about 5 days, we finally received an announcement by wwadmin tonight to remain "kind" and "civil" and to not be "toxic" -Everyone promptly responded thusly:   -Everyone was trying to get answers from wwadmin about various things (Racism, pile problems, cultural insensitivity, lack of communication, etc) -WWAdmin pointedly dodged these questions to respond to "haha funny" questions -Everyone began to grow angrier -WWAdmin increased the timer on #feral to 5 mintes. -More pointed questions, still no answers. -Reveals that there has been banning of people asking these pointed questions. -Riots. -30 Minute Slow mode timer ON ALL CHANNELS -RiotsStage 3: Misc Things** -Cinder is reportedly using the same "sources" as fer.al, as according to WWAdmin, everyone noticed the similarities, this was never re-answered -WWAdmin compared the intense usage of energy from NFTs to "using discord" and "swiping a credit/debit card" or "driving a car". This was then changed. Many people found out they are an AVID NFT owner/supporter -Clark Stacy has an openseas account with a 4K$ Cat Girl NFT, and that wwadmin themselves is a very big supporter of the Cinder server, with around 70-140$ in nitro boosts

• Fresh_Hell  — Yesterday at 02:59
  it's worse than that. this is a false equivalence. blockchain transactions use a criminal amount of the world's electrical power. it's the direct cause of power shortages experienced sporadically in many major cities. people have died in extremes of temperature because of this. because of a power shortage caused directly by cryptocurrencies, and especially by the nft boom. cryptocurrencies, and now the recent nft boon, are the direct cause of the growing global silicon shortage. this silicon shortage directly affects everyone's daily life. there are students who can't do their school work because of it, people who can't do their jobs. they can't earn money because they don't have a working computer. they can't buy a new computer because the silicon shortage has rendered them prohibitively expensive. worse still, it has been disastrous for healthcare, especially in highly digitized countries. blockchain isn't just a horrific environmental problem for the future. it's a horrific humanitarian problem right now. it kills.

• Geologist Tofu  — 01/12/2021
  If any crypto company says they're carbon-free: they're a goddamn liar. They utilize materials that more than likely have been extracted using fossil fuels, processed using fossil fuels, shipped using fossil fuels, etc. And the energy itself to power these computers is astronomically huge, allow me to put it in perspective.  The average American household uses as much energy as there is stored in a 20 foot shipping container filled with AA alkaline batteries in a year: aka ~9155 kWh. Now, the amount of energy used in one single day of Crypto mining is equal to 24,000 of these containers, that is equal to ~219,724,027 kWh. That is enough energy to provide every commercial building in the United States for 2 whole months. All of that in a single day. Source: https://qz.com/2023032/how-much-energy-does-bitcoin-use/

• Why were cultural representation issues in feral never addressed? You've butchered the Kokoshnik by naming it the "Matroshka Hat" while also never bothering to put Slavic mythology or cultural elements in feral,  you've also misrepresented Mayan culture multiple times!  There's also countless other instances present in Feral. The least you could've done was made an "inspiration dex" where people could see the real life culture/item it was based off 
  Thats a very good idea
• Clark, would you be able to wait until Solana is nearly completely enviro friendly if you do this?It's why we're doing it now. Cinder will not begin minting until the end of the year, when Solana has reached its carbon neutral goal
• I cannot change your opinion alone, but many people don't want this game At All. You are simply ignoring the people who line your wallets with money, the only audience who would actually think of playing Cinder. If that was true I woudn't be here with you now.  Again, this is not the audience for Cinder. I've described the Cinder demographic already.  I'm not here to change your opinions about NFTs. I'm here because I respect this community and think they deserve to understand our reasoning behind this decision.  Yes, I AM aware that we may lose many of you as supporters of WildWorks. That's not my intention, and I hope our actions will prove our intentions, but I am well aware of the risk. And yes, I care a great deal about that or I wouldn't be here talking to you. My 16 year old daughter is the quintessence of the Feral community. We're doing this because I believe ultimately we will be serving our audience better, and be better able to support all of our games, including Feral.