GameStop took down an NFT based on a 9/11 victim
It had already been traded for 0.165 ETH, or $US265.
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In February, videogame retailer/persistent meme GameStop announced it wasplanning to open an NFT marketplace. Currently in beta, theGameStop NFT marketplaceallows customers to buy and sell NFTs minted by an approved selection of creators. One of those creators named Jules minted and began selling anNFTcalled Falling Man, in which a figure resembling an iconic Associated Press photograph of a man falling from the World Trade Center on 9/11 calledThe Falling Manis dressed like an astronaut and described with a caption, “This one probably fell from the MIR station.”
For those not familiar with the photo:Left (NFT): “Falling Man"Right (photo): “The Falling Man” pic.twitter.com/KgXWqmwzQeJuly 23, 2022
GameStop’s NFT marketplace currently uses astronauts as mascots, in places like theform new creators have to fill outand some downloadablewallpapers. That doesn’t really explain why Jules thought it was appropriate to take such a well-known and already controversial image, turn it into a tasteless joke, and then try to profit from it. At any rate, after the NFT began being criticized on places likeWeb3 is going just greatand theReseteraforum, GameStop delisted the image. Following the link now goes to ablank page, though the original is still preserved on theWayback Machine.
Several people had already bought the NFT, of which 25 editions were minted. TheGameStopNFT Twitter accountexplained the decision to one such customer, saying that, “Certain collections violated our terms of service, which resulted in the NFTs being suspended from our marketplace. You will still be able to transfer these NFTs to layer 1 and between wallets, but they cannot be sold on our marketplace.”
Someone who complained about the image via a direct message wasapparently toldthat, “This NFT will be removed from our marketplace entirely. This user has already had their minting ability removed from their account, and we have already been in direct contact with the creator about these actions.”
On the meme stock subredditGME_Meltdown, a user has suggested that the figure in the NFT is actually a render of an existing 3D model of a Russian flight suit created by a different artist and used without credit or permission. Here it is onBlender Market.
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Jody’s first computer was a Commodore 64, so he remembers having to use a code wheel to play Pool of Radiance. A former music journalist who interviewed everyone from Giorgio Moroder to Trent Reznor, Jody also co-hosted Australia’s first radio show about videogames,Zed Games. He’s written forRock Paper Shotgun, The Big Issue,GamesRadar,Zam,Glixel,Five Out of Ten Magazine, andPlayboy.com, whose cheques with the bunny logo made for fun conversations at the bank. Jody’s first article for PC Gamer was about theaudio of Alien Isolation, published in 2015, and since then he’s written aboutwhy Silent Hill belongs on PC,why Recettear: An Item Shop’s Tale is the best fantasy shopkeeper tycoon game, andhow weird Lost Ark can get. Jody edited PC Gamer Indie from 2017 to 2018, and he eventually lived up to his promise to play every Warhammer videogame.
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