Newsletter - Week of September 19th
This week there was plenty of noise and anticipation. Some feels like a continuance of the volume returning post-merge. A bit of an exhale and a mingling of community + artist. There was also a lot of anticipation for the Azuki announcement, which was another reveal of their World, this time the RUINS (more on that below).
For the learning section below Iโve got a bunch of content from Metaverse Graphics to another look at Blockchain Gaming. Should we still be paying attention there?
Tweets of the Week
Iโm sourcing a few this week because I think all deserve a mention:
CloneX Animation - this clip continues to affirm in me how smart it was to give the community 3D files. Let the creators, create!
Chimpers Run! - The Chimpers project released a couple games in their Arcade, also free to play for non-NFT holders, and scoring above 50 pts got you in the prize pool. Fun stuff, and I love to see the ability to play in your NFTโs ecosystem.
Azuki updates website, teases another phase of their world, Ruins - Full of clickable easter eggs, expanded lore teasers and excitement on whatโs to come, Azuki continues rolling out some ecosystem expansion for their community. You can see it at https://www.azuki.com/world/ruins
Project Spotlight - RektGuy
(1/3) The Artist @osf_nft was first brought to my attention 2 months ago by @ReidarDAO member @Kenshiro_NFT. Kenshiro is a 1/1 collector and discussed his purchase of an osf 1/1, along with his conviction for the artist.OSF is known for their distinct glitch-style artwork and has made a name for themselves across many parallels. For the sake of this article I want to draw attention to their SuperRare page (link here), where youโll get a feel for some of their unique pieces from their portfolio. Below is one of my favorites, last sold for 59.69 Eth (link here - check it for the dynamic piece, not just the still image).
Back to RektGuy! This project gives me vibes very similar to the project mfers (discussed in a previous newsletter, but a summary can be found here), because itโs birthed out of pure degen culture, and a community embedded in the everyday chaos (and sometimes pain) that is this space in itโs early iterations.
The cofounder OSF wrote a great thread summarizing some of why they believe OSF is special. Iโll share a couple of my favorite blurbs:10...but my own art can make me feel a certain way. Everything I create gives me a feeling. From the first point of drawing this character I just got *that feeling*. After I created all the layers and did the first generation I got *that feeling* again.11. Objectively speaking I suppose you could say it's a bit different artistically, from the perspective of having inverted colours. Instead of pale pastel backgrounds, I used black backgrounds, and used aggressive neon colours on top; this was by design, to make it different.13...I just really like the concept of being "rekt", it's something that I think has governed a lot of my life (in a good way actually, as it builds resilience) and a lot of my art preceding rektguy was of a similar nature. I suppose the impact it had made me realise something.16. How many NFT collections are there that celebrate this idea of rektness? Probably a lot, indeed we have goblintown to an extent too. How many of them will survive and be remembered from the 2022 vintage, one of the most rekt years we've ever seen? That's a tougher question ๐Iโll let those tweets speak for themselves, but I think the idea of โrektโ and this space are quite complimentary, and one that people can bond over.
Why @rektguyNFT? You're rekt by life. You're owning it. You're enjoying the future with a community around you. It's simple. It speaks to people. It is starting to build some of the best relationships in the space.They even drop some pretty cool market commentary every day:
gm Today 21-Sept I have the honor and privilege to bring up to the table your Daily @rektguyNFT Market Commentary. Fasten your seatbelts and enjoy the ride, letโs dive in it !Here are a couple more looks at this iconic style found in the collection:
Theyโve got a personally built marketplace here, and their OpenSea marketplace page can be found here.
History has shown us that memes, cultural relevance, and the ability to laugh at ourselves in difficult times, is a strong formula for thriving communities in the space. The engagement is off the hook with this project, and it continues making a lot of noise on my feed across multiple weeks.
Some Art from around the space
Alright I guess I collected quite a few for this week again. Maybe we all need a little art to detox the external noise? Enjoy the ride:
Hereโs a great Azuki commission highlight reel - over 2 minutes of Azuki community artwork, and not even scratching the surface of the content we put out collectively:
Please forgive me for using your Azuki materials, which will not be used for commercial purposes, only for community sharing. IKZ #AzukiDay @AzukiOfficial @febtea @AzukiCN_gardenI just listed โDaydreamโ for sale on @foundation! ๐ RT's are always appreciate it! โจ Link below ๐ฅ #NFTs #NFTCollection #nftcollector #nftart #EthereumโจAUCTION UPDATEโจ 9th piece of Retro Dystopia Seriesโจ "Saturn IX Watering Hole" (With Sound๐ง) Current bid: 1.5 โ exchange.art/single/FU54VxRโฆTomorrow 9am EST! I will be Dropping this on @SuperRare with @CollageHaus and a group of amazing artists. Here is why I think this drop is important for the space - bring more attention to Collage and Photomontage art! ๐งตโฐ NEW DROP ALARM โฐ MINI MOMENTS: BEE-EATER #3 is now live on @opensea and buzzing to find her new home! โจ 0.18 ETH โจ opensea.io/assets/ethereuโฆi'm ilyn. lofi - aesthetic artitst. this new account for NFT art thank you for your kindness. ๐ค #NFTCommunity #nftasia #nftart #digitalart #illustration #artvsartist #NFTartist #nftcollector #NFTProjects #NFTGiveaways #RetweeetPlease #AnimationMake sure you play the loop for this one:
"Rocking Time" New NFT DROP @foundation Edition of 1 ๐ธ Collection: Benangbaja Studio Link: foundation.app/@benangbaja/beโฆ #NFT #NFTanime #NFTcollector #NFTartist #FND #NFTdropOne of the recent commissions I extremely enjoyed working on is now with @vec0zy. An honor ๐ซกโค๏ธโ๐ฅโจ!!NEW DROP!! ๐ค๐คDistrict 2524 ๐ฅ๐ฅ 0.62 ETH available on @withFND foundation.app/@LoveApple/sfiโฆ #NFTCommunity #NFTdrops #ThaiNFT #NFTTHAILAND #nftcollectors #nftcollectible #NFT #NFTs #FoundationNFT #cyberpunk
Learning Content of the Week
This past week I saw a lot of content around blockchain gaming. Letโs hit this from two angles. Brain dump and some highlights from the sources below:
Metaverse Graphics - Why do they suck?
Letโs be honest, most of the content weโve seen regarding Metaverse worlds and playable environments tend toโฆ fall pretty flat (especially in comparison to the AAA graphics featured in console and PC gaming today). Is there a reason for this?
In short, yes; and it also comes down to intentional focus. More on that in the Metaverse article below.The simple answer is that building a singular, global, immersive social universe comes with a very complex set of technological challenges. A metaverse experience would have to allow for an infinite number of processes across potentially millions of simultaneous users.This requires extreme processing power and ultra-fast internet speeds that are not available to your average user. Therefore, the current "cartoonish" metaverses that we're seeing in these early days are deliberate artistic choices. It minimizes the processing power required.Thereโs a bit more in the thread, but this outlines an intentional choice to maximize experience and efficiency, while processing power in a single place (simultaneously played) keeps catching up. After all, we have a knack for thinking ahead of our actualized technology.
Another article discussing this topic can be found by CoinTelegraph โMetaverse graphics aim for community and accessibility โ Not realismโ found here (some highlights below)
All things considered, metaverse development currently seems to be focused more on community building rather than imagery. โI believe we need to move past the expectation of a photorealistic meta-human metaverse and look at what drives human interaction,โ remarked Borget. In order to do so, Borget explained that metaverses should focus on ease of use:โIf we build a world that requires high-end technology and skills to build and run, weโll be leaving out most of the worldโs population. However, if we instead focus on making creation and play highly accessible and engaging, we can make the metaverse a new, more level playing field.โ
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Should I even care about blockchain gaming? - A look at some history and a look ahead. Do people still care?
I promise to be less wordy here, the resources will talk for themselves! For those interested in some advancements around the web3 space, check out the below:
() Origins - A thread on recent eSports activity in the Web3 space - including many esports orgs stepping into the fray, and Epic Games starting to entertain the ecosystem further.We are about to see the birth of some of the biggest games on #Web3 as #eSports expand into #blockchain gaming๐๐งต (1/6)() Sequin AR - A post on VR & why it matters in Metaverse conversations (note: Sequin is doing some really cool stuff with AR and peoplesโ NFTs)
Ever wondered how virtual reality became the foundation for the #metaverse? Check out this article from @Verdict, which breaks down why VR technology has become an essential part of Web 3 development. verdict.co.uk/why-is-virtualโฆ #metaverse #Web3 #VR() Thread/Blog from DeFiance Capital - Web3 Gaming Thesis & a look back (to look forward).
Looking at some paradigm shifts & whatโs lying ahead of us:Pay-to-Play โ Free-to-Play โ Play-to-Earn โ Play-to-Own
Article here. Thread & a highlight below:0/ Play-to-Earn? Free-to-Own? Play-to-Own. Bear markets are for long-form writing, excited to present our Web3 Gaming Thesis that has been in the works for some time. We will offer a short primer on Play-to-Own & our Web3 Gaming thesis in this thread ๐งต :() Also leveraging the Nansen Article โThe Compelling Case for NFT Gamingโ from earlier this year.
With a change in value creation, we change mechanics, feedback loops, and very likely how we even build in the first place.