Metaverse Stories: Drink Me Now, Thank Me Later
The most unappreciated aspect of the Bored Ape movement is the organic nature of it’s story. NFT founders and artists should spend whatever it takes to capture it in a bottle. It doesn’t happen often.
QUESTION: What do the following words have in common?
Bored
Ape
Yacht
Club
ANSWER: They all describe the holder.
Let’s break it down:
Bored: I’m rich, and I’m bored.
Ape: I am deep enough into crypto culture to know the context of ‘Ape’, and it describes my investing style
Yacht: I’m a new money millionaire, so I proudly collect watches, cars, boats, etc. In fact, I take pride in buying anti-logical things, like million dollar cartoon Apes.
Club: I’m part of something very exclusive, and the window of entry is closed for 99.99% of the population on earth.
BAYC is much more than an expensive asset. It is an evolving, actively expanding, brand of living that defines the experience of the holders.
It was born inside of the crypto wealth explosion, and it only appealed to the “crypto-new-money” community at that time. It was pure.
More importantly, the rest of the crypto space really wants to be part of this one, very specific club.
It started inside the mind of the holder, before the holder could buy it.
That’s how you begin a fucking story ladies and gents.
It’s called Hero’s Journey — the holder is the hero, aka: the protagonist.
It’s the only story structure that works in this world, whether you’re watching Stranger Things, reading a novel, or gossiping about your in-laws.
Surprise: It’s also the only structure that works in the NFT’s, metaverse, or gamefi.
So, if you’re a sincere founder/developer, and your first idea was to revolutionize the gaming industry with an open world, choose your own destiny, destroy the enemy, but also fight other players, and the environment, in a distant world, supported by a marketplace, and an AMM, with added benefits of staking, trading, breeding, renting — You. Are. Not. Going. To. Make. It.
I’m sorry but you’re starting so far away from your audience/user perspective. You’re building what YOU want to be in the ambiguously distant future, and the user hears all of those buzz words every single day from failed projects.
You should also know that I’ve lost my share of ETH gambling on the ‘best’ trailers.
So, to revisit BAYC:
BAYC created a culture born from the perspective of it’s holders. It’s active in their lives when they’re in Italy shopping for Gucci jump suits.
It has already endowed the holder as the Hero of their own journey. The story started long before the first Ape.
Because of this foundational story, the path to expansion into the metaverse is clear. So, their teams of founders, developers, artists and marketers, can create with more voice. And more autonomy.
Further, it looks NOTHING like Zelda, League of Legends, Eve online, Mario, Goldeneye, GTA, etc.
Why?
Because they’re COMPLETELY different audiences, in a completely new environment.
So, again, if your goal is to capture .02% of the traditional gaming audience as it stands today…You just can’t. The only audience you have is in crypto (as it stands right now).
Think of it this way:
Some people spend $10M on this.
And some people spend $10M on this.
THESE ARE NOT THE SAME PEOPLE.
Zelda is Zelda. It belongs on Nintendo, along with Mariokart, and whatever else. They have a user base that grew as the games evolved. They’re not your audience Mr. Founder.
So, because I’m nobody, and I’m sure no one will see this, I’ll go ahead fuck off, but when your kids are all gathered around your bed as you’re peacefully ascending to that big Marketplace in the sky, you’ll get what I’m saying.
Full disclosure: I don’t own a BAYC. But I AM going to buy into the Wassieverse for all these same reasons.
Not Financial Advice!
