This article was originally published by @ethermore at Blockchain Game Ethermore: The Value Proposition According to the Community

#Written by community members @NinjaBoffin & @Putra

#@NinjaBoffin

Initially being released along with a slew of other NFT projects back in May, there was always something special about Ethermore that made it stand out from the rest. From a visual aspect, the quality was certainly that of a higher calibre than you would see in other “pixel” projects and that too, being generative. Not only do you get a variety in the background, but it includes different races, classes of heroes and even artefacts.

I challenge you to find a badly generated Ethermore NFT because they simply don’t exist. From a visual standpoint alone, a great deal of effort and care has been put into the creation of assets, which is what initially caught my eye for the project. However, reading more about what the Ethermore team wanted to build & achieve and what steps they were taking towards building it is what gave me the conviction to mint on launch day (and continue to mint until they sold out a couple of days ago). Unlike most other NFTs that I mint, I have yet to sell a single one of my Ethermore NFTs because I’m still in adoration over the project. Ethermore is a masterclass understanding not only the technology behind NFT but also blockchain as a whole.

Ethermore has taken one of the core facets of crypto and built upon an already existing system that exists out of crypto; Role Playing. It’s a beloved past-time/hobby for a lot of people, with games such as Warhammer, Dungeons and Dragons (DnD) or even GURPS. In these games, the imagination truly is the limit, where the campaigns that are created are nothing short of awe-inspiring. At its core, these games are a culmination of the community's imagination through a seemingly simple question; “What if ?”.

This brings up back to cryptocurrency, where we’re seeing the rise of a pseudonymous economy (An idea made popular by Balaji Srinivasan). As Balaji quite aptly puts it, pseudonymity is not anonymity: A pseudonym can have a reputation and metadata that follows throughout different interactions, whereas anonyms are not persistent at all. We’ve seen the pseudonymous economy in practice too, especially if you’re on Twitter. Accounts like @4156 and @gmoney are all pseudonymous. They’ve built a trustable identity around their relative cryptopunk to the point where they are their NFTs. We don’t have to know the person behind their respective wallets yet, we know who they are; such is the nature of a decentralised and trustless system.

Ethermore takes this idea and builds upon it. You don’t just have an option to “be” your NFT, but rather, the Ethermore team along with the community have developed quests for you to play out as your NFT. Your character identity is made up of your actions, which have been captured on the blockchain for everyone to see. You could roleplay as yourself, you could roleplay as someone who is the complete opposite of you or even a mixture of the two. Unlike in a closed group where they know about your character and your actions, anyone can now see who you are playing. More importantly than that, people can now follow your character’s entire journey from the start and experience it for themselves in their own time.

The Ethermore team, are also experimenting with a community-run RPG DAO, where decisions are voted in by the community which then go on to become the official lore for the Ethermore universe. Ethermore has found a very unique yet functional way of implementing a DAO system which just makes too much sense now that I’ve seen it. If you want to truly know where the value of Ethermore is truly derived from, it’s a perfect blend of innovation, narrative and true community empowerment in every sense of the word. Ethermore is a landmark project in the making and talking to not just the community, but also the developers at lengths about their design philosophy, plans for the future and their commitment to the project inspires me with the confidence that is rare in the space. In simple crypto terms.

Ethermore is more than GMI.

#@Putra:

The Project

Ethermore to me has been strikingly unique from the very moment I learnt about the project. In the times when everyone was pushing for Profile Picture (PFP) or video game projects, Ethermore silently stood out as a niche tabletop RPG (TTRPG) project.

 When you mint, you'll get a pixelated art character that generates the character's race, class, sub-class, weapon amongst other things. These follow the classic TTRPG character build like Dungeon and Dragons (D&D). There are even special items like ropes, potions and bedrolls that serve as special "pulls" that have its own side quest.

The Idea

The creators have an idea where they would only release the characters without the promise of a video game. At the time of release, that was somewhat unthinkable -how could a project attract NFT collectors and gamers when there are more projects out there coming out non-niche graphics (pixels are not everyone's cup of tea) and promise of a video game? While Ethermore isn't any of those, it is something better. It gives the community the power to craft the world around the characters, from lore to the maps. And then the NFT holders have the power to vote on which ideas we would like to be canon.

DAO and Community as Builders

A lot of NFT projects have been operating in a top-down approach, where the NFT creators create value for the holders. They could be in the form of token airdrops or free minting for new NFT projects or exclusive holders only access to club pages or merch stores. One of the best examples is the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) with the holders-only access to the club's bathroom, free minting of Bored Ape Kennel Club (BAKC) dogs and airdrops of serums that allows ape-holders to use the serum on their apes to create a mutated ape, Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC). That is a lot of value from just holding one BAYC!

As for Ethermore, the project uses the bottom-up approach, where the community creates value for the project. We participate in world-building. We can propose lore, we can join the cartography channel to work on the maps and we can develop side-quests. Furthermore, the devs are always open to suggestions on other aspects of building the IP. And all these will then be picked to be developed further via community vote. This sits well with the Decentralised Autonomous Organisation (DAO) ethos, where token holders decide how the project will progress.

For myself, this is as close to working on a game as I could ever be. Some may relate to that. Some may take it as the creative outlet that they have been looking for. There are so many things we can do to build this world. Game mechanics, lore, worlds, maps, side-quests, characters stories, items, and many more. We are only bounded by boundaries and the collective agreement to pursue any given ideas. To top it all, the time and effort invested only makes us emotionally attached to the project.

The Game

Ehtermore is meant to be played as a TTRPG, where there are some rules to standardize the actions you can do. Beyond that, the game is only bounded by our imaginations. However, one might consider world-building as part of the "game" too.

The Future

The future really lies in the hands of token owners. DMs are working on homebrew campaigns and finding teams for role-playing. The writers are writing lore and side quests. Cartographers and artists are making the world map, or maps (No one's saying there can't be more than one continent, world or even realm). Other ideas could include tokens that serve as in-game currencies, Gen 2 NFT characters, item NFTs, DM and players starter packs, and so much more!

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This article was originally published by @ethermore at Blockchain Game Ethermore: The Value Proposition According to the Community