#185: Previously on Goblintown

PLUS: 🚜 The Blockworks Grantfarm

Previously on Goblintown

For anyone that’s been following the NFT space for at least a year, chances are you’ve heard of Goblintown.

Goblintown was one of the NFT darlings during the depths of the crypto bear market last year, and I covered the project multiple times thanks to their innovative approach:

• Down, Down to Goblintown

• Goblintown Team Reveal

• A Goblin’s Letter to the Community

Don’t know what I’m talking about or too tired to read about these crude creatures? That’s part of the point I’m making today 😉

Earlier this week, the Goblintown Twitter account shared an update for Goblintown Season 2:

goblintown.wtf @goblintown

ₚᵣₑᵥᵢᵤₛₗy ₒₙ Gₒbₗᵢₙₜₒwₙ ₚₐᵣₜ ₜₒₒ! cₐₙ ᵤ ₛₚₒₜ wₐₜ cₕₐₙgₑd?

The 3 minute video summarizes the events of the past year while announcing the beginning of season 2:

• Goblintown holders were eligible to claim a free McGoblinBurger Combos, inspired the world’s most popular fast food chain

• These Burger combos were burned in the ‘Master Baiter’ event. Hey, don’t look at me in disgust, this is part of the Goblintown vibe and lore!

• Holders could burn 1, 2, or 3 burger combos, creating different types of Grumpl traps with different outcomes.

goblintown.wtf @goblintown

Gₒbₗₒₙᵢ ₐᵣ yᵤ ₚₑₑₚₐᵣd ₜₐ bₐᵢₜ? ₑₜₛ ₐ ₜᵣₑₑcₖᵢ ₜₐₛₖ, yᵤ ₘᵤₛₜ fₒₗₗₒw dₑₛₑ ᵢₙₛₜᵣᵤₖₜₛₕᵤₙₛ. Yᵤ ₘᵤₛₜ bₑ ₐ gₒbₗᵢₙ ₜₐ bₐᵢₜ! Bₐᵢₜᵢₙ wᵢₗₗ ₕₑₚₚₑₙ ₑₙ ₙₑₓₜ ₜwₒ wₑₑₖₛ. ₒₖₑ ₛₜₒₒdy ᵤₚ!

• 1 burger trap resulted in a standard grumpl, 2 resulted in a special grumpl, and 3 resulted in a special vehicle in partnership with Atari

Still following?

What was nice about the Season 2 video?

• It was a short and helpful summary of what Goblintown has been up to and provides some hints around what’s next

• Goblintown stays true to the crude humor that catapulted the project to prominence in its early days

• It reignited excitement around the project for the community and those that haven’t been following closely, like myself

However, while watching the video and researching/writing today’s piece, the difficulties of an effort like Goblintown (and many others in the space) dawned on me.

How do you bring in new community members when you’re halfway through the story?

Let’s say my friends are watching the final season of Stranger Things and I join them without watching previous seasons.

Awesome, the final season begins! We’re all excited. But then…

But, but…

See what I’m getting at?

When building a community that involves deep storytelling and lore, some questions arise:

• How do you get prospective community members up to speed on the story and lore of the project?

• How do you get new community members integrated with the OG community members?

This isn’t a critique of Goblintown, what they’ve done is nothing short of amazing. However world-building is a complete beast of its own when it also involves the dynamic elements of community building.

Several months ago, I wrote about a piece about reengagement through onboarding, featuring Smolverse. The monthly effort was intended to bring new community members up to speed on the history, ecosystem, and plans for Smols.

I applauded the effort, breaking down why this was an important and helpful initiative. However, it seems like the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze as I haven’t seen any more of these sessions after November 2022. This makes sense considering many of the teams behind these efforts are effectively small startups. There are a million things to do and onboarding sessions may not be worth the time.

This may be a reason why the top projects in the space are positioning themselves to be brands more than just NFT collections, which gives me a better understanding of what Doodles is trying to do, per my piece on them earlier this week.

When Poopie refers to the aspirations of Doodles being a media franchise, that’s a brand with 1 million fans. A NFT project is a community with 1,000 true fans who understand the lore and origin story. It’s difficult but possible to have both.

There’s no right or wrong with this, but this reality shines a spotlight on a hard topic.

The Blockworks Grantfarm

Attention builders: Blockworks recently introduced Grantfarm, a crypto grant directory from different companies and protocols in the ecosystem.

The world of grants is a rich space, with over $10 billion funded, but it’s sometimes a confusing one. Blockworks has taking the task of herding crypto cats into one neat tool.

If you’re looking to participate and support different ecosystems in the space, check it out or share this with someone who is.

See you next week folks!