#186: Announcement Velocity with Yuga Labs
PLUS: 🌍 TPan's 2nd Trip Experience on Otherside
Last week I knew what I would be writing about today. It would be about the 2nd Trip on Otherside, which occurred over the weekend.
This event was highly anticipated for Yuga ecosystem fans, as this is the big bet the company is making as a Metaverse and gaming play.
Little did I know this event was just one of several other announcements that occurred over the past few days, which changes the angle for today’s piece.
First, let’s talk about about the 2nd Trip on the Otherside.
Otherside’s 2nd Trip
The 2nd Trip was hotly anticipated, as the First Trip happened 8 months ago. The announcements teased cooperative and competitive elements, while the First Trip was focused on introducing the Metaverse and how to interact in it.
If anyone’s wondering what the experience was like, check out Brycent’s Twitch stream of the event.
It’s fun to see how Brycent (a gamer and content creator) approached the event as a Team Captain leading his group to (near) victory, losing out by just 2,000 points. Talk about buzzer beater.
TLDR of the 2nd Trip:
Voyagers hung out in the Infinite Space (waiting area) as everyone joined in
Voyagers were split into 4 teams. Captains led the teams to collect blobs and feed them to toads to earn points in a mini-game.
The winning team won a prize, which seems to be the first in-game NFT and wearable in Otherside 👀
After the game, Voyagers were transported to Bone Land and there was a surprise visit from a serpent-like creature, and the scene faded to black.
Themes and takeaways from the event (caveating that I am not a gamer):
The Good
The experience was overall magical
Regardless of whether or not you’re a gamer, Yuga fan, or even a fan of web3, being a part of a collective experience online is something special. Over time, some of this novelty will wear off, but the feeling of entering a space with thousands of other participants in real-time makes your heart skip a beat.
To provide a sense of scale, there were over 7,200 concurrent Voyagers for the experience. That’s a lot of people participating in the same experience. This isn’t an experience that was partitioned off into hundreds of servers, this is the same ‘room’.
One of my favorite shots was when the Bone Land monster appeared, knowing that thousands of other Voyagers (and many others live streaming) were a part of the same moment. Live online experiences are special just like IRL ones, and there will be more of these in future.
Learnings from the 2nd Trip
It’s always fun to look at an experience like this from the other side of the table. What were the goals of Yuga Labs and Improbable (their Metaverse tech partner), what were some potential examples of data points and KPIs collected, and how could this inform future Otherside Trips?
7,200 concurrent users during the 2nd Trip suggests that there were up to 1,800 players on each of the 4 teams. This is a massive coordination effort to reach a goal of scoring the most points in the mini-game.
Based on the data collected, Yuga could understand skill levels, engagement, and comprehension of the mini-game by looking at user-level stats:
What was their total score in Round 1 vs. Round 2, and how does that compare to the other players in the team (let’s just say some Captains were more effective than others 😉) and other players in general?
What players were engaged in the mini-games the whole time vs. others that participated partially, or not at all? Was that due to connectivity issues, lack of interest, or were they away from the screen?
Did the rate of scoring points increase over time? This would suggest increased comprehension of the mini-game and goals.
Some other parameters for consideration:
How engaged were users by PFP they represented? There were default PFP options as well as 14 other collections that could be rocked on top of the Yuga-associated PFPs.
How was performance (connectivity as well as mini-game scores) by region? Is it possible that scores were impacted by a language barrier?
How did Otherdeed holders perform compared to the +1 guests? Each Otherdeed holder could invite a guest to the 2nd Trip.
In-game wearables
In a nice surprise and delight moment, the winning team from the mini-game received winged helmet wearables as a reward for their efforts.
These wearables are the first in-game item from Otherside, and I imagine they will fetch a pretty penny once they get airdropped. This also provides a sneak peek of what will be possible with the ODK (Otherside Development Kit).
The Not So Good
Connectivity issues
I was fortunate enough to join the 2nd Trip with my crappy laptop, but many others weren’t despite having new hardware or robust setups. These connectivity issues caused many folks to be sidelined from participating and understandably frustrated.
These connectivity issues delayed the start time ~30 minutes as well as the team tried to get as many people as possible into the Infinite Space waiting room before starting.
How long will the Otherside take to roll out?
The First Trip was in July 2022. The 2nd Trip was in March 2023. There were some concerns around the timeline if this is the pace of development we should expect. Or will the rate of releases pick up after the foundation has been laid?
Too repetitive and boring
As a non-gamer I didn’t feel like the experience was too slow. Gamers felt differently.
Will this get to mass market scale?
7,200 concurrent users is eye-openingly impressive. But there are 100k Otherdeeds, and another 100k have yet to be released. Can Yuga bring enough users to create a dynamic Metaverse that is Otherside? Time will tell. Not too much time though, please 😂
Don’t worry, I didn’t forget!
Yuga’s Announcement Velocity
Going back to intro for this piece, I thought that would be it from Yuga for at least the next few days. I was quickly proven wrong as Monday rolled around.
Monday morning
Remember the concern I listed above about Otherside bringing engaged and active users into their Metaverse? The Cavalry may arriving.
The big question is, did Gucci reciprocate the announcement? Sure did.
This isn’t a web3 account, this is the real deal with 7.1 million Twitter followers. That said, this announcement did not show up on their Instagram account which is understandable, but it did on LinkedIn!
Gucci announced a multi-year partnership with Yuga Labs to “explore the intersection between fashion and entertainment in the Metaverse”. For Gucci, their expertise is fashion and culture. Why build or buy when you can partner?
I wonder if there will be more partnership announcements like this in the coming weeks and months…
Monday afternoon
Otherside announces Legends of the Mara, a 2D strategy game based of characters and elements from Otherside’s NFT collection, Otherdeeds.
You can learn more about LOTM here, and if you want more of a TLDR, check out their FAQs.
The response? Yuga community is PUMPED.
Monday evening
Yuga announces that they are adding badges to the Twitter accounts of their employees. Though this is more of a functional announcement, it is an important one. Yuga NFT holders are some of the most targeted individuals when it comes to scams and this is a small but helpful addition in the battle against scammers and hackers.
Take it from me, a recent scam victim.
During the 2nd Trip
As the 2nd Trip was happening (note the below timestamps), 10KTF (another collection and ecosystem under Yuga) tweeted mysterious updates.
As the dust settled and 2nd Trip concluded, Wagmi-San announced Season Two.
Putting this all together, what can we take away?
The Announcement Experience (AX) framework revisited
In the piece, I outlined multiple factors and examples of successful announcements in the web3 space.
What does the above look like with Yuga’s recent announcements?
Summing it up in a tweet:
When there are more stars in the constellation, INTRA-operability is possible
One common term in web3 is interoperability. The ability for different products and ecosystems to interact with each other, for example Gucci partnering with Yuga for Metaverse experiences.
However, if there are enough robust brands in the portfolio, intraoperability becomes an opportunity and moat.
Let’s go back to the above announcements and observe them from an intraoperability POV:
Interoperability: Otherside x Gucci
Intraoperability: That’s a Bored Ape hand holding the bottle of Otherside juice
And the mysterious 10KTF images?
Interoperability: The floating buildings represent different communities outside of the Yuga ecosystem (eg: Cool Cats building, Pudgy Penguins igloo, 0n1 skyscrapers)
Intraoperability: What happening below the floating islands? That’s a scene from the 2nd Trip as it’s happening.
Though it may take some time, the different parts of the ecosystem are converging…and it seems like they’re converging at Otherside.
Yuga Labs is only 2 years old and so much is unproven with the company. The company’s youth becomes an advantage when it comes to being open to collaborate across the ecosystem of owned and operated brands. There is less politics of this brand or that division. There’s a clear common goal when the team is 130 vs. 13,000.
It’s not 1+1=3, but 1+1+1=10.
Time to tickle my brain, let’s think of a hypothetical example where intraoperability can lead to interoperability.
Gucci x LVMH
Yuga has ties to not only Gucci (btw, they accept Apecoin), but also LVMH, through a Cryptopunks x Tiffany effort last year.
What would it look like if Gucci and LV partnered together for an initiative in Otherside? Sounds impossible in theory, but I’m convinced that would break the internet and benefit all parties involved. Maybe this hypothetical marriage just needed the right officiant this whole time.
Though few if any other brands can pull of what Yuga has done so far, it’s important to keep an eye on these developments as they continue to evolve. I believe that the successful consumer-facing leaders of the space will create a portfolio of brands that play into each other, not just a monolithic brand.
See you Thursday!
Loved the badging Concept to filter the scammer.