Lootverse, Otherside... Five NFT Metaverse Worlds Worth Watching
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Lootverse, Otherside... Five NFT Metaverse Worlds Worth Watching
Building the metaverse is currently the most interesting thing happening around NFTs.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: William M. Peaster
Compiled by: TechFlow intern
"Imagine Star Wars or Game of Thrones, but instead of being owned by Disney or HBO, the project is directly guided, developed, and owned by a community of builders, creators, and participants."
This is a quote from Timshel, the creator of The Genesis—a creative venture that is now one of many enterprises built on and around Loot NFTs, collectively known as the Lootverse.
Both this statement and the Lootverse point to a growing trend in the NFT ecosystem: community-centric or community-led worldbuilding projects that are blossoming into new multiverses in a decentralized way.
For me, building metaverse worlds is currently the most interesting thing happening around NFTs.
First, What Is Worldbuilding?
Worldbuilding, in general, is the artistic creation of a new multiverse. It can be a solitary literary act—such as J.R.R. Tolkien’s origin of the Lord of the Rings universe—or a collaborative and commercial endeavor like Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) multimedia franchises.
Recently, a collaborative and experimental style of worldbuilding has emerged within some NFT projects, where communities are actively striving to create their own expansive fictional worlds. Notably, NFTs allow community members to directly exist within and own "digital real estate" in these universes—something impossible in traditional worldbuilding projects.
Cellarius: Pioneer of This Experiment
“Cellarius Universe is an original cross-media cyberpunk series that leverages blockchain technology and user-generated assets to create a fan-collaboratively curated story.
Our narrative begins in the near future and will expand across space and time throughout the galaxy. Text, art, and other media will explore the full spectrum of relationships between humans and sentient superintelligences. Cellarius Universe is essentially a myth for the future—and also a collective narrative whose content and contours will be shaped by its community.”
This is the introductory guide for Cellarius Universe. Even though the project ended four years ago, it still reads like a launch announcement from today’s NFT communities.
This was a cross-media collaborative storytelling project run by ConsenSys, an Ethereum infrastructure development company, between early 2018 and early 2019—but it ultimately went bankrupt. Cellarius was ahead of its time because the cryptocurrency and NFT ecosystems were still in their infancy and unable to support the project’s grand vision.
From my personal writing perspective, the foundational work laid down by the Cellarius team would have been (and still is) a great starting point for collective storytelling. I highlight Cellarius here to illustrate that today’s NFT worldbuilding projects aren’t entirely novel fads. Instead, thanks to advancements in crypto infrastructure and a surge in experimentation, they’re tapping into deeper layers of creativity.
Five NFT Worldbuilding Projects to Watch
Today’s NFT worldbuilding projects come in different shapes and sizes. Some are fully in the public domain, while others are not. However, what unites them is having active communities dedicated to building new metaverses. Some examples include:
Lootverse
In August 2021, Dom created Loot, a text-based crypto project. The project quickly exploded within the space, capturing the attention of many in the NFT ecosystem. Since then, a wave of NFT projects began building art, games, and other elements around Loot NFTs, leading to the organic formation of the Lootverse. The Lootverse has no central organizing force, yet continuously works to cultivate and develop its narrative.
Nouns
As 4156 explained last year, “Nouns is a procreative protocol.” The idea here is a virtuous cycle:
The protocol and generated Noun NFTs serve as a treasury that funds and attracts innovators.
Nouns DAO uses the treasury to fund innovators who want to build on Nouns.
Applications and creations by funded innovators attract more capital and more talented builders, forming a positive feedback loop.
At first glance, Nouns may not seem like a worldbuilding project, but in fact, it is. Because community-driven cultural development has led to a flourishing of Nounish art, stories, poetry, and more—planting the seeds for a vibrant future Nouns universe.
Superverse
Sup, led by Dom and other talented NFT masters, is a creative studio building the Superverse, which includes the sci-fi CC0 universe project Blitmap, the on-chain gaming console project Supdrive, and more. Notably, Sup is currently exploring an experimental structure similar to CC0.
Runnerverse
Another NFT worldbuilding project launched around 10,000 pixelated cyberpunk avatars. The Runners community is collaboratively building and writing the Runnerverse, beginning with the struggle between rebels and the mysterious authority Somnus in Mega City. However, the evolution of the storyline will be guided by the community.
Yuga Labs’ Otherside
Yuga Labs, the creator of BAYC, plans to launch its Otherside metaverse project this month. The project’s animated teaser features non-Yuga NFTs such as Cool Cats, CrypToadz, Nouns, and World of Women, clearly indicating the team’s strong worldbuilding ambitions. However, until the release of Otherside, we can only speculate about how this worldbuilding will unfold and how centralized it will be.
Conclusion
Worldbuilding projects are rapidly evolving within today’s NFT ecosystem, and various narratives have already begun to intertwine. I believe the impact of today’s projects will go beyond mere speculation—they will, like Cellarius Universe, truly expand and solidify more possibilities for Web3, creating lasting conceptual influences for future projects in the same space.
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