Web3 Masterclass: Nuclear Nerds
Using Crowdsourced Storytelling to Create an Entertainment Brand
I own NFTs in one project where the holders have essentially turned over their capital to a third party with "connections in Hollywood" in the hope that an animated short will become a full-blown TV series. NFT holders of this project are waiting around to hear back from leadership on how their meetings are going.
While this is extreme (and cynical), it's worth highlighting b/c some NFT projects don't start with a web3 approach from the beginning and this mistake can increase project churn and hurts overall value. When NFT project leaders rely on personal contacts and experts rather than their NFT community to derive value for the project, NFT holders have to make a choice to remain in a project or shift to projects where they can be heard. To take advantage of blockchain and the full potential of an NFT community, the centralized point-of-control approach needs to evolve to accommodate community participation.
A great example of a project that's embracing web3 and its community is the NFT project "Nuclear Nerds of the Accidental Apocalypse". Nuclear Nerds launched in the middle of December 2021 with an ambitious claim:
This isn’t an NFT avatar project with a story component. It’s a full blown story universe that leverages NFT’s and unique mechanics to push the story forward and reward the audience the deeper they go.
The project starts with artist Adam Archer's incredible, full-body character artwork with unique traits that beg for context and embellishment.
To date, there are 9 categories of traits among the 8,999 NFTs, including 6 named mystery traits that will reveal as the story evolves. In January a subset of characters transformed due to their exposure to radiation as the Caterpillar trait emerged (see below). This mechanic is a great use of blockchain while keeping collectors engaged through increased rarity.
The second major component of the project is the Nuclear Nerds Story Engine, which solicits input from NFT holders to shape the story and/or build their own. The project just completed Chapter 1 prompts including a community vote in March and, in April, introduced new prompts for Chapter 2.
In addition, the first Nuclear Nerds comic issue will drop to NFT holders in April. During a recent Wasteland Wednesday episode, project leads, dc and hotshave hinted that NFT holders will have to make a decision to keep their comic issue #1 token or turn it for the #2 token when ready. They mentioned that this decision will impact an individual holders experience in the project.
This is just the start to a busy 2022 where a mix of upcoming drops (Scavenge, Warlords, Repopulation) will bring new benefits to holders and accelerate the storytelling in different ways. You can see from their recent roadmap presentation, the Nuclear Nerds team are really busy:
The average sale price for a Nuclear Nerds NFT declined a bit in March 2022 to 0.44 eth and the floor as of 4/8/22 around 2pm EST is 0.30 eth. It's hard to forecast price for the rest of 2022 but this project team fully understands web3 and they are building a rich story engine that has the potential to create significant value for engaged collectors.
In summary, creating a web form that accepts prompts from NFT collectors is trivial for almost any project and this alone doesn't mean your project is community-led. Embracing web3 means being willing to take on the technical and cultural challenges of engaging collector communities and convincing those communities to contribute to the journey. Nuclear Nerds is a case study in how to establish a productive web3 project that grows organically through deliberate, organic community engagement. I’m looking forward to participating in and tracking this project over time.
MISC
Additional thoughts to end the week …
J. Harry Edmiston hosted Refik Anadol to speak about the SpaceX: AN IMPORTANT MEMORY FOR HUMANITY drop that started yesterday and will continue through the weekend. You can listen to Refik talk about the project here:
Mental health is a frequent topic on Rug Radio's GM NFTs and I have to say after apeing into one project where this was a clear issue for the artist, I'm glad to see this discussed frequently with large audiences. We need to encourage more patience and gratitude among creators and their collectors. I'm not an artist and cannot empathize with being on the receiving end of some of the BS that’s unfairly slung in Discord. The artists that seem to do the best with this type of feedback are ones with years of experience meeting the needs of a demanding client, including work on publicly funded projects. While not covering the topic of mental health per se, Laura Shin’s discussion with artist Mitchell Chan back in December 2021 is illuminating in terms of how Mitchell prepared to deal with the red hot NFT market and collectors with high expectations. It’s a good podcast episode to listen to.
Finally…
If I had a million dollars and a lot more time: I'd do my own research on Clementine's Nightmare and Dour Darcels
If I had a millions dollars and no more time: I'd buy a Des Lucrece 1 of 1 and as many NFTs from My Pet Hooligan as I could