Every time I write about NFTs, I end with the same logical argument. Until real use cases for the technology appear that are useful to the wider population, it will continue to be a get-rich-quick scheme that very few will get rich from.
Well, ask, and you shall receive.
On Jan 18, Bored Apes Yacht Club launched Dookey Dash. The announcement video is filled with hilarious toilet humor, like using innuendos to describe buttholes. Classic. It’s like it was designed for 8-year-olds if they had thousands of dollars to burn in crypto wallets. The game is an endless runner-style skill-based “minting experience” that sees players fly through a sewer tunnel avoiding obstacles to compete for the highest score. Think Earthworm Jim, or for younger readers, Temple Run. Then, after several weeks, the player with the highest score will find “the key in the shit.” I kid not.
To get access, players need to mint a Sewer Pass NFT, which is free — gas fees aside — if you have a Bored Ape or Mutant Ape NFT in your wallet. This means it’s far from free, given the astronomical cost this collection has sold for to date. The current floor price for a Bored Ape is still over $100,000. Those who don’t have the entry fee can buy a Sewer Pass on the secondary market. On OpenSea, a “Sewer Pass” NFT has a current floor price of 2.7 ETH (equivalent to ~$4350), which gives a player three weeks of Dookey Dash access. Some of the higher tier passes — I’m as lost as you are — have sold for over $12,000.
$12,000 for three weeks of access. Wowzer.
With willing participants (read: mindless apes) like that, it’s no surprise the project has already cashed in millions. The announcement of the game also drove up the price of the Bored Ape collections, which had been enduring a tough time of late. According to data from CryptoSlam, Mutant Ape NFTs jumped nearly 125% in sales volume, while Bored Ape NFT sales jumped over 150%. Bored Ape Kennel Club NFTs, which also have some role in Dookey Dash, has seen a sales spike of over 125%.
So again, the project has made a few people richer and likely pocketed the creators a tidy sum too. But what do the players gain? Don’t know. The prize for achieving the high score hasn’t been revealed. Holders of Sewer Passes are promised that it will grant them access to “The Summoning.” What’s that? Don’t know. The explainer video describes it as the following,
“Gary, the Great Dog Prophet thinks conditions are right to perform a summoning ritual that will bring incredible power sources from another dimension into our world. On Feb 15, eligible sewer passes can participate in the summoning. Your best score will determine what it reveals. Your power source will be able to evolve through a sequence of various Ape Coin powered games as the continues. These power sources are your key to what comes next.”
Following? Thought not. Trying to understand would make you go apeshit crazy.
The bigger question is whether the Dookey Dash project does anything to move NFTs forward as an applicable technology.
Yes, it is some form of a use-case for the tokens. But it’s nothing beyond using them as a currency to play a mobile-standard game. It isn’t revolutionary. You don’t get to play as your ape. The only blockchain thing about the game is owning the NFTs in your wallet to play.
The answer is no. It will do little to move the needle. I’d hedge that the project was created to serve a couple of other motives:
- Yuga Labs, the creator of Bored Apes Yacht Club, raised $450 million in VC funding at a $4 billion valuation led by A16z. The cynic in me thinks the game and its surrounding ecosystem is just an elaborate way to try and show it can deliver value on that investment.
- If the entire argument for why people should buy your expensive NFT is to become part of the community —and not just the money you can make from reselling them — then you need to help find reasons for the community to come together. This game goes some way to providing that.
Even if it’s only a minor success, it will likely lead to other NFT projects trying to replicate this system over the coming months, each to lower levels of success until, like always, it falls apart, leaving a lot of bruised egos and empty wallets.
In the end, Dookey Dash is representative of the NFT landscape since its takeoff — the momentum it depends on is driven solely by hype.
But the more who buy in, the more the risk increases that the early adopters have already made the money, meaning those who get in late have thrown their money down the drain — and into the sewer.
https://stephenmoore.medium.com/nfts-finally-have-a-use-case-a-sewer-game-with-bad-poop-jokes-14f95e4c9067
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