PFPs Then, Now & Tomorrow

PFPs have come a long way from when I started minting them on tezos back in the summer of 2021. Back then (because in terms of NFTs it was a lifetime ago) tezos was a separate ecosystem somewhat sheltered from the rumblings of the Blue Chip juggernauts on Ethereum. We heard about the distant pronouncements and promises that happened there, but creators and collectors that only collected on tezos would mostly ignore the ramblings of the Eth fanatics.

But even still, the roadmaps and other promises made by teams releasing PFP projects weren't gospel, so who could blame us for ignoring them?

PFPs Were Once Simple - From My Perspective

Back in August 2021 I was one of the new kids on the tezos scene and I began minting the DeeManz on Kalamint.

DeeManz Dropped First

DeeManz #1

Initially, it was simply a collection of 500 creatures that I minted on the blockchain with the hopes of making a little bit of pocket change from. They sold much faster than I originally expected and before I knew it, within 36 hours the tokens were sold out. In terms of PFPs this was not a very long time but in terms of Kalamint it was very fast!

With the success of that drop, I started to think of where to take the collection next. I didn't know about roadmaps and discords at the time - and to be honest, I think most collectors paid very little attention to that sort of thing - but I knew that I wanted to tell a story with the whole cast of characters that I had created.

I started to think of the collection as album drops, 500 per set with a new theme for each set. A theme that would paint a better picture for collectors about the world that the DeeManz inhabited. A world much like our own, but further along in its destruction at the hands of an abuser who would be revealed as the Dark Lord. A large white dude business suit wearing guy who's head would be cut off by the frame once he was finally shown.

V0iDs Followed

While I started working on the next set for the DeeManz I started to take a bigger interest in what was happening on hicetnunc (now known commonly as Teia) and decided that I should open up a shop there as well. So I began working on two collections at once and my next collection that dropped was not DeeManz 2 but the first release of the V0iDs.

V0iD #1

I had heard or read that Stephen King would write two books at once so as to always have something on hand should he hit a creative block (I could be very wrong about the author) so I decided to put something similar in practice (currently I try to have many things on the go). About 2 weeks after minting the first DeeManz I released the first V0iD on hicetnunc and proceeded to mint the other V0iDs over the next 24 hours. That collection, too, sold out really quickly in terms of tezos drops.

The V0iDs too were intended to be a collection that would tell a story through the release of each successive set. I was very excited with the reception both collections had received on tezos and I was even more excited about telling the story of each fictional universe going forward.

The Mood Changes

It's no surprise to anyone in the NFT space that tastes change. Or more accurately, hype and fomo changes what collectors collect, and how collectors view their own collections.

Something I noticed after dropping the V0iDs was that if a token was considered "rare" it somehow looked better in the eyes of all collectors. It didn't matter if another token with a lower rarity score was more aesthetically pleasing, rarity trumped all and ultimately dictated how someone felt about the tokens they owned or wanted to collect.

This could lead to negative feelings and lead to negative interactions with the creator or community.

The Basqunks Arrive

Because of the observation I made regarding rarity and the fact that collectors didn't seem to care about storytelling (my second set of DeeManz were better than the first set in my honest opinion - both thematically, technically and aesthetically - but fell flat on release) I decided to start experimenting with art styles. I wanted to see if I could create a collection where the token with the lowest rarity score could be considered just as objectively cool as the token with the highest rarity score.

So while I worked away at making the next set of V0iDs even better than the first set, I began working on the Basqunks.

Basqunk 0

When I set out to make the Basqunks, I only ever intended to make a one-off collection of 500 PFPs that I would mostly airdrop to a cross section of V0iD holders who won in a raffle that was held at the time - about 132 winners I believe - and sell the rest for 5 tezos each. Afterwards, I intended to get back to work on the V0iDs, which I hoped would sell well and would kickstart some interest in both of my earlier collections.

I did not anticipate the demand and craze that would ensue.

For whatever reason, I guess the Basqunks just clicked with people, this experiment hit a nerve and everyone in the tezos art scene took notice of my collection of Basqunk PFPs. It was an incredible achievement for me which would prove to be rewarding but also very mentally taxing.

I'm not going to get into the hype and fomo that surrounded the Basqunks at the time, that's a topic for another time. The hype and the fomo has completely died down and not many people mention the Qunks to me anymore.

What I will say is that the Basqunks were less of a lesson in art creation, storytelling and world building and more a lesson in marketing, community management and managing expectations of collectors who want BAYC rewards from a creator that is barely making ends meet.

PFPS at Present

Hype Trains and Fomo

The reality about PFPs and NFTs in general is this; the majority of collectors don't care about the art. Period. And if they do, and that's a big if, many are here in the space more to support themselves and earn an extra buck or two (have you seen the news recently) than to support the arts. Which if I am being honest is completely understandable. But if making a flip and earning some extra spending money helps the arts, where is the harm in that? The most important thing to be aware of with NFTs is that the majority of collectors are here to see that "the line goes up". It's more Las Vegas strip than it is Wall Street and Sotheby's.

When the floor is rising and the eyes of everyone is on your work, many collectors want a piece of your time and one or more of your tokens. Some are completely insensitive to the needs and wants of others and only put themselves first. Few follow the “DYOR” mantra while most dive in head first and snap up whatever they can get their hands on (I've made this mistake). For the off chance that it will make them rich over the course of the next week.

I am sure this has something partly to do with human nature, but the bigger part that causes this widespread bad behaviour are the Blue Chip PFP collections in the space that have made ridiculous amounts of money and then promise to deliver something equally ridiculous to holders.

“Best Game Ever” will be coming to all holders.

“More Cypto More $$$” for holding your tokens.

So ultimately today, everyone and their uncle is in on this fiasco. Facebook, Twitter, Amazon and probably every other big tech firm wants a piece of the pie. So to do Sotheby's and Christie's and even the MoMa apparently. The numbers don't lie afterall; there is definitely money to be made in NFTs. A lot of it.

But the Blue Chip collections want to see their "line go up", so they keep making promises that are much like Tesla's and other EV manufacturers promises to make the next best electric car/pickup truck. FYI, it will likely never happen in many cases (where's the cybertruck?), but it's a great way to get people to throw money at your company - basically an interest free loan.

Reality About the Present

The metaverse is already here.

We've been living and entertaining ourselves in the metaverse for a very long time. William Gibson was writing about it in the 1980s. Alfred Bester touched on it in the 1950s. We're in the metaverse everyone. You don't need a big company to make a landing site for you like Meta did with the internet when they created Facebook. Which is to say, just the internet shown to you through their url, overlaid with all their poorly designed widgets and buttons.

PFPs Going Forward

I am starting to ask myself some big questions about the space.

• If collectors spend most of their time on NFT social media and their blockchain of choice, why build something outside of that system?
• If it doesn't add value to what collectors are already doing within the space, does it make sense to build it

Game worlds are not what the majority of collectors are looking for. Yet, for some reason, the teams behind some of the largest collections by volume tout this as the direction to take. And so many other start up collections make the same promise to try and attract new collectors. And Facebook(Meta) force feeds the public this notion that this is what they truly want.

However, from a small poll I did on twitter asking collectors what type of gamer they are, the responses gave an indication that game worlds were not really what a lot of collectors wanted.

There's a few ways to look at the following results. On the one hand, you have 63.7% of respondents saying that they play video games casually. Which suggests that a game where they could run around as their PFP might be pretty appealing. But on the other hand, you could view the results as only 25.8% would likely play the game (hardcore gamer). And considering how critical gamers can be, that game would have to be incredibly good for those gamers to play it at all. What's the likelyhood of a company with zero game development experience making a critical hit?

Consider for a moment that Epic initialy made Fortnite to be a Mincraft clone, and that it would have likely flopped had the game not morphed into what it is today based on the popularity of Battle Royale games. But it was a success because of an adept development team within a company that had been developing games for a few decades by that point that could quickly pivot to jump on the current hype train.

To think that any start up could equal that success is naive.

Welcome GEN XYZ

I'm pretty convinced that most collectors want something from their collections that complements their lifestyle and work/play life. I suspect that many collectors collect while at work, at the gym, the cafe, walking around town.

So why not instead focus our energy on Alternate Reality Games(ARG) and do something more like what was done with the promotion of Halo 2 and follow the suit of the I Love Bees campaign?

I Love Bees write up on Wikipedia

Did you visit the link above? How fun does that sound? Read it!!

Here was a mystery game that involved people all over the United States working together to unlock the next episode of a sci-fi radio drama that expanded on the lore of the Halo universe. It got people outside and in their communities, and others to flex their brains to solve the cryptic messages that would appear now and then on the site.

This is what web 3 should be harnessing. Treasure hunts at events, community groups working together to snag a token from an existing collection that has sold out. Solving clues on twitter and other social media to unlock rewards for the community.

So I made a 10k PFP collection with the hopes - that just maybe - it would mint out and give me something to work with. Something that might help me and other like minded people in the NFT community a chance to maybe steer this ship - a community of collectors that make it work - in a direction that is more systainable, healthy and beneficial to all in the future.

I would love your support!

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