My gamified NFT Project Metablox just launched! Reservations Open.
My gamified NFT Project Metablox just launched.
As you may know, I’ve been working on an NFT project Metablox with my long-term college friend from Google Jun Loayza. It’s a project to help preserve our most precious memories in the real world onto the blockchain (so it lives on forever for our grandchildren), while allowing people to own NFTs of the real world places that the memories come from.
In essence, it’s merging the concepts of being a museum curator and the Monopoly board game of the real world.
⚡ Speed Run Notes
- Launch posts are a commitment device — once announced publicly, the project cannot quietly retreat. The announcement forces execution. This is why experienced founders announce slightly before they're ready. The announcement itself becomes a forcing function that produces readiness faster than silence would.
- A reservation phase is a community signal before it's a revenue event. Who reserves tells the team what kind of community they're building. High signups from speculators foreshadow a short project. High signups from true believers foreshadow a durable one. The ratio is more important than the absolute number.
- CD6 (Scarcity) in a reservation window has to be honest to create lasting trust. Reservations limited by artificial urgency lose trust fast. Reservations limited by real capacity build it. The math has to match the narrative, or users eventually notice and leave.
- The best launches include a clear day-one experience, not just a purchase. Users who buy and then get nothing for 3 months churn. Users who buy and immediately have something to do stay. Day-one is the retention window for the entire lifetime of the project.
- The deepest insight: every launch is the beginning of a conversation the founder has to maintain for years. Launches aren't finishes. They're starts. The founders who treat launches as starts outperform the ones who treat them as exits. The community can tell the difference within weeks.
Author Credibility: Yu-kai Chou
Yu-kai Chou created the Octalysis Framework after studying gamification since 2003 — years before the term entered mainstream vocabulary. As a Human-Systems Architect & Behavioral Designer, his framework has been applied by LEGO, Microsoft, Porsche, Coca-Cola, Salesforce, and MrBeast, impacting over 1.5 Billion Users.
Chou has taught the Octalysis methodology at Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Tesla, Google, BCG, and IDEO.
His work has been cited by Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Forbes, Wall Street Journal, Wired, US Department of Energy, NIST, NSF, NCBI, US Department of Education, ClinicalTrials.gov, and Google Scholar — with 3,700+ more academic publications. Explore his books here.
The Epitome of Octalysis Gamification & NFT Game Loops
For Metablox, I’ve designed a whole series of Game Loop experience flows, Core Drive 1: Epic Meaning mechanics, and Tokenomics.
Things from collecting MetaRent, leveling up the NFT by uploading memories, and Group Quest Proximity Bonuses.
Basically applying everything I have learned since 2003 and the stuff I have taught at Stanford, Yale, Oxford, and a handful of governments.
If you are ever curious about how the Octalysis Framework can be implemented into NFTs, Web3, and the non-FB Metaverse, Metablox is the project to try out.
Why Core Drive 1: Epic Meaning Is Important for Designing NFT Platforms
Like any NFT project, Metablox is about owning scarce virtual assets (Core Drive 4: Ownership and Core Drive 6: Scarcity). However, without a central purpose or meaning (besides “This looks so rad!!” or “it’s a fun game!”) it doesn’t have lasting value.
Games could get old and styles could go out of fashion.
However, our best Memories are forever, and in fact, become more valuable as time goes by. This is shown in actual landmarks, historical sites, museums, and even yearbooks.
Think about how some families spend thousands each year taking family photos — they want to capture a meaningful moment for generations to come.
This is why when we surveyed our Metablox Community on Discord, we can see that only 21.8% of Metablox Neighbors joined because they are fans of my work. 5.5% joined because of Podcasts such as Raoul Pal’s interview with me (with a generous title of “Godfather of Gamification”).
A whopping 52.7% came in due to referrals from others in the community.
So why do people refer their friends? It’s because they resonate with the concept.
Interestingly, instead of young hipsters craving new tech, our age group demographic are largely 30 and above — those that have families and care about preserving important memories (as well as valuable assets) to their children.
Impressively, income brackets of our community is also quite high, with over 5% of our Metablox Neighbors making $300K or more.
Potentially we are also attracting people who understand the value of investing into assets that have high potential early.
Reserve Your Blox Today
Anyway, not sure how many days will it take for Metablox to be fully reserved, but if you are interested in potentially being part of the journey in our April minting, you can consider reserving on Metablox.co.
If you are just curious about the community and how things evolve, feel free to join the Metablox Neighbors Discord Channel or read the Metablox Story Whitepaper.
Don’t worry — none of these are purchase commitments but good opportunities to learn. I’ll be giving it my all so let’s see how things develop.
Thanks and God Bless!
Related Reading
- Metablox Whitepaper 2.0 Part I
- Metablox.co Resurgence: New Web3 Game Loop
- Economy Dynamics with the Metablox NFT Launch
- The Octalysis Framework for Gamification & Behavioral Design
- Game Design Technique: Collection Sets
- Actionable Gamification: Beyond Points, Badges & Leaderboards