Explorest

In-depth answers to some questions: 1) Why does the NG site say there are 255/256 player spots remaining when there are, in fact, only 205? That’s 51 people who are players with zero money down. A: Player 1 @ptmNFT collected the 1 allow list spot, the first edition of 256). The chosen Players have been hyper-public and transparent, each one announced for public record and a very key part of the rollout of the game itself, doing so ensured The Council was giving to valued members of the community as their names are linked for everyone to see. Chosen player tickets are not marked as reserved until after PTM has placed his Player 1 Observation and the game begins. As his entrance was the result of paying almost 6x what everyone else did with 100% of that money that would've gone to me, going to @MAPS, the 1 tick down is in recognition and gratitude of this. 2) Can current council members be selected as one of the chosen winners? If so, seems like a conflict of interest. A: No and they cannot vote for their champion either. Not only do The Council members sign a binding legal contract I put a good bit of money and time into lawyering together when they vote that their vote is not for the enrichment of self or connected entities and that they do not signal or share their or other's votes outside of The Council, I will personally vet all observations before finalists and winners to help to ensure this. If a Council member is uncomfortable signing those terms, they won't be able to vote. I took this component extremely seriously even though I have full trust and faith in The Council's members, entirely to protect the integrity of the winners and so that when this question is asked, there is an answer. 3) Why not release your own smart contract? What does NG bring to the table? Obvious answer is discoverability, but I think it’s also related to the relative cost of credit card debt versus ETH (current liquidity of potential buyers on cards exceeds that of those with 3.3 ETH)? A: Discoverability actually had zero to do with it. The 1/1 is on my own manifold contract skinned and biddable within Nifty Gateway or on Manifold directly. The edition is signed by me on chain for provenance purposes and ownership will actually be transferred to me upon completion of the game. Two things Nifty has never agreed to do before. NG has built an entire sub-platform on top of their own specifically for this. They have provided a year of resources and over a dozen developers to the bespoke creation of my idea, the tech behind it, The Monument Game viewer, and the back-end functionality to mint every ticket with its corresponding deep-linked Player Observation and coordinates creating a record through front-end, back-end, and protocol layers of participation in the game. I took this to a few development teams and most could not commit the time and resources needed for a singular project like this or had maybe protocol strengths but lacked the UX specialists to make it a good user experience. What does Nifty bring? A lot actually. It may be unfamiliar as this is their largest collaboration to date, but having met weekly with my team over there for a year, and seen the blood, sweat, and tears they've put in to make the thing work and work well, again: humans on the other side of the abstract idea of a company. We default to ETH as payment method, however, I have a whole 10 year career working with musical artists, film, comics, and games prior all publicly visible so I have some people from my prior life before Luci who followed my work, are not in crypto, and having a route for them to come in and collect my art I believe is a beautiful thing to celebrate. I feel grateful for example that my dad or someone who isn't ever gonna get a metamask, can play this. And that anyone can view it. 4) I truly wish you all the best here, and I hope that everything goes well for all involved! I respect your trajectory and values. I’ve just seen this gamification type of strategy before, and it tends to end very badly for most buyers, especially at this price point. A: Thank you for the well wishes and I'll say this: I believe in the artistic merits of the project alone, but I also designed it in a way to disincentive a blind transaction and flip. Of pressing a button based on some hint someone told you and hoping number go up. Its not a terribly complex game, but the complexity there requires work to understand before you get it, which is... conceptually, the primary driver behind the concept of the game. There are also game terms to agree to before you do, an item that cannot be flipped or sold once acquired and actually asks of you to participate and interact with the art in a communal event/experience with the understanding that if you don't, the reward on the otherside is far less likely to go to you, because your personal observation is what is being judged. It's a competition, not a game of chance. And when it closes, only then do you collect the art and now have a small piece of my work. If the price is too much for someone I completely understand and through the chosen players created controlled pathways to open it up a little for this reason. A part of sticking your neck out and promoting something you made, is to believe in it. And I do. I am making the case for why The Monument Game was worth my time and worth others participation, but I recommend no one ever collect any art, mine or otherwise, they are not comfortable with the price being paid to do so. It is a luxury. Those who already have collected it for far higher prices understand I offer no utility or promise of something on the other side, only my desire to grow as an artist, the belief there's something enjoyable you can get from the game beyond being one of the three winners if you let yourself, and that I take every bit of support with gratitude and responsibility to try to attempt to become a better one. This is a competition of observation, judged by a group of great people that makes up one component of an artwork. If you don't want to collect, are here only to flip, aren't thinking about digital art collection in a longer timescale, don't align with the goals of the project, I can't express this enough: this isn't for you. It's a game, but I urge everyone who is actually in good faith curious about its mechanics, to look closely at it, as we have poured over details to try to make it something that encourages a different kind of game than this space's favorites of hot potato and russian roulette. I am not here to make number go up, I am here to tell a story, share something I love about the world, grow a business with my wife in the process so we can get better at it and try even crazier things, and think markets are an amazing way to create incentives to participate in art beyond just consuming it or profiting off of it. Nothing wrong with doing those things, but I think we can do one other, more interesting thing too. Hope that answered your questions. Additional Qs can be answered in our FAQ: #__ss_faq_section__" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">niftygateway.com/collections/sa…

GM! The auction for ‘Echoes of Fuji’ will close in 4 hours! Top bid is currently 3.069 ETH 💚💙 To inquire or learn more about this dynamic artwork, you can reach out to @explorestapp or @MattScobel!

Today marks the launch of the Explorest Gallery, a curated space for travel art on @SuperRare! Each artwork is a “Wonder in your Wallet,” unlocking real-world experiences. Our debut features 'Fuji', a groundbreaking creation by @mattscobel. Explore below! 👇🧵