Building Brand Culture in Degen City: Unleashing the RLTY X Degen Factory Microverse
On Tuesday 13th June, at 17:30 CET, Degens Factory, a web3 brand ‘created for true degens by true degens’, took the potential of RLTY World’s custom built microverse and leveraged it for their community. The result was a glimpse at how web3 brands and NFT collections can engage communities and give members their own virtual space to hang out, network, play games, look at art, meet friends and wallow in the culture they signed up for.
Let’s get under the skin of the event, why it was a success, and what the future holds for the Degens Factory community.
Introducing The Degens Factory
Before we dive into the event itself, let's take a moment to familiarize ourselves with the vibrant and eccentric Degens Factory community. Founded by Urkann, a seasoned entrepreneur renowned for managing multi-million Euro portfolios and Switzerland-based businesses, Degens Factory is a web3 brand built on Solana. The Degens Factory are building a cross-chain NFT marketplace, boast an engaged Twitter and Discord community of over 60K followers and are one of the leading voices in the ever passionate Solana ecosystem. There was much at stake with the activation.
The Philosophy of Degen City
Degen City is a custom built microverse for the Degen community, a permanent space that anyone can visit, whenever they want. As Urkann passionately stated, "The aim is to have a place for the community to gather." Degen City remains open indefinitely, inviting community members to hang out at their leisure, free to explore, connect, organize events, or simply unwind in a virtual world.
Many NFT collections have promised their community a personal metaverse. Degens Factory is one of the few to deliver on their promises. Degen City is a bold move. A cultural move, an attempt to give the Degens Factory community a more enticing, more vibrant, more immersive experience. More degen. More web3.
Unveiling The Degen City
So what does it look like? And what can you do? The community was ready to find out. As 17:30 ticked closer, nearly 128 Degens were waiting with impatience for the event to start. Some were seen hammering at the virtual doors, others hit Twitter to ramp up the crowds, all were excited to have their avatars experience metaverse creative degeneracy and discover what Degen City had to offer.
One of the big criticisms of decentralized metaverse events in recent times is the lack of engagement, the static nature of the participants. There was none of that tonight. Avatars jumped, ran, high-fived and danced, defying the sterile nature of a Meta advert as they explored and checked out the space. People. Lots of people. To an outsider it defied the media narrative. This was a real community converging in the virtual realm—a dynamic and exhilarating experience that everyone was excited to be part of.
Engaging the Degen Factory Community
Urkann - and his giant admin avatar - kicked off the event, leading the community on an immersive tour of the interactive features of Degen City. First stop? The Degen Social Wall, an interactive space for creativity and self-expression, a place for Degens to showcase their art and NFTs.
Much of NFT Twitter is about flex and friendship, like-minded people brought together over a favourite artist, NFT collection or coin. The Social Wall takes that and elevates the experience; makes it more immersive, more interesting.
Beyond the Social Wall were two custom built screens, both streaming high definition video. Screen one was playing the original marketing video created for the launch of the collection last year,the second had a promotional video with The Degen’s Communities star Ambassador, Cyril Gane. MMA heavyweight, former world champion and face of the MMA Factory in Paris, Cyril Gane claims to represent the philosophy of the Degens community - resilience, determination and fighting spirit.
With most present already holders of one of the two Degens Factory NFT collections, The NFT Shop was more a hint at what could be done in RLTY World with future collaborations. Since the event was temporary but Degen City is permanent, Urkann and the Degens Factory could turn the NFT shop into a link to other collections at future events. Perhaps a collaboration with Okay Bear, DeGods or Taiyo Robotics awaits?
“It’s a really cool place, and that's what I really like, it’s super simple to use.” - Degen Factory founder Urkann
The NFT art gallery is a curated collection of artwork owned by the Degens Factory founders. Again, in the future, this area can be changed and curated to house any digital art, giving the community a gallery space that can evolve in real time.
Finally, when you get your community together in a virtual world, what should any self-respecting brand do? Yes, take a selfie. And that’s exactly what happened outside the Degen Strip Club.
Looking forward
Degen City extends further into the future. The Degen Factory can expand the gallery, add more games, change the streaming videos, add meeting rooms, have a concert venue, and livestream music. They can really do whatever they want, whatever the community wishes. This is, after all, their space. And it’s open 24 hours a day.
Conclusion
The experience within Degen City was an undeniably success, leaving the Degen community eager for more. As RLTY Founder Zack remarked, 'The experience was great….some optimisation to do, but the community loves it'.
Stay tuned, as Degen City is here to stay, there will be more captivating events and exciting game developments in the pipeline. We’ll let you know when.
