I wanted to share some thoughts I had yesterday about how the future of Decentraland could be focused in the coming years, making the gaming experience more exciting and looking for new revenue streams that make the platform sustainable in the long term.
I would like to explore a different perspective on the idea of creating new lands, which Maraoz put forward a year and a half ago on his website (A vision for Decentraland's next 5 years | maraoz) and which seems to have inspired the current poll (Introducing "Islands" – Expanding Decentraland through Staking Mechanisms). Instead I want to propose a solution that I consider more effective, which would allow creators to build in Genesis City for free without the need to devalue the LANDs, revitalizing the currently abandoned plots.
Issuing new LANDs
Creating new land is not a good idea until the current ones have continued use.
Having abandoned land is proof of the current lack of interest in building in Decentraland, so it is imperative that we promote the use of existing lands before considering the creation of new ones.
Although offering them periodically through auction would create a softer devaluation than offering them all at once, the blow could still be hard if the winning bids are lower than the prices in Genesis City, which would be quite likely. This initiative would not only expose Decentraland as a project not too desirable to invest in, but the value of the lands would be difficult to reestablish in the future.
If we want to make users create on the map without having to spend money there are other options, I explain one of them below, and if what we are looking for is to obtain new sources of income in a sustainable way in the long term, the appropriate thing will be to achieve a successful user engagement, which I talk about later.
Unlocked LANDs
LANDs abandoned for more than 6 months would be enabled so that any user could build (not own) on them at any time, this means that any player could build whatever they wanted on them after this time, and that player would also have the risk that another player could replace their construction.
This could present very interesting dynamics when the player base increases, however at the moment it would attract a young audience that cannot or does not want to spend money on a plot.
The owner would never lose possession of their asset, in fact they should have the ability to reestablish at any time the scene they had prior to the unblocking of the plot.
Positive reinforcement mechanics
Genesis City will stop being a ghost town when we manage to retain users with constant pleasurable reinforcements and gratifying interactions from the first moment. The following are a few rough solutions, which have already been fully or partially implemented successfully on other widely known platforms, and which I admit I would like to see in Decentraland.
Survival Mode: This would enable a life bar on the avatar and allow him to fight with the rest of the users that have that mode enabled, being able to snatch their items if they wins.
Treasures: These could be found in strategic places every X time, forcing users to visit them repeatedly in order to find a valuable reward. Treasures could also appear in unexpected places, providing constant rewards when required.
Collectible Pets: Trappable and collectible pets could appear anywhere after being weakened with some kind of mechanic, as long as they do not manage to escape.
Keep the users is essential, if we manage to generate dynamics that are capable of retaining the player from the first moment, we will be able to create an increasingly larger user base, just as drops accumulate in a bucket of water until it is full, as more users remain, social interactions will grow and we will have a more attractive, vibrant, and bustling world for the next waves of players.
Revenue streams
Decentraland must be sustainable organically, not because of the sale of MANA. This implies looking for alternative income sources so that the project can survive regardless of the market price, but until there is a relevant number of players, implementing revenue streams that could negatively impact the user experience is not a great idea.
Initially, I suggest implementing revenue streams where the money comes from sources outside the community, an example could be offering in-world hosting services to low-profile musicians.
Spending money on hiring artists, although it may be interesting to do so on specific times, is still not a sustainable model for growth due to the low return on investment.
However, there are many artists with low popularity who would most likely be willing to pay to have the recognition of giving a concert on Decentraland, and would also proudly share this with their audience.
In Argentina alone, there was a database of 47,600 registered musicians in 2019. Source: (INAMU – page 4) https://inamu.musica.ar/pdf/observatorio-informe-relevamiento-generos-con-anexo.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com, this is a large market that could be exploited, the same would happen with the fashion sector.
This initiative would require paving the way for artists to be able to easily consume the service without worrying about technical issues, and Decentraland could also give them support on networks for their event, making the service more attractive. Existing facilities could be used, and current event organizers could take care of facilitating entry for this group.
To conclude…
I think Decentraland has all the potential to lead the industry, but to do so we need to take a more ambitious and daring approach. I think there are currently too many distractions that are diverting the attention from where we should be focusing, I hope my post serves as motivation in this new phase.