[DAO:b2f7123] Dragon City’s MVFW Asia District development

[dao]

by 0x2973c156d9e4019bcb7e65e371c4d2755bcb02e4 (Roy)

Should the following $197,900 grant in the In-World Content category be approved?

Abstract

Since Roy, the founder of Metaverse Labs, was elected as the leader of Dragon City in 2019, Dragon City is now becoming one of the most active communities and beautiful land l in the Decentraland; we’ve spent tremendous money, time, and love for maintaining, developing Dragon City as our dreamland in the Metaverse. It is very challenging for a small team to survive for such a long time (from 2019, over 3 years) without funding outside, without income inside, but all are from Roy’s pocket. We need your support for Dragon City to continue building as the most attractive place in the Metaverse.

Grant size

197,900 USD

Project duration

3 months

Beneficiary address

0x46E07dd5DD18C129659349B5c9e95a1fBd36f879

Email address

roy@bitkio.com

Description

Dragon City - the largest Asian community in Decentraland, is once again invited to be the official partner district of ​​MVFW23. Collaborating with one of the leading global design studios, Sybarite, a brand-new Fashion Opera House will be launched as the main MVFW23 Asia scene to host fashion shows and related performances. With the support from MVFW23 Asia ambassador Gemma A. Williams and WWD China, more than 10 famous and influential Chinese fashion designers will showcase their fabulous wearables at the event. Chen Peng, a designer who contributed costumes for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics opening ceremony, is particularly noteworthy. He is best known for his unique, one-size approach to fashion; his design will be one of the event highlights. The Metaverse Hanfu Museum displays Hanfu designs.

Metaverse Fashion Opera
The concept of Metaverse Fashion Opera comes from a brainstorm in a call between Gemma, Alastair, and Roy. And soon, the story behind the first metaverse fashion opera, #CAPITAL, is created and composed by Alastair.
The immersive, reality-bending imagination of China’s first metaverse platform Dragon City will combine with Fashion Opera to create a new work — and a new stage in developing this nascent genre.
The concept of Metaverse Fashion Opera comes from a brainstorm in a call between Gemma, Alastair, and Roy. And soon, the story behind the first metaverse fashion opera, #CAPITAL, is created and composed by Alastair.

House of Synergos, the world’s first Metaverse House
The Fashion Opera House, named House of Synergos, is located in Dragon City’s MVFW zone, Polywood, built by Metaverse Labs and designed by Sybarite. Sybarite is an architectural studio best known for contributing to the ever-changing face of benchmark retail, experiential culture, and hospitality.
Partnering with a design studio, Sybarite, we will build a new project — a new genre of art into the Metaverse: Metaverse Fashion Opera (MVFO). Metaverse Fashion Opera is an innovative project to explore the border between Metaverse, fashion, and opera.
The immersive, reality-bending imagination of China’s first metaverse platform Dragon City will combine with Fashion Opera to create a new work — and a new stage in developing this nascent genre.

Fashion Opera #CAPITAL
Our first Fashion Opera #CAPITAL, hosted at House of Synergos at #MVFW2023, explores dematerialization in the metaverse.
For Metaverse Fashion Week 2023, the immersive, reality-bending imagination of China’s first metaverse platform Dragon City is to host Alastair White’s latest fashion opera (“a whole exciting new genre of art” — BBC Radio 3): #CAPITAL.
The trailer: https://twitter.com/AlWhiteMusic/status/1628727371451838468?s=20
Media: https://architecturemagazine.co.uk/2023/02/23/architecture-music-and-fashion-combine-for-opera-in-the-metaverse-28-march-2023/

Dragon City X WWD China
We are proud to announce that Metaverse Labs will collaborate with WWD China to build Beaute de Chine (中国有大美) Museum in the Dragon City.

Hanfu Museum
Hanfu is a distinctive culture of the Chinese. This is the first time building a museum for it in the Fashion Week Zone in the Dragon City.

Roadmap and milestones

Since January, the MVFW Asia’s building will cost us 3 months until the launch: March 28, 2023.
Most of the jobs will be finished by March 20 around. We have at least one month to rehearse before the last day.

What we do by April 2023
WWD China Museum
Hanfu Museum
House of Synergos
Catwalk system

After the second MVFW, we will continue to build a zone called Polywood(downtown Dragon City) as the hub of MVFW Asia. We may need more time and financial resources to achieve this goal. Other jobs include more Brands stores, road and media advisement systems, and a broadcast center, bringing more Chinese and different eastern countries like Korea and Japan into the Dragon City. I know this journey is not easy; we have already spent more than 3 years on the road; I hope I can walk with you accompany, to build a place called home for everyone; this is our mission and destiny, the task of Metaverse Labs- create a second home for people.

Vote on this proposal on the Decentraland DAO

View this proposal on Snapshot

[Existential14]

Having had the pleasure of joining Dragon City on some Twitter Spaces and touring some of the areas in the area I know some of what you are about. A lot of great designs. I know you’ve done some events last year. I am voting yes, since you say most of the work is done and you were a big part of the event last year. I just want to suggest, for others, that if you have any examples of what you have completed and/or some coordinates of areas in the District that were built in the past you may want to list some of those here. Also I think people will be curious as to whom all is a part of this project or at the very least the number of people per department. There’s probably more I’m overlooking but this is a very large grant. I do hope the best and looking forward to seeing everything come Fashion Week and beyond.

I so see you have some links to places within the budget

[roy]

I appreciate your support!

What we have done in the past three years include: (you can directly click to enter the Dragon City in the Decentraland)
Wuji Island: https://dragoncity.app
Archverse (collaborated with one of the top 2 art universities in China):
https://archverse.app
https://beibei.city
Events zone: https://dragontv.app
FantasticLand: https://fantasticland.app
MVFW Asia: https://mvfw.app

[roy]

Some projects’ websites: 1

Metaverse Labs: https://metaverselabs.com
Dragon City official: https://dragoncity.org
FanatasticLand: https://fantastic.land
Archverse: https://archverse.org
MVFW 2023 (Asia): https://mvfw.io
Metaverse Fashion Opera: https://mvfo.org

[roy]

Hanfu Museum: https://hanfumuseum.com
Metajam: metajam.com
Dragon Art: https://dragon.art
Dragon Live: https://dragon.tv

Social platforms:
Dragon City Twitter: https://twitter.com/dragoncityIO
Bilibili : https://space.bilibili.com/453802781

[hardtruth]

Think about how much district land you guys sell each day on the marketplace, that’s not enough to fill Roy’s pockets.

[SinfulMeatStick]

I will need some time to come to a conclusion to how I will vote on this. I will have to do some research on Dragon City before my time here on Decentraland. I can only speak for what I have seen in the last year and a half, which is maybe a hand full of events and rumors of some of your VP being Delegated to an NFT project that has promoted to use your VP as a utility for their NFT holders.

I will give Dragon City their flowers for hosting 1 widely attended stage during DCL Music Fest on their beautiful build. the Asian community came out in numbers to support. I also noticed the Chinese New Year event . But I have not seen to much more happening in Dragon City. Perhaps I missed some events due to me not operating in the Asian time zones.

1. could you provide us with some references to past events
2. Does Dragon City Host any weekly events? (it would be so valuable to Decentraland if Dragon City Provided a platform for Asian community members)

I do see @hardtruth comment that leads me to ask How was Dragon City District formed?
was it a list of contributors that contributed their land? or did all assets belong to @roy ? are there multiple land owners in the Dragon City District?

also @hardtruth would you have any data you could provide on the sales of Dragon City district land?

If any of my Information in the first paragraph is wrong please let me know.

[InJesterr]

Just voted yes! great proposal

[web3nit]

Hi, thanks for proposal. Can you please answer next questions that SinfulMeatStick asked :

1. How was Dragon City District formed ? @hardtruth

2. To whom belongs land ? To contributors or @roy personally or hybrid ? Please answer in detail if possible.

3. Could you provide info on the sales of Dragon City district land?

[Shiny]

I can see that lower part of Dragon City has different owners and some of the land is for sale

Have you profited from these sales? Can you give some more details about why the lower part is divided like that as I am not familiar with history of this district?

Anyways I will vote ‘No’, 197k is a lot to ask for 3 month work and as you write “small team”.
Start by asking for a smaller grant.

[roy]

We have never sold dragon city’s land so far.

[Canessa]

I think that many of the builds in the Asia District are beautiful and well made. I don’t think that spending $197,900 to create venues for a one week event (Metaverse Fashion Week) is a good use of DAO funds. I have supported other grants that have asked for less than that to onboard new users and artists throughout an entire year. I can’t see how spending that much of the DAO’s funds is going to have a return on investment that will make it justifiable.

Aside from that, I am curious to hear your answers to Sinfulmeatsticks questions. We don’t know much about how the Asia District was formed, and now that land is being sold off. From here on out, I will need full transparency before voting to give more DAO funds to ANY district here in Decentraland.

[roy]

1. We hold many events every year; you can check the events.decentraland.org; for example, Dragon boat festival, Mid-autumn festival, Chinese New Year festival, MVFW Asia 2022, and every event you can find on this official events website.
2. No, we don’t host weekly, only big festivals;

btw,
Dragon City was formed just like Vegas City and Aetherian, initially contributed by the contributors; you can read the community rules about that.

[roy]

actually, this fund will continue to build MVFW Asia for future uses even after MVFW 2023.

[roy]

1. Dragon City was formed just like Vegas City and Aetherian, initially contributed by the contributors; you can read the community rules about that.

2. In the last year, May 2022, Dragon CIty’s 40% of the land was reallocated to contributors; that’s what you see the lower part of Dragon City has different owners. The list of contributors you can find in the official documents. Also, you can find the list of Vegas City.

3. We didn’t sell the land of Dragon City so far.

[Canessa]

Can you link us to these documents that include the list of contributors? Thank you.

[roy]

1. Dragon City was formed just like Vegas City and Aetherian, initially contributed by the contributors.
2. We reallocated 40% of the land to the contributors last year.
3. We didn’t sell land; the contributors sold their lands.

[roy]

Thank you for your response. Here we make some clear information:

1. The team didn’t sell any land of Dragon City so far. We have not profited from these sales. The lower part of Dragon City was allocated to the original contributors. You can get more info here about that: Snapshot

I appreciate your support.

[roy]

We didn’t delegate our VP to anyone.
To be clear, the lower town of Dragon City was allocated to the original contributors last year. They belong to the individual for now.

I appreciate your support of Dragon City. We have built Dragon City since 2019. If you look closely at the Decentraland community, you will know Dragon City is one of most active and well-developed by our team in the last 3 years.

Thank you!

[NikkiFuego]

Hey Roy, I hope you can understand the amount of questioning considering a large grant being requested.

As a project owner, I am always looking at the places boards and analytics as a whole. I don’t think in the last 10 months I have ever seen Dragon City property on the top of the places board. If it was, it wasn’t made clear that it is Dragon City related in the marketing/images. I host events every Friday night for the last several months and have taken screenshots of the top places board for comparison against our analytics software and I have yet to see Dragon City on any of those screenshots. If it was Dragon City, there was no mention of it in the title/image. Could have just been a marketing miss, but still noteworthy.

It’s a little weird that you’re claiming to be the “most active community” without analytics to prove that. Unless you’re receiving 50+ DAU or 200+ event attendance then that statement is pretty misleading. I’ve visited Dragon City often, as I have with many other districts, to try and understand what the purpose is for the larger inaccessible regions and what is being built. I have to say, I haven’t seen very many changes personally. One could argue that I don’t know the project well enough to notice the differences, but I feel if you have a district they should have deployed scenes on them. Especially being so many years post-mint. I’ve seen many other projects deploy dozens and dozens of different scenes to much smaller regions so it doesn’t make sense that a project with so many contributors and so many talented individuals go blank.

Also, Fashion Week is only a few weeks away. Usually, with bigger projects like this that you’re proposing, there are months of planning in advance. So it comes off as a little red flag that funds are being requested so late. There’s a cliff period with grants too so you wouldn’t receive funds until well after Fashion Week. So I’m a little confused about the intentions. $200k for one project to participate in Fashion Week seems excessive from my perspective.

Abstaining from voting to view more information and do more research.