# Ruggies: A Short Lesson in NFT Utility By [LuckyElephant](https://paragraph.com/@luckyelephant) · 2022-04-19 --- NFTs get a bad rep from much of the mainstream media and parts of the general public (who are even aware of them — so many still aren’t). “It is just a jpeg lol” and “a picture of a monkey is worth hundreds of thousands to rich idiots _insert laughing emoji_” are typical comments that one may hear when a sceptic is talking about NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens). Fair enough, that is the opinion of many and they are totally entitled to it. However, many of us can see the utility of NFTs, future and present utility. There are simply so so many uses of a publicly verifiable token that can be linked to art, tickets, memorabilia, collectibles, music and more. Anyway, I digress. Ruggies NFTs, have you heard of them? Possibly not, their Discord channel has almost 18k members but this would not be a high number compared to some other NFT channels — yet it is quite a bit higher than many. So, the art itself. To my eye, it is very professional, detailed and appealing, hence my interest in it. In fact, I was quite keen to get on the whitelist and mint a Ruggie (as they are affectionately called). So, I did a few retweets, entered the Discord competitions, they usual WL criteria. Alas, no WL spot was forthcoming for me. I did however, make an amateur mistake in being smitten by the leaked Ruggies on show. I assumed there was some decent utility built into the project, given how professional the actual rendered artwork was. The total mint quantity available was nicely low also at 4444 mints, giving a decent amount of almost instant rarity to each programmatically generated Ruggie. The price was decent at 0.08 Eth (about $207 at today’s rates) so there were quite a few positive points for the project already. So, I casually checked the roadmap. The project is seemingly mental health and group support oriented, which is of course a very good start. Yet, there is no clear direction for this noble pursuit. There is also a buyback fund — a raffle for holders to purchase their worthless NFT’s they hold from them. Not a bad idea admittedly, but not groundbreaking. Next, well….there is no next really. No real utility, no future collaboration mentioned, no stand out feature. This, to me, was SUPER disappointing. The characters as you can see from the above image, are cute, detailed and appealing. The artist Wout has done an amazing job with the 3d renders and his work, along with the chill vibe from the Discord, has helped it swell to the 18k members it has today. When mint day arrived….it did not go to plan. Not at all! Mint was very slow and after whitelist and public mint, just over 1000 Ruggies were minted, less than a quarter of the supply. Clearly, I was not the only one to get cold feet over the vague roadmap. The Ruggies team regrouped after this disappointing mint and decided to airdrop all holders a free Ruggie, locking the total supply at 2222 Ruggies and the mint price per Ruggie to around 0.4 ETH. A nice gesture, but one that will definitely affect the floor price in the short term. Browsing the Discord in the days since reveal, there is still a nice vibe there and the core community looks solid. Yet, the lack of utility is still an issue. Game nights and community events will not last long when the future of a project is uncertain, especially with the volume of good NFT projects around already and in the pipeline. The project also has rarity built in, which can raise the floor as the more rare pieces sell for a decent price, check rarity sniper for details if interested. I really wish Ruggies well. I may still pick one up if the floor price if it drops a little lower (currently 0.3 ETH approx). If the founders find a way to build a decent roadmap, some utility or collaborate with other projects, it could really be a slow starter that gains a lot of traction in the future. The art IS excellent. If Ruggies can learn from their mistakes and really move the project forward with a more detailed roadmap, the future could be bright. Best of luck, Ruggies. “All information provided in this blog post is intended to provide the writer’s opinion. No information should be considered financial advice.” If you enjoyed this Story, please follow me for more similar! --- *Originally published on [LuckyElephant](https://paragraph.com/@luckyelephant/ruggies-a-short-lesson-in-nft-utility)*