If you haven’t read my previous blog post, I suggest you read it first for the necessary background information.

https://opensea.io/assets/ethereum/0xde221fa51f2df55385e0a26664eb6186dab0131b/3

ELI5:

With only a few hours to go, a fellow gotchigang member reached out to me with some concerns regarding discord messages that referred to flagging of assets in the fakegotchis queue. In a matter of hours I reached out to gldnXross to clarify if there’s even a remote possibility of this applying to my Gotchi-Noh / Izutsu queue entry. Unfortunately, there was and that’s why we decided to pull the trigger before the asset passes the queue.

One potential solution (artists and collectors take note!) is to make use of of another option available since the release of NFT displays. It’s a common misconception that fakes are the only way to the gotchiverse.

So far, the NFTs available to display are -

• FAKE Gotchis Art

• Aavegotchis & Portals

• REALM Parcels

• Gotchiverse Installations

• Raffle Tickets

• Tiles

• Gotchi art collections created by Aavegotchi community artists!

I’m not mad at all, we agreed that in the end this item is going to reach the gotchiverse in one way or another. Things will evolve, everything is awesome!

LONGER VERSION:

I always was extremely transparent about my approach outlining everything from buying the original asset, to talking to the artist about my plans, to making sure the mint metadata is correct, has backlinks to the original asset and ultimately that this is a mint for me (the 1st and only buyer of the 1/1) within the gotchiverse.

I was very excited when EXCALIBUR allowed me to give additional ones away for free. I planned to sell one of the 11 assets to compensate for the burnt fake gotchis card. I didn’t look into other options b/c I assumed it was the single best one. To some degree, I still do.

I can’t stress enough how this was all my decision / effort. EXCALIBUR even provided me with the assets that were optimized for the fake gotchi submission (100 MB size limit) by the artist) give-away). All for free, I didn’t even have to ask. He also refused to receive any royalties from the mints. It’s accurate that neither me, nor EXCALIBUR would have made any money from this.

I didn’t see any issues, nobody reached out and everything seemed fine. Until a frenly gotchigang member pointed me at a few discord messages. This ultimately lead to me reaching out to the team and the current outcome.

While this wasn’t intentional, we can make the best out of it and provide more clear terms for the future. I’m not sure if this specific asset is a good case to explore this case, since this was always meant to be a “gotchiverse” endorsed asset. Also take a note of the auction description declaring this as a straight coop.

“Artwork by EXCALIBUR x Aavegotchi. Sound by EXCALIBUR. Presented by Sato Gallery and Pixelcraft Studios Pte. Ltd.“

THE SUBMISSION TERMS

Despite statements saying otherwise, I don’t the the terms for listing are clear enough. The rules (screenshot of the tiny dialog above) start with “By accepting these terms and making a submission to the FAKE Gotchis collection, you agree to the following terms:“.

I’ll walk you through the individual rules and you can judge for yourself. You all read this artists, DID YOU?

RULE 1 ✅ ** **You are representing yourself as the publisher of the submission; Comment: No issues.

RULE 2 ✅ for me, ❌ for the team.You represent that your submission is your original creative work (or, if you have partnered with an artist, that of the artist) and does not infringe the rights of any third party; Comment: It’s perfectly possible I haven’t interpreted this correctly since I am not a native speaker. My understanding of the terms didn’t have a strict requirement of UNIQUENESS. Let’s see what chatGPT thinks about it. It should be 100% unbiased.

RULE 3 ✅You agree on behalf of yourself and the artist that all intellectual property rights in and to your submission will belong to Pixelcraft Studios upon our receipt of your submission. Pixelcraft Studios and its licensees will be entitled to use your submission for any purposes, including for commercial and promotional purposes and to display the artwork at our discretion; Comment: No issues for the FAKE asset. It seems to excessively demanding though… IANAL. We can probably tl;dr this to “Your artwork is ours after submission”.

RULE 4 ✅Pixelcraft Studios grants you a licence to use your submission in any way both personally and commercially so long as it is not offensive or slanderous in nature;Comment: No comment.

RULE 5 ✅you may sell, trade, transfer, gift or burn the NFT(s) accordingly. Comment: No comment.

RULE 6 ✅Apart from the limited licence granted above, you must not permit others to use your submission for any purpose without the express written consent of Pixelcraft Studios.Comment: No issues for the FAKE asset. Again, it seems to excessively demanding though… IANAL. We can probably tl;dr this to “Your artwork is ours after submission”.

ADDON ✅ ** **When you accept these terms, Pixelcraft Studios grants you and/or the creator of the artwork a limited licence to create and submit an artwork for the sole purpose of submission to Pixelcraft Studios for possible inclusion in minting NFTs on the FAKE gotchis smart contract. If you disagree with these terms, please do not proceed.

THE END

Curating art comes with challenges and a lot of conflict potential. Especially if the existing rules are still new and BURNING another asset is a requirement no matter the outcome of the queue process.

I assume we can all agree that this piece, that has been officially revealed in cooperation with Pixelcraft, is special. Having the core of this off my chest now, I’m off to recharge until next year.

My next blog article will explore potential solutions to make the overall process (it’s slim but very imperfect) more intuitive and fair. In way that makes use of the decentralized protocols that are available to us today and eventually tomorrow. Onwards and upwards, after the holidays ;-)

Merry XMAS to the Pixelcraft team and ofc the whole Aavegotchi gang!

XOXO, Ayahuasca. ----

HEADER IMAGE

https://opensea.io/assets/ethereum/0x32b31219837bc5f8238813eb1c49bef54d355390/4

And when I wasn't playing on my NES, I was either playing with my Gameboy or watching one of the now-iconic 1980s movies like "Tron" or "Explorers".

https://opensea.io/assets/ethereum/0x3b3ee1931dc30c1957379fac9aba94d1c48a5405/35155

This love for pixels is deeply rooted in many childhood experiences and continues to be a passion of mine to this day. It brings me joy and relaxation, and will always hold a special place in my heart.

The Tamagotchi, in particular, had an important role in my youth since it was one of the first toys that required continual care and attention. At the beginning, I was almost afraid to oversleep. My Tamagotchi could have died! My little pet was usually in great shape, with rare hick-ups. One could say, it taught me the value of accountability and the benefits of hard effort.

Can you guess how excited I was when I discovered that the classic tamagotchi has been revived on modern hardware !?! ;-)

Aside from pixel graphics, I've always been a major lover of Japan and its culture. Japan has a particular place in my heart to this day, and visiting the country (virtually or physically) seems like coming home. One of the most fascinating aspects of Japan is its history of invention and the role that art has played in it.

Art has always been at the forefront of Japanese culture and technology, from ancient woodblock prints to current pixel art. One artist collective that combines all of this under one hat perfectly is the Tokyo-based art collective "Excalibur". A mashup of Japanese myth with reality, present or future, virtual or real. I love it!

As a technically inclined person, the influence of art on technology, particularly in the realm of gaming, is also something that I find very fascinating. For me, the combination of “Play to Earn” + web3 technology + art is one of the most fascinating movements in recent years. The technology is a part of it, but not everything is centered around this technology anymore.

This concept is changing the way people engage with technology and has the potential to permanently impact the gaming- and other industries. Play to earn is, at its heart, a system that compensates players for their time and effort spent playing a game, rather than merely their skill to win. This implies that by just playing the game, gamers may earn in-game benefits such as virtual cash or other stuff.

https://opensea.io/assets/0xA4E3513c98b30d4D7cc578d2C328Bd550725D1D0/1046

This shift is essential because it enables players to feel more immersed in their games and encourages them to play for longer periods of time. It also instills a sense of ownership in players over their in-game achievements and prizes, which can be quite motivating.

For me, the use of art in games is also significant. After years of looking at cheap clones where developers merely change the skin of the underlying game engine, we’re seeing an increased share of art in games and other metaverse settings. As we spend more time within this medium, art is transitioning from a niche into the spotlight.

The game must be aesthetically beautiful and interesting in order for the system to be effective, which is where art comes in. Developers may create a more immersive and engaging experience for players by including high-quality art into the game, resulting in a more successful game. This is what the team and community around AAVEGOTCHI has championed imho. And they keep shipping new features / events almost every week since inception.

The POLYGON based “game protocol” has many innovative features, such as NFT raffles, lending, bid-to-earn auctions, and a decentralized marketplace, to enhance the overall gameplay experience. By taking part in the AAVEGOTCHI DAO, players can directly influence the direction of development. But even if you are not a player, you can earn by only placing bids via bid-to-earn or sell your digital artwork via the new fakegotchis platform.

https://opensea.io/assets/0xA4E3513c98b30d4D7cc578d2C328Bd550725D1D0/4637

For those who aren’t aware of the “game”, here’s a short intro: Players can collect unique NFT avatars, known as “Aavegotchis”, that can be customized with various wearables to enhance their rarity and yield generation. There are different aspects in the game that players can follow depending on their time and preferences. AAVEGOTCHI is inherently DeFi, but limiting it to this buzzword wouldn’t be fair game. I highly recommend a visit in the discord or AAVEGOTCHI wiki if you want to learn more and meet a whole bunch of handsome people.

https://opensea.io/assets/ethereum/0xde221fa51f2df55385e0a26664eb6186dab0131b/3

Since the day I bought this fantastic piece by “EXCALIBUR“, it was my plan to showcase it within the Gotchiverse. Making use of the new NFTs displays feature and 100% fake gotchi art, this is finally possible and I’m very happy EXCALIBUR agreed and allows me to re-mint this exceptional piece of art.

YES, you read this right! This piece has just entered the queue.

https://www.fakegotchis.com/queue/179

I will mint this for me, but will list exactly ONE more item in a fakegotchi auction to make up for the mandatory FAKE Gotchi Card. A FAKE Gotchi Cards (Card) is an ERC-1155 NFT that enables the holder to mint a FAKE Gotchi NFT.

In conclusion, my love for pixel art and Japan is deeply rooted in my childhood experiences and continues to be a passion of mine to this day. It brings me joy and relaxation, and will always hold a special place in my heart. The influence of art on technology, particularly in the realm of gaming, is also something that I find fascinating. The use of art in play AND earn systems like AAVEGOTCHI  has the potential to change the gaming industry forever, and I am excited to see how it will continue to evolve in the future.

Have a fantastic weekend, happy holidays!

XOXO, Ayahuasca

PS.: See you in the PVP arena soon!

https://twitter.com/aavegotchi/status/1604121108244213760?s=20&t=9bH80iRe_BQ1bQMXxDGpKw

Header image by Pixel Sensei

https://opensea.io/assets/0xA4E3513c98b30d4D7cc578d2C328Bd550725D1D0/6157