Occupy and Buy

Credit to Atron https://mmozg.net

For a long time, I did not understand the business component of the Occupy White Walls project. A deep niche, but incredibly interesting project of the collective space of art galleries over the past two years has developed much more than one could initially imagine. Address portals, joint galleries, mosaics, interactive elements, the constant addition of new architectural elements, without which the desire to develop and transform their spaces will eventually fade away among many. But who will pay for all this work and when?

By inertia, to which we, alas, were accustomed, it was easy to assume that trading would become those very "not affecting the gameplay" avatars of the players, the effects for them. Perhaps a picture frame. Perhaps some other "decoration". But in the context of OWW, such an approach would be rather strange, because the whole "gameplay" here, by and large, is about this very decoration. And in March this year, the concept became clear. The artists will have to pay for all this, but with material benefits for themselves. In fact, the proposed virtual space of galleries will become their gallery with the possibility of real selling paintings when they go to their site.

How it works. To post their artwork in the OWW Image Library, an artist must purchase a special token. Monet, Manet, and Van Gogh do not need tokens. Our contemporaries will have to fight their way through and pay bail of seriousness in the form of $ 9 for uploading their own image. Or less if you buy a set of tokens.

However, the reason they are tokens is that they can be easily transferred to another.

Therefore, nothing prevents you, not being an artist, to buy tokens and support the creator you like with them.

Yes, the only thing he can do with this gift is to place his new works with it. Yes, you generally do not receive any direct in-game benefit from your gift, except for the happiness of seeing new paintings by the artist you like. Although the transfer of real money to the authors of OWW at the same time provides them with funds for the development of the project, and you - the fruits of this very development. No shopping benefits just for yourself. Both the paintings and the development of OWW itself, with this approach, go to everyone.

Remember how many times we were led by the nose by talking about how we support someone? Then in EVE we "support" those who cannot pay for a subscription to the game, and for this, as if by chance, we get in-game money, which, in fact, becomes a legal RMT scheme. Then we buy some "underwear with bonuses to the characteristics" to "support the authors of the game", of course. But for some reason, the same support without bonuses to characteristics works much worse. Miracles.

And then people said that they want art to belong to everyone, said they want to support artists of any scale, and did exactly what they said, coming up with a completely new, but at the same time absolutely transparent and honest business model. And without any subscription, if you are so tired of it. With pure "fritupley", if for some reason you really needed it. But at the same time, it should be understood that such a business model is entirely tied to the essence of the processes taking place in the artistic environment if the idea finds a sufficient response among artists and their fans.

Any artistic environment is in constant flux.

This is not a museum with paintings, alas, long gone people. Living artists create new works and are willing to share them.

So the token business model is quite working. But not only her. Quite a working model of the "gameplay" itself. After all, both artwork and architectural elements are constantly added to OWW, which means that the search for interesting works and the search for creating an interesting space for them will never end. After all, your love for books or films does not end. New and new works appear that feed her.

Occupy White Walls also has an important opportunity not only to love from a distance but also to show that love in the form of your own gallery. And yet, what particularly attracts me is the opportunity to show love for the living. How many creators have passed away without realizing whether what they were doing was necessary for someone other than them? Even if someone bought a painting of the artist or reproduction, in most cases he, most likely, will not know the further fate of the painting. Whether she became an important part of someone's home, shared memories, life, or gathering dust in the closet, because she was not interested, or she was quickly replaced by another.

At OWW, artists have a unique opportunity to look into the world of others and see where they work. The attention that was given to her, the very fact that she was preferred to other candidates. Imagine how much this inspires, including the continuation of creativity. Well, and, of course, it is a great environment for presenting your creativity.

The Internet allows you to reach people anywhere in the world. In contrast to the difficulties and necessity of translation, visual works speak a common language of beauty and personal understanding of it. You can find like-minded people anywhere. Both as a creator of the gallery and as an artist. And what is also characteristic of an MMO, which we have often talked about - here your status from the real world is completely unimportant, which for some reason some people want to drag along with them. In a virtual environment, only those actions and those achievements that the other sees speak for you.

In this sense, an artist of any status and any degree of fame can become a star in the Occupy White Walls. Like any gallery owner, he can draw attention to himself and to the works he likes.

And since we are talking about living people, all this happens to them, not with an abstract "game".

In this sense, OWW not only temporarily hit the target due to the quarantine and a ban on visiting many public places that fell on everyone in 2020, but also in a global perspective, unexpectedly used all the strengths of the common virtual space, and also came up with a gorgeous monetization from scratch. How can you not praise them for this? How can you not admire them? And how nice it is to deal with such people.

While I talk a lot about general approaches in the text, the 9.0 update brings a lot of nice things in addition to a fully working business model. The project, despite the objectively modest online, never ceases to develop and believe in its own future. This is the only way worthwhile things can appear.