There’s a difference between clarity and transparency. They both have their merits, but don’t confuse one for the other. The vast majority of NFT projects have embraced transparency as a leading communicative strategy. In the world of Blockchain, transparency is one of the most prominent and potent features. Discord, the home base for the communities that are being formed in an explosive fashion all over the word adds to the transparency. The leadership teams of these communities have no choice but to adhere to it.
Sometimes though, it becomes too much transparency and not enough clarity. Roadmaps, auction techniques, dev notes, sales, royalty fees, charity fees, future plans on video games and other pie in the sky plans are great. But if the communication around what is actually going on, especially if something goes wrong, isn’t on point - all the transparency in the world can’t help you.
"Is this all just a dream?”, She thought to herself in silence.
Her starry gaze locked upon the luminous lights,
Eyes sparkling like the moon shining over the obsidian ocean.
Picking up her leftovers, she sets off as night falls.
The identity and descent of the “Dream Machines” remains unknown. With recurring memories of childhood reminiscences and pop culture, It fuels their ability to live prosperously amongst themselves.
SORA is the only human living amongst the 10,000 Dream Machines.
Sorasdreamworld.io
This is the synopsis that started off the NFT project Sora’s Dreamworld. In their roadmap “Lucid dreaming” you can find milestones such as: Sandbox: Dreamworld Hotel, Dark Dream Machines. What do they do? How will it be utilized? Nobody knows.
Sora’s Dreamworld has taken a different approach from many of the other projects. This project isn’t very transparent at all. It’s proper weird. It is a dream after all. I’ve spent a fair amount of time researching it and I basically don’t understand anything.
But I like everything about it. The weird art. The fantastical synopsis and “Lore” that they keep dropping. The weird little tool that will allow you to change what’s on the screen on your Dream Machine, the strange Gartic game the community plays in one of the channels. The fact that there is action in 12 different language channels (not nothing!). And the potential partnerships in the E-sport world. (As I understand it they have created 6 bespoke Dream Machines and handed them out to E-sport stars… In time - when and if the project takes off financially, there might be a little booster just primed to explode. An alpha booby trap set in the future waiting to be tripped…).
The project sold out immediately at mint and there are 17K members in the discord. A lovely discord I could add. The Community managers are doing a brilliant job. And here is where the word clarity comes in.
Sora’s weird incomprehensible dreamworld is at the same time a master class in clarity and how to run a community. Even in the events of choppy waters.
The mint was ridden with problems and the team decided to push it several times. A few times because the discord was under attack. One time because the mint time conflicted with another hyped project and they didn’t want the minters to battle two gas wars.
Through this chaos (you can read all about it in the announcement channel in the discord) the team kept their heads super cool and just made calm pragmatic decisions with extremely clear and thoughtful communication - everything with the community’s best interest in mind. Not even a shred of mystery in that case. Not easy decisions to make standing on your head, under heavy pressure.
I’ve seen project owners completely fall apart in panic as soon as something goes a bit sideways: Pushing the mint when they should have paused it. Rushing something out without thinking it through. Promising this, that or the other without making sure they can deliver. Confusing announcements and blatant obfuscation as soon as pressure rises. There’s been situations with post mint rarity scandals and fraud that have been revealed after owners have taken on millions of dollars from their community. Huge disappointments have taken place many times. And then there’s the rug-pulls of course. We all know the stories. Ngmi vibes are not uncommon in the Metaverse.
For all the weirdness and dreamy mystery, Sora’s Dreamworld it’s on point where it really matters. Communication is straightforward and clear. The team is flexible when they need to be and they’re firm when that is the way. Around the reveal of the Dream Machines the hype of the day in the NFT community was for all projects to tokenize, the Dream Machine community banged that drum very loudly for a couple of days in all channels - but in the end, the team behind it decided against it. I their own words:
After a long deliberation process, the team has decided against the tokenisation model. Factors include the legal ramifications that it might bring about and more importantly how it would benefit Sora’s Dreamworld community at large whose aim is to build a more inclusive ecosystem for all members.
It is a tough balance to strike between maintaining public expectations (which take on many narratives) and sustainability. As such we intend to bring value to the community in more wholesome ways such as laid out in our roadmap 2.0
DreamGuru モッド
That announcement is pure WAGMI vibes. And that is what this is about. It is about making it. Building something, however weird, that your community will love you for. Something that brings value, in any shape or form.
On the beautiful Sora’s Dreamworld website there’s a sentence in the About-section that caught my eye:
Infusing Lo-Fi aesthetics to our work with a mixture of pop culture and all things fun is the perfect concoction for expressing good vibes only.
Sorasdreamworld.io
I couldn’t agree more.
There’s something about the approach and behavior of this project that I just gravitate towards. I can’t help it. Lower floor means more Dream Machines to more people, and that’s a good thing. I find myself going into their discord and just reading stuff for a while from time to time. It's a great little mental break. I can’t wait for the Dream Hotel to open on Sandbox. I have no idea what that hotel is about or how to book a room (will there even be rooms in there…?) but I’m really looking forward to it.
In the NFT bear market fueled by high gas prices the Dream Machine floor price has suffered. But that might be irrelevant long term. It might even be a good thing. The team is well funded. They’re on point. The art and the style is unique. The possibilities when you have sold out 10K units are literally endless. What will this project become? What is actually in the works? What is the real potential?
There are so many questions, so very few answers. It’s very weird, yet very clear. I’m extremely here for it.