Professor Azalea

🔮 Professor Azalea | Creator of the Dexia | Unraveling the mysteries of Crypto and the Gaming realm | Diving deep into defi ✨ opinions my own

[Ryan | Triumph @Ryan_Triumph]

Seeing ashes of creation go down tells me it's not just in web3.

Game creation is expensive. We are still relatively low burn rate (monthly costs) vs. what we are producing with @PlayElumia

We build worlds so players can tell stories.

[Legends of Elumia @PlayElumia]

Right bois 🗣️🗣️🗣️

Don’t be late to the party

Literally cooking with google play to bring downloads to all android players

It’s literally a click of a button away so y’all got not excuse not to grind

Anyways check out the amazing graphics… FOR A MOBILE GAME 😭🔝

[Grail.eth @graildoteth]

I've seen my share of web3 projects failing their community badly, yet in one single and brutal fell swoop, @PirateNation (now @ProofOfPlay ) has just delivered THE pinnacle master class in how to transform your NFT cult of fanatic supporters into a horde of raging maniacs frothing to do crime to your brand.

For the record, I don't believe they are bad actors or were trying to fuck over the community. They were backed into a corner and fumbled on how to make a smooth transition.

But what a fucking fumble it was man.

A quick scroll through the PirateNations discord and you see plenty of the following:

Now I don't think I've seen public expectations for a promising legit project with top backers get rugged on so badly, at least not since that time in Mexico City where I raided the world's best taco stand, on the behest of a tequila-fueled 2am doom-scrolling of TikTok recommendations, only to find out that yes, it is in fact possible to sh*t out your own intestines in literally just 12 hours.

So what did it take to turn a fanatic cult of NFT PirateNation holders who could teach a trick or three to the local Jehovah Witness door knockers about belief and conviction into an antagonistic horde that wants to demolish your brand?

This right here:

By offering a take it or leave it $50 USD buyback of 1700 $Pirate if you forever burn the NFT.

Or a flat zero if you don't and an NFT worth right now as much as a used cat litterbox.

The team clearly misread the room on how to transition the community into the next thing.

Clearly the next thing is not a pat on the back, a ode to the holders, and payout that post Covid won't buy you a dozen Crispy Creme donuts.

Seems community is in fact not at all happy to burn their formerly $1000+ USD genesis nfts for a mere $50, given the NFTs were trading between $500 to $2000 literal days ago (.05e-.4e) and had peaked around 2e early last year.

To be clear, the team were in a difficult spot and needed a pivot.

The entire roadmap ($POP token, token utility, playable assets, etc) was pretty much ripped to shreds, leaving all the expectation debt by holders and stakers in a hot mess.

But pivoting by rapidly torching your entire NFT ecosystem has been costly to the holders for sure.

Look, I understand the reasoning behind shutting the door on the failing core game (100k USD per month it was costing to keep running, burning through the team's runway) AND ditching the nfts to free up bandwidth to build a better future without community debt and all that, but the whole thing could have been handled with grace and it wasn't.

As a former NFT bag holder here, and someone who has been supportive publicly, I have to come out and call a spade a spade, and a shitty move a shitty move. The team wronged their community here, and pulled a move that many would look at and in fact start using words like rug. If not an actual rug (I don't believe so), certainly a rug on holder expectations.

And for fuck sakes I still hold over 1.7M of staked $PIRATE. I staked it for exposure for $POP, which appears to no longer be on the roadmap, at least any time soon. The value of my $PIRATE bag has bled from $400k to <50k at this point in just 15 months. So yea, I have a vested interest in seeing the team do well. But I also feel deeply for all those guys who came in, bought into the NFT ecosystem believing the nfts were going to be 'premier assets' only to find out that words have many interpretations, and what a web3 team says and what a web3 team means when they say what they said are not necessary the same thing at all.

It's not every day you actually witness a team who cultivated a community for neigh on three years only to demolish the entire effort overnight by taking a meat grinder to their holders.

Pivot if you must, but fully pivoting from community-is-first brand to community-is-fucked brand ain't how to do it folks.

I mean, if anything, there is a teachable lesson, or cautionary tale and all that about the power of community, and how it's possible to transform it into a weapon against yourself if mishandled.

Because the best hugs, I mean rugs, come from your best friends, not your foes. A painful lesson that the PirateNation community is currently learning.

Gaming is tough, the toughest niche in crypto to crack right now. I get it. Everyone tied to crypto gaming is on life support. Friends become enemies, supporters become fudders, and holders play Squid Games against their own project founders, competing for shriveling liquidity.

Pivots happen and are necessary. In gaming, I'd say failing at your first effort seems to be pretty much a requirement at this point.

But if you pivot, do bring the guys who were there from the start, who backed your efforts and empowered you.

Better to grow with your community than grow against them, which has played out here.

I hope the team find a way forward and bring their holder base with them into future efforts.

I realize the entire Proof of Play ecosystem is probably only going worth anything at all to bag holders here if the team manage to kick out some revenue positive web2 games and bring that value back to the token and the NFT holders who have literally had all value torched.

The team needs to make things right with their holders and find a better way forward. For myself, I'm going to probably my Pirate bags (I don't feel there is much point dumping right now for pennies on the dollar) and hope the team can build their way out of the hole they dug themselves into.

[Triumph Games @Triumph_Games]

Big shout out to the community... Let's get @PlayElumia , @PlayArmourX , @BattleRiseGame nominated.

[Legends of Elumia @PlayElumia]

If you had to start a new life, what would you do?

Who would you be? What would drive you?

Would you make it back to be KING?!

Pre-reg to continue the journey on mobile - https://t.co/gX4JDV8AFb

[Professor Azalea @azaleadexia]

@PlayElumia This is sooo cool

[Professor Azalea @azaleadexia]

@SuperVerse @Triumph_Games @PlayElumia @PlayArmourX @BattleRiseGame Super super 🔥

[SuperVerse @SuperVerse]

SuperVerse 🤝 @Triumph_Games

Triumph Games, the web3 studio behind @PlayElumia, @PlayArmourX, and @BattleRiseGame has joined the SuperVerse family.

Exciting $SUPER integrations are on the way… 💚

[Legends of Elumia @PlayElumia]

We are coming to Google, which means more accessibility.

In more ways than one...

Providing traditional gamers with an entrance to the @Triumph_Games ecosystem.

[Professor Azalea @azaleadexia]

@somniaGames_ @Triumph_Games @PopeyeTrades 🔥🔥

[Armour | Closed Beta @playarmour]

🔥 F R I D A Y 🔥

[Professor Azalea @azaleadexia]

@PlayArmourX 🔥🔥

[Armour | Closed Beta @playarmour]

Dimonachi has been an early supporter love their energy ⚡️

[Armour | Closed Beta @playarmour]

After 2 years on @MagicEden, building through all the bears and never quitting.

ArmourX is now pink badged 👑

Our community deserves this!

[Professor Azalea @azaleadexia]

@PlayArmourX @arbitrum @Immutable @TokenTrove Will you cop or copex?

[Armour | Closed Beta @playarmour]

The migration of our frog collection to Immutable is now open!

Owning a Frog NFT is now your key to the closed beta. Allowing early materials and other rewards!

The frog floor on solana is thin. You still have time to cop a frog, ready for the war against @arbitrum

[Professor Azalea @azaleadexia]

@PlayArmourX @Immutable @TokenTrove New era

[Legends of Elumia @PlayElumia]

Pre-reg on Google is ready, brave Elumians.

And it seems a gift does await...

Google - https://t.co/gX4JDV98uJ

[Ryan | Triumph @Ryan_Triumph]

People got good at Ragnarok

3 and a half mins is the devil's work 😱

[Professor Azalea @azaleadexia]

@PlayElumia It's time