Bored Ape Yacht Club is staging a resurgence as a metaverse

Dusk has fallen, and insects are buzzing all around me. I’m traversing the center of a large, digital swamp, drawn by the distant beats of booming music. There isn’t much else around — a few trees, some other players. Mostly, it’s just me and the sound coming from a sizable wooden edifice adorned with lights situated farther out in the swamp.

Upon reaching my destination, it towers over me: the official clubhouse of the Bored Ape Yacht Club. I approach the entrance to go inside. However, I find that I cannot gain entry; although the lights are illuminated in the house, the doors remain closed. There’s nothing to engage with.

These were my initial steps within the virtual domain inspired by the notorious cartoon primates that came to symbolize the NFT phenomenon. Despite the NFT frenzy subsiding, Yuga Labs, the firm behind BAYC and several other NFT collections, is poised to make a significant new digital effort with another trendy concept of the early 2020s, a metaverse called Otherside.

Otherside has been long awaited: The company revealed its plan to create Otherside after securing $450 million in investments in 2022, with one of the co-founders of BAYC stating that they aspired to construct an “interoperable,” “gamified,” and “decentralized” virtual environment. Yuga Labs has kept a low profile regarding the project since then, finally introducing an alpha version earlier this year. Today, at the company’s ApeFest gathering in Las Vegas, Yuga Labs announced the official launch date for Otherside on November 12th.

“It’s essentially one of the most ambitious endeavors ever attempted in this realm, and it’s finally beginning to come together,” Yuga Labs chief product officer Michael Figge narrated to The Verge.

In brief, Otherside resembles Roblox or Fortnite, but with a crypto twist: users can utilize NFTs as avatars to traverse virtual landscapes crafted by Yuga Labs and other players. You can log in using a crypto wallet, but it’s not obligatory to possess an NFT to join or explore; participants can simply access it via a browser using conventional methods such as email.

“We believe that there should be minimal hurdles for anyone wanting to try out Otherside, because once they do, it’s a fantastic introduction to the experience of owning digital assets,” Figge states.

Crypto elements are present everywhere you turn. NFT avatars, NFT land parcels, blockchain-based currency. Yuga hopes to develop a creator ecosystem that enhances the appeal for creators compared to rival metaverses since these digital assets extend beyond this realm and can be transferred elsewhere later. You can also primarily ignore all this and simply roam around Otherside without delving too deeply into the crypto aspect, if you prefer.

Aside from the section I explored, The Swamp, there will be a substantial virtual hub known as the Nexus. Additionally, various community-created experiences will also be available to engage with. These consist of a shooter game called Bathroom Blitz (“action so explosive, you’ll be clenching cheeks the entire time,” based on a description from the Otherside website) and a zombie-themed game named Otherside Outbreak. Within worlds, players may also create “Bubbles,” which are essentially an Otherside equivalent of a social audio room, akin to a Clubhouse space or an X Space.

“We genuinely believe there’s significant potential for individuals wanting to craft their own experiences within Otherside,” Figge mentions. “Competing against established players in user-generated content, like Roblox and Minecraft, presents a big opportunity for us, as many users may be disillusioned with the current methods of supporting creators and the underlying economic structure.”

Avatars in Otherside will be 3D models of NFTs that players own. “Any NFT collection can submit their avatar designs for evaluation and usage in Otherside,” Figge explains. There will also be avatars generated via a new system that Yuga Labs calls Voyager. Initially, there will be two avatar partnerships. One features a 300-piece collection from digital artist Daniel Arsham. The other is a co-branded “tokenized asset” in collaboration with Amazon called Boximus, which Figge describes as “essentially, a bunch of Amazon boxes compiled together.” Figge notes that the Amazon avatar will be obtainable directly through Amazon’s website.

These avatars will require payment. “Consider these voyagers akin to a ‘skin’ in traditional gaming,” Figge states. “We aren’t revealing pricing specifics yet, but we can assure you that they are designed to be affordable and reasonable.” Moreover, since they are blockchain-based entities, you’ll have the ability to resell any you own according to Figge, which isn’t possible in other metaverse-like environments.

I had the chance to explore The Swamp prior to composing this article. This realm felt like an enormous, 3D social chatroom — there wasn’t a game to play other than wandering the space and communicating with other attendees via voice or text. While I’m hesitant to judge a pre-launch virtual realm too critically before its official release, it reminded me more of the lackluster experiences I’ve encountered in Meta’s Horizon Worlds or a metaverse fashion presentation rather than something immediately enjoyable and captivating like Fortnite.

In The Swamp, there wasn’t much to observe or engage with besides meandering around the exterior of the clubhouse (which I was unable to enter) or exploring the swamp to find items like an outhouse (closed) and a platform near a train track (with a sign reading “out of order”). Surprisingly, as I wandered away from the platform, a train began to rumble past, but my character moved too slowly to catch it. I discovered a portal that propelled me towards the moving train, but I failed to land on it and plummeted back into the water.

Even if we presume such minor issues are rectified and The Swamp or the Nexus or Otherside encounters are bustling with players, 3D environments designed primarily for social interactions tend to be very niche or rather dull. Successes like VRChat are uncommon. What contributes to the popularity of titles like Fortnite and Roblox is their gameplay while socializing with friends. At launch, and with a strong emphasis on crypto, I’m uncertain if Otherside will possess that same attraction.

Perhaps Otherside will evolve into something more captivating; Fortnite, Roblox, and Minecraft all grew into massive successes over time. However, I harbor skepticism about what I’m witnessing at the moment, and it’s likely you won’t see me on the other side.