A guide to getting started with the leading metaverse project Decentraland

Original Title: 《How to Get Started With Decentraland \& Gameplay Review》

Author: Khor Win Win

Compiled by: Nianqing, Chain Catcher

Compared to the hype from Meta (formerly Facebook) in October this year, people should pay more attention to Decentraland, a decentralized 3D virtual reality world built on Ethereum. Similar to Habbo and Second Life, Decentraland offers players a platform to freely explore the world with digital avatars. However, unlike traditional open worlds, the decentralized nature of Decentraland means players can roam freely in the virtual space, embracing endless possibilities. But Decentraland is not limited to this; it has undergone tremendous changes since the project's launch.

The Starting Point of Decentraland

Decentraland was initially created by a group of like-minded friends in 2015, aiming to "fight back" against centralized VR games. In its early stages, Decentraland was modeled as a two-dimensional pixelated grid, which the developers referred to as the "Stone Age," where pixels were allocated to users through a proof-of-work (PoW) consensus algorithm.

By the end of 2016, Decentraland had transformed into a 3D world, with land divided into different parcels. Each parcel of land is associated with a hash index of a specific file that contains asset data for that parcel. Users can enter the virtual world using distributed hash tables and download files and assets for specific locations.

In early 2017, Decentraland launched its first-ever beta version, with land prices starting as low as $20; now, a parcel can easily sell for thousands of dollars. Last month, Decentraland auctioned off the most expensive property, consisting of 116 smaller parcels, for as much as $2.4 million.

As the Ethereum network attracted an increasing user base, Decentraland integrated itself into the ecosystem through smart contract functionality, enabling interactive applications, in-game payments, and peer-to-peer communication within the metaverse. Today, players can trade digital assets, socialize with friends, and even host VR meetings, exploring this ever-expanding digital world together.

What Exactly is Decentraland?

As the name suggests, Decentraland is short for "decentralized land," a fully immersive digital world controlled entirely by its community. The world of Decentraland consists of numerous digital lands represented as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on the blockchain. As long as they are within their parcel boundaries, owners can freely create and showcase their works for everyone to see.

Players can purchase parcels using various tokens from secondary markets like OpenSea. Land prices vary based on size and location.

If you have claustrophobia, you can acquire adjacent parcels to create your estate. These merged parcels allow owners to easily manage and develop their land, especially when attempting to build structures that cannot fit within a conventional parcel. Estates are represented as another ERC-721 NFT containing the base parcels.

The financial system of Decentraland is primarily supported by its native token MANA, which can be used to purchase parcels, wearables, and other services within the virtual ecosystem. Additionally, token holders have the right to participate in governance by creating or voting on community proposals. MANA tokens can be obtained from most centralized and decentralized exchanges, such as Binance or Uniswap.

Owning land is just part of the experience; the other part is minting and showcasing your creations. But first, you need a virtual identity, which is a 3D character.

Players can create virtual avatars at will, with no limit on the number. Hair, facial features, and clothing can be changed anytime and anywhere. Besides the outfits provided for free by the system, players can also purchase higher-quality clothing through presales or using MANA from secondary markets. Wearables are priced based on rarity, with rarer items having lower minting supplies.

Brands and content creators can also design exclusive wearables for special contests or events. By default, these wearables are minted on the Polygon blockchain to reduce gas fees. Players can also purchase some rare items from secondary markets, such as the MetaMask Beanie or Gecko Hat.

Exploring Decentraland

Overall, the gameplay is reminiscent of early virtual community spaces like Habbo and Second Life. Upon entering Decentraland, your avatar will spawn in Genesis Plaza, which serves as a sort of "lobby" for players. Here, you can check out various activities, games, and popular spots within Decentraland. Since new players often arrive here first, it’s also a great place to meet and chat with many new faces.

Both gamers and non-gamers can easily master these controls. The navigation controls operate similarly to first-person shooter (FPS) games, where cursor movement changes the perspective, and players can switch between first-person and third-person modes using the shortcut key "V." Decentraland provides prompts to assist players visually. For example, prompts "E" and "F" indicate scrolling through the event list, which is friendly for newcomers to the metaverse.

If you don’t want to run from one edge to another during gameplay, Decentraland allows you to jump to any marked location on the map. These locations represent attractions in Decentraland, generally featuring beautiful scenery and interactive activities worth visiting. Players have the opportunity to collect exclusive wearables and NFTs along the way.

Landowners can build richer scenes to attract more visitors. Decentraland offers two building options: the Builder Tool or the Software Development Kit (SDK). For players with little to no programming skills, the Builder Tool is easier to get started with, allowing players to easily drag and drop various pre-built 3D assets to create their ideal scenes.

Will Decentraland Dominate the Metaverse?

Although it is far from perfect as most people imagine, the team is working hard to push forward and steadily advance the roadmap (click here to view).

First, the team plans to prioritize updates for players' quality of life. These improvements include NFT badges, additional grouping features for building, and options to directly add blockchain-based smart projects. In other words, players can interact with objects in the game in interesting ways, just like interacting through smart contracts in real life. For example, Sushiswap is represented in the game as a virtual sushi restaurant, where purchasing different sushi equates to buying different assets.

Soon, Decentraland will also offer item trading within the virtual world and smoother multiplayer support. As a bonus, a mobile companion app is also in development, allowing players to receive notifications about Decentraland live events and chat with virtual friends anytime, anywhere.

However, it is not the only metaverse for players to explore. With projects like Roblox and Minecraft already holding a place in the realm of virtual interaction, it’s hard to imagine why most gamers would suddenly turn to Decentraland, perhaps due to its more decentralized ecosystem.

Traditional gaming companies have iterated on existing models for decades and established significant partnerships to attract the masses into their worlds. As companies like Microsoft and Meta begin to take action, decentralized metaverses need to combine more unique selling points, such as "play-to-earn" features, to carve out a significant market share and truly stand out.

Even so, competition within the decentralized metaverse is heating up. Alternative digital worlds like The Sandbox and Somnium Space are also gaining popularity, each with its own signature features. For example, The Sandbox focuses more on community-created content, allowing users to generate original NFTs and games to sell on the market. They have even partnered with major companies like Atari and Skybound Entertainment.

On the other hand, Decentraland has also achieved some significant milestones. In June 2021, Sotheby’s launched a virtual replica of its London gallery on its platform. Recently, Barbados established the world’s first metaverse embassy in Decentraland. With more frequent collaborations with traditional institutions, these projects will not only attract crypto users but also change the public's perception of the metaverse to some extent, showing that it is not just a virtual playground but a new paradigm of social interaction.

Conclusion

As the world shifts towards deeper digital interactions, the complete concept of the metaverse is slowly becoming a reality. Having a fully controllable virtual open world like Decentraland truly unlocks the potential of the metaverse, rather than just being a place detached from reality.

Just as traditional video games have become more realistic, the things players can do in the virtual world are also constantly pushing boundaries. By integrating various external applications and content into Decentraland, players can play mini-games with friends or visit live art galleries. Soon, players may even be able to purchase merchandise from Mr. World in virtual shopping malls, not just limited to buying avatars and skins in the game.

Decentraland is eager to integrate VR technology to complete the virtual reality experience. But even in its current state, the project's user base may find it difficult to grow exponentially. For many players, especially those from poorer countries, there are high technical barriers to enjoying the game smoothly. For Decentraland, optimizing the experience for older devices and mobile phones is crucial so that anyone around the world can access the metaverse.

Decentraland and other similar metaverses give us a glimpse into the future depicted in Ernest Cline's novel "Ready Player One," where immersive digital worlds like "Oasis" become places that break all boundaries of reality. The question is, are we ready to embrace it?