Day 1

I never really played video games. I was this person watching the others play. It seems to me that academics also prefer watching others play; they think and they evaluate and they comment on what people do outside of academia, but they are not really hands-on themselves. Universities don’t seem like places where people do stuff. So how can I, as an academic, succeed in the world of DAOs?

I think MetaGame has found an accurate analogy for DAOs: they are open-ended games, and we are the players, who have to find our quests, and on the way, open every treasure chest we find.

If DAOs are the game, then the current broken and unfair system is our Endgegner (German words sound so final). So, how do we get better at playing so that we actually have a serious chance to win?

I can tell you that I didn’t gain much expertise from watching the others play. We learn by doing. So if you want to contribute to a DAO, you need to take the controller into your hands and play.

Last week a friend sent me a link to MetaGame, and that’s where my story began. I started walking through the vastness of the website’s purple landscapes, leading me to treasures like the Playbook. I got lost in the Notion labyrinth, stumbling upon hidden gems like the Content Factory. And I also found: The keys to the Discord Server.

Up to this point, everything was well constructed. I followed some instructions, clicked here and there, and researched information - everything I like as an academic.

But now I’m standing in front of a locked door - behind it the writers guild. I need to start talking and participate in a call to unlock the next step. And what will come after is yet unknown.

This is the moment where so many people stop. In every DAO, finding the starting point of contribution is the hardest. To overcome this obstacle, I decided to write about my quest of finding out how to contribute and maybe even motivate others to start doing the same.

By writing this, I’m also holding myself accountable for actually learning how to get from thinking to doing and not lurk around for weeks. I’m maybe not yet the craziest doing-person, but I really want to become one to help DAOs on their way to defeat the Endgegner.

If you like my ideas, follow me on Twitter: @_roseight

On day 2, Rose arrives in the town, meets a friendly gnome, and goes astray in the vast landscape of possibilities.