Hello all. Before we tackle describing 'Gamification Community-NFTs' here, explaining the idea behind it and thus answering the question, I invite you all to at least roughly look into the topic of NFT beforehand. A very good and quick introduction can be found here in English and here in German. These are just two possibilities from the many, many articles about it. All of them have their own focus and perspective. So feel free to take 20 or 30 hours to immerse yourself in the topic over a longer period of time.
Short and sweet is not possible here, from my personal point of view, with the topic. Because this is always attempted, there is precisely the misunderstanding among the mass of people that NFTs are virtual images. That would be like talking about cars only in terms of their color and not knowing that they also have an engine and that you can sit in them 😉.
Current situation
We are just in the early days of the NFT world and this has generated both incredible enthusiasm and skepticism. For many, NFTs and the impact they will - or won't - have on society are not yet foreseeable.
I have just begun to speak and write publicly about NFTs. Here,, here. and here.. But I've spent the last few months watching, listening, and learning. I have spent countless hours discussing and exploring with people who are as enthusiastic as I am. I enter the NFT world with a lot of enthusiasm, but also a lot of humility and respect for those who have already been victims of scams here. I am here primarily to understand and learn about this subject, and I encourage you to do the same.
You may still be wondering why NFTs are such a big deal to me. In my opinion, the value of NFTs is rooted in three things: Benefits, access, and social currency. If you understand the concept behind membership cards, rewards on credit cards, or tickets to events with VIP access, then you understand NFTs. If you've ever bought skins or other virtual items for your video games, you understand NFTs. The reason you wanted that item was because you wanted a benefit in a world you cared about.
The most important thing with NFTs
To put it simply, they are small software programs. Der Begriff ’smart contracts‘ ist ja nicht unbekannt. In addition, these small programs are completely transparent (for those who are familiar with the respective programming code), unique and therefore individually traceable (this is where all the technical blockchain blah blah comes into play) and, among other things, can be assigned to an individual owner (even anonymously, if he wishes).
Whether and with which virtual image or visualization a single NFT is then presented can play a role, but it does not have to. Even if the entire reporting around NFTs has so far been limited almost exclusively to the colorful visualization of NFTs. This may also be due to the fact that this one attribute of an NFT was the easiest to describe and understand. For the following part of this article, however, this attribute is completely irrelevant.
The NFT Advantage?!
Everything that follows now describes my view of the subject in particular, of course. Just spend ten hours on the subject yourself and you'll realize that you've only just scratched the surface. It is complex. While that means a lot of effort at first to become familiar with the subject, it also holds the potential for a wide variety of uses. I'm describing here and now my view of the potential to use NFTs as a practical (and also fun) tool to build, maintain, and develop a community.
But there is a crucial twist, as I see it, that NFTs bring to the table for communities: they are more likely to take the initiator of a community to task than has been the case in the past. Why this is so will become clear in the course of this post.
So, what is the advantage now?
Community
(1) The mere possession of a community NFT is sufficient to participate in the community, or to 'accredit' oneself as a member and to profit from the possible benefits. Simply by having the necessary NFT 'sitting' in one's own wallet. For one, this can mean complete anonymity. For whomever that is important. Because you no longer have to register with an account and enter personal data. After all, it is enough to have the NFT in one's own wallet, and this wallet can only be identified externally by an individual series of numbers.
Mobility
(2) The NFT can change wallet within seconds, if desired by the current owner. Thus, it is easy for a person who is no longer interested in participating in the community to send the corresponding NFT to another person's wallet, free of charge, in exchange or against payment. Community access has thus passed directly between two individuals. Always provided that the NFT was not person-bound from the beginning. But we will leave that aside as a 'special case'. So if it is a particularly sought-after or valuable community, such an NFT can represent a certain countervalue.
In the end, 'the market' determines that. After all, something is always worth as much as someone else is willing to pay for it.
Access
(3) Let's assume you own a RomansFriends. This will most likely mean that you are interested in the topic of gamification. How else would you know me? I myself am invited to speak at countless conferences every year. These are gamification conferences, but mainly conferences from industries such as human resource management, logistics, mobility, marketing, sales, e-commerce, finance, sustainability and more.
Suppose I now negotiate with the respective conference operators that the members of my community have free admission to these conferences. Or how about free access to the online streaming of the conference? With all its talks and workshops? For this I would just have to 'airdrop' the corresponding conference ticket to all wallets that have my corresponding NFT in the wallet.
What is an airdrop at NFT?
The term "Airdrop" comes from the English and means something like "dropping from the air". Ultimately, it is simply a matter of certain digital units (tokens, NFTS, tickets, coupons,...) being distributed. The holder of a certain NFT automatically receives these digital units, without any action on his part, in the respective wallet that owns the addressed NFT.
If you then want to use the ticket to participate in the conference online, you can automatically authenticate yourself with your wallet, into which the ticket has now been 'airdropped'. If you don't want to use it, then it simply expires or you can possibly pass it on to someone else, should that be 'programmed in'. As I said, they are simply small software programs that can be (almost) arbitrarily designed.
I could also program in rules that the ticket is only valid in connection with another NFT, or is person-bound, or wallet-bound, or, or, or. All this is part of the possible community management.
Benefits
(4) Instead of a conference ticket, it can of course be anything else. Whatever is exciting in the context of the community. Access to a new copy of a book, access to special content, early access to an online course, guaranteed time with a person, a privileged consultation. There are almost no limits to creativity here. The community decides whether these benefits are important and interesting.
Transparency
(5) And here I come back to the topic mentioned above, namely that the initiator is also held accountable by such a system. The duty to maintain this community and to consider again and again how he can offer added value for the participants in the community. Warum das so ist, hängt wiederum mit der Charakteristik von NFTs zusammen, dass diese vollkommen transparent sind. That is, through platforms like Opensea, you can track every single NFT.
So you can see, for example, in which wallets it was traveled, how many previous owners the NFT had, which benefits a NFT 'carries' (for example conference tickets and the like), and also what was paid for the special NFT in advance, should it have changed hands for sale. You can also see how many - and which - other NFTs of this community exist and whether they are offered for sale by their owners and how expensive they are.
All of this together gives a very transparent overview and very easy access to a person who, for example, is passionate about gamification and therefore wants to know if our community is active here and membership is apparently considered 'valuable' by others.
Collaborations
(6) Collaborations with other topics and communities can happen very easily. For example, I could automatically provide all members of GamFed (an international gamification association) with the benefits of my community. Always assuming that GamFed would also manage its community via NFTs. Such actions can mean an incredible growth potential for your own community, always provided that you can still offer benefits to all these members. If you overdo it here, the regular members will also leave you disappointed over time. And due to the mentioned transparency, the new members will get to know that and the whole 'rat tail starts to move - negatively'. That's what I mean by 'control' and 'take responsibility'.
The benefits of RomansFriends NFTs?!
Okay, wow. You guys are still at it? Thank you, I appreciate it very much 🙏
RomansFriends is more than art or small pixel images; it's about intellectual property, community and a common interest. Ideally, it should be the start of a 'place' I will build for the rest of my life. Our goal is to further develop Forward Gamification (its own school of thought within the overall topic of gamification), share sessions to discuss real-world examples, teach the science behind it, meet like-minded people for sharing and more, get access to special events, get exclusive (and yes, discounted) deals, be the first to hear about new courses, methods and tools, and more.
The community is already using Discord as a place to meet and communicate. E-mails and joint online (live) sessions are also part of this. With the possible use of community-specific NFTs, we can imagine on the one hand simplifying participation in this circle of interests, thus making it more entertaining, possibly even introducing a playful character (which is to be tested) and at the same time simplifying access to the community as a whole and individual events in particular.
So let's take a look at it:
Here the idea
Currently, the idea is to create about 250 individual NFTs as a (first?) litter. These 250 NFTs (called Founder-Series) are divided into 3 categories: Basic, Inner-Circle & Access.
The categories Basic & Access are accessible to everyone as long as the 'stock' lasts. After that, they can be freely exchanged, given away or sold among themselves.
The Inner Circle category is only available to Inner Circle members. Currently, there are already 61 people who, due to this status, already have special access to various channels on the Discord-Server . If the 61 persons want to participate, they will receive an NFT of the inner circle category directly in their wallet (airdropped). The special thing about this NFT is that it is bound to the person/wallet and therefore cannot be passed on.
Each of the three categories can also have subcategories. These can then also be further developed in the future. I will own some of the total 250 NFTs myself, in order to then also be able to react individually and issue them to people.
The difference between already assigned NFTs and those I hold back for the time being can then possibly be acquired. Or existing customers get some for collaboration on projects, or through simple requests or through future interactions. There are almost no limits to creativity. Of course, the community itself can also have ideas.
The individual categories and subcategories can then each have selected benefits. How these can look in something, you can already guess through the above descriptions of points 3, 4 and 6. For further possibilities I am already in talks with gamification colleagues.
Long-term strategy in such community NFTs.
I find it particularly exciting that with each progress of the activities of me, the company Engaginglab and also with the mentioned partnerships with gamification colleagues, the participants of the community, respectively in particular the owners of the community NFTs can profit from this development. For communities to exist at all (whether with NFTs in use or classically, without NFTs at all) in the long term, it is important to constantly advance the common theme and, especially for existing members, to maintain the added value. Through cooperation, through access to up-to-date knowledge, to events, and the like.
I can well imagine NFTs as a flexible organizational tool, and I see a lot of potential here. One of the reasons why we are already openly announcing and pursuing this idea is that we will succeed in implementing it and gaining the necessary experience and testing what is possible. We are currently planning an official launch in spring 2023, but we will take the first steps a little earlier, for example with the special Inner Circle group and with partners.
Conclusion
When it comes to the world of NFTs - or anything, really (yes, even when it comes to gamification 😉 ) - I've come to say: Have conviction, not persuade. In other words: I'm not here to convince you why NFTs are important, or to push you to do anything. I'm just a grateful member of an incredibly great gamification community that has given me a lot in the past. Maybe with the tool of NFTs, we can make the community even more interesting, also more entertaining, but most of all more helpful. It's worth a try.
English 
German