Earth2: The Marathon
People react to Earth2.io in one of three ways: confusion, awe, or suspicion. Novel concepts will always solicit these types of reactions. The lightbulb, vaccines, automobiles, airplanes, personal computers, the internet, and bitcoin were all met with fierce skepticism when they were introduced to the public. And we can’t expect everyone to react as enthusiastically to such a strange and ambitious concept as we have. Recently, Earth 2 has been thrust under a spotlight as a number of Youtubers have published videos marking E2 as a scam.
While these scam claims are unfounded, (please see any of the number of MNIH publications on this issue) their underlying doubts have merit. There is no tangible product, we are engaging in outrageously high priced speculation, the relatively small team faces challenging technical barriers, the full road map is still undisclosed, and there are no established industry players to draw comparisons to outside of marginally successful projects like Second Life or Decentraland. We are unfortunately at the infantile point in the development cycle where these types of critiques are easy-to-grab low hanging fruit.
If we’re weighing our investment against Second Life or Decentraland, then these Youtuber’s arguments are well-founded. This game needs millions of users to justify the current prices that we are paying. And it will need a lot more to have long term value generated from property foot traffic, ad revenue, demand for resources, in-game purchases, etc. I obviously think we get to those numbers and far exceed them or else I wouldn’t be putting money into the game. But Willy Malik eloquently summarized the situation, stating that Earth 2 will indefinitely be guilty until proven innocent.
Unfortunately, I expect these criticisms to only intensify with the release of phase 2. We all believe there will be an influx of new users and money that enter the game in phase 2, but this top down gameplay will still be extremely rudimentary. This product will certainly not appease the critics as it is still distant and miniscule relative to the grand vision of Earth2. This newfound popularity will only attract more critics and they will still have all the ammunition necessary to relentlessly attack the project. Their voices are loud and vastly outnumber ours at this point which will definitely be a major obstacle to overcome in the future. The last twenty people to comment on my videos have called me an idiot and accused me of promoting a scam. This angry mob of detractors has even made prominent community members like Earth2 Meta step back as his channel was bombarded with vile comments.
Although it has been great to see the community band together to defend this project, most of these critics will not retract their positions until the game is immensely popular. I do believe that the community should engage in dialogue with any future critics of the project, but I suspect it will more often than not be a futile effort. So what should we do until then? Vigorously fight back? Pack our bags and run for the hills? You are certainly entitled to do either of these things. However, I propose an alternate solution: relax.
We all understood the daunting challenges the team would face and the multi-year timeline that would be required to even enter the first iteration of phase 3. This is hard for many of us though as we immerse ourselves daily in all things Earth 2. In these past few months, I personally have felt the burdens of an Earth 2 fixation. As a content creator and earnest supporter of the Earth 2 project, I have followed E2 daily since January 1st. I felt compelled to understand every nuance of the game and its prospective developments. I needed to keep up to date with any late-breaking news and I wanted to make unique speculations about the future of Earth2 that were both grounded and intriguing.
All of this research is where I began to conceptualize the grand vision of what Earth 2 could become. Learning about the industry-disrupting potential of a metaverse reinforced my faith in the project, as demonstrated by my $50,000 purchase. It was also a ton of fun! I’m a super nerd for “futurology,” or the study of the future and I truly believe that the metaverse will transform the world. But eventually this speculation reached a point of fatigue. I became exhausted.
There is only so much conversation and intrigue that phase 1 can provide and I just did not have the Randy or Meta stamina. I wanted more from the developers to simply keep myself and the community entertained and engaged, completely discounting how monumental phase 2 will be to the trajectory of the game. I became frustrated creating videos that would take me 4+ hours. I felt that I was running in circles and regurgitating old ideas I had put out in some fashion prior. What began as a fun hobby that I was passionate about had become a taxing obligation. I was thinking way too much about a game that was in hibernation while the devs worked tirelessly behind the scenes. I was sprinting the first quarter mile of the marathon.
The early days of Earth 2 were filled with consistent updates. We received new dopamine hits nearly everyday with promising developments. Then these updates became less frequent. The constant stream of good news soon became intertwined with underperformance from the team. And the community became restless after just a few months. Many HODL’ers turned to non-believers despite relatively little changing. Over the couple of weeks surrounding the Dubai debacle, many in the community seemingly began to believe that the dev team were incapable of delivering on their ambitious project. These individuals ran at the very first signs of uncertainty this project encountered. I want to make it clear that I do not judge these individual’s actions. People should practice extreme caution with their Earth2.io investments and make their own assessments on the viability of the project.
But I have a cold hard truth to tell all of you that are still on the fence: there will likely be many more detrimental events and hurdles that threaten Earth 2 in the future. If you are running for the hills because of a few Youtubers regurgitating the same few unsubstantiated bullet points then you probably didn’t do enough research before you joined…or you are just far too easily spooked.
We are justifiably restless for Phase 2, but we must also grow accustomed to setbacks and disappointment. Look around at any independent game or product development and you will see that these are the two common themes. Timelines will be delayed. Rollouts will be unbalanced, have bugs, and they might even be quite underwhelming. Community suggestions and concerns might go unanswered for extended periods. And with all of this, there is certainly a dimension of blind trust we must have in the devs. Although the devs should disclose what they can and keep us as updated as they can, we cannot truly measure every aspect of their progress as outsiders. The most important thing we need to gauge is how the team responds to all of these challenges.
Overly-ambitious projects only become successful through years of trial and error. They also only reach their lofty ambitions by attacking the issue with unrelenting tenacity. From what I have seen from the Earth 2 team, they have this necessary fight inside of them. No game has ever attempted to achieve this grand of a vision, and we must accept that the team has only made minute progress toward the Ready Player One universe they hope to create.
Shane has developed a visionary concept, Nathaniel has created the highest industry standard terrain model, and Wolfgang is constructing one of the most complex video game economies of all time. None of this guarantees any degree of success, but it is an incredibly solid foundation that can be built upon. And it will take years to see the fruits of their labor. Until then, I have one piece of advice for myself and anyone reading this: relax, pace yourself, and practice patience.
Don’t sprint the marathon.
Originally published at https://mynameishumanpod.com.
