Realms of Ruin

Realms of Ruin was a planned multi-author shared universe featuring several prominent YA authors such as Marie Lu and Adam Silvera. It was quicklyLike, within a few hours as this page was intially being constructed. cancelled due to fan backlash against the project's seemingly predatory monetization aspect through NFTs. It was set to feature 5 realms, 42 characters, and 12 stories written by the original authors at launch, with each of the 42 characters having an associated collectable NFT available for purchase.Realms of Ruin: a new web3 + storytelling launching 11/8. Posted 20 Oct 2021. Archived 20 Oct 2021. Accessed 20 Oct 2021. Fans were encouraged to get involved and then mint their stories into NFTs, which would accumulate worth based on an individual fan's audienceRealms of Ruin Website. Archived 20 Oct 2021. Accessed 20 Oct 2021. and the initially involved authors would then "promote and reward" the stories they felt were best.
==The Premise==
Not much is known about the actual content of Realms of Ruin, aside from what was initially teased on the project's website. From the Realms of Ruin website:
==The Controversy==
 Sometime around 15 Oct 2021, fans discovered the Realms of Ruin Instagram and started generating hype about the potential new project.Tweet from @B4DASSKENJI. Posted 15 Oct 2021. Accessed 20 Oct 2021. A few days later, a riddle or scavenger hunt of some sort with ARG aspects was introduced and fans worked together to discover the website.Tweet from @erik_ritter. Posted 18 Oct 2021. Accessed 20 Oct 2021. The project was formally announced on 20 Oct 2021 and, from the moment that Realms of Ruin was announced, people had questions about it. Besides the usual excitement for new content from a beloved author (or in this case several beloved authors), fans were skeptical of the inclusion of the following on the website:
This suspected monetization of unpaid fanworks did not sit well with people, especially as they suspected that any aspects from these fanworks that became canon would then belong to the owners of the shared universe rather than the creators themselvesTweet from @RedPenKaitlyn. Posted 20 Oct 2021. Accessed 20 Oct 2021. even though that would likely not be the actual case.Tweet from @courtneymilan. Posted 20 Pct 2021. Accessed 20 Oct 2021. Additionally, people were concerned about the NFT aspect of the project as NFTs are a hot topic right now in the art world.For further explanation of this, see: What's An NFT? And Why Are People Paying Millions To Buy Them? Fans wondered how making an NFT of a piece of writing would even work, and how said NFT could accumulate value as readership grew. They were also concerned about the fact that because the authors involved in the project primarily write Young Adult fiction, the project was seemingly being marketed toward younger fans who are legally not able to purchase the cryptocurreny necessary to participate in the project.Tweet from @banks_sophie_. Posted 20 Oct 2021. Accessed 20 Oct 2021.Tweet from @BadWritingTakes. Posted 20 Oct 2021. Accessed 20 Oct 2021. Furthermore, fans were worried about the potential environmental impact of NFTs being involved.For further reading on why fans had this concern in the first place, see: NFTs Are Hot. So Is Their Effect on the Earth’s Climate. While Realms of Ruin was set to run on Solana, which the website promised has "low transaction costs and minimal environmental impact," further investigation by some fans turned up no hard numbers on how Solana was more environmentally friendly that other types of blockchains.Tweet from @what_eats_owls. Posted 20 Oct 2021. Accessed 20 Oct 2021.
 With these complaints in mind, fans took to the Realm of Ruins' public Discord server, initially linked on their website, and voiced their concerns.Tweet Thread from @BadWritingTakes. Posted 20 Oct 2021. Accessed 20 Oct 2021. Many of the comments and concerns made in the Discord were screencapped and made available in a Google DocRealms of Ruin NTF Q&A Blocked Out Names Master Copy. Accessed 20 Oct 2021. but from all reports it seemed as if the authors were ill-prepared to answer the many questions posed by fans about the project. There were also reports that the authors were genuinely pushing the NFT aspect of the project to their potentially quite young fanbase and giving "get rich quick" scheme vibes by saying things like "someone could fund an author career writing stories for Realms of Ruin."Tweet from @gwenckatz. Posted 20 Oct 2021. Accessed 20 Oct 2021. This dissent eventually lead to the project being cancelled, with the announcement being made over Discord (seen to the left). Subsequently, almost every trace of the project was wiped off the face of the internet.
Over a matter of hours Marie Lu, one of the authors involved in the project, appeared to reverse her thinking. She went from slightly condescending responses to dissenters to acknowledging the concerns of the community and promising that they were taking a "step back" from the project to discuss.Tweet from @BadWritingTakes. Posted 20 Oct 2021. Accessed 20 Oct 2021. Shortly after the project was cancelled, The Mary Sue covered the issue in their typical snarky fashion and putting together the most relevant aspects of the controversy.6 Popular YA Authors Announced a Teen NFT Writing Community, It Went as Well as You Would Think. Posted 21 Oct 2021. Accessed 15 Dec 2021. Amanda Silberling also posted an article to TechCrunch titled "Inside the Realms of Ruin."Inside the Realms of Ruin. Posted 26 Oct 2021. Accessed 15 Dec 2021. This article clarified some aspects of the project, such as the confusion among fans regarding the NFTs of characters and whether or not these collectibles were required to write about the characters:
The article only further highlights how poorly thought out and underbaked the project was, given that it went from a mere idea to being announced within a few weeks. It featured several quotes from Rebecca Tushnet about the fannish aspect of the project and how Realms of Ruin was, perhaps, approached from the wrong direction to attract the audience they wanted. There was also discussion of the project on Tik Tok by various creators.Tiktok by @cassiesbookshelf. Posted 22 Oct 2021. Accessed 15 Dec 2021.Tiktok by @babbity.rabbity. Posted 20 Oct 2021. Accessed 15 Dec 2021. A month later, in November, Julie Zhuo posted a thread about the "failure" of Realms of Ruin that failed to address anyone's concerns about the project:
Zhuo was not one of the authors involved in the project, but rather one of the people behind the NFT aspects of Realms of Ruin.Realms of Ruin: Web3 + Storytelling. Accessed 15 Dec 2021. Her thread characterized fannish concern about the fact that this project was targeted toward the relatively young fanbase of the involved authors as misinformation born out of baseless fearmongering rather than the authors not having even remotely considered these questions during the creation of this process.
==Fan Commentary==
==Notes&References==
===Notes===
===References===
Category:2021 EventsCategory:Young Adult LiteratureCategory:Fandom OccurrencesCategory:Scandals‎
Category:Shared Universes