Everything you need to know about Mementos but was afraid to ask—Part 1
This post is outdated; please see an updated version here.
What is a Memento?
Remarkist is a community platform for fandoms to converge around their favorite stories, characters, and franchises. No matter the content, fans tend to engage one another in two ways…
They like to discuss their beloved stories—at Remarkist we do this during live virtual events like watches and gab sessions.
They play together.
If discussion is the mind of Remarkist, then play is its heart. We have lots of different ways we play on the platform—everything from content-themed trivia & bingo to memes & simple humorous banter. But our app has one form of play that actually helps fuel curiosity and growth of our community: Mementos.
Mementos are sets of limited edition collectible badges that event hosts release in connection with content-themed events, such as watch parties, gab sessions, games, talks, or fireside chats. The host gives the set a title that somehow aligns with the event, they add a description to give the Memento some context—this description can be an opportunity for creative writing, it can contain clues to riddles and scavenger hunts that the host intends to play with their attendees, or it can simply express the reason for releasing the Memento or what aspects of the event it may commemorate. Finally, Mementos include a simple piece of visual representation—a colored background, a colored border, and an icon to represent it.
So Mementos are very similar to the types of badges that games and social networks distribute. But Mementos have some… well, let’s just say “complexities” that make them unique from the typical digital reward trophy. So this is the first in a 5-part series of posts explaining the nuances of the game.
Our first three posts will cover Memento creation and are geared more towards Members looking to build experiences and content for others. Our last two posts will cover Memento collecting & use in Remarkist play.
Community Created
Digital collectibles appeal to two types of game players: achievers and explorers. Fandoms are full of these types. They like to discover, learn, and grow together. Many fans pride themselves on knowing their fandom well… while others collect themed keepsakes as a tribute to their beloved stories, characters, and franchises. So trophies and collectibles can be a fun part of games and social media. But we only ever see them handed out by the platform. Well, our Mementos are handed out by community members who can use them to inspire the same kind of interest and play that larger social products do… but in a much more collaborative fashion.
Limited
Mementos are not in endless supply. Hosts release only a certain amount of them during an event, and each has a unique number representing the order that they were claimed. Like a limited-edition art or book print. Once all editions of a Memento have been claimed, that’s it. No more. In fact, the Mementos a host drops actually cost them KRNLs to create, so these trophies are backed by some value placed by the host. The combination of this value along with a Memento’s scarcity makes them more precious than the kind of badges we find in abundance on other platforms. The host is giving you a gift that they purchased, a thank you for attending, a hope that you’ll come again and spread the word, a memento of your time together.
Games
Hosts can create playful experiences for their attendees simply through the requesting of their Mementos. All Mementos require a password to claim, so hosts can challenge their collectors with clever puzzles and scavenger hunts that reveal the password and unlock the prize. Hosts can build fun mazes of knowledge pertaining to their event or the content at large, and attendees can show their deep understanding of their favorite fandom and win a badge of honor that proves it.
Members can also showcase four Mementos on their public profile. Various showcase configurations can boost a member’s KRNL earning rate dramatically when they harvest from certain events. Figuring out those ideal configurations within any given day, becomes a game of strategy and timing that deepens our connection to other event-hosts and the story worlds we love.
Utility
Mementos also allow hosts and their holders to wall-off exclusive experiences and clubs that only other holders of their Mementos can access. Hosts and holders can create special polls for only members to fill out. And they can link them to various prizes, both digital and physical. They can be used as membership cards for sub-communities within Remarkist. In this way, Mementos are essentially licenses between the host and the claimant, with utility both on and off the platform. This utility can also add to its long-term preciousness.
Art and Literature
Because Mementos provide an opportunity for creative writing and graphic design, hosts can make them vessels for stories and visual expression. Hosts can use the description section of a Memento to include micro-fiction, short essays on event themes and topics, poetry, or even page-length parts of longer literature told over dozens of related Mementos. This gives Mementos collectibility and appeal simply for their artistic value and provenance. They can be appreciated and treasured as forms of unique expression.
In our next post about Mementos, we’ll examine how they are created and the best practices when doing so. And by the time we’re finished with these, you’ll be well on your way to building cool Memento content, communities, and experiences.
Get started
If you’re new to Remarkist, and you’d like to start collecting our KRNL token:
Step 1: Join our beta as an early adopter and grab your unique @membername. Install our app using the instructions here, and be one of the earliest to collect our KRNL token while earning rates are high. KRNLs fuel Remarkist’s fandom economy of events and collectibles.
Step 2: Join our Remarkist Clubhouse Club—Clubhouse is a separate mobile app on iPhone and Android that we use right now to meet and watch content together. You’ll need it to actually join us for our real-time events, and you’ll need to be a member of our club there to see those chat rooms.
Step 3: Join our Discord Server—this is where hundreds of Remarkists are geeking out over the shows we love 24 hours a day, and it’s where you can get the latest developments on the project.
Step 4: Check our website at remarkist.com for a splashy birds-eye view of the biggest stuff happening in our ecosystem.
Step 5: Subscribe to future newsletters so you can stay up to date on all the exciting stuff coming to Remarkist in 2022!
Step 6: Know your swans. There are three types of swans to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies. Find some chatter about them in our community.