Cracking The Case On What’s Happening @ WTF_Gameshow

Over many years of scrolling through social media, I’ve been invited into more random group chats than I can count. However, there’s always that rare occasion when an internet friend is inviting you to something significant. That’s what happened to me around this time last year. Suddenly, I’m in a chat called the “Green Room,” and it was lit up with active conversation. These were familiar faces too including some pillars of the Tezos community.

I’ve been around this ecosystem long enough to know when something interesting is happening, so I decided to stick around and see WTF this chat was all about. Turns out, it was a waiting room of sorts for a game show called, “WTF Game Show Is This?” The name alone suggests confusion. Is it a game? A social experiment? A test of endurance? In short, yes. It’s a game of charming chaos. I didn’t survive Season 1, but now the game show is in the midst of its second season and I’m starting to get the hang of it, I think. I’m definitely invested and ready to survive till the end, maybe.

That’s why I want to dive in with an article that hopefully demystifies this charming initiative hidden behind dramatized confusion, so more Tezos friends can understand WTF is going on with this game show.

What Is This Game Show?

At its core, WTF Game Show is a survival-based challenge that brings together Tezos all-stars to compete in unpredictable challenges and earn unique prizes. The mastermind behind this game is @_transparentart, the same creative force behind This Is A Raid, which was covered in a recent Tezos Commons article.

The concept is simple. Players must make it through each round to stay in the game, with each round ending in prizes for survivors and grand prizes at the finish line. But while survival might seem like a simple goal, the reality is far from it.

There are many mini-games in the group chat, and things can get pretty competitive. Part of the game’s purpose is to build stronger connections within the Tezos community, and to do that, people need to see each other for more than just their online persona. The group chat is a playground where we all get to be ourselves, for better or for worse, as we compete to win glory and amazing Tezos art.

How To Survive The Rounds

One thing that seems to trip up players is trying to keep up with the group chat. At the end of the day, what matters most is keeping up with the posts on the timeline of the WTF Game Show X account. Anything mandatory for survival will be clearly explained in official posts and on a Google spreadsheet commonly linked in the posts. You can try to get clarity about challenges in the chat, and you might even get a jump start on tasks as they are first mentioned. You might even win some auctions, but for the most part the group chat is a stream of banter, memes, and general shenanigans. This is part of the fun, and it creates a sense of community that wouldn’t exist just by waiting for posts with instructions and updates to a spreadsheet.

Round 0 Was A Race To Earn $WTF

Sometimes, the goal is to acquire game tokens called $WTF, which don’t hold a dollar value as there is no pool to trade them, but they are often used for spontaneous auctions, and more. That’s why the game began with players needing to accumulate them. For round 0 of Season 2, there were dozens of tasks players could complete to earn $WTF. At the end of the round, the top 50 holders moved to the next stage. The tasks were wholesome and fun, from attending key Tezos spaces on X to nominating people for Tezos CRP, and many creative challenges in between.

I did all the tasks I possibly could and earned more than enough $WTF to survive round 0, which allowed me to bid on auctions in the group chat, earning some amazing Tezos NFTs as bonus prizes on top of the incredible Round 0 Survivor token, “Show No Mercy!” by @normalistoxic , pictured below.

Round 1 Was A Game Of Strategic Trading

For round 1, the $WTF tokens were only used as a utility in the sense that holdings at the end of the round didn’t matter. However, auctions in the group chat hosted by the WTF Game Show account allowed players to bid in $WTF to acquire NFTs of certain letters (very artsy letters), but this was before the announcement of the win conditions.

Instead of surviving by accumulating $WTF, the win condition was unique to each player and based on trading letter NFTs with others in the group until each player fulfilled their unique assignments. “Send an A, Receive a C, Buy a D, Hold A & E” is an example of the win condition, so naturally, chaos followed.

Players frantically posted their needs in the chat, offering to trade this for that. Then there was an option to place specific offers on Objkt, to be accepted by WTF Gameshow based on certain criteria. Somehow, I managed to finish my win condition early, but at the time of writing many players are still struggling to survive the round.

It’s important to note that WTF Game Show did not even attempt to profit off of players in these Objkt offer challenges. The tez needed to place offers were airdropped to each player, courtesy of TransparentArt.

Round 1 Horse Trading Side Quest

Round 1 introduced the “WTF Is A Horse?” Creation Challenge, a Tezos tradition turned competitive side quest. Contestants were challenged to make horse-themed NFTs under a collaborative collection on Objkt.

Players created, minted, and traded horse NFTs to accumulate the largest herd. Various incentives rewarded creativity and strategy: minting a horse earned 30 $WTF, collaborating with a friend earned 20 more, and collecting the most horses won a 1/1 NFT by Acid_Reindeer. A wildcard twist challenged players to create a “0% Horse,” a horse NFT with no actual horse in it. With bartering, networking, and a touch of absurdity, this challenge embodied the game’s unpredictable charm.

The Game Shows True Purpose

Beyond the confusion and competition, WTF Game Show serves a greater purpose, bringing the Tezos community together in a way that’s both fun and meaningful. The prizes are unique works from Tezos artists, commissioned specifically for the show. The challenges encourage players to engage with the Tezos ecosystem. This creates a cycle where artists are supported, collectors get excited to be involved, and the Tezos community as a whole benefits.

So… WTF Is Happening Now?

With Season 2 well underway and nearing the end of round 1, I find myself more invested than ever. The plots are thickening, the stakes are rising, and apparently the next round is a “Unpopularity Contest”, so drama will intensify too.

Whether I’ll make it to the end this time is still up in the air, but one thing’s for sure, this is one of the most entertaining social experiments on Tezos right now. Follow along here, and if you ever find yourself suddenly added to a “Green Room” chat, don’t panic. Take a deep breath, look around, and remember, you might just be stepping into the WTF Game Show.

WTF Game Show Is This? Season 2 was originally published in Tezos Commons on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.