New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art is using Web3 gaming and NFT rewards to encourage visitors to explore the world of art history. The new game, called Art Links, invites players to identify common threads and connections between more than 140 works of art from The Met’s collection, with new challenges to be released weekly.
It is built on Coinbase’s Base blockchain in collaboration with start-up TR Labs. In the game, players must create a chain consisting of seven artworks and six connections. They have four attempts to complete each chain.
The game offers multiple types of potential connections, such as the artistic movement the work was part of or the materials used. For example, a player could establish a link by correctly identifying that two pieces were physically made from the same materials or were part of the “cubist” movement.
Players can also connect artworks through “emojis,” shared signs, and symbols. Upon successfully finding art-based connections—or “chains”—between works, players can then claim free NFT badges and earn achievements.
Players who earn these achievements can unlock real-life rewards, such as discounts at The Met Store or private, curator-led in-person tours. Art Links also includes built-in learning moments, available via clickable icons, so users can brush up on their their art history knowledge.
The game is available now on The Met’s website and will run for 12 weeks in total.
This isn't the museum's first foray into blockchain, but it is a bit different. Back in 2023, the Met The Met teamed up with the gaming platform for Replica, an augmented reality quest-based app (available for iOS and Android) that’s linked to a Met experience within the Roblox metaverse. The app—created with technology partner Verizon—guided visitors via an interactive map to 37 selected physical artworks spread around the museum, which they can further discover by scanning the pieces in question.
In return, players could score digital collectibles—like Van Gogh’s famous straw hat—for their avatars.
Themes explored in the game include “Objects in Disguise,” highlighting artworks made from surprising and deliberately deceptive materials, such as Paper Med No. 18 by Su Xianzhong. The game also explores “Art x Tech,” showcasing works that explore artists’ dialogue with technological innovation over time, including Matthew Jensen’s The 49 States.
The Met’s show of faith in blockchain technology comes at a time when demand for NFT art has largely cooled. NFT trading volumes on marketplace Magic Eden are down 91% compared to all-time highs, and the mainstream art world appears to be turning its attention elsewhere.
Record-holding digital artist Beeple said in December that the NFT market had “come back down to Earth” and that speculators have “moved on,” though he noted that “there is still very much a lot of enthusiasm around this stuff.”
Nonetheless, intersections between high-profile art institutions and the NFT space continue to crop up.
In October, Christie’s London hosted an auction for Ascend, a dynamic digital artwork inscribed on Bitcoin’s Ordinals protocol—a first for the auction house.
Edited by Stacy Elliott.