Description
Decentraland Worlds are separate spaces not connected to the main map, known as Genesis City. When users visit your World, they’ll only see that specific scene (a store, in this case). There are no neighbors around and you can use as many plots/lands as you want.
Worlds can be obtained by two ways: by buying a Decentraland Name or by hosting it yourself or paying someone else.
Obtaining a World through buying a Decentraland Name
In Decentraland, users can claim their usernames as NFTs so no one else can use them (this is similar to ENS domains). Once bought, players will be able to use them in-game and get access to a Decentraland World which is hosted by the Decentraland Foundation. The price of a name is currently $100 MANA.
Now, take in mind that the World that comes with a Decentraland Name has some limitations. First, you can only use up to 100MB on files (which for Decentraland is more than enough) and only 100 players can be connected at the same time. This last point can be a problem if you expect a big amount of players, but you can always buy many NAMES and deploy your same store on various.
The way to access to a Decentraland Name is by using the following command << /worlds [NAME].dcl.eth >> or with your custom link (play.decentraland.org/world/[NAME]).
Obtaining a World through hosting
If you have technical knowledge, it’s possible to self-host a Decentraland World by cloning the GitHub repository. If you don’t want, you can also pay someone else to do it (we offer that service!).
Here, you don’t have a limitation on the amount of files you can use (that’s up to the server you are using), you can point your own web domain, use an .eth and possibly fix the 100 players problem (this last thing requires a bit of coding).
Limits
When a players presses X, they will have a tab that shows the Decentraland Worlds available. Unfortunately, to appear here, you have to own or rent a LAND. This limitation is imposed by the DAO (mostly by land-owners) and may change in the future.
The same applies to the events tab and website, you have to own or be renting a LAND to add an event. If this is something that you truly need, you can fix this by renting the cheapest land which will give you the ability to create an event.
In regards to self-hosting worlds, they currently cannot be displayed on the events website nor on the X panel.
Comparison with LAND
| Feature | LAND | Decentraland World |
| Publish scenes | YES | YES |
| Affordable for most people | NO | YES |
| Max. size of files | 15 MB per parcel, 300 MB max. on one ESTATE | 100 MB or unlimited if it’s hosted elsewhere |
| Triangles limitations | Each plot has a total of 10000 triangles available, you can get more if it’s an ESTATE | NO |
| Can use the events system | YES | DEPENDS (only if they own/rent a LAND and the World is through a Decentraland Name) |
| The scene ranks in-game | YES | DEPENDS (only if they own/rent a LAND and the World is through a Decentraland Name) |