Decentraland is VR platform/game similar to Second Life, built over the ethereum blockchain. Virtual items including land will be owned via blockchain.
On Augost 17, 40% of the total coins were released through an ICO for a total maxed amount of 25 millions. The ICO was so successful that maximum amount was raised in 3 blocks(around 35 seconds) . The ICO was held in the ethereum network, via smart contracts. In order to participate to the ico you should have run a smart contract in the network.
The drawback of such method is the fact that you are paying the fee for running the contract regardless if the contract is successfully run or not. The failure can result because the max gas to spend is too low or if for example the contract is run after when the tokens you want to buy are depleted.
You can find more details about on crushcrypto analysis of decentraland:
