Wizard Wednesday Episode 17 Transcription

Wizard Wednesday Ep. 17

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Elf: [00:00:00] Uh, regardless it is time for our cult meeting, a k a Wizard Wednesday. It is November wizard. Wednesday is November, November 23rd, 2021. And, uh, It's Wizard Wednesday, guys. I'm back. I was out last week. Uh, but I'm back. And, uh, yeah, I've got a mil, like literally a million things to say. Um, it was killing me last week not being able to talk to you guys.

Uh, but Dota and Bear Snake and Lochness did an excellent job. And, um, you know what? I, I think I, I think I'm just gonna start with the thing that I loved the most about last Wednesday. Um, Dota, you know what? You know what it is.

My, my favorite thing about this. I know It's okay. Bear. What is it? Pretty

Cult Member: sure it has to do

Bearsnake: with the last few minutes. Um, yes. It start,

Cult Member: it starts with an nest.

Elf: Yes. And ends [00:01:00] with an Aaron. We're talking about Sharon Sharon's story time. Oh. Oh my God. That was amazing. So good. Sharon, you're a prof. It melted my heart.

Yeah, you're a professional storyteller, Sharon. It was like your voice, your, your story. Like everything. I just loved everything about it. Um, I wanted the,

Dotta: I wanted the children's book. Like my children are still at an age where I could read it to them and it would work, and so it's like we've gotta get it made to be so

Elf: fun.

Yeah. Yeah. And it just, You know, not only was it great and she was great, but it just, it's, it's, it's one more wrinkle to the whole diversity of the cult. You know, we, we, I just, I love how we have so many different voices in, in the cult and, and Sharon is just like, like a whole new dimension of it. Um, dragons are in a video game, like you're immediately impulses to just overpower your character.

And make it as godlike as possible. [00:02:00] Um, but if you wanna create a character that's relatable, that has humanity, um, yeah, you've gotta build those weaknesses in, you've gotta build those limitations in, because as humans, that's what we all have. And that's, that's where our, our conflict comes from. That's where our stories come from.

Um, You know, e even, even the most interesting gods in like, uh, in, in mythology, like Greek mythology for example, even, even they had human flaws and, and made errors and, um, You know, that that's probably what made their story so compelling is that they're, they're, they had so much drama in their lives. Um, so, so yeah, think about that when you're creating the lo for your wizards and pretty much everybody I've seen is, is pretty much doing that.

Um, I think everybody understands this pretty well. I think it gives it a touch. I think it gives it a touch a bit, a bit of humility. Something that we all can [00:03:00] relate to unless you're like Jesus or something, you know? Right. Yeah. No comment. No comment. Right, right. Yeah. Um, and then, uh, So, okay. And then another obvious thing that's happening right now that's super fun that I everybody's latched onto, like within the last hour is, of course the nouns, the wizard nouns, um, the noun wizards.

How much do you love that?

Cult Member: Uh,

Elf: it's, it's something they turned out or, uh, Better than the original wizard. Just say it.

Cult Member: Wait, can we talk?

Bearsnake: Can we, can we talk? This is actually really important. Oh, this is actually really important. I think. Doda, do you think you can talk a little bit about, so the genesis of this, because I think we want more of this in

Dotta: in our lives. [00:04:00] Yeah, exactly. Okay. So I don't know if you follow me on Twitter, but like I've been sort of like talking a.

To also be financially viable. Um, what I mean is, is that like there's always something weird about the fact that like when someone creates a derivative artwork, how the original creator, then now it's like go to the courts or something to try to like shut that down when really what you just have is like a fan who loves something and they're like building on top of it, right?

Like there's no reason that like Harry Potter fan fiction should be illegal, right? There's no reason that sort of, you should get DMCA when you like do a derivative Mickey Mouse. Like this idea that you like. Uh, really that these ideas exist as part of the, the lore and the stories of all of us is really an important part of what makes wizards.

Um, and I think it works for NFTs in general, right? Every, every punk mural makes punks more like larger than life. And you know, I love this idea of having nouns, wizards. So nouns is another project that thinks similarly. [00:05:00] Nouns license is actually even looser than the current wizards li. It's creative common Zero.

So they have like almost no, um, like rights with help. And uh, so we had the name like, oh, what if we created a announce? Was bread that painted all of these? I, I believe, I don't there were any other pixel artists that, that helped her with substance. Correct me if I'm wrong in the chat. Uh, and you know, we've of course loved bread and, and, and bread's work from just like the gay one.

Um, and. Yeah, they put this together, the team put this together, so tv, um, along with Sorc, Ilia, and Oo and Bread all collaborated, um, to create, recreate all of the heads, recreate all of the bodies, and they just are so charming. Uh, I believe Gremlin actually is one of the original for like the noun. I know the Lio.

Um, and so it's really fun

Elf: just to see how like iconic. Um, the nouns.

Dotta: I look at them and you're like, oh, these look just like nouns, but at this time you see a wizard every single time. [00:06:00] Right? Like, it doesn't look like any of the other nouns projects. So it's this, this merging of these like two iconic, like, I don't know, emerging universes.

And I just, I just love it.

Elf: Yeah. Um, bread or TV or O or s Spz, do you guys wanna say anything about it? Cause you guys are the ones who made it.

Dotta: Yeah. I know you guys are here. Yeah, I'll let you guys, uh, come up and talk about it if anybody wants to ask to speak, but like, you know, one of the things, so like one second.

Yeah. Uh, the, oh. Uh, Coming up. One of the things I think is important is like, if, if you look at how, for example, like Google works. Google works. The, the invention of Google, the page rank invention of Google was this idea that, um, that if a page is linked to by other pages on the internet, then that page must be important, right?

If I'm looking [00:07:00] up, How, like what is vitamin B and its uses or whatever. And the page that like basically the most pages on the internet linked to describing vitamin B is the most important page for learning that concept. And so similarly you can think of that same idea around like, you know, um, I think that's just an important thing that the universe will sort of like relearn as NFTs become more popular.

So, uh, alright. Anybody up here from the, uh, The Nouns project. I wanna speak. Oh, Magus. Devin, you're already up.

No, I don't think so. Alright, right. Lf, why

Elf: don't you just move on then. Um, TIV came up. Tiv, do you have anything to say? Uh, he got kicked off somehow. Hold on. He, he requested one more time. I can't invite him back. Oh, there we go. Yeah. Here he comes. Hey,

Dotta: can you hear me? Yeah.

Elf: Cool. Um, yeah, I just wanted to give some [00:08:00] shout outs to everyone involved cuz it was a, a real collaborative effort.

I don't think we're connecting. I can hear him. Oh yeah. I think maybe Doda has some connection issues from what I can tell. Um, but anyway, yeah. Some shout outs to everyone involved. Um, yeah. Bread for the art, it's perfect. It's like exactly what you would want for Wizards crossed with nouns. Um, s PZ for development.

Oh, came up with the logo, the, the donut noun and the lore. Um, and then a handful of other people helped out in like reviewing or advising. Um, there was my real life friend and now Wizard, uh, B V k, sn, um, Chuck K helped on reviewing the site and the minting process, which made the minting process a lot smoother thanks to his feedback.

Um, Zuki of course, was there. Advising and reviewing, um, popular reviewed the [00:09:00] contract for me and pointed out a potential issue, which I really appreciated. Um, and then Peppi also reviewed the, the Mint process and, and the contract and Dota reviewed the contract, which was nice piece of mind cuz it was the first contract I've deployed.

So, um, yeah, just a testament to like the Forgotten Ruins universe and team that something like this is even like, first of all, even allowed and then, Second of all, um, you know, encouraged and like, ends up being a, you know, um, so welcomed by the team and the community is, is really cool. It's just, yeah, it's great.

Um, oh, and also to clarify, it is, Tv, not Tiff cuz someone asked it in the chat, but Okay,

Cult Member: great. Not a big deal. Awesome. Thank you. Yeah, like I, I, it, it was

Dotta: mind boggling to me that cool Cats issued a D M C A to someone who made like baby cats. Now look, maybe I'm [00:10:00] uninformed about what actually went down. The space moves fast.

Maybe like whatever, like, you know, someone explained to me that I'm wrong to think that they were wrong, but like, Yeah, well, it's not that they were wrong, it's just that that's the choice that they would make, that they would wanna shut that down. Right. And I think, I love noun wizards and you know, I'm not trying to flood the market with sort of wizard NFTs.

Um, but I think really gas is the problem there. Not kind of like dilution of the, the brand or anything. If someone wants to make baby wizards, like, do it, it's so adorable and be amazing. And so like, you know, whatever. I think as tokens, we have to digest it. But I love, I really love. That you guys, uh, did this, and so I think it

Elf: looks so good.

Yep. Yeah, that's my favorite thing. Also, just wanna say thank you to everyone for claiming their noun wizard so far. Uh, and seeing all the profile pictures is, is super fun. So I'm really enjoying the, you know, the response to it and, and getting to see everyone's. [00:11:00]

Dotta: And I think that this plays into two things too.

Like, one, two things I know EL wants to talk about. One is around this idea of like, How, how good that it was that we started with this very simple representation because we can scale it up in different ways. And then two, this idea of like, what is the cannon? Like what are the official forgotten ruins?

What does it mean to have like an official version of the, um, of the universe? And so, I don't know, El Alpha, if you wanna talk a bit about those things.

Elf: Yeah. Yeah. I've got, oh, I've got so many things to say. Um, so yeah. Yeah, it does touch on both of these topics. You're right. Um, one is this notion about, um, star, how we started with very, very simple pixel characters, um, as opposed to a, a more detailed, hand drawn illustration like you see with a lot of PFP projects.

Um, And, and, and this is why I, I think we made the right choice, at least for us, for what we [00:12:00] want to do. And so it's, you can kind of think of it as like the wizards themselves are ruins, okay? And, and, The, we did a Deezy spaces in the very beginning and I answered, what is aroon? What are the ruins? Um, and during that space, as I said, Aroon is an abstract symbol that represents a broader concept in the world.

It's a, it's a simplified pictogram that speaks to a bit bigger thing. And, um, the wizards NFTs are al also very simplified pixel images on a, on a 50, uh, by 50 pixel square. And so in a way, the wizards themselves are ruins, they are simple symbols that speak to a larger thing. Um, and we, we didn't make these wizards in the pixel style just because Crypto Punks did it and we wanted to copy them.

Like we had a very specific reason for doing so. Um, we did it because we wanted to start with an ultra simple [00:13:00] seed of an idea from which you can scale up infinitely, because if you start with something really complex, And you have to scale down for whatever reason. Then you lose information and therefore you lose identity.

Um, and so like, not to pick on board apes, they're great, but like reducing a board ape down to like a sup, super simple pixel character that would walk around like in the, the, the web three metaverse we've been playing in lately. Um, you, you might have to lose some of that information. Um, but if, if you start super simple, then you, you can, you can, you can be in all the simple medi metas or you can scale up in infinitely, and you can scale in multiple directions.

You can branch in infinite different ways. Um, so I just, I, I, that's, that's what I love about this project is, um, Is [00:14:00] just, just starting simple and scaling up, uh, infinitely. It just, it, it's only, um, it's only additive instead of subtractive. It'll almost never be subtractive. It's always additive, which then allows every wizard holder to enrich their N F T in their own unique way.

Um, so that's what I mean by the wizards themselves are ruins. Um, And then I, I, I guess the second thing that this whole nouns thing is making me think of, um, is, is like, is this notion of canon and, and what, what canon actually means. Um, if you, if you don't know what that word means, it just means like, like what is the official.

Uh, story of something, what is the accepted official story? Um, and this, this can be applied to like Star Wars or Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones. Like what is the official story that those authors wrote about this [00:15:00] particular franchise or whatever. Um, But it, it can even also apply to human history itself in the I R L world.

What is, what is the official accepted narrative of any particular history? Um, and as far as that goes, you know, we like to think that we have an accurate model of the past, uh, but. There's always the question, do we really, despite every brilliant historian's best efforts, do we really have inaccurate model of the past?

Um, you know, none of us can really say. Um, and so the point is, is there's, there's, there's this al there's always this ambiguity about what is canon and what is not. Um, and so like, I know that Zla Soul, for example, has been DMing me and asking me for a lot of information about what's, what's the, he's what's, you know, information about the, the me lore and what each, um, like head represents and how do we classify and categorize them.

And I, I keep [00:16:00] telling him, and I've even told all of you that I'm working on a Master Lord document, which I am, but it's taking me freaking forever. Um, But I, you know, I, I don't want ze soul to have to wait on me to like write his version of, of the, the Forgotten ruins cannon. Um, and so I, I, I'm at a point where I'm thinking like, I'm not sure what the official cannon will ever be.

I, I think it's better to just lean into this notion that maybe there is always going to be ambiguity about it because, There's ambiguity and every canon humanity has ever grappled with. Um, so. Well, and, and what's interesting about it is like the canon that usually rises to the top is either the canon that's either most compelling, the most aesthetically pleasing, or, uh, as they say in history, um, history is written by the victors.

Um, so I, I think as, as the canon of the universe is being developed, it's gonna be created by [00:17:00] those who create the most compelling art in lore. Um, and it's, you know, it's just, it's just gonna be forever shaped and for forever evolving forever. Uh, ambiguous and flexible and, um, it's, it's gonna be all of you that help shape it just as much as me or, or donor bear, snake or tit mouse or, or anyone.

Um, so that's, I think that's kind of the way sh we should embrace it for at, at the, for the time being.

I totally agree. Yep. Yep. Yep.

Dotta: All right, let's hop to ask questions in the secret tower time, so Oh, cool. We've got a couple of RapidFire questions we can handle and, uh, and we'll talk about it. Okay. Timeline and process for affinities, for the main collection in open sea. I would like to do this in December.

I think that it, um, you know, we have a first pass done already, but [00:18:00] they're already kind of, um, sort of. There are things that people care very deeply about with regards to affinity, and I wanna make sure that I don't change it. Um, and so, you know, I'm gonna try to do my best to kind of cross reference affinity settings and the things that people care about.

Um, shark Child has been very helpful with me on that. Um, that said, it's like a big deal. To kind of add affinity numbers, and I wanna make sure that everyone is happy with it. And then even once I get sort of that data lined up, I'm gonna put it to the A community vote before we even make that change. So yeah, I, it's a goal for December, but if it ends up being January, that's not something that I feel that we wanna push out too fast.

Um, Someone says, I'd love to talk. Uh, eth wave says, I'd love to talk about our awesome community and wizard now, which we did, and also would love to hear about the animated show that you were cooking up. Uh, yeah. Help. Would you like to, uh, address some of that?

Elf: Sure. [00:19:00] Yeah. Um, okay. Let me just say, Holy crap.

I've been seeing some, some animated sequences. I've been sharing them with the team. Um, I shared one yesterday that just blew my, and, um, the, the, the, the dilemma behind the scenes is like, is like I wanna share this immediately. I wanna show everybody cuz this is so badass. But then I also. Want to like save some stuff for the official release.

Um, cuz like, I want, like, you know, if we share too much, then it, then it's not gonna be as cool when we finally release it, but, I also, I want to, I don't know, there, there's like, there's like a science to, um, to I, I guess like marketing something and, and, and, and share sharing things and just building the hype around a, a thing that's gonna be released.

And I'm, I'm, I don't know how to do it pro, [00:20:00] like the best way to do it. So, I don't know. I mean, Dota and, and Bear, you guys also had str like, opinions on this? Um,

Bearsnake: yeah, I think, uh, And listen, I,

Dotta: I don't, I don't

Bearsnake: necessarily think there's a science to marketing. I think especially in our

Cult Member: space,

Bearsnake: it's a bit different.

You know, I think, uh, people, these projects, especially with our community, I feel like no matter, I feel like everybody, like our whole concept is like lifting up the curtain and showing people what's happening in process. And so I'm all for like oversharing. But I totally understand, like the, i I the idea of everybody has seen every single frame, um, before the trailer drops, then maybe it's not as exciting.

So I I I think we should, we should continue sharing. Um, but maybe keep a couple, a couple fun pieces that,

Elf: that are brand new. Yeah. I mean, I mean that's, that's the question I [00:21:00] gue, I guess is like every time tit Mouse gives me a little piece of art or animation, The, the question is, is this something we share now or is this something we hold back?

And it's so hard to like label each thing in into one of those categories. Um, you know, I I, my feeling at this point is like, maybe we don't show anything that comes from the actual trailer, but we can show things like concept art, like, like the evolution of the cobalt that I showed the other day. Like that specific art.

As it's shown is not gonna be in the final piece, but it still shows, uh, the process and it still gives a lot of fun hints about what's to come. Um, to me that was like shareable content, but like this animated piece that I showed you guys the other day, I don't know. I feel like that needs to be held back until release.

That's just me. I don't know the

Dotta: answer.

Bearsnake: I think, I think it's going to be evolving and I [00:22:00] think, uh, We'll, we'll feel, we'll feel strongly about certain things and strong and not so strongly about others, and I don't think we're gonna have a hard and fast rule,

Cult Member: honestly.

Elf: Sure, yeah. Yeah, I mean, part, part of the challenge also is like this, this final piece is gonna be like a minute, 20 seconds, somewhere around there.

And this, this animated piece is already like, I don't know, like five seconds. So if we show it, it's already like a huge chunk that's, that's already been shared. Um, so I, yeah, I don't know. But yeah, to answer the, the original question, the, the animation is, it's going so well, it's going so well. I cannot freaking wait to show you guys.

Bearsnake: I think it's, I think it's going to, um, sort of be a great first look at, at what, uh, a proper television show could look like for wizards. And I think that's, that's what's gets what, that's what gets me real excited about is, you know, the ability [00:23:00] to tell long, long form storytelling. Um, and I know that that's, that gets you excited too.

El and, and Dota and everybody. There's, it's, it's just a whole new medium. It's a whole different way of communicating. Um, right now we have the book of lore, which is probably the, the, the, the best way to tell stories about our wizards. Um, but this is like, this would be like a half an hour show where there's just dialogue and developing the world and characters and conflict and resolution, and that's just, that just gets me so excited.

Talk about Canada, you know.

Elf: Yeah, it's like, I, I just wanna blurt out what, what, what this animated sequence I shared the other day, day was, I mean, it was just like, mindblowingly good,

Bearsnake: but everybody should keep in mind that it's just six. It's like, it's a, it's like almost a minute and a half. So it's

Dotta: not

Bearsnake: like this long, massive piece, but it's really, it's, it's, it's action packed.

Elf: Yep. Yep. Yep. Let's go. Next topic. All [00:24:00] right. Uh, looks like do just joined. Um, okay, let me look at my list. Oh, I know a fun thing. Okay. Um, yeah, this is a fun thing coming up and this is thanks to acrylic. I'm not sure if acrylic is in, is in here acrylic. If you're in here. Um, just request to speak cuz you kind of led the charge on this.

Uh, but we are starting up a, um, a Dungeons and Dragons, uh, I guess, Not necessarily campaign, but just a, um, we're, we're gonna start playing Dunson and Dragons with, with everybody. And we, we did a test run, uh, last weekend, um, with the core team and, uh, so, so, yes. And, and Matsui slash Magis Devin of the Quantum Downs, he joined us.

Um, It was so much fun. It was so much fun. I, I'm like, kind of ashamed to admit, but that's the first time I [00:25:00] ever played Dungeons and Dragons. Um, I've always wanted to play, honestly, but just nobody ever like, Invited me, I guess. Oh,

Cult Member: poor elf. I

Elf: know, I know. But yeah, it was my first, sorry. What's up Magus? Did you have fun as well?

I had lots of fun. And I wanna say, despite it being your first time, you're really great at, at acting out all of your moves

Cult Member: and adding

Elf: so much flair to everything. I can't wait to see what you and what other people do. Um, if they're wizards, when they start, if they, when they do start, um, doing d and d.

Yeah, no, I, I was having so much fun with it. Um, you know, I, I, I'll, I'll give my impressions as a first timer. I'm sure a lot of you in the, in the audience have played Dungeons and Dragons before, so I'm, I'm probably gonna say a lot of naive things, but, um, if you haven't played Dungeon Dragons, it's the, the thing that like explained it for me really well, our, our Dungeon Mastery.

He said, um, he's like, he's like, imagine you're playing a video game, and, and [00:26:00] the coders have like, They have scripted all the, the battle and the actions and the story and, and, um, the mechanics and, and, and this, I guess the C P U or whatever is handling all of that in a video game. But we don't have that.

So the Dungeon Master is basically doing all of that for you. Um, And then if there, there's of course the dice to like handle a lot of the outcomes. But, but what was really cool that I, uh, light went on for me is, is unlike a video game, you can literally do anything you want when you're going on one of these adventures.

Um, so like, I was like, I. Interrupting the dungeon Master a lot, and like I would say, Hey, I, I just stole something. Or, or like, or like, I would, I, they, they gave us all like a bag of equipment and I, you know, I was always looking through my bag of equipment and trying to like, think of creative things I could do with, with them.

And. You know, I'll, I'll say this much. I, I destroyed like one of the main bosses with like nothing but [00:27:00] a, a, um, a flask of oil and a candle. I set 'em on fire. Um, and so yeah, you're really just limited by your imagination. Um, and, but regardless, we're we want to start doing these with the rest of the cult, we're gonna have signup sheets.

We're gonna make it so you can actually be your wizard in these Dungeons and Dragons one shots. Um, And yeah, I mean, bear Snake you were playing too. Did you? I, the funny thing about Bear Snake is every time he tried to do something at one roof to another, he got like a very bad role and he would just fall off.

Like he could not even jump onto

Dotta: roofs.

Bearsnake: It was very, uh, I'll say it's very upsetting cuz I see myself as somewhat of an athletic. Humanoid and every time I like, I would like describe me, like jumping off of this roof to the next roof and like doing a back flip and like shooting some darts outta my hands.

Like I would, then I would roll the dice and then, and then I'd get [00:28:00] like a two and, and so the master would be like, well, So you tried to do all those things that you did, but you slip and you fall on your back and you, and

Dotta: you hurt yourself.

Bearsnake: And so I think I learned that. I don't sort of pontificate about like what awesome things are gonna do until after I make a roll.

Elf: No, my favorite part was not only did you not make the jump, but you missed it and you hurt yourself like you did damage to yourself. Hey, you know

Dotta: what

Bearsnake: that was? I thought that was kind of a, like a little cheap, a cheap, cheap punch to me in the Dungeon Master. I did not need to hurt myself.

Elf: Well, the, the, the two that you rolled would say otherwise, dude.

Bearsnake: Okay. Let's get back to the more important way. Can we talk about where this is all headed and everybody else can join in on the fun and make fun of me? Yeah, totally.

Elf: Let's talk about it. Yeah. So I wish the organization go, go ahead. We'll still have to

Dotta: like, yeah, [00:29:00] for the organization we will like figure that out.

Sign up sheets, catch demand, you know, it's like three hours. So. It's a bit of a time commitment. And then I think the more time the same people play, the more you like kind of depth you can have. Especially cuz sometimes if you wanna develop a character with your wizard, um, we've got some dungeon masters that I, you know, I believe we're gonna be able to kind of like, help them learn our lore and have them like people play as, as, um, wizards are at least within kind of like this, this universe at some point.

You know, I don't know if this is gonna be the game one, but that's the direction that we're going, right? That you'll be able to sort of like play d and d. As your wizard with wizards, with people who kind of recognize the Lord and it should be just so fun. So we'll, we'll send out the, we'll organize this via discord and get demand and, and, and kind of organize

Elf: it that way.

Yep, yep, for sure.

Dotta: I mean,

Bearsnake: I think the idea here is like, we believe there's a huge crossover between the. The, the d and d community in our [00:30:00] community. So maybe at some point we can, we should like do some kind of Twitter vote or, or something because I, I think that's, that's what we're thinking. That's what our inclination is.

But would love to get some feedback from, from

Dotta: the group. And I just think it's fun. We all hang out with each other in discord, like all day. And so it's fun to like have some weekends where we get to spend some FaceTime

Elf: and, and have something to do. The, the cool thing is somebody tweeted like months ago, they, I can't, I wish I remember who it was.

They said Forgotten Ruins is really just one big online game of d and d and it's, it's, it's pretty, it's kind of true. Um, yeah, so like everybody in the cult is just gonna like, really. I think enjoy and, and understand the, the, the d and d one shots. Right. Um, ze, so you got cut off when, uh, when we, uh, we disconnected.

I, did you wanna say anything or No, I was thinking that you can just give us like five minutes of the trailer just to give us something

Dotta: to feed off of. [00:31:00]

Elf: Right.

Dotta: The trailer is only one minute, so five minutes you can, you're gonna have to repeat.

Elf: No. Five seconds. Five seconds. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Put it in a gif or something.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. We probably will as as it gets closer. Yeah. Another

Dotta: question that we had along those lines, someone said, Oh, go ahead, Ze. So sorry. Oh, I'm sorry.

Elf: Another thing I was thinking, um, back, this

Dotta: segues back to,

Elf: uh, the collective world building. As far as the lore, I'm, I don't think it's too much of a bad idea cuz this would be like a Darwinian space for ideas like the strongest and was fit.

The fit the whole lore, the whole puzzle of the, you know, the thing we're trying to build will like, will eventually get extrapolated upon and you'll see in like more derivatives and

Dotta: comics and

Elf: shit, you know? Yeah. Yep. Yep, that's exactly right. I can't wait. Yep. Yeah, there, there is a Darwinian feature to it all.

It's just like the, the most compelling stuff rises to the top. Definitely. Speaking of [00:32:00] art,

Dotta: maybe we could talk about Art of the Week. Dun.

Elf: Yeah. It's, uh, yeah. Who it's, it's so hard to say, like, what's, what's the, uh, I guess quote unquote Art of the Week? Uh, well, not this week, start.

Dotta: The art of the week this week is Bob the Bregar who got the, another flame tattoo. I don't, I don't know if you guys saw, it's deep in the chat, but like, I dunno, I think it's hard to beat a tattoo for Art of the Week, but

Elf: there's a lot of art this week.

Yes. Well, I, I was gonna mention, um, of course Magus Wasier again, uh, with an awesome, with an awesome 3D character, um, waving legend GM and everybody. Yeah, it's, it's, I, I mean, it's Magus Wasier. It's, it's amazing. Um, so yeah, it, yeah, it looks like it's a fully rigged character so that I'm, I'm, I'm expecting more animation from this, this CG character made.

Yeah. We, we

Dotta: talked about it internally. We're like, oh, should we give out like a pope or like a badge [00:33:00] every week for like, who does the, who does like the best wizard outta the week? And we're just like, We'll just be giving Magus Wei like, uh, the award every week. Like, how many awards

Elf: does one bell Ringer need?

Yeah. Yeah. You know, one, one thing about, I'm, I'm looking at ma in, uh, his CG model right now and, and just one little detail that's standing out to me that I think is interesting is, um, The, the original Pixel art has the little green cape, um, over one of the arms, but he built it so that it goes behind the full back.

And I, I love this because, you know, it's like a, is a, as I was saying earlier, the, the wizards, the original NFT is just a very simplified character. And then you can extrapolate. You can scale up infinitely and you know, you can totally take ownership of your Wizard NFT and make little changes like that.

Um, you can change the cape, you can change all these little details as much as you want and make it your own. And, and he sort of did that [00:34:00] with the Cape. I, I know it's also hard to make a, a CG cape anyway cuz cloth is hard in cg, so maybe that's why he did it. Um, but, but yeah, that's, I I love it. Um, and then speaking of CG characters, uh, there was another CG wizard, um, I, I'm gonna pronounce the name wrong.

Uh, Jose Ken Kenza maybe. Um, he made the, uh, the gray pilgrim. Do you know which one I'm talking about? Doda. Did we lose that? Yeah, it was

Dotta: adorable. Yeah, adorable. I'm gonna try to share these tweets while you talk through 'em. I'll try to share these tweets

Elf: here in the. Yeah. Yeah. And, and the caption is, is he cute wise, or both?

Um, definitely both. Uh, yeah, it's just a beautiful piece of CG CG artwork. Um, although it looks like this was commissioned, so I'm not sure who the original artist is. Uh, but it, but it was, it's so great. Um, and [00:35:00] then, uh, I'm scrolling through. I'm looking what else we've got. Um, Magus was there, also made some kind of a roguelike, it looks like the prototype to a Roguelike game or, um, Oh yeah.

Dotta: Well, cuz that was with Legend maps. So while you were away, we all, not we all, but like I and a bunch of other wizards, we minted from this project, legend Maps. And they're really, they're super fun. They're these like KY art, uh, they know about wizards and in fact, if you look at their names and it's like, um, you know, it's like the, like the stinky dungeon of the beholder

Elf: or whatever, and it's like, they're so fun and really

Dotta: good.

Yeah. So I think that's what that map is from cuz they're building it as like a, as like a metaverse primitive, uh, like we are, um, for

Elf: like Dungeons. Awesome. Yeah, that project looks super cool. I need to dig more into it, but I, I, I love the, uh, the Ask e Art style that they've got going. I can send you one.

And then, um, uh, chemical [00:36:00] Imbalance did this hilarious, uh, little mushroom video with, with this amazing like chip tune music to it. Um, and then it just like melts. Um, so yeah, chemical Imbalance has been doing a lot of really cool videos lately. Um, and then, oh, and then him, Boyd is, uh, he's, he's, uh, he's um, Drawing a full, uh, illustration of sorcerer, hadr hadrian, which is looking super cool, and I think he's got a baseball bat, uh, which I do not remember putting baseball bats in the collection.

But, um, if you want your wizard to have a baseball bat, I think that's, I think they're in the world. Yeah. Yeah. I think you can do that. Yeah. Totally acceptable. Um, cool. Let's see.

Dotta: All right, so another question that we had in the [00:37:00] chat was, can you give an update on the game? Um, and the update is we are inches away from closing that deal. I mean, without pressing on it too much. Um, you know, as we talked many times, we are just in love with our game developer. We, um, I have personally known them for a long time and then they also, I'm just impressed with their work they have.

Um, so we are inches away from signing a deal with them. We were hoping to get it finished before Thanksgiving holiday. We didn't quite make that deadline. Um, but yeah, I think like, you know, I'm not gonna put a date on it because it's in the sort of like last inches phase, but we're very close, so that's exciting.

Um, They have shown us a few, uh, like screenshots and like mockups and like, I don't know, not to over blow it, but like my jaw was on the floor. Like I was just like, could, was just like couldn't. I looked at and was like, oh, this is amazing, like, we're actually gonna do a [00:38:00] game. This is gonna be incredible.

So, Uh, I don't know. I don't, I don't wanna like press on it too much until we sign, but we're just very excited. It's like so close. Just bear with me. Yeah. Uh,

Bearsnake: yeah. The only thing I'll add is just to underline what you're saying is like just seeing some of the stuff that they're sharing already. The gra, like, I don't, I didn't, the gravity of what we were, what we are embarking on with them, I think really landed when, when we've started to see some of this stuff.

It really, uh, it was, it was intense in, in, in the best way possible. So excited to share

Dotta: it. And it speaks to how, and it speaks to how great they are, that like we don't even have a signed deal and they're already so excited

Elf: about like,

Dotta: You know, designing certain mechanics and interfaces and, and it's, they, they're already doing so much work on it,

Elf: so.

Yep. Yeah. 1, 1, 1 cool thing I'm noticing is, um, like between worldwide web, that meta, and then this current one is like, every time the [00:39:00] wizards go into a new meta, there's like little artistic flourishes that. Make them slightly different. So like, worldwide web put like a black outline around the wizards.

Um, and then the art that I'm seeing from our game developer, they're like doing interesting things like putting a little bit of a gradient, putting like some glows and highlights on them. Um, and, and I'm just loving everything that I see.

Um, so yeah, I can't wait to share that stuff with you guys. It's, it's so great. Um,

Dotta: and that said, you know, the, we're doing, so we are doing of course, this like official forgotten roots Metaverse. Um, and you know, one of the conversations that we've even had with the, the developers is just like, you know, reminding them kind of, of the fact that.

Every wizard holder, of course, owns the character and the [00:40:00] representations of their character. They have a commercial right to use that character. And so, and we've also provided the, all of the spreadsheets, for example, um, as like free t like you can use them in other games. And that's what we saw with like web three for example, last week.

Um, and you know, they are of course like on board with that and, and, and so. You know, if you want to kind of use the spreadsheets with legend maps to build a dungeon crawler, that's still totally part of, um, something that is like allowed and encouraged and we're so thankful to have found a game developer that is like also not being, um, you know, that's not drawing, they're not pulling away from that either.

Like they get kind of the

Elf: openness and the creativity as part of our, of our community's culture. Yep. Um, so I think we have a lore share from Give Ahoo today. Is, are, are, is that, is that true? Uh,

Cult Member: yes. Yeah. Can you hear me?

Elf: Yes. Yes. How's it going? What's, uh, [00:41:00]

Cult Member: thank you. Thank you for having

me.

Elf: Yeah. Are you, uh, are you ready?

Cult Member: I am, I am. So, I mean, You started off the spaces with it, but like last week I enjoyed Sharon's Laura reading so much, but at the same time I hated it. Cause I'm like, oh my God, I have to go next. Like, are you kidding me? Like, uh, so I'll try, you know, I'm not gonna be able to follow that up, but hey, uh, I'll give it a shot.

Wizards

Dotta: are for everyone. We are excited

Cult Member: to hear. That's right. Um, so this is a unique lore reading cuz this actually isn't lore for a wizard, but actually a game that, um, my team and I are developing that's set in the forgotten ruins, uh, universe. Um, so, you know, like unlike a lot. That happens in the universe.

I think everyone kind of starts with a story, you know? So, uh, before I did any coding or mopping up or anything, I'm like, you know, I kind of was like, what is this? Like what's, what's the origin story? And it kind of just came to me. So [00:42:00] this is what I got. Um, and, uh, and I hope you all enjoy it. So the, the working title for the games also called Roons.

So, um, this is the Roons lore. Although no one knows with certainty where the game was first played. Ruins is a cordial practice that supposedly originates from the tavern, a now infamous establishment that is tucked away in a remote brown hat village. While the tavern today is more or less formally known as such, this is not a name.

It shows for itself, rather it's patrons chose for it. For years and years, the tavern didn't have a name as it didn't need one seen as it is anta, as a, it is a place with no equal. Brown Hatters from the region would just say the tavern. And anyone who knew knew the tavern is a simple structure with simple offerings, but all those who visit it can recognize its unique wonder, even if they can't ar quite articulate why long wooden tables that stretch across a a large singular room while obviously worn from years of service somehow seem more well-equipped to perform than ever.

The [00:43:00] interior of the walls are decorated with weathered tools of various trades as a dis tradition for the tradesmen far and wide to retire their most prized possessions in this sacred place so they can energize the next generation of laborers. The bartenders masters of Friendly yet unassuming dance are able to make all feel welcome from the social butterflies to the distant recluse.

And the beer. Oh the beer, one sip of the house nectar, and whatever ails you was cured. People have tried to replicate the recipe as it isn't a secret yet. No one si. Nope. Not one single attempt has been able to yield something as good. This is why one only needs say the tavern. And as for ruins, the story goes that the game finds its roots and the childhood game.

Tic-tac toe. One day as some tavern goers were trying to make a row of three, a particularly happy player slammed a wooden disc down on the table and chipped an opponent's piece to the inebriated. This action was obviously way more satisfying than a gentle placement of an item, so the game briefly transformed into a gauntlet of bashing and bludgeoning.

But after [00:44:00] one too many spilled pints and shattered mugs, the bar keeps decided to yet again evolve the game to keep the newly found fun, but lose the barbarism. And that is the birth of Ruined, as we know today. Now players strategically place cards on a grid while only figuratively bashing and bludgeoning with the goal of controlling the most cards by the end of the game.

Since its inception, the world of forgotten ruins has embraced ruins as as its own, bringing into bars and homes and other places of gathering all over regional, national, and international tournaments, dubbed Grand Masters and champions, some individual cards being more famous than kings and queens. Yet, it's something that wizards and non wizards alike of all ages, cultures, and hats can enjoy.

Lands far and wide have their own unique rules that they overlay on top of the foundational ones. Some additions being tame and others quite imaginative. No rule or variation, however, causes the game to lose sight of its purpose. Players engage in a battle of wits, but more importantly, a bonding of souls.

And there [00:45:00] you go.

Elf: Dude, please tell me you're making this game in real life. Yeah,

Cult Member: it, uh, I mean, yeah, we're, we are, we're building it. It's kindly, I mean, this, it's, it's, you know, this might be a little premature, like, you know, we're still, we're just getting started, but I couldn't help myself. I am so excited about it.

I'm like, trying to be cautiously optimistic. But, but yeah. So, um,

Elf: wait, I, I just, is, is this the game you were DMing me about the other day? Yes. Oh, okay. Okay. Now, okay, got it. I, I just made the connection. Yeah. Awesome. Okay. Very nice. Yeah, this is cool. Um, yeah, cuz yeah, we usually get a, a, a piece of lore about a, a specific wizard, but like you, you gave Laura about a, a place and a game.

That's, that's very cool.

Bearsnake: Can you tell us a little bit about the game

Cult Member: or is it too early? Yeah, no, totally. I mean, not to give, uh, I won't go into any mechanics or anything just cause I can't, uh, I mean it's not, also, not totally finalized. But yeah, it's gonna be a game where, [00:46:00] um, It's gonna be a card game, um, actually based off of a game that some people might know.

Um, I borrow a lot of mechanics from, from one of my favorite card games. Um, and, and yeah, so the, the game's gonna be played with NFTs, so the cards are going to be NFTs, um, it's gonna be all set in the forgotten rooms or it's gonna. Set in, borrow me mesh with, uh, I mean, uh, I've, I've been pinging elf and actually, uh, pinging Zla soul a bunch because, um, for this game I thought it'd be really fun to start to kind of like, think about what kind of creatures and people and, and being as entities live in the root averse.

And so I've been doing a lot of like, you know, stuff there. So basically cards will, will borrow, you know, Be creatures and plea people and places from, from the universe. Um, and yeah, I mean, and one thing also, I, I mean, I mean this, the community is amazing and one thing that it kind of, [00:47:00] um, like drives home is that like the idea of like co-authoring and experience is such a powerful kind of concept.

Yep. Um, and it really shows through and forgotten rooms. And so I want this game to be that, because. Um, I mean some of my, most me, some of like, so I'm a, I I love Magic. The gathering played a ton. Mm-hmm. And some of my, some of the, like once you get past some of the mechanics and once, like once you played for it enough, or maybe not, maybe it's what draws you initially, but like some of the most rewarding experiences are the flavor.

I. Of, of the experiences, you know, so like build a deck that, that, you know, build a deck that's super cohesive from a flavor and lower standpoint, and then you find the perfect sleeves for it, right? Or you like custom make the sleeves, and then you have the per perfect play mat for the deck. And like all of a sudden you have this like co you're, you're, you're in a new world, right?

You kind of have this cohesive experience. Oh my. And you know, and so I want that kind of same experience to exist in this game. So one of the things that, um, I have first, like forefront of my mind [00:48:00] is, you know, first of all, nail the mechanics. Make sure it's like, I don't want it to be, it's not gonna be the next magic they gather.

You know, it's not gonna be some like crazy complicated game. This will be super simple. It's gonna be super fun, but also obviously a level of depth where it can be, you know, enjoyable by a wide range of people. But then I really want it. Hammered, like I really wanna like dive into, like, I wanna allow for skins for the cards, right?

So like we will release cards that have a certain art, but if you want to, you know, create a derivative work of an A card, you should be able to use that art in the game. And so basically, I. Finding a way to basically mint derivatives as, as an NFT collection and allow substitutions of art. And then also, not only just the cards, but like the backgrounds as well, right?

So like if you align yourself with like the, with the blue wizard bastion, you should be able to make the background of your table like, In the game, like, you know, from a tower in the Blue Wizard VAs or something, you know, so like, and kind of like allow, you know, and then allow for that entire cohesive experience to exist in this game.

Because I think that's what, that's what wizards are all about, right? Like, I want the game. Yeah. [00:49:00] Like you come for the game, but stay. For the community and for the lore and for the story. You know, I,

Elf: I know exactly what you're talking about, that when you talked about, um, building card decks and magic, like mm-hmm.

Part, part of it was not Okay. Whenever I would build my decks, it wasn't so much I wanted like an effective, a, a mechanically effective deck. I would always like, do. Theme first. So like if I was building a black deck and I wanted it to have vampires in it mm-hmm. I would use to use all the vampires I had even if they didn't really make sense for the mechanics of the deck.

Cuz like you, you gotta have the theme and the story in it, even if, you know, it's not like the strongest deck. I, I just couldn't resist. Yep.

Cult Member: No. Hundred percent.

Elf: Yeah. And then, and then I just wanna tell everybody, uh, yeah, GT's been d DMing me about this and he's created a lot of like new creatures, um, and.

I, I don't, I don't know if you want to leak any of the creatures you've built, but. Um, the goat that you mentioned the other day, do you, do you wanna talk about that [00:50:00] one? Yeah, totally,

Cult Member: totally. Um, yeah, yeah, I've just been having a fun time. Um, I mean, also shout out to Zela Sol, who like, has like a lot of this stuff mapped out and makes it really, really easy for someone to kind of approach filling in some of like, you know, obviously like painting with very, very, very broad strokes, right?

But like, then gives some, gives, it makes it really easy to kind of paint with a bit more finer, finer strokes. But yeah, so, um, I've just been, you know, just ruminating on different, on different creatures. And so one creature, I'll read a few actually, uh, cuz they're kind of fun if we have a few more minutes.

Yeah. Um, one is, so, uh, one I thought of was the null goat. So yes, null goats native to battle ma mountains null Goats are a species of goat that have developed magic resistance, skull and horns in order to fend off magic users that hunt in the mountains. Shepherds who also inhabit the area, have begun domesticating animals as they are fiercely loyal and excellent centuries.

And so that's, that's the NuGo. And then I told the, uh, I told, like, as I was thinking through the creature, I was like, I'm [00:51:00] just imagining this like scene in my head where like, this ma is standing there and this goat is charging at him. And then all also like shoots a magic arrow at the goat, just dings off the horns and then was just like, oh, fuck.

And then just keep charging. Exactly. And then all of a sudden you get like, like the, like the, you know, team rocket kind of like the creaky person's like blasting up into the, into the, like into the sky or whatever. So, um, so that's love. That was the. That was the null goat. Um, yep. Let me see, uh, another one.

So, um, yeah, the, the Krono mirror. So, Krono mirrors are furry little creatures that live around places in the land of forgotten rooms where time and space warp. They have an acute sense of this boundary and where the lines start to blur and across this boundary as a means to escape predators. This means that they're often not seen around popular civilization, aside from krono answers Riviera, where enough kroo answers gathered to give them safe haven.

So, yep. Yeah, just fun little blurbs like that just to kind of like, you know, start to fill things in and, and kind of just have, have some fun with it. So, I don't know. [00:52:00] Love it. I've, I've been out in the blast. Love

Elf: it. Yeah, no, I, I'm so glad you're making up your own creatures rather than just like, feeling like you have to stick to what's already in the collection.

Um, Yeah, it's, it's, it's great. You know, if, if you look at like, like if, if you ever look, go down like down the rabbit hole of like the Star Wars Wikipedia, like, there's just so many aliens and creatures and, and, and, uh, planets and I, you know, I used to think, how the hell did George Lucas create all this?

But then I realized like, I bet George Lucas didn't create all this. It was like, it was like all the artists at, um, the, the Light and Magic studio. I is, is that what it's called? Bear Snake Light, whatever. Um, you know, I, I don't think is what called, is what called the, the George Lucas Studio. That, that there's a, there's like a word, word for it.

Skywalker. No, not Skywalker Ranch, like light and magic

Dotta: something. Oh, industrial light and magic.

Elf: Yeah. Yes. That's it. That's it. Yeah. I, I, yeah, I, my guess is like all the artists at that studio helped [00:53:00] just fill out the whole lore of, of Star Wars. Um, yeah.

Bearsnake: They make an, they're making anime Star Wars now. You know, they've done, they have all these different just branches of the world.

It's, or, or the universe. So, yeah, I mean, that's, that's where we're headed. This is a big, this is, this is exactly what needs to keep happening.

Elf: For sure. So, yeah, so like, you know, it doesn't just have to be our core team that creates this stuff. Like all of you are like the industrial light and magic. And so give a who, like, you're like straight up making creatures that live in the universe.

So like, keep going man.

Cult Member: Awesome. Thanks. And, and kudos, kudos to, to you guys who, who just make it so easy and, and are encouraged, right? Like, Um, I mean, it's, I think it, it should not, it, it doesn't go unnoticed amongst the community by any means, but, but thank you for, you know, being so open and giving everyone this kind of creative platform.

It's, it's kind of amazing.

Elf: Awesome. Awesome. Do, do you mind if I like talk about the World

Bearsnake: Builder server real quick?