Wizard Wednesday Episode 39 Transcription

Wizard Wednesday Episode 39

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Dotta: [00:00:00] Hello, wizards and warriors. It is time for our weekly cult meeting Wizard Wednesday. This is Doda and and Jtk. Hello, we are your hosts for Wizard Wednesday today, elf. He is out. He is giving a TED Talk today, he's going to give a TED Talk on decentralized world building. Bear Snake is out in Las Vegas, uh, at a merchandising convention, getting, uh, getting the world ready for universe merch.

And today your host, ADO and jk. It's gonna be a great wizard. It's exciting today. See that Ted talk. Yeah, exactly. I know, I, I wondered if even we should, uh, just have, uh, elf's Ted [00:01:00] Talk be the Wizard Wednesday. We just, you know, tune in, listen in, let te uh, let, let elf talk about world building. But no, instead you get to hear me.

So, yeah, I went out to the, uh, bear cave this week. It was really incredible. So, uh, it was really fun. And Elf and Bear and now Jean and Lochness. Uh, and, uh, a couple other people do. And it was so fun. We basically just all went into the Bear Cave. And I'll talk about that a little bit, just really planning out everything that we want to do, um, for Forgotten Ruins for the Universe.

And I'll, I can talk about each of those things individually, but you know, I think one of the things I've been thinking a lot about is. Really just how do you create a brand from nothing, right? Um, I think we think a lot about. [00:02:00] How can we get forgotten ruins to cross the chasm out of being like, uh, just an N F T project and out into being something that's like part of the public conscious.

Um, when I look at sort of the list, you know, I talk about this list all the time, right? You look at the list of the highest grossing media franchises of all time. And there's a lot of the usual suspects, right? So you see Pokemon and you know Mickey Mouse, Winnie the Po. Star Wars, Mario. Um, one of the ones that I think that really stands out to me the most as very interesting is, um, hello Kitty.

Hello Kitty. Really? Uh, what's interesting about Hello Kitty one is, uh, well, fir, first thing is it's number two on the list, right? Pokemon is number one. And Pokemon started out as I believe, like a Game Boy game. Um, and then branched out into all of the individual characters. And there's a lot of overlap with Pokemon, um, as there is with Forgotten Ruins because of the nature of the fact that like there are so many different Pokemon characters, but then they [00:03:00] like sort of like form up to be the bigger brand of Pokemon in general.

And I think that is like a really interesting, kind of like analog for what we're trying to do because we have so many characters in our universe. Hello Kitty is really interesting though because it didn't start as like a book. It wasn't a game, it wasn't, um, you know, there, there wasn't a movie, a Hello Kitty movie.

Hello Kitty actually just started as a Coin Purse, right? Hello Kitty, actually, yeah. Yeah. So if you look the original Coin Purse from Hello Kitty, uh, came out in 1975. And it's this adorable little picture of, uh, uh, of Hello Katie. She's sitting down and there is, um, a goldfish sitting to her, right? And then, uh, uh, a bottle of milk sitting to her left and, and really like, uh, she has no mouth.

Right? And, and the idea is that you can kind of like project sort of whatever emotion you're feeling onto her face, right? Is she looking like. Satisfied if [00:04:00] she's sad. Is she bewildered? Is she sort of like pensive and, and without having a mouth, actually lets Hello Kitty. Be this like sort of um, I dunno, every cat.

Um, and it started out as this coin purse and really Hello Kitty is like pretty much all merch. They didn't have the first Hello Kitty show until like 1995, which was like 20 years later. Didn't even do much until I. Yeah. Hello? Kitty's been like massive, like from the beginning. Um, like it just like right away they like, it just like captured the hearts and minds of people because Right.

The show though was the,

Jitcy: so successful, I feel like, I know everyone knows Hello Kitty, but the show itself, how long did that run

Dotta: for? Oh, well, I don't even know. Yeah, like I think, well the thing is, is the Hello Kitty was already like pretty famous by the time the show aired. Oh, that makes sense. Yeah. Um, whereas I think that for us, you know what, so one of the things I think a lot about when we talk about like, merchandising and uh, like [00:05:00] product is, um, you know, I, I was, I like had my kids at the mall, I dunno, the other week.

And you go into stores, like there's a store called like Lunchbox, uh, here in Austin. And, and really the whole story is just like branded merch, right? It's Lord of the Rings merch, it's star, uh, star Wars merch. They have, you know, stranger Things, um, like shirts about like the Demogorgon. I think that's like, yeah.

And it's, and it's like I, now, I can't like, Not see ourselves there, right? Like I look around and you see that all of these products are basically like characters and stories that people love. And I'm just like, okay, like chomping the bell. How long is it gonna be till we can get like forgotten ruins here?

And I think, you know, um, you know, if if bored apes is like, um, you know, zoomies then, uh, forgotten Ruins is hot topic. And so, like, you know, forgotten Ruins is Urban Outfitters. And so I think that like, I am. Yeah. That's one of the things that I think [00:06:00] even, uh, bear is working on this weekend, which is why he is not here this week, um, is kind of talking to some of those sort of brands because it feels like a natural fit.

But then I also think the question is naturally, like, sort of, okay, are are we gonna be able to get. Forgotten ruins merch in these stores. And then also will it have that kind of like ignition that you see with Hello Kitty? Will people pick up on Forgotten Ruins as like just an idea, right? Like, can you see that behold my quantum style Illuminati or sorry, key master T-shirt.

And then now you're like, I don't know what this is, but I like have to have this shirt and I like, want more of it. I think that's something that we'll find out. Um, but I think that for me too, obviously this show is like an OB is sort of like the natural, um, The show basically is a natural case of where like if you can have a TV show on Netflix, then now that's basically the cheat code to kind of like turning merchandise into something that like people, people want to buy.

Um, and uh, Like some of the other [00:07:00] things that I like, the, the other like brands that I was looking at, kind of the, some of the origin story is, um, uh, my wife reminded me, Ms. Dos reminded me of Strawberry Shortcake. Um, she was like, she, she was, I was looking at this and she was like, oh, you know that like Strawberry shortcake and um, and Care Bears, they actually started as greeting cards.

So like Strawberry Shortcake was originally a character used by like American Greetings on their greeting cards. Right. And I think, and uh, and, and similarly with Care Bears and basically the cards became so popular with like kind of the characters in these like moments on the front of greeting cards that like, they were able to spin them out into their own sort of like breakout characters, right.

With like dolls and merch and. Shows and comics and all these things. And so it's interesting. You think, you know, it's interesting. I, I'm always like looking for models of like how to jump that, that, that cast up thinking like, ooh, can, can we do like forgotten ruins greeting cards? But, you know, it's like not 1985, right?

Like, I don't think like greeting cards are kind of the way that you're gonna sort of like, Jump into popular culture with, [00:08:00] uh, wizards, uh, in, in 2022. But yeah, looking at the origin stories of these brands is something I feel is like so interesting. Another, another character that I really love that was k was by American Greetings.

I don't know if anybody here else remembers it. It was My Pet Monster. Was anyone here that like listened that like had a mic at Monster. So it was like my favorite doll growing up. Where he had this like big horns, he's blue. He had this like corduroy belly and um, the, uh, like he had the, the handcuffs, right?

And so the handcuffs were like really good to, you know, use to hit your sister with or try to put them on your siblings. Yeah, my pet monster was like my favorite. Um, and that also started as a greedy card from the same like greeting card company. Um, and so all I'm hearing is we need to get the greeting

Jitcy: cards.

Excuse me. That all I'm hearing is we need to get into greeting cards, but it's super Yeah, exactly. Exactly. It's super layered, right? You're like, all the things you're mentioning is like as you've layered these things within this world and we make the game, we make everything else. Like you can slow that, see that becoming a reality [00:09:00] and it's, I know with mall here, I mean not mall.

I know it's spot you're talking about, they're all in the malls. It kind of sounds like those pop culture items, but you know, a little bit culty too. I mean, I've got seen a ton of 'em. You mentioned hot topic. Super interesting. I think we get there, it's just we gotta keep on stacking those layers, right?

And then it becomes a global brand. Like it just

Dotta: makes so much sense. Yeah, absolutely. I think that like people love the wizards when they like kind of look at them and it gets their attention. And I think that another part is just this idea that we have, um, characters from a lot of different, um, I dunno, let's say feelings.

Um, so, you know, one of the things when you look at Disney, you see that there are both like people who identify with the hero and then people who identify with the villains. And we have like, not only, um, like classic Purple Hat whizzies. But we also have like goat heads and we also have cobalts, um, and we have like cobalt warriors and they're just like, from every sort of spectrum of like how you [00:10:00] maybe, um, identify there's a character and forgotten ruins that you can kind of find and, and, and link yourself with.

And so I think, um, you know, I think that also presents a branding challenge, right? Because there's only so much shelf space in retail. Like how do you kind of pick those characters that sort of, um, Resonate with the most amount of people while we're in the stage of kind of bootstrapping. But then I think like as soon as we get over that hump, there's yeah, trying to, I think we have something for everyone.

So yeah, it's a domino

Jitcy: factor, right? And I think by nature people are gonna gravitate towards whatever they are represented within an N F T and then they can grow upon that. I think like, you know, I'm obviously biased cuz I'm a lover of cobalts, but you can see like that goofy personality come out through like a plushy or something and then you could see other.

Other ways to express other NFTs and traits that we have in the collection in different ways too. So just a matter of time.

Dotta: Exactly. And I don't wanna commit anyone or step on anyone's toes, but I like, I, you know, I think we're already seeing that cobalts themselves are like a breakout, like subgroup of forgotten [00:11:00] roots and that like, I would love, like, it's very easy to imagine a whole line of cobalt merch.

It's very easy to imagine like an entire merch box of, uh, of cobalt. Things that like, uh, yeah, people would love. So I would like to do that, or I would like for that to happen. I think that's super exciting. Um, I think another thing that this actually brings that it's a good lead into right, is this idea of commercial rights for your characters.

So, like, uh, we haven't talked about, I haven't talked about this yet. So right before Warriors dropped, um, we finally issued actually the like official legal, um, document of, of, of, of what the official IP rights are for wizards. Um, I need to write up a blog post. I just haven't had a chance yet since we did that.

That's maybe like a human version with some infographics. Um, but I wanna like talk through it a little bit now, which is, um, you know, [00:12:00] there's, there's basically like three main things that I want to get across. One is we talk a lot about, um, this idea of. Harry Potter, fanfic. Right? So this, this idea that kind of, you can create Harry Potter Fanfic, but like ultimately like Wizarding world, uh, the corporation, they don't want you to make like money or too much money from that, right?

The idea is that like, you can do it, they tolerate it. They like don't want to be suing their fans, but if you wrote, you know, a novel around Harry Potter, fanfic, Like you would have a terrible time. You, you for sure would have to get it licensed and they probably wouldn't do it. Right. Cuz they don't want, it's not considered Canon and whatever.

And so, like effectively Harry Potter, fanfic is, that has this huge, huge community, uh, that of something that's like basically illegal. So one of the things that we wanted to do is to avoid that situation with Wizards. Um, even though it's not like creative comments like Wizard does not CC zero insofar as like, For me, I [00:13:00] feel that like CC zero is, uh, basically the, like when you think of like a token, for example, We all know that it's kind of, um, it's not a good idea to have an uncapped supply.

Like that's not a good strategy for value creation to have like an UNC capped supply of tokens. And I feel that like CC zero is actually like the uncapped supply of intellectual property. Um, I actually think that like four, you know, I don't, I don't necessarily claim to have the blueprint for every other community, but I think that for our community, an important part is like having at least some sort of structure.

For like massive organizations to have to come to the table and give value back to the community. Like really what we're trying to, to, to do with the, the IP rights that we have for Forgotten Ruins is building this structure where you get the benefits of like bottom up creation. You get the financial benefit for the bottom up creator, but then you also get [00:14:00] some sort of like, um, like community constraining force from some outside organization coming in and then basically taking over and having sort of no way to structure them if they decide to take the brand in a way you don't like.

Um, so the first layer of that is really just everyone, whether you're a token holder or not, if you don't. You don't have to own a forgotten Rooms token, and you can create a derivative non-commercial work using the forgotten rooms, like any of the characters or any of the, um, IP of the universe, and you can create like derivative art.

You know, even saying that out loud actually feels so obvious, I suppose, um, that that is allowed, right? Because that's like such a part of our community culture. I think that like, the opposite though of that would be saying like, no, only, you know, magic Machine is the only people that can talk about the universe.

And, uh, the owner of the token is the only person who can create a derivative art of like their character. And that's, that's like obviously not our culture. [00:15:00] Um, even though that's like a, a like a more traditional view of copyright law, well, um, they wouldn't even get it to owners, right? It would just be like the original creator.

But, uh, the idea is that like, we wanna make sure that if you are an artist and you want to create art about the Forgotten Ruins universe, it is like expressly and explicitly allowed that that's something that you can do from like a non-commercial view. Um, and so then the other part is regards to like, if you actually own the tokens, right?

So, um, what's outlined there, it should be no surprise to anyone who, who's heard me talk about this for a long time, which is, um, that as an owner of a Forgotten Ruins character token, you have, um, like an uncapped commercial right to commercialize not only the art in that image. But also the entire, um, character.

So for example, um, some of the other communities that you might have seen, they'll say, oh, we give you like a commercial right to the image, but it's not necessarily a commercial right, to the derivatives. It's not necessarily a [00:16:00] commercial right. To the character or any of that. Or whereas what we're saying is like, it's not.

The N F T that you sort of own, and the commercial right that you have there, um, is not just like the 50 by 50 pixel image of a wizard or 60 by 60 of a warrior, but it's actually like a commercial right. That you have to that character. Um, and the way that we basically structured it is the following, which is like, It's up to you don't owe any royalties back to match machine or the community up to $5 million.

And then after $5 million, then a royalty is owed back. So the, the, uh, the idea here, so like why would there be a cap? Well, it's not a cap. Right. It's not a cap, but we're basically saying is you just don't owe any royalties up until that number, and then after 5 million, it's the, the blanket royalty that's out that you don't need our permission to do is 20%.

Right. So like you don't ever have the come and talk to me. We just basically say after $5 million, which by the way is like a very. High number, right? If [00:17:00] you're like, I don't think there's anyone in our community yet who's even got close to that number. That to, to us even 1 million was like kind of borderline in terms of like, um, you know, something an individual might be able to commercialize.

I think by the time you hit 5 million in revenue, that's like, there's, that's a very small number of people that were, will ever reach there. I mean, hopefully it's growing, but, um, that to me that felt like there's a very clear demarcation between like sort of. An individual commercializing and then someone who's like a professional organization and even then that 20% number is negotiable.

We even mentioned that in the contract, right? Because maybe for example, you are doing like physical merchandise and you're like, well, my margins aren't been 20%, and so that's like way too high. That's fine. You can just talk to us Really what we're basically like, we believe that the Forgotten ruins and like the universe IP is going to be such that like as we super grow, um, into like.

Film and media and trading cards and merch and uh, all these things that like, there's gonna be something that's very [00:18:00] valuable here and we wanna make sure that other organizations that wanna build on top of it have to at least come to the table. They have to make sure that they're like, you know, building according to what sort of our community would want.

And then they're giving funds back to Magic Machine as the creators and they're giving mu funds back to the community. So really the intention for the community right now from those royalties is. Um, a Dao. So, uh, right now the House of Wizards, Dao, the like forgotten council is basically on track to be that organization, but that organization doesn't necessarily have all of its like paperwork in order yet.

Uh, you know, mostly because of me, um, still working on it, but once that's in order, that's really like the goal for it to be like the target of those royalties. So, Yeah,

Jitcy: and like working in parallels is like, you know, that's what I'm hearing and it's really important. I think we'll see more and more hybrid type of structures like this cuz it just makes sense, right?

Like you want people to build around what we're doing, but we also wanna be able to have our own narrative too. So it's just, it adds to the whole ecosystem and it's just, I think a lot of people [00:19:00] are happy to hear that. At least I haven't heard any complaints about it, so it's fantastic to hear.

Dotta: Yeah. And one of the things, so there's a couple other things in the, in the commercial rights that are worth like talking about.

So one is like, let's say that you have a group of people team up together and they like want to do, you know, wizard shoes for example. Um, you basically, how we basically structured it is that like, People can all group together. Like let's say, you know, there's one wizard who like makes shoes, like physical shoes and they're like, oh, we all want to group together and like license our wies to make shoes.

Basically, the way that that works is effectively that organization also is subject to that same like $5 million cap at which they need to, um, start giving royalties back to the community and to magic machine. And so the, uh, the. And it's, it's not per wizard, it's per organization. Right? Because, so you could, so again, we're basically trying to, to, to make a situation where we say like, if you're doing this as like a significant organization, just talk to us and we'll work [00:20:00] with you.

And that actually gives us more leverage as a community. Like when we go and we talk to by about licensing for the game, when we go and we talk to like Tip Mouse and um, you know, these licensers essentially that want to do a forgotten ruin show, you know, They're not looking it over being like, wait, you're CC zero.

Then why do we have to pay any of you at all? Right? There's actually a cap there where we say, no, you have to like, you have to give some value back to us if you're gonna be making value over this amount. Another thing that's interesting is, um, we expressly put in here too, that you can create NFTs that are like derivatives of the NFTs that you own.

Again, we've seen this with a, to me that feels like so obvious to say that that's something that we would support. But I, looking at the, like, finer details of some other projects, they will tell you like, you know, oh, you can't create a derivative. You can create a derivative like artwork on, you know, digital art, but you're not able to actually mint another in a team.

We're saying, no, no, no, like, Is the, the important thing for us is [00:21:00] that it's not confusingly similar, right? Like you're not trying to trick someone into thinking that they're getting an official product, nft, but if you wanna create NFTs that are like, based on the NFTs that you own, or that like another owner sort of wants to allow you to do, like go for it.

You are allowed to, to do that. Um, I also think that like, There are details in there that you might be interested in around, like what happens if you sell your N F T, who gets rights to those, you know, or if someone, uh, you know, creates a derivative work who has the rights, right? I don't necessarily need to get into all those details, but I will talk to you in a couple things.

One is that the. An important part of this conversation is that like we as Magic Machine want to be able to tell stories with everyone's characters. And so this right is actually a non-exclusive, right? Meaning like you have the commercial right to your character, but we also have a commercial, right to use your character.

And you might say, well, well Dota, why is that? And the answer is like, we wanna create stuff that is like [00:22:00] delightful surprises, right? Like Elf has stories that he wants to tell, Derek has stories that he wants to tell, and it's always been sort of. The like, um, the collaboration or like the story of what we're doing, which is like, You create lore, ander, vivar of your wizard.

But then we also will create this like central thread, right? Like we are drawing on the book of lore for the comic that will be coming out in a few weeks. Um, we're drawing on the book of lore when we create the TV show, uh, with Derek. And so, you know, we wanna do like even physical books where we include like cult content and we're gonna include cult content in the comic book, um, in like pictures.

And so like, I think that like in most cases, probably 99% of cases, wizards will be happy to kind of see their character appear in media that like we create. I think if you own a character and you're like, I don't want Magic Machine to use my character in any of their media, like, fine, you can talk to us.

We're like, we don't, we don't see it as like an antagonistic thing. But the idea is that like [00:23:00] in this outline you'll see that we granted ourselves a right to use these characters, right? Because we want to be able to tell stories about it and, and the reason, you know, That that's not one-sided is because you have a commercial right to your character, right?

So if we use your character in the TV show, you can also commercialize that character. So I've talked about this a lot, uh, before, which is the idea of like, um, uh, the Shroom Shack, right? So Dazzle, the Cobalt, uh, ha is owned, I believe, by why Sam and Why Sam worked with Ernest t to he first created this pixel art version of the Shroom Shack, which is this like, uh, you know, this like breakfast surreal place where.

Are like, uh, it's like a bakery, like a mushroom bakery. And so then he had Ernest Tea do like a, a really high res rendered version of it. And, and the like, elf children come to the Shroom Shack and Dule has, you know, uh, mushroom cereal, you know, all these things. And so like the, you know, this idea of the Shroom shack wasn't invented by Elf or myself, right?

Like the Shroom [00:24:00] shack was. Why Sam's scr and, uh, the interpretation by Ernest t and like, we love it. Everyone loves it. And we even talked about like, oh, could you know, I don't, I'm not committing to this, but I'm saying like, could we use that in the pilot episode of the show, right? Could there be a shot where the main characters are talking and you look over their shoulder and you can see the kids are like running up to this Shroom shack and like getting their breakfast cereal.

And so like, we wanna be able to like include that. So when you sit down on your couch and you like turn on your TV and you're watching Netflix and you're like, surprised, you're like, Oh my gosh. Like the Shroom shack, I can't believe it. Made into, into the show. And then as the owner and the inventor of the Shroom shack, like you can create, uh, like Billy's gonna get you, uh, action figures.

You can create your own like Shroom shack action figures and like merchandise 'em and like benefit from that, um, commercially as well. So,

Jitcy: yeah, you just don't wanna limit creation, right? Like that's the whole goal is you want to expand that creation. So that's what I'm hearing is that in that process, you're gonna be, people gonna keep on building and building and building, and there just needs to be a [00:25:00] conversation there, right?

Like a collaborative process. Like that's the whole

Dotta: goal of this. So, yeah, exactly, exactly. That. Like, The cult is feeding off of like the, these narratives and the, and these like, you know, the comic books and the shows and the shorts and, and then those things are also feeding off like cult content. And it's the, it's literally the idea of the collaborative re legendary.

Um, yeah. So, oh, one other thing. So, okay, how do I say this? So I have been talking to, so as we start to kind of make more progress in the TV show, one of the natural things that comes up is like, well, you know, assuming that we get a TV show, there's gonna be money involved that like, comes back to Magic Machine from the TV show.

So, um, there the, the regulatory environment for us to like, give. For Magic Machine to make something and then give funds directly back [00:26:00] to individual wizards is like very unfriendly to say the least. Um, so I don't have any sort of like specific commitments, but I can tell you that I've been like talking to our council and our lawyers that we're like working on that.

What I'm basically getting at is like this idea that kind of, we can reinvent how IP. Um, operates and how like royalties flow from television shows back to like people who like helped create it and invent this ip. Like, I'm hoping that we can develop a system that is like regulatorily compliant that is more specific than just like, oh, we gave money to a Dow.

Right. Um, so I don't have like those details worked out yet, but I like that. I mean, really to me that's sort of like the. Part of the mission of Magic Machine, right, is to upend how IP rights are handled, how like royalties are handled in this way. And so like, yeah, I'm hoping to have more news on that, like eventually, but you know, that is not a fast process.[00:27:00]

But I mean it be six months before I have something more specific there, but, Yeah.

Jitcy: Yeah. People will be happy to hear about that. We've seen a couple projects in the space do the exact same thing. That's their whole, their whole idea, right? So like, yeah, it's around the corner and good to know that we're thinking about it moving

Dotta: forward.

I have seen other people in the space talk about it, right? They say, oh, you know, if your thing is featured, you get royalties. Um, I don't, I think one of two things that's happening in the cases that I've seen either A, they're not based in the us. Or, uh, b they're not being, um, mindful of the regulatory environment or like, yeah, or Hmm.

Really when you look at 2018, I think is a really good comparison actually in many ways. Um, one, one way in particular, which was like if you were have been around since then, one of the things that you noticed with like the s e C in particular is you would watch these projects. Just like [00:28:00] blatant have like blatant disregard for like securities laws, right?

And um, like I remember going into, uh, a conference and talking with this guy, uh, who was doing Bitcoin ATMs and he. And, and, and like he was explaining the business to me, you know, when he like sat down and hung out and whatever. He is a really cool guy, and I'm just like, wait a second, what do you do? He is like, oh, I put up these booths and like people like, you know, they can buy Bitcoin with these booths at like the dentist's office or whatever.

And like, I just remember thinking that was like crazy to me. I'm like, how do you not get like charged with money laundering or whatever? And he was just like, no, it's like not that big of a deal. Like we'd get people's licenses or whatever. So like whatever he, he's like telling me it's so lucrative. He's like trying to get me to install one of his, like Bitcoin ATMs or whatever.

You know, and I'm just like, nah, I'm, I'm good. You know? So turn like, fast forward, I'll pass, fast forward three years. You like, see, oh, s e c prosecutes, you know, this guy literally like the guy that I was talking to at the conference for like money laundering. Like, dude, I don't, I don't know if he actually went to jail or not, but [00:29:00] like, what it ba what you basically see is that these people like, uh, disregard the law effectively, either regulation or the law blatantly.

And it, it doesn't happen right away. You don't get, you don't lose right away. You do it and you feel like you got away with it. Cause it takes like three or four years. We're kind of at all the surface. And so I think, um, I dunno, whatever we're gonna be around for 50 years.

Jitcy: Say that again. So then they knock on your door and say, come with us please.

And you're like, oh crap.

Dotta: Yeah, you're like, it all comes too. So, um, another thing I think with versus 2018, which is a totally different thing, which is, you know, I think the market, it's not lost on me that the market is, uh, yeah, pretty like, I don't know that we're at peak fear in this moment. Maybe it's a little bit like better than a week ago.

But, um, one of the things that I realized reflecting on 2018, which is 2018, There was a lot of talk or a lot of people wondering if like crypto was like genuinely over, [00:30:00] right? People were wondering, uh, if you weren't around then people were genuinely wondering like, is the great ex crypto experiment over Bitcoin is dead, like crypto didn't work and now we're just like that?

That was it. You know? Um, and I think that like right now, that. Things are bad in the market, but that's like clearly not the case. Like, not that it won't go lower, like sure, it probably will, but the, the idea that kind of you're gonna put this gene in the bottle or that the gene is just straight up gonna die, I think is just like, so obviously false.

Right? And so I think this time, uh, as it is right now, it's around just sort of like, you know, finding opportunities with you within your time preference, but like, ultimately, like crypto is here to stay, right? It's, it's not going anywhere. And I think that's a huge. Huge difference from, from kind of a 2018 mentality.

So I don't know if you saw, but, uh, j m w, so j m W 3 27. Right. So, uh, did, did y'all see this go down? So this person is [00:31:00] a pixel artist? Yes. Yeah. So this person, uh, uh, is a pixel artist that like, actually their work, um, was one of the reasons. Um, I think, uh, uh, when I saw JE at the Bear Cave, I think he said that, that he was the, or this person was the very first person I asked them to reach out to for us to hire, to help do pixel art, j m w, um, because their art is just so beautiful and phenomenal.

Yeah. You, you just feel like. Warm apple cider and autumn in your soul when you look at their work. And, um, you know, we've reached out to them before and never really kind of got anywhere. And, um, uh, and then they published, they published a tweet and they're like, I'm, I'm, I'm gonna try out NFTs. I don't understand them or why they're controversial, but I can't keep making less than 10,000 a year.

If there's a chance I'll be able to afford healthcare and stuff, I'm sorry if it offends you. Please do whatever makes you feel comfortable. Right. So they tweet this out. They have like a hundred and whatever, 30,000 followers. [00:32:00] Which is like, unbelievable, right? Like unbelievable that you could be that gorgeous of an artist and like, so talented and, uh, and, and then, and then just.

You know, not being able to even buy yourself healthcare and, and, and, and, and the response that the, the sort of quote unquote artist community gave them was just horrific. Right? It's like unfollowed immediately, like, oh, I can't believe you're getting it bad, a scam. Like just, you know, like, just what we've seen with artists.

Uh, when I say artists, no support at all. Yeah. Yeah. It's just sad. And so, you know, at that time, the, I don't know, the, you know, and I saw that and I thought, you know, uh, W w r d, like, what would Ryan do? Ryan Zer, you know, and I, I think about the fact that like Ryan will, uh, you know, when he bids on NFTs, he tries to make a statement.

And so one of the things that I did is, is so I bid on his N F T for five E, which is like not at all notable. [00:33:00] In terms of like high bids for like NFTs, of course. Right. But the idea that I was going for is like, ETH was around like two k. I was like purposely trying to like bid, you know, um, like just over what they make per a salary in a year.

Um, and then like tweeted about it and, and, and it was so great to see. Um, like all the retweets started being like, yeah, this person can't afford health insurance. All of a sudden they're about to make their year's salary, uh, within, within, you know, the same afternoon that they launched their first N Yeah.

And what you really saw was the whole N F T community, um, come together and like bid it up. Right. They became really like, almost like a symbol, like the, the, the, the insults and attacks that they got. Um, for going to NFTs actually became like a rallying cry for the N F T community, uh, to, to bid on their work, right?

So like Ibid five, you know, trade daddy bid 5.5 and it ended up selling to Fo Bear for like over 28th or something. [00:34:00] Um, and so, I think really the NFT community. Yeah. We just like wanna like reward artists that are like, willing to make that jump. Um, so I still haven't con Yeah, we

Jitcy: almost look for it, right?

Like, everybody kind of looks for that case almost. And all of a sudden people come out of the, like the, the woodworks to basically help bid on that and make a like a difference. So it's like super fun to see. I thought well, After we got past people being rooted and insulting. Right. But yeah.

Dotta: Awesome. Yeah, exactly.

Like you don't want to see people being rude, but you do wanna see people like gather around. Right. The, that we're just like, no, the water's warm. This is a good community. We value art more than you doing like $200 commissions. Right. Like, I think even wizards we're piping in to their commissions being like, we'll pay 300, 500, $600, you know, for these commissions.

Which we would, by the way, please come commission this. Yeah. Totally. Yeah. So I've reached out. I don't know that they're, they're necessarily looking for a job right now, but I mean, I'm, if, um, yeah, J m w if you're listening [00:35:00] in, you can come work for Magic Machine full-time. We've got plenty of pixel to, to do.

So. So, yeah, so I think that's mostly everything I wanted to cover, uh, for, that's on my agenda. So I know that we have, um, Reptar was gonna come up and chat from the Dao to talk about, uh, some of the proposals. So Reptar, if you're hearing you want to come up, Um, if anyone else has some, some commentary they want to add or just chat, please, please come on up.

Yeah.

Jitcy: While people come up here, I can kind of go into like one of the, the N F t, uh, New York map that we, we talked about a little bit that we've been bringing to the table and kind of the events and just like the event in general. Um, so Locke and I are kind of putting together a map right now for N F T New York cause he made a combination of passive events and active events.

Um, that everyone can kind of like, have an idea of what people are doing that are part of the cult. And then if you're not part of the cult, that's fine too, but are you gonna, we're gonna have a map push to everybody so that we can have, you know, a little bit of organization but have it free flowing. And I just wanted to like, express to [00:36:00] everybody here that I'm gonna be out there for like an entire week.

So if anyone needs to, like, help put something together or they want to go do something, if no one to, no one to go do stuff, I am your friendly neighborhood Cobalt and I will be glad to conversate and do things with everyone there. I want it to be a fun venture. It's one of the main goals. Um, like, you know, that's just around the corner.

We should have more details on that soon. But yeah, let's, uh, organize it a little bit. Um, other thing that we have happening is, We're gonna have two contests, maybe more. We have the current one posted in our discord. We're having a poster contest for the actual event. Our big party, along with, we're gonna be having a cosplay contest at that event.

It's a combination of like, well, we don't want people to doc that, don't want to. So it's kind of like a, you know, should I doc or not type a situation, but also cosplay to wizards? Your wizards, other fantasy based things, whatever you want it to be. Um, I think it's gonna be really fun for the community.

And then we're gonna be rolling it out here soon. Mm-hmm. Um, lemme see if, oh, Reptar's up here. We can [00:37:00] pass it off to him now. Actually, there's only a couple things

Cult Member: I wanted to talk about. Thanks, guys. Um, a lot is happening in the dao. Um, we're almost at the end of May. Um, which means that we're voting in almost two weeks from the sixth, I think is when everything starts.

So I just wanna let everyone know. If we have some credible proposals up to vote, um, I'm gonna go with them one by one. Just give you kind of like a brief recap. And if you have some time, we should definitely check out our discourse. Um, I'll post it in our discord after this. So one that just closed for commenting today was, uh, Monday Magic Memos submitted by our beloved hen boy.

Um, and this is for a podcast slash videocast news show. But just a weekly recap of everything going on in the Wizard world. Um,

Dotta: it, this

Cult Member: would be kind of like accompanying Bonzo, already magnificent interviews. Um, it's just really hard [00:38:00] to produce a video while you're also having the job. So this would supply a video editor to help them put together the videos.

It would be a one month trial, um, which I think is very exciting to check it out. The more wizard news, the better. I know a lot of people enter our community, say there's just a lot going on. I think just having that little 20, 30 minute recap every Monday get you ready for the week is awesome. Uh, we've also got the professor's library submitted by o and this should be an interactive and immersive, uh, way to understand, get to know our project, almost like a mini game.

Uh, it's incredible. Uh, the pictures so far look great, and I know TV is working on it with him as well as, uh, Young Lizzy, uh, mini Joe as well. Um, it, it looks like it's going to be a multi-part one with the first one being a proof of concept and the second one being [00:39:00] up actually like working stages for us to play with and be interacted with.

Uh, that one is closing up soon for comments, so you should check it out before that one's over. Um, we've got two books on the pipeline. The first submitted by Cyber Waffle, the black letter of the li. This is going to be a book about the witch Lamy of the hills, should definitely just mispronounce in the sacred flame.

Um, it's looking to be about 300 pages, um, over the course of 12, 15 months to get a read. And then we have another book submitted. By none other than are Beloved

Dotta: Spinx.

Cult Member: And this one is called Legends of the Forgotten Ruins, the Shadow Key. Now, this is a huge proposal. I adjust everyone read the TLDR because it is is probably like a five to 10 page book, [00:40:00] but it would be a very collaborative experience.

Like for anyone to submit in. There's a discord, uh, if you want your wizards to be in the story. Uh, it looks like it's already got a lot of support and is moving towards publishing goals and working with MM on this. Um, but it is about 120,000 word novel. Um, and it should be ready for next fall if it all gets funded.

So log on to discourse checking our proposals. Voting starts in two weeks and, uh, let's get some things funded. These are awesome projects,

Dotta: so hi El. Oh, El Hey guys.

Hey.

Elf: What's up Wizards?

Dotta: Hello. So, uh, did you blow their socks off?

Elf: Um, I actually kind of did. Um, sorry. Sorry to interrupt. Reptar. Um, no, I, uh, I just got out of the Ted Talk.

Um, And, um, I, I gotta tell you, I, uh, did the whole thing [00:41:00] in one shot. Um, no, no. Redos, uh, yeah, it'll, that should be pretty easy for the, for the editor to put together. Um, but yeah, it was about, what's that?

Dotta: I said ready to watch, right? Yeah, exactly.

Elf: It was, um, yeah, it was about a decentralized world building and, uh, I mentioned a few wizards from the cult in it.

Uh, so you guys will have to, uh, see, uh, who that is when the, when the piece comes up. That is

Jitcy: so exciting. I watched Ted Talks religiously. I remember like so vividly, like, you know, seven years ago I think I've gone to the entire library of TED Talks, so I'm super excited to hear that one. From there. It's gonna be

Dotta: so good.

I think my favorite Ted Talk is the one where the guy trained like crows to bring him, like coins and stuff.

Elf: That

Dotta: sounds like a good one. I super wanna do it, but I have like dogs and they always bark at the crows, so I gotta get rid of my dogs. You gotta train the dogs [00:42:00] first. Yeah, exactly. Train the dogs to bring me gold coins.

Yeah, there you go.

Elf: There's a Ted talk. Um, yeah, no, I, uh, I have no idea what you guys have been talking about. I, I think Reptar was going over through, uh, going over. Um, some, uh, proposals to, from the Dow,

Jitcy: some proposals and like I can back, I can piggyback off that too because we're planning to let people come up to, um, coffee with Magic Machine to do that process as well, like talk through proposals.

So we'll have that happening in the future too. So, yeah. Yeah, just some dow talk.

Elf: Great. Um, and then I, I, yeah, I don't know if do what? I don't know if Donor talked about this, uh, but Donor, did you tell him how we all met in the bear cave the last few days?

Dotta: I did, but you know, I actually had, I actually wanted to talk about our whole constellation diagram.

I still could, but I Oh, go

Elf: ahead. Go ahead. Yeah. Oh, no. Well, yeah, yeah. I was just gonna say it was great. It was the first time that. Funnily enough, it's the first [00:43:00] time I've ever met Locke. Um, I met Al Jean, a few other team members. It was the first time that all three of us, Doda and Bear and me were together.

Yep. Um, yeah, the Bear Cave is a magical place and, uh, It's, uh, you know, it's, we, we talk daily over discord and over zoom, but, but nothing really beats, um, just being in the same physical space together. And, uh, we got a lot accomplished. We got a lot of planning done. We're optimistic. Um, and yeah, I'm really excited about the future of Forgotten Ruins and, uh, and Magic Machine.

It was

Dotta: super fun. We talked about like, really just so I opened up with this a little bit, so I, I actually talked, did you. Uh, elf. Did you ever know, uh, my pet Monster? Where's like this big, like heck yeah. Al Yeah. Like, so that actually started from like the American Greeting Card Company. Well, I [00:44:00] won't refresh you.

We already talked about this earlier. Okay. So one of the things that we, I was, we talked a lot about in the Bear Cape was just sort of, Um, there's really like eight big things that we're working on, right? So it's the NFTs themselves, um, and just like moving that forward. Um, there's merchandise, apparel, film, TV, publishing, uh, web three tools, events, and games, right?

And so, I mean, honestly, I could dig in all of those, um, but. But really one of the things that we, we, we, we, we sat down and we're like, okay, apparel. What does the merch look like that we want to do? Right? And so we have, um, you know, we have some merch that looks like streetwear, that feels like modern and is, um, Something that you could wear every day.

And then we have like other apparel that sort of like pushes the nostalgia button, like the behold my quantum style t-shirt, right? And so we kind of dug in with different ideas there. [00:45:00] Um, you know, we talked a lot about the show, um, and kind of the process of what's gonna be happening there. Um, you know, Derek is working on sort of the pilot and the treatment, um, and we are hoping to be able to pitch some of those things this summer.

Um, we're working, bear is working on, uh, publishing, so we're doing some books, which would be really fun. But then I think on like the actual N F T side, we talked a lot about like, okay, what do the collections look like? What are some of the like, um, dynamics that we want to look at for, you know, when do we do B seasons two?

You know, maybe some of the, some of the mechanics that we. Had planned for B Seasons too, that we can make, uh, actually work for the Beasts we already have. Um, and so we, we talked about some of those. Um, we also have some ideas for some games, of course the Universe game, but maybe they're even some other games that we can kind of do, uh, during this bear market that we have sort of in the works.

So, [00:46:00] um, yeah, it was all in all, it was a really, really fun time. We like. Went to dinner, stayed out super late, left too much in the restaurants. It was a good time.

Elf: It was really good. Um, and, uh, the Barric cave really is like on the beach or at least a block away. Um, and Dota and I stayed in the same hotel.

So every morning we walked along the boardwalk. To the bear cave.

Dotta: Um, holding hands and sleeping.

Elf: Yeah, exactly. Just singing about magic. Um, that's great. But no, it was great. It was, it was really great. I think we all needed it. Um, you know, there, there was a day where I, uh, Just, just sat in the sand for like a good two hours sipping on a chocolate

Dotta: milkshake. You touched sand, you

Jitcy: know, touching grass or sand, either one, but good

Dotta: job.[00:47:00]

Yeah, exactly. And then what did you do after you finished your milkshake? So, so I

Elf: bought a milkshake at the carousel on the Santa Monica Pier. I took it to the sand, I laid down and I sipped on it for about, I don't know, 30 minutes. And then as soon as I finished, I went back and I bought another one and then I went back to that same spot in the sand and sat for another hour.

So

Dotta: Elon

Jitcy: Baby's office buys like seven or eight milkshakes and sits in the sand. Got it.

Elf: Yeah, it was, it was great. And then I had a headache afterward, cause I don't think I've had that much sugar in a long time.

Dotta: Yeah, that's

Elf: a lot of sun. Yeah. And the sun.

Dotta: Yeah. Um, so our law reader today is pseudo James. So pseudo James. If you're in the audience, uh, come on up and, uh, and we'll let you read.

Yep. Come on down. Yeah. The barricade was at max capacity. [00:48:00] Now Jean had to, uh, build a chair, build more chairs. Cause we didn't in real

Jitcy: time, like, we need one chair. Build it now. Like

Dotta: it was in a box already, but

Elf: yeah. Yeah, yeah. It, my, my favorite part actually was just like having a, uh, a whiteboard up on the wall to just like throw up ideas.

I think, um, I don't know. There's something about a whiteboard that's just very, uh, cathartic. Um, just being able to jot something down, erase it, change it, everybody can see it. Uh, whiteboards are just, they're just the best.

Jitcy: I literally have whiteboard paint in my basement and I'm going to put it on one of my walls in the near future.

Like, I have it ready to go because I can just sit in front of one and it's so enjoyable. But yeah, like brainstorming with a whiteboard around. Mm, fun.

Elf: Yep. Yep. Yeah. And then, and then, and then when you're after like an hour of whiteboard use, you look at the whole thing and it's like, it looks like, uh, this [00:49:00] big, like, beautiful plan or strategy akin to like, um, what's that movie?

Uh, with like, we're like Matt Damon plays like the, the, the Genius janitor, um, Goodwill Hunting. Yeah. There's always that Goodwill Hunting moment at the end. When you look at, when you look at the grand plan,

Dotta: mine's a lot

Jitcy: like 22 drum street where he's just writing all these things and you don't see what's on the board.

And he is talking all these scientific terms and they turn the board a bunch of nines. So,

Elf: Well, you, you, you should see, you should see a, a wizard whiteboard because instead of like these arcane equations, it, it says things like goblin slime and, uh, and cobalt's drinking cobalt, Kool-Aid and shit like that.

Dotta: Wait, Elfa didn't talk about your, uh, interview with Bonzo this week. I don't know if you want to give a little preview. Oh,

Elf: yeah, yeah, yeah. I did a, I did an interview with Bonzo. I don't know if he's, if he's in the audience right now, [00:50:00] but, uh, he's here. I invited him up. Great. Yeah, no, it was great. Yeah, Bonzo had some good questions.

I, it was like an hour long. Um, and, uh, yeah, I mean I don't wanna say too much about it cause I want you to go watch the video, but, but yeah, definitely the check that out. It's an interview I did with a Bonzo, um, and uh, you know, I hope Bonzo interviews you next donor. Cause I think he's done about the entire team.

Oh, there's Bonzo. Hey

Dotta: Bonzo, yes, we've done two of the three main guys, best sake, and now El definitely get donor up and so I think that interview will drop on Sunday. And trying to get it up on Spotify too. Cuz like for me personally, if I was listening to it, I'd rather listen to it like in the car and shit rather than on YouTube.

So yeah, very excited.

Elf: Yeah. Yeah, it's really good.

But,

Dotta: um, I don't know where pseudo James is, so I [00:51:00] think we're just gonna be, I think we're just gonna be lawless.

Elf: So, ha has Jisu been a good co-host today since Bear and I were

Dotta: out? Yeah, he's he's probably better. He's probably better. Yeah.

Jitcy: Doubtful. Doubtful.

Elf: Awesome. What, what, uh, what kind of intro music did you guys play today?

Dotta: Oh, we are listening to, uh, Cuban Social Club. Yeah. Okay. I

Elf: was a fan. It was good. Okay, so sounds like something Dota would choose. Yeah, that's exactly

Jitcy: what's going through my head. I'm like, this is the Dota song. I can hear it. Yeah.

Dotta: All right.

Well this has been Joda. And JK

Elf: and L,

Dotta: and Bonzo and Reptar, and Tanya and Joe

signing off from Wizard Wednesday. Goodnight everybody. [00:52:00] Gn.