Wizard Wednesday Episode 70 Transcription

Wizard Wednesday January 4th 2023

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Elf: [00:00:00] Welcome to our weekly call meeting, aka magical midweek AKA hermetic. Come day, AKA Wednesday Adams aka Wizard Wednesday, channeling in from the quantum downs. This is your host elf, and joining me is go to.

Bearsnake: And the guy who doesn't know how to start a Twitter

Dotta: space,

Elf: this is why we're late folks. We tried to give, bear the reins and you see what happens.

I have covid, come

Dotta: on, everyone

Elf: falls the first time. No,

Bearsnake: I'm, I got it started, but then you guys started yelling at me over disco court about something else and, and so I was like, fuck it. I'm r

Elf: sorry. Maybe next week and that's a maybe. Yeah. Um, okay folks, it is the year of the Wizard, uh, Ilda Bear and I started this week off with a [00:01:00] three hour meeting going over what we wanna focus on this year. And damn, I think I'm more excited than ever. We've got a ton of things in the works all across the franchise, all across the blockchain.

Uh, and I think, uh, I think we're gonna touch on some of those things today. Um, cuz some of them are quite pivotal. Um, some of them would signal a big shift in the project, but we will touch on all of that later. Uh, it's a really big show today. We've got cult questions, we've got cult content, uh, we've got Hugh hat lore.

Um, and, and yeah. And then we've got a, uh, a look into the future. Um, but let's, uh, let's start with some cult, some cult questions. What do you think guys? Let's do it. Okay. So, um, uh, asks. Uh, what do you feel the cult can be doing better to bring in new cult members? Um, I think we each have a different [00:02:00] answer for this.

As far as I'm concerned. You guys are doing perfect. Um, like, honestly, like just keep building, keep making stuff, keep being awesome, keep bringing the magic to the universe, um, and, and keep writing the book of lore. Um, that, that's really my answer. But I don't know if you guys maybe have a different take.

Dotta: Yeah, I think that like really this idea of line, like fundamental cult creation is the most important, right? I think that like, just creating things and sharing it. I think that, like, for me, I view it from the other perspective, which is like how I, I always think of things in terms of like building systems.

And so I think are like, what are systems that I can build that encourage people to like, share on Twitter and kind of, uh, like bring more people in. So for example, the gig is chat event. My entire feed was completely filled with like, Christmas at the gig is chat. And so it's like, oh, okay. That's interesting.

Like, um, I just saw that like, uh, pudgy Penguins just created like a chrome extension to like automatically respond sappy seals. [00:03:00] Oh, was that sappy seals?

Bearsnake: Oh, I was just kidding. No, it probably was. Yeah. Are you talking about the meme machine? Yes, the meme

Dotta: machine. So sappy seals, you're right, sappy seals.

They have a chrome extension to, to like be a reply guy with all these memes and it was like amazing. It, it was so fun and like totally something that we would do where you just like can reply with forgotten ruins memes cuz uh, well that's really fun. So yeah, I think that that's one of the things, right?

Like, you know, people have mentioned that the meta right now is just like founders that kind of spend all day in spaces and like that's how their projects work, right? You see this in a few projects right now and I think, you know, whatever good, good. We probably should spend more time in spaces, but at the same time, I think ultimately it has to come from like the community sort of like being obsessed with the project as well.

And so, yeah, I'd like to build more tools like that. Yeah,

Bearsnake: tools, systems are, are a great way to amplify. I mean, for me, you know, I think. In general. I see. Yeah. The cold is doing amazing. You know, again, like, just to speak what Dodo was saying, like I, I [00:04:00] just think doing more spaces, being out there, talking more, uh, that's one of the things I want to get better at is sort of, is sort of spending some more time in spaces.

Um, it feels like counterintuitive because it doesn't feel like work work, but yeah, the reality is, is like there's a lot of projects out there sort of, you know, getting a lot of lifts, not from delivering any actual products or, or new, um, tokens or, or anything really shipping. It's just spending time talking about what they're doing.

Um, and so, you know, the more that we, that we do that, the more that the cult does that I think, you know, it will, it will come back tenfold.

Elf: Okay, next question. This is a three-part question from Lor Punk, Emma, in the one who rings, uh, it is, what's your favorite cheese? What's your favorite cracker to go with?

Said cheese. And, uh, what's your favorite wine to drink with the cracker and cheese? I'll go first. Mine is, uh, cheese whiz Ritz cracker and Welch's grape juice Bear. How about you? Oh

Bearsnake: my God. Are you, how are

Elf: you? Liar. Wow. [00:05:00] I, I tried to think of the most disgusting thing I could think of. Oh. Cause I

Bearsnake: mean like, I like all those things, but I'm surprised it just came that quickly.

Okay. Mine's trisquit. Some maybe cheddar, like a nice original trisquit. No, like reduced fat bullshit. Um, maybe some cheddar cheese. Um, and then, uh, gosh, I don't know, a nice tall glass of water maybe.

Dotta: Uh, no, you guys, so I with you, I, you know what I love You take a roll of Brie, right? And then you cover it in fig jam and you put it in the oven for like 20 minutes.

What? This is all this. And then you have like a fresh baguette and you have like a nice merlott, like something from Napa that my favorite.

Bearsnake: This is, this is not a cooking show, this is the, we come

Elf: in crackers. It's, it's also the strongest opinion that Dota has ever had.

Dotta: Okay.

Elf: Moving [00:06:00] on. Um, okay. These, this next series of questions is actually really good. It's from, uh, bill Gaines hoot and El, um, the one who rings. Uh, basically it's, it's all the same question. It's, uh, when can and lore about locations. Um, and, and I guess like other, other hats cuz we already did all the colored hats.

Um, and so now people wanna just know more about more specific things. Um, Which, uh, yeah, I think is definitely gonna be a part of 2020 three's Wizard Wednesday lore sections. Um, today we're gonna go over the HU hats. Um, and yeah, I, I think I wanna definitely do this more. I, I think maybe one way I can get through this is like, just giving, uh, quicker, quicker descriptions of things and doing a, a bunch at once rather than like going deep on one single thing.

Um, so yeah, so I'm gonna do that today actually, and, uh, we'll definitely do that more. And when we start talking about future, um, events, we're gonna talk about a particular tool that will also, uh, [00:07:00] serve this need. Um, so that's the answer to that question. Uh, Tanya is asking, okay, this is a very serious question guys.

What do you do to protect your mental health during the bear market? Feels like a lot of people are struggling out there. Um mm-hmm. Bear in the bear market. Mental health. What do you do? Ooh.

Bearsnake: Uh, don't sleep, stress out and work harder. Is that the right answer?

Elf: I think so. Okay. I think so. Yeah. Doty, you got anything?

Yeah, I

Dotta: mean, I think, well, okay. I think there's basically like two levels, right? There's sort of like your fundamental relationship with like your family and your community that's like off of the computer and sort of like, how do you deal with your day to the day? And I'm very fortunate there in that I have, you know, uh, a beautiful wife whom I love very much, and that I have children.

And so I have like a very good sort of like social foundation both within the family and the community. It's kind of like there's no serious sort of like mental health issues I, uh, in, in [00:08:00] that regard. But I think that like in terms of sort of, well, let's say the bear market and like coming to work and coming to computers and seeing like people selling and people, you know, I.

People have all sorts of opinions, right? And so it's like, well you should, you know, you should take VC money, you should not take VC money. You should be on spaces too every day. No, you should do like doodles and like, you should cancel Wizard Wednesday. And it's like, there's a kind of a lot of, and and it's like really hard to know like what's the right, like what's the right path, right?

There's like all of these different ideas that we could be doing, these different things that we could be building. Uh, and we have money, but not an infinite amount of money. So it's like, ah, how do we do right by everyone and go for the biggest win. So I think that's like an anxiety thing. And I think really how I deal with that is like ultimately like just refocusing back on the basics of like, what we're trying to build here, right?

Like, you know, the first thing I do is like, look to my left and look to my right and see Elf and Bear and just feel like s extremely grateful to be working with them, to feel almost like these, I, I just have so much respect for their talents and to feel almost like, I don't know, not to be too grandiose, [00:09:00] but to feel like these like three heroes who are like just fighting this battle to try to like bring this IP into existence.

And of course we're not alone, but I think, you know, I work most closely with them and. And I think that like, when I really just stop and focus and look at like, okay, what are we doing? What do we have ahead of us? Right? We have this like television show that we're like working on and serious about, and it's feasible.

We have like the universe game that is going to be this like, um, serious like game video game that people will really like. And we have, you know, all of these things being created in the discord and the content, right? And you, like, you just go through the list of like looking like, do people like what we're building?

And the answer is like, absolutely yes. Like, okay, maybe I'm not getting the response that I want by being like, number two in volume on open sea. But like, when we look at like what we're aiming for and that the people that have come around us, you know, you, you start to have just like a sense of gratefulness rather than like a sense of jealousy.

And that just really helps keep me motivated.

Elf: Yep. Yep. I agree with that. Uh, you know, we've, we've been saying a long time, the antidote to a bear market is just build fun experiences. Just, just build through [00:10:00] it. Um, and, you know, that's not just a macro strategy, that's not just a business strategy. That's also a personal strategy for me.

Um, it, it's the old cliche when you, uh, when you turn your passion into your job, then you'll never work a day in your life. And, you know, I just, I just love what, what we've built here. Um, and, and by we, I mean magic machine and I mean the cult, I mean, it, it, it, it mounts. It might sound like I'm bullshitting you, but just seeing all the stuff that you guys build every day, all the amazing artwork and all the amazing cult content on Twitter, it really keeps me going.

It is, it's, it's a magic with healing properties. Um, and, you know, I barely even feel the bear market sometimes just by seeing the world that you guys are building with us. Um, so that's my answer to that. Um, okay. Now we have another fun question from Bridge. Uh, This is actually another three part question.

Um, it's, it's, it's one for each of us. So I'll just start with mine. Uh, he says, how does ELF manage [00:11:00] writer's block? Um, man, I, I could, I could do 20 minutes on this. Um, if, if I could answer this in a short way. Um, the, I, let me, let me speak onto how like, I guess the creative process worked in the very beginning of creating this collection.

Um, one thing that was really fun was I built it as fast as I could. Um, and so what that meant was I just had to like look at. Everything I've sort of read and watched and digested across the entire media spectrum all my life, from books to video games, to shows to films, and, and I and I and I, I took that impression and I put it in the collection.

Um, And I think that's how we ended up with just like such a broad, generalized, uh, archetypal, um, take on the fantasy genre. Um, you know, every [00:12:00] single head, every single prop, they all, um, have his historical significance, cultural significance. Um, and so for me it was just a matter of like, just reaching back through the history of, of everything that's influenced me in my life.

Uh, that was the muse. Um, and, and I think that's how, that's how all writers or creators, uh, work. They just, they, they, they, they have a, uh, a mental backlog of all the things that have inspired them. And that's what they draw from to, to create new things. Um, You know, you know, we could get more specific on that.

I, I actually saw, uh, Tanya, um, post a really cool video today on the, uh, um, oh God, what's it, I'm blanking on the name. Cannabis Coven, I think it's called, uh, sorry Tonya, if I ruined that. But Tonya posted a really cool video. Can coven, not Can Cove? Yes, that's it. Yeah. Cannabis Coven is,

Dotta: uh, probably a different

Elf: group.

Yeah, exactly. Candace coven. No, [00:13:00] there's a really good, uh, video Tanya posted just to like, like, uh, like, um, sort of guiding you through at least the, the starting process. I watched that today and it's, it is spot on. Um, I won't go over it because Tanya explains it all perfectly. So that's at least like if you're starting out with writer's block, just do what, do what the can is coming does.

Um, anyway, that's, that's, uh, my answer. Okay. Let me go to Dota. Um, bridge asks, uh, Dota, how do you manage all the tabs, screens, screen time, and good posture at your battle station?

Dotta: Uh, okay. Well, I am like Silicon Valley basic, insofar as I have like an Aron chair, like the, like classic, you know, whatever startup chair.

I have a Kinesis Advantage split keyboard. So it's like two separate hands maybe cuz someone can share a screenshot. I can't look it up. And then I've got like an Apple cinema display monitor. I've actually got two. Um, and, uh, well I, uh, I [00:14:00] have a million tabs at a time open because I have a really bad memory.

And so it actually helps, like you remember what I'm actually working on. Um, and then, uh, well I use this extension called one tab, which is really helpful because you can like, sort of create these workspaces and then like save 'em and then come back to something else later. So that's a semi-serious answer.

Um, but I'm not really, I don't really prioritize good posture so much, uh, until my like arms and legs fall asleep and then I go out and lift some weights and then come back.

Elf: Okay. Uh, the, the best part, I saved the best for last, uh, bear. This is for you. Bridge wants to know what part is the bear and what part is the snake.

Ooh.

Dotta: You know what,

Bearsnake: I actually know the answer to this. Um, okay.

Dotta: Okay.

Bearsnake: Because I had a girlfriend in high school who was, um, this could go in a lot of directions. Actually. It was a, it was after college. It wasn't high school who was an amazing artist, and she drew a bear snake for me, uh, because it was like my gamer tag.

So it's, [00:15:00] it's basically. It, it's a snake body with like the ch like with like the upper torso head and arms of a bear.

Elf: So, oh, that's all I was imagining. Something totally different. Okay. Um,

Bearsnake: what would you, well, we can get into it later. You can draw me what you think you can do. My

Elf: girlfriend, um, it actually bridge has a question for Jitsi, but I don't, I don't know if Jitsi is here.

Um, Jitsi, maybe you can, uh, write in Discord later. He says, uh, does Jitsi plan on capturing cobalt energy in a bottle this year? Um, JIT answer that. Um, okay. Slim with another one of his, uh, uh, perplexing questions. One of his riddles, uh, he says, okay, I'm just gonna read what he is, what he is asking. It says, is it sock sock shoe shoe or is it sock shoe?

Sock shoe?

Dotta: I do my sock first, and then the shoes

Elf: sock first.

Dotta: Then shoes. And then I [00:16:00] tie my laces like after both shoes are on, I like go back.

Bearsnake: Oh, I tie my laces when I first buy my shoes. But I tie them so loosely that I can just slip 'em on and off, like socks.

Dotta: Oh, so then it's just like, sock sock, sock sock.

Bearsnake: Yeah. Sock sock, sock sock. With, uh, sock with, um, walking tread. I'm sorry, I'm losing it.

Elf: Okay. Um, I do. So, socks, pants, cheer shoe. Um, okay. And then, uh, finally Sh Lee is asking, this is, this is a good segue into the next part. Uh, sh Lee's asking, uh, any pla or, uh, yeah, any plans for the team beyond the game and the show.

What else have you got? Uh, but you haven't really got the bolt, the ball rolling on yet. What are some of the ultimate dream accomplishments you want to achieve with this project? Um, I'll tell you what Donna, let's, uh, spend maybe the next 30 minutes answering that question. What do you think? [00:17:00] There is so

Dotta: much.

There is so much. I have like two pages of things to talk about here, so let's just like dive in. I mean, I think that like, you know, when I look at sort of everything that we could do, um, I think that like at a high level we're really just balancing, uh, between like being a Web three brand and a web two brand.

And I think that those two things are inextricably linked, right? We're going to do, uh, uh, both and. Um, you can't just do just one. Um,

sorry, bear, I'm getting a ton of noise through your mic so you can't just do just one. You know, we're gonna be both a web three brand and a web two brand, and so that means like having new interesting tokens and tokens, games and, and like new sort of, uh, collectibles coming onto the market. Or like new games you can play with the existing collectibles, but then it also means like [00:18:00] having, um, like growing the web two, let's call it, uh, ip, um, through like all sorts of different ways, you know, the game, the comic, the show, all these things.

So, yep. Yeah, I think the first one to talk about is like, uh, the, the show, right? So the show is, uh, still in progress. I think we talked about this last week. We talked about it all the time. Um, you know, uh, December is a very slow month for kind of that industry. There have been a lot of like very good creative, interesting business conversations happening there.

Um, and so like we'll have more kind of concrete things to show there, I think within, uh, this first and second quarter. Do you wanna add to that?

Elf: Yeah, I'll, yeah, I, I think the biggest thing that's happened lately with the show is like Derek and I have been really nailing down the exact creative, um, creative.

By that I mean, what exact storylines do we want to hit? What exact characters do we want to appear? I know that Bear has promised me that I can fit at least 5,000 characters in it, so we're [00:19:00] still selecting all 5,000. Um, but, but yeah, we still need some like quote unquote main characters and, uh, I, I think like Derek and I have really like found some really good ones that can just tell a really strong season one of the show.

Um, you know, as I've said before, I think the comic is like a really strong proof of concept of how we handle. Community, um, content in these larger media expressions. Um, we can have, uh, storylines that are pulled straight from the book of lore. Uh, we can have cameos from other people's, uh, wizards and warriors show up.

Um, and then some of it is like straight up storylines from Magic Machine. Um, some of it is, is maybe not necessarily. From a specific page from the book of lore, but it's more just like a community-wide project, like the cobalt hoard. Like no one person created the cobalt hoard as far as I know. Um, but it's still like a, it's like a cult creation.

So, you know, there, there's various ways to work, uh, [00:20:00] content into this. And, uh, that's, Derek and I have made a lot of strides lately in

Dotta: that respect. I also think too, with Derek is like, one of the things that happened early on is like, he's. Super famous and like very successful. And so it's always kind of like a bit of game when you get to know each other to like learn to, to work together.

And so it's like you wanna, I, I notice it more, probably even more than the two of you. But like, I wanna be very like, deferential to him because I'm like, wow, you're the expert storyteller. And I don't know. But then at the same time, he doesn't necessarily know about the universe, um, beyond kind of like what he's sort of, you know, encountered with us because it's a new IP and we like talked to him about it.

And so it's always this kind of like, this like gentle, um, process of like learning to work together, learning to have these discussions and being able to kind of like, talk through it with him. And I feel like the, the trust level is a lot higher. The communication is a lot more like effective. And so it's, yeah, it's very exciting.

It just like operates at like a scale, a timescale that's a lot longer [00:21:00] than crypto. Yeah.

Bearsnake: And, and I'll add to that, I mean, like on my own shows that I wrote and on projects that I was, you know, a development executive, which is probably more the role that I'm playing in, in, in this, in this scenario is like, we actually, like let Derek run, you know, almost like run free.

And, and he went and he went in a couple directions and then El would come in and course correct and sort of educate on, on, again, on all the mythology and lore. And like, it, it, it's almost like the 3D models, like we actually went down a road and then, and then we decided it wasn't the right road. And, and you know, sure it pushes back, you know, timelines, but ultimately you only get one shot to make.

You know, your first season, and it better be the best possible show ever. And I think there's also just this, this other layer of, of complexity where we're building it as we're going. So it's like, you know, it's a, it's a, it's, it's not as set in [00:22:00] stone. So, you know, I, I'm, as someone who's done this many times, like I'm very comfortable where it's at and, uh, And yeah.

Uh, just takes a bit.

Elf: Yeah. So that'd be the first thing, right? Is the,

Dotta: the show. Um, you know, the next thing that is really significant would be the Goblin Town game. So, um, we've been working, uh, well just tirelessly to kind of like, get this game together. It's like, it's, uh, complicated in all the right ways and, um, it's gonna be so fun.

I mean, NIS Ski has saved my bacon so many times where I like overcomplicate it and he's able to like, simplify it back down. We've got just like, really ar beautiful art coming in that, that you've seen shared on the, the goblin town. Um, Twitter, you know, one of the fun things that we're, we're kind of like playing with is like leaning more into, let's say, let's call it like N F T DJs.

I'm sure you guys can sort of see that from the, like, battle from Goblin Town Twitter, right? There's like, um, you know, we're experimenting with ideas [00:23:00] that we. Don't typically do from, let's say the official Forgotten Rooms account. And, and frankly, we're getting like really good response. So that's fun to see.

Um, you know, people kind of like always want to try something new. And so, um, yeah, we're working on the Goldman Town game. I could talk about that at length. I have before I, I owe everyone a green paper and some tweet storms and some mechanics and like all, all of that I could, I could actually spend the rest of this space talking about Golman Town, but I'm not going to, cause I have a lot of other stuff I wanna talk about.

Um, but yeah, the game is gonna be incredibly fun. Um, all forgotten ruins, token holders will receive like a nice airdrop. You know, we, of course we've been talking about like partner communities who like did trick or treat, get a, get an airdrop The way the game kind of works, right, is that you have. Like pieces, pieces on the board that, that, that are like your settlements by, which is like kinda the anchor of how you earn resources to then like build up your armies and expand your territory.

And so like these partner communities, maybe they get like just one piece for free. [00:24:00] And the reason why that's like really helpful and actually not that dilutive is because now they're actually a player in the game. Like they care about the game. You, you, you put down your piece. Now you start accumulating resources.

Um, whereas like folks who have like wizards for example, will get, you know, uh, a significantly more number of like initially starting pieces. So it's like enough that you feel like you have a little headstart, but like, not so much that people who are outside the Wizards community, we'll just be like, uh, the wizards got too much of a head start.

I, I don't even wanna like play. So yeah, very excited for goin town. Um, and, and really there's a lot of infrastructure there for, uh, on chain crypto games that we might do like later, you know, later in the year. Um, so yeah, so Goblin Town Game would be another one. Um, then of course, the Univer game, right? I mean, I guess the initial question was like, what are you doing more than the, the, the show and the, and, and the game.

Um, you know, I mean, uh, those two projects are quite big. The, the, the Univer land sale, um, is [00:25:00] expected to drop this year. I mean, um, probably, uh, you know, I don't, I'm not gonna commit to anyone, but I wouldn't be surprised to see it drop in, like, let's say q2, um, of this year. Um, and, uh, well the art is like really progressing.

You should check out the Rui Reverse game blog. Um, Well, that is happening. I, I, I, again, I don't wanna like, spend so much time on the Universe game because these are things that you all sort of know. Right. There's a few other things that I wanna, like talk about, but maybe I'll pause there and see if El and bear, El and bear just unmute if you wanna like talk.

I'm watching your,

Elf: your mute. Yeah. No, I, I'm, I'm all for, uh, moving to the next thing actually, we, we talk a lot about the Universe game and we'll probably talk more about it later. Um, I wanna jump to 3D models actually, which is another, honestly, a really big thing that's gonna be coming. I know it's taking forever, but like, you know, 3D first of all takes forever and we've got 200 assets to make.

Um, but like once they're done, damn, it's gonna unlock just a massive, [00:26:00] uh, just, it's, it's, it's gonna be a paradigm shift. There's gonna be so many fricking things that we can do with these things. You know, like baseline is, uh, using them in any open world 3D metas that are available. And I think we all know.

Um, what's coming down the pike for that? Uh, but you know, there, there, the, the whole 3D production is coming along really nicely. Um, so. You know, one, one thing we talk about internally a lot is once we're done with these, uh, will Magic machine have, uh, any kind of like 3D experience that we actually make, um, any sort of like open world, just playground, demo arena.

Um, and, and, and, and I think, I think we will, uh, you know, we, we talk about having our own 3D stack. Um, I, I don't know if we wanna say too much about it now, but it's just, I don't know, 3D is just something that's gonna be very exciting.

Dotta: 3D is gonna [00:27:00] be,

Bearsnake: go ahead. No, I was just gonna say 3d. Like we, it's, it's one thing to provide 3D assets, it's another thing to be able to provide a tool set for, for people who don't know things like Blender and other, you know, and unreal to be able to use them.

So I think for, for me, the, the 3D is twofold. One is, is to like, Deliver them to the cult and then give you guys a playground to be able to use them in and create memes and tell stories. And I think it starts simple and then it gets com more complicated over time. And then I also think like there's just a bunch of ideas, mini games, um, et cetera, that I think we always thought about being 2D and pixelated, that now we're like, oh, well we could just do this in 3d.

Um, and so it just gives us that flexibility, um, to sort of play with both, um, genres.

Dotta: Yeah, I think that 3D will unlock like a lot of cult content. Um, e even though historically 3D [00:28:00] has been quite difficult to, to use, all the tools are getting way better and way easier. And so like I really want to ha have more tools for like writing lore, particularly long-term, long form lore.

And you can definitely see, um, being able to use the 3D models in order to do that. You know, we will of course release like the, the fundamentals, right? Documentation on how to use them, documentation on how to integrate them into other metaverses. We are doing, um, a lot of reach out, both like Bayer and Jitsu and the teams like reaching out to other metas to, to get them integrated.

Um, yeah, and I think to echo what EL says, we need to create sort of our own playground where you can play with them. It'll start very small, right? Like the first version will probably just be like you're outside by yourself, running around and jumping like, fine, fair enough. Um, but ultimately, like. Uh, it's pretty clear that we need to kind of, uh, have sort of our own tool set to be able to work in 3D with these models.

Um, and, and, and well, and there's just so much that you can do with, with 3D models. Yep. [00:29:00] You know, in the same way that like the pixel art characters are the kernel of a character now that you have all the characters encoded in 3D shapes and textures and rigged, uh, again, that's another kernel.

Elf: Yeah.

Malevolent is asking in the discord, he says, uh, with the 3D models, will the flame head whiz or the Spectra SOS for example, be static or will the flames actually be animated? Um, so yeah, I mean, you know, these are, these are questions, uh, we talk about with the 3D team all the time. You know, one thing to keep in mind is like, A major use case for these is they need to be deployable into other metas.

They need to be oper, interoperable with the metaverse. And so we're, we're trying to build the baseline models, uh, very simple so that, um, other projects can integrate them. Uh, you know, usually that precludes really fancy animated features like flames and stuff. Um, however that said, I can imagine a scenario where eventually, uh, these 3D models are customizable and you can add new features to them.[00:30:00]

Um, but, but yeah, I don't think like the, the first version will have like animated

Dotta: flames. Um, Right. And, and that would for sure be environment dependent, right? Like, yeah. Uh, I wouldn't be surprised for us, for example, to like write or commission like a, like a shader, like a flame shader. So shaders meaning kind of like, let's call it like graphical programs that define like how these 3D models work or, and look.

Um, and so yes, you would need that basically like a, a program, a shader to, to describe what does it mean for like, the skull to have like a flaming head, and how does that move? Um, and that would definitely have to be supported by the particular environment. So the first version, uh, will not really have, well, it won't have that sort of thing, but like, of course you would want to be able to add it where it's supported,

Elf: you know?

And just another thing real quick, I, I saw somebody like a month ago just sort of expressing a little bit of a disappointment. They, they wanted them to be like voxel just to more accurately reflect the original pixel characters. Um, Just on that real quick, [00:31:00] we actually did explore the voxel, uh, technique.

Um, the, the biggest issue was like actually finding an artist willing to commit like months of their lives, making every single asset in voxel. Um, number two, there's just like not a lot of great voxel 3D software out there. Um, but all of that said, like this, again, this first version of 3D models, you know, we could totally do a voxel version at some point.

Um, you know, it's, it's not like we'll build these and then we're done forever. Um, so I don't know.

Dotta: I just wanted to say that real quick. Yeah. And then we gotta do SOS and Warriors

Elf: and. There's a lot there. Yeah. Um, okay, let's move on. Uh, website improvements. Uh, this is actually something that I've been begging for for months.

Um, we are definitely working on it. You know, even, even the book of lore I think definitely needs a lot of improvement. A lot of just, just better ui, ux, um, better just graphic design. [00:32:00] Um, yeah. Doda, do you wanna talk about that? Yeah, for the book

Dotta: of law, like there's so much, um, you know, one of the things that we were a little hesitant to add in the beginning, um, I think we were ready to add, which would be like bookmarking and likes.

And so I think, and, and like maybe some record of like what you've actually read, right? Like a read on red status, something like that. I think that, like if one of the things that we didn't want in the very beginning was to kind of like, you know, Put airdrops, uh, conditional on like the most likes or something, which would be totally gamed.

And we didn't want, we wanna like, make sure that we're prioritizing like, sort of art for art's sake rather than creating this like popularity contest. At the same time, there's a lot of really positive benefits by having public likes on the book of lore because I, and I think that the faves is actually, has more positive feedback loops than negative ones.

So, for example, if I write something and then I get a fave or a bunch of faves, I, at the very least, I just know that somebody read it and enjoyed it. Right. And that's like an inherently, um, like positive effect. And so I think if we [00:33:00] start to see that people are spamming it or something, for one, you won't be able to publicly like it unless you are like connected to a wallet that holds a token.

Um, and then two, I just don't think that like spam is gonna be that big of an issue. I actually think instead it's gonna be seen as like, um, like a good reinforcement. And then frankly it's really helpful for us for discovery, right? So you can be able, so one of the things that we really need to do for, for the book of lore is like kind of promote, um, like how to find posts that you're interested in, right?

So like the uh, or posts that are good, right? It's your very first day at the book, all lore. I wanna start reading the book Allure. What am I gonna do? Start at, start at Wizard Zero and then just like click through and like, you know, we've all done it. Cuz that's really the only way to do it now. But then now you have all these stories in the back, like half of the book that like never ever get read even though they're like just as good.

And so, you know, being able to kind of have everybody who reads the book of lore, fave things really will help us like categorize and pr and promote stuff. Yeah. Uh, I think another part is like, we'll improve the u ui, right? Like that, the, the, [00:34:00] the physi, you probably won't use the physical book metaphor as like, as hard as we are where it's like two pages on one, probably get rid of the pixel font, make it easier to read.

And I think that actually this page like, starts off by being almost like the character sheet for your wizard, right? So like the, so you should also have maybe like the achievements that the Wizard has or like stats or like, you know, this wizard participated in the unlocking of the gate, or, um, you know, things that get written on the book of lore should be part of this, like wizards event log.

Um, so

Elf: yeah, yeah, yeah. I, I, I really want the, um, the book of lore to not just be a compendium of, uh, stories and cult content, but I also wanted to sort of, Feel like maybe a, a d and d character creation page, um, where other metrics are accrued, uh, because, you know, a a, a vital component to forgotten ruins is like building up your character, leveling it up, making it more than what it was when you first got it.

Um, that's what really brings them to life. [00:35:00] Uh, and so I think we can ref reflect a lot of that in the book of

Dotta: lore. And I think that like if, okay, so then like, let's say the Book of Lore is a character page, right? It's about, it's how you build out your character. I think the other thing we really wanna do is have like a collector's page.

And I think we'll reveal more details as we go, but, um, ultimately, like the collector's page is about like the holder, right? And so in that case, you'll have like badges if you burned a wizard, um, you know, even if you like sold your soul, I. Uh, but you were a burner, right? You should get some sort of street cred for that.

Like if you helped unlock at the gate. Um, all that should be like recorded there. And I think we'll have the obvious stuff like, you know, the collections that you, the tokens that you hold. Um, but we'll also have stuff like, okay, here's the lore that this person written, and like, some other badges that we're like not quite ready to share yet.

So, but I think like having the, having like a collector's page where you can see like, okay, this is about, you know, the book of lo page is around like the character token, but then the collector page is about like the wallet, like the holder [00:36:00] and, and it's kind of their achievements too. So yeah, we're working on that.

We've got some drafts of that design, but, um, we'll show about

Elf: sound. Yeah. Slim is asking a question that's sort of tangential to this in, in terms of just better website organizing information better. Um, he's asking, we need a, we need a, basically an elevator pitch for the project. Um, yeah, I, I hear you, man.

So, so first of all, slim, I'm gonna share. Uh, something that, um, Merlin made recently, um, in the Discord, which is just a really one really great one pager on the whole project. It's a beginner's guide. Yeah. Yeah. Um, but you know, perhaps that's not what you mean by quote elevator pitch, which is like a sentence or two that sums up the entire project.

Um, you know, this is something I've been looking for for two years. Uh, I, I find myself wanting to use the phrase decentralized world building, but number one, people don't even, a lot of people don't even know what world building means. Um, and number two, the word decentralized just [00:37:00] kind of confuses people.

And so, you know, if, if anyone in the cult has like a good like one sentence log line that describes everyone thing we do, uh, please share it. Uh, cuz it's, it's, it's really difficult to do it. I don't even know if it's

Dotta: possible. Yeah. I think that our homepage right now is like, geared, uh, it almost reads like it's towards like executives or something rather than like, like people who like, you know, uh, want to, I don't know, it's almost geared towards like movie executives or something, rather than like Yeah.

Towards someone who had joined the cult or like wanna understand the project immediately. And so yeah, we like for sure. Yeah.

Elf: No, that, that's also part of the problem. It's like, depending on who are you pitching to? Are you pitching to a, a business executive that's gonna require a different log line than just the rando on the street?

Um, so yeah, I mean, it's a very tricky thing. Yeah.

Dotta: We

Bearsnake: also have, we have, we have this deck that, I mean, to, to your point, el like you [00:38:00] can you, when you start a company, you usually make a deck about like, who we are. And then you realize every meeting needs a different version of that deck. And then like a year later you have 20 different versions of that deck.

And so right now we have like a presentation that is very, it feels very corporate, but it also explains a lot, I think, very succinctly. Um, and so I, I actually think we should share that sooner than later. Um, because it sort of gives this sort of top-down view of what, of who we are, what we're doing, where we're at in the process and where we're headed.

It's a good idea. Um, Yeah. And I, and I think we put so much work into it, and I think, I think it's just probably time to share it. Yeah. And there's a

Dotta: lot of good stuff we could put on the homepage there too. Yeah.

Bearsnake: So slim, thank you for that. But I know slim, you're, you're really talking about like a sentence or two.

Um, and I actually started like writing one in response to you in Discord, but then I stopped paying attention to, uh, [00:39:00] wizard Wednesday, so I'm gonna stop. But like, you know, we do need to, we, we do need to work on that. And, and I do, and, and, and by the way, I think words like decentralize actually do make sense in the right context.

Um, so as long as you surround it, you know, you make, you make it clear that decentralized means that you're, you know, building it alongside the fans of the IP or something, then, then it kind of hits. But anyway, we should move on. There's some other things that I wanted to sort of talk about in terms of what we want to hit in.

You know,

Elf: 2023. Yeah. Yeah. So, so website and book of law improvements are coming. Um, let's hit binary star. That's very exciting.

Dotta: Yeah. So, okay. So the idea behind Binary Star, um, and all of this of course is like conditioned on getting like a final green light for legal. Um, but the basic idea with Binary Star is that it provides a way for N F T holders to license an option to their ip, uh, to their IP rights.

And so, like, we basically see this as a way that folks who create IP [00:40:00] with their characters can easily monetize, um, that IP to like other projects that want to use that. So, um, you know, I think the, an obvious example would be like a television show about wizards, right? And then you could license an option to use the lore, um, from, you know, from your cold content.

And then those IP owners, like you could receive, uh, money. Whether or not that cult content is actually used because you licensed an option to use your ip. And so, uh, you know, I always have to mention when I'm saying this, that like, what I'm not saying is that we just pay out a blanket royalty to N F T holder.

Like regardless of participation, I'm like specifically saying that IP owners can receive a royalty for like, uh, basically engaging these sort of like traditional meat space contracts where you're licensing, you know, the IP that you have to a, to something else that is going to use it. And so Binary Star is gonna make this like very easy as the goal.

Um, I've been a bit slow kind of like pulling the trigger on this because, you know, [00:41:00] frankly there isn't actually any revenue flowing through it this second. But I mean, it's really clear to me that we need to le lay the foundation because Forgotten Ruins is gonna become a global brand. And so like we need to have this, uh, structure already in place.

So yeah, so getting binary stars sort of like out the door, or at least like available for signups is something that we are pressing on. And really the

Bearsnake: main, I think this is what the beauty of binary star is, the commercial rights that every person who owns a character token has those rights actually allow for this seamless, for what we think is this, this seamless relationship, right?

Because if we give you commercial rights, that means we can license them back. Um, and it's just, it, it potentially becomes very clean. But, um, but yeah, both,

Dotta: both, both us or anyone. Right? Like anyone else, any other third party, right? So, yeah, so this idea of like being able to pay. [00:42:00] Um, effectively a royalty to, uh, IP holders in a way that like feels very web three is, um, well no one else has done this, um, in the same way.

And it's like very, very exciting. So yeah, we're looking forward to getting that out. Yeah,

Bearsnake: and we definitely saw some chat in some, some discussions in sales chat about like, you know, will we, will people see a realty from this or from that, that Magic machine does? And what we're hoping, we're hoping, um, is that this allows us to have a relationship with token holders that, that is novel and hasn't been seen before.

Dotta: And I think it's also, whenever we talk about the IP conversation, of course, like a good reminder is that like there are like different classes of things that get created with the forgotten ruins, like ip. Um, so for example, there's like things that Magic machine creates. With the ip, there are things that like the cult creates and like [00:43:00] businesses that the cult creates with their ip.

And then there's like third party uses of the ip, right? And so one of the things we're trying to do is be like very careful around, um, you know, like what does it mean if we like license an option for your character, but we don't use it? What if it means what if we create IP around a token that someone else owns, right?

Um, or what if we use the IP from like lore that someone else created that's like the next higher level, right? Like we actually use, you know, a character that you created in something that we produce, right? And so we're trying to like think through these, uh, think through these kind of, um, scenarios with care and to try to, cause some was doing this like both fair and like compatible with like traditional IP laws and of course like avoiding any kind of like securities laws traps.

So yeah. So that's binary star. That's

Elf: very exciting. Um, I want to hit on a question before we move on that Ste put in the, the secret tower. Um, he's basically [00:44:00] asking, uh, how do we, um, uh, I lost the, oh wait, hold on. Uh, what's the best way to get one of my characters in front of you for consideration to be included in any of the media?

Um, so we've been over this, this before, but it's always good to come back to, you know, and this, this applies to anyone, um, you know, how do you get one of your characters to appear in the comic or, or a show or whatever. There, there's several different ways. Um, number one, just, you know, make your com your character, just compelling, uh, attention grabbing.

Um, Make them a, uh, a, uh, let's see, uh, a dominant force on Twitter that you just can't ignore. Um, there's a lot of wizards in the cult that do this. Um, you know, mags Waze was one of the first wizards that really just rose to fame because of all the amazing stuff he was making. Um, Tanya Del Rio is doing a really good job with her wizards.

Mm-hmm. Like making art, making story, making comics, um, just, it's just, it's, it's impossible [00:45:00] to ignore some of these characters cuz they're just all over, they're always doing really interesting things. Um, you can also get other people to make interesting things with your character. Like, um, uh, Oz is always doing really good stuff, uh, with a lot of different people's characters.

Um, there was, uh, uh, Milton's Pub, uh, made a cameo in one of the issues of the comic because I remember Oz made a really cool piece of artwork of a bunch of wizards hanging out in Milton's Pub. Um, so, you know, you can lean on other cult members to make really compelling content for your

Dotta: character. I think Mag Devin of the Quantum Downs is like so, such a clear, iconic character in my mind and like, go look at her.

Uh, book of lo page and see the same character from a hundred different angles and it's just like, yep, it's there. There's like no way not to use that character. Yeah.

Elf: Yeah. H hen Boyd's wizard with a sword really always stood out to me cuz he is like, he's like this wizard riding a pony with a sword. It [00:46:00] was the first one I had seen doing that.

Like, just make something, just something that you can't ignore. Um, another way to do it is, is pure luck. And by that I just mean like, I give our writers, like the comic writer and Derek and whoever else we're working, working with, I wanna give them like a certain amount of freedom and artistic license to just do their own thing.

Um, and so one thing they do, like let's say they're writing a scene about fireworks, like Joe, the comic writer will literally go to the search page in the book of lore and type in fireworks and just find any lore that's written about fireworks. And that's what ends up on the, the page. So, you know, I, I, I, oh, I think, and I think Joe also said like, Book of book of lo entries with pictures and art really stand out to him.

Um, and so that's a really good way of catching another creative person's eye is just like augmenting your book of lo page with art. Um, so, you know, there's several ways to like, get your character in front of us and, and get there, get them [00:47:00] featured in one of these, um, media expressions. Uh, but, but yeah, I mean, really it's just about making really compelling cult content.

Dotta: Yep.

Bearsnake: Can I bring up the next thing that I wanna talk about? Yeah. Yeah. And really it's for Dota to talk about staking. Yep. I wanna

Dotta: talk

Elf: about staking. Uh, I don't know if we actually wanna go into that too much today. Do, nah, we have

Dotta: an agenda. No. Do you have the agenda doc pulled up,

Bearsnake: uh, agendas. I thought you wanted talk about that.

Elf: Not today. Bear.

Bearsnake: It's the covid, I promise.

Dotta: So yeah, I think like another thing that we want to talk about is, um, the shapeshifter. Yeah. So like we talk a ton about how. Uh, like NFTs are digital objects, right? And so they should support like a lot of the same like dynamism that like other software [00:48:00] has. Um, so, but like you, at the same time, you wanna like keep the same providence, kinda like keep your initial commitments, right?

And so, um, we've done this a few times with like the great burning event when you create forgotten souls, right? Um, when you burn, uh, locks to, to, to create like gilded warrior weapons. And then I can think like most obviously the Halloween event where we like, you know, com uh, compose skulls and blood and you know, go or whatever onto like a bunch of different tokens.

And so, um, I think like one of the really cool things about the Shapeshifter infrastructure is, um, that you can use it to get like a hex PFP on Twitter, but that, like, it still has the same provenance of the forgotten ruins deployer, right? That like, so, um, I think that like the future of Shapeshifter is that we create like some cosmetic tokens.

I think like one of the most obvious ones is that you're able to just like crop to the face of your wizard, right? So if you notice, uh, I'm not using the Dodo account right now, but like even on like the Dodo account, I've got it cropped to my uh, like face. Um, [00:49:00] and so, well I just think that's totally something that we wanna be able to support where you can get like a hex panf pee of a crop, but um, with the same providence of forgotten ruins, deployer, but it's like, um, you know, you're able to like customize it to make it your own, right?

You're able to like MySpace the, the token. And so, um, I think another one that we totally wanna do is cosmetic hat change tokens, right? Hat color change. So, um, that wouldn't like necessarily change the rarity of like the main collection, but like maybe you identify with like a different hat color house and you wanna present as that.

Like then you should be able to use that hat change token. Um, yep. Yeah, so we have tons of ideas here and I don't wanna like spoil them. Um, but you know, they don't always have to be pixel art either, right? Like, we'll have the 3D models, um, we have the Dream Master bot, um, we have like all kinds of like tricks and ideas up our sleeve.

And so, um, I think, you know, the pixel wizard is the kernel and you should be able to present as like lots of other canonical interpretations. So, [00:50:00] um, yeah, there's not like a schedule here, but I think like leaning into Shapeshifter is something we definitely wanna

Elf: do. It's gonna be a thing. Um, let's jump to merch.

I'm actually super excited about merch cuz we've got some fun stuff coming, coming along with that. Uh, bear, do you wanna start with that? And, and by the way, don't spoil anything. Bear,

Bearsnake: I'm ready to start. Oh, no. Now I'm ready to like, bring up a bunch of stuff

Dotta: that wanna talk about, kick

Elf: him out. Kick him out.

Bearsnake: Ok. First of all, before we talk about birds, did you just look in the company Discord at the screenshot that I shared? Anyway, we'll gonna talk a little bit about Dan. Um, okay, so merch. Yeah, so merch, uh, lots going on. I know like the store is closed right now and I'm, I'm not sure if we talked about this publicly, but we, but essentially we've inter, we we're internalizing all fulfillment.

Um, we are using another company that did a great job, but it was more of like a side thing for them. So we now we sort of, [00:51:00] we reprinted all the stuff that had sold out and we brought all of the, um, Existing, uh, sort of existing stuff to the barricade, we'll be shipping from there. So, you know, just be patient.

The store will be back up to ship that. But I think something that is really exciting when it comes to merchandise is, uh, something I leaked, uh, without permission again, I guess this is something I do. I didn't realize it. It's a thing that you do. Yeah, I guess it is a thing I do. And I'm gonna keep doing it.

That's

Elf: fine. Yeah. No, you're not,

Bearsnake: you're not gonna keep doing, I'm gonna keep doing it. Now there's the chimera pop. So there's this, you know, we plushies are at the top of our mind. We think that everybody loves a good plushie. We think that, um, you know, there's a lot of really great, uh, fauna. Within the universe that that really makes compelling plushies and stuffies, uh, along with other things.

So we're really gonna be focused on, you know, you know, [00:52:00] how to attack, uh, like web two brand strategies. And I think, you know, Doty, you may have said this on a, on a company called the other day, is like, when we first started and we started talking about a television show. We're gonna do this video game, we're gonna do comic books.

And we actually got some resistance about like, oh, you guys are just a web two company. Um, and we were like, we got kind of confused when we heard that pushback. But now of course, a year later everybody's like, we're gonna do web two. And so I think we're, we're gonna continue into, um, Into web two in that like it's, I mean, when I hear web two, I just think like sustainable, more like forecast real, sustainable, real business

Dotta: forecastable business is, you know?

Yeah.

Bearsnake: I remember like sitting down with Dota being like, okay, we need to come up with like monthly revenue. He's like, no, no, no. Like this is how crypto works. You go into the woods, you're starving, you kill something and then you eat off of it for a year and then it happens again. And so I think it's, [00:53:00] it is important.

It's important to build sustainable business. It's important for the cult, it's important for us. And so this idea of plushies in general, merchandising strategies I think are gonna be really important for us. Um, and, and so we, We are going to take the path of putting together. Honestly, it's a brand in of itself that fits within forgotten rooms, um, of these stuffies.

And so we're gonna be putting that, we're putting that together now. We already have some samples. We're gonna have more samples, but I think we're gonna have sort of this elegant packaging presentation that not only will we share with, um, license like, you know, manufacturers and Licenseor, but also the cult so you guys can see what's happening.

Am I missing anything?

Dotta: Yeah, no, I think that like, I didn't want to echo what you're saying, which is like, I definitely had a gut check moment of like reflection when people were like using Web two brand as an insult and then like now I'm just like, no, I don't care. We're Yes, fine. We're doing Web two brand, like we're doing an ip.[00:54:00]

We're, that's leaning into what we're doing. We're doing both. We're doing both. Yeah, we are doing both. And. Uh, so I think, you know, when you look, again, I always come back to this, when you look at that like top highest grossing franchises of all time, a massive amount of the revenue comes from merch. And one of the things that I believe, um, just like, you know, I have like my visions of grandiosity about ourselves is that like we make magic.

And so like when I look, yes, there are like a hundred stuffies at Target, but when you look at the chime pup, you know, it's special. Like my daughter, for example, is a stuffed animal, conno connoisseur. She has like a hundred. And, and when she saw the chimera pup sh she just like melted. Uh, the chimera pup, excuse me.

Sorry, I, I even wrote it wrong in my notes. When she saw the ca chime cub, she just like melted. Cause she's like, that's amazing. What is that? Like? Can I have that? Like, cause because like you don't see stuff animals like that, that have like three heads or whatever. And so you, you know, uh, uh, I'll say one thing.

You know, I [00:55:00] see Guy and a couple pudgy penguins in the audience. Plug your ears for just a second. Like, one of the things I noticed with Pudgy Penguins was I love them. I love the project, it's great. But one of the things I noticed is I saw a lot of people tweeting last week around like, uh, penguins that they saw in the store, cuz it's winter and it's Christmas and they're like, look, here's like a penguin plussy.

Ah, it looks just like pegy. Penguins are plushies. And what was weird is that like, They were right. They, they were these like generic, off the shelf, like find them anywhere. Penguins, plushies that looked exactly like the pudgy penguin plushies. Like you couldn't tell the difference. They were totally undifferentiated.

And so, like, uh, one of the things that I think might be a challenge there is that like if you, if you can't tell the difference between a pudgy penguin and sort of like a stock penguin, then like how do you, how do you break out as a brand? And so one of the things that I, that I know that when you look at the Forgotten Ruins Pluses is like, you clearly see it and you're like, what is that?

That's brand new. I've never seen that before. And so, yeah, so we wanna prototype not only the Cera, but the other, um, seven or eight Beasts spa. Um, you know, we've thrown [00:56:00] around the idea of the name, uh, beast Babies, but we'll probably change it. I don't know. Um, but, but really this idea that I wanna do this here is like build out this like very cohesive line of, um, you know, not only Plushies, but develop a few more of the characters like we've seen with, um, you know, the Sacred Key Master.

Uh, and well really just like present this like, uh, brand line.

Elf: Yeah, I just want to say that, um, if you saw Bears chimerica leak, it's not gonna look like that. It's actually gonna look way cooler than that. That's why I didn't want him to leak it, but he fucking did. Sometimes you can't control a bear. You

Dotta: sometimes

Bearsnake: can't cage, you can't cage a bear,

Elf: can't cage a bear.

Um, anyway, but, but yeah, no, but like to, to, to do's point, like this character is super unique and we have a lot of other unique characters and, and it's, it's not just gonna look like your average plush on the shelf. It's, it's gonna jump off the shelf and bite your ass. Like that's what we're trying to build.

Um, and so I'm very excited for the plushies. [00:57:00] Uh, but we also have a lot of new, uh, apparel, a lot of new shirt designs that we're working on. Um, you know, just like apparel is always gonna be a thing, and we've got some really exciting

Dotta: developments for that as well.

Bearsnake: Am I allowed to leak the shirt that I'm wearing right now that no one's seen or no?

Elf: Absolutely

Dotta: not. Are you wearing a shirt?

Elf: Yep. Take, take your shirt off right now.

Get him off the cold medicine.

Bearsnake: Seriously, I'm drunk on Covid.

Dotta: Yeah.

Elf: So, uh, okay. Another

Dotta: thing that we're just like incredibly bullish on is ai. I mean, chat gpt is incredible. We used it for Gigis. Chad, one of the things you noticed with Giga Chad, is that it didn't really know, uh, he didn't know enough about the universe.

Um, there are ways that you can kind of, um, train and teach chat G b T about your world. And so we're doing that. Um, you know, we'll be drawing on both Wikipedia and the Book of Lore and doing a lot of experiments there. Um, [00:58:00] If you are like a programmer and you've used copilot, or if you've used like chat g b t, you know that it can like help you write, um, essays or papers or um, you know, code.

Um, and really, like, one of the things that we would love to have is sort of, uh, two things. One, AI assisted search, um, to help you like, explore and understand the universe, right? You're sitting down and you're trying to write some lore about like the thorn, and you wanna have continuity, right? You're like trying to operate within the world.

You can basically ask it and say, you know, ask the Oracle and say, Hey, what has written been written about the thorn? Like, what does it feel like? What do the plans look like? Right? You can kind of drill down in the AI instead of, rather than like searching and reading all these Wikipedia articles, you'll be able to actually ask AI and it should in theory know, um, about what's written about the thorn.

And at the same time, it can also give you prompts and even help you write some of the lore of your character. Um, you know, I am not, um, sort of against AI assisted, uh, kind of lore because I think that really, like, you still want to have a [00:59:00] human as part of the process who's kind of like, um, guiding, shaping, editing, carving, deciding what's good.

Um, and, and if you can use sort of an AI that understands the universe to, um, help unblock you and to help take a blank page to a PLA page that has some, some details on it, like I'm all for it. I think, like, you know, as a community we'll have to kind of, we'll, we'll, we'll self-correct to make sure that it's not getting filled with a bunch of AI generate spam.

Nobody wants that. But for it to help genuine creation, I think is a great idea. So, um, yeah, we'll be working on that. Of course, working on AI visually, because we have like the dream master bot, but I think AI is gonna be an enormously, an enormous thing for, for our community this year.

Elf: Yeah, I, I, I just wanna chime in.

This, this is one of the things I'm actually most excited for as well. I don't know how many times I've said that this today, but, um, yeah, I mean, just to reiterate, like, to me this like gives a whole new incentive for writing lore, uh, to know that your content is gonna be [01:00:00] training this, this ai. Um, you know, I don't know how many other places people have an avenue for something like that.

But here, here's one place you will be literally training this machine consciousness, uh, in, in the lore of our world. This is another way to build the world together. Um, and as Dota said, this will also serve as sort of a continuity tool. Um, this is a thing we get asked a lot, which is how do you ensure continuity in your world when you've got thousands of people creating for it?

Well, This is perhaps one way, if you wanna write about the thorn or whatever, you can ask the, you can ask it. Okay. Tell me about the thorn. And then you can choose to continue with that lower continuity or not. Um, but you know, at least the tool is there. Um, and you know, you know, I can imagine we're gonna dress it up with like a fun character sort of in the way that we did with, uh, gigas Chad over SMUs.

Um, and I can imagine this may be sitting at, at, [01:01:00] uh, like near the front of the book of lore. Um, so yeah, I, I'm just

Dotta: so excited about this. Yeah. Um, we talked about the comic book. I think like one last thing that Yeah. Happy to, to kind of like talk through or even tease is I've been thinking just quite a lot about the N F T marketplace in general, right?

As much as we can kind of talk about these long-term plans around, you know, the next, uh, Lord of the Rings and these long-term, uh, sort of projects. Know, ultimately the show is still like a, a bit far out before anyone actually gets to watch it. And so we still need to kind of play the N F T game between here and there.

Um, and you know, I think a lot about, um, the liquidity tools like N F T X and pseudo, um, you know, topics like marketplace royalties and, um, you know, having token supplies or how you think about like, the supply of like Wizards plus warriors and like the differentiation between wizards and warriors. Like, these are all things that, you know, I [01:02:00] spend a lot of time thinking about.

Um, and I, we of course wanna make these metrics like more favorable where I'm not ready to like talk about too many details. But like, one of the things I've been thinking a lot about is like, um, NFT X, right? So like NFT X, like dampens volatility. I talk about this all the time in the sales chat. Um, We don't have enough time to really dig into NFT X, but basically what NFT X is, you're able to deposit your wizards and then people can kind of trade in and out of the floor, like very easily.

Um, it's fine for people who wanna sell, right? Like that's actually the best benefit for N F T X is the people who wanna sell. Um, because like you can sell right away and get money out, but it's like not great actually for an N F T project. That's like trying to generate hype because it actually like dampens on the way up, right?

It's this like massive like, uh, buy wall, um, for kind of like the floor pricing. And so, The, so the question is like, well, why do people even like, use NFT X? Like, why is there so much liquidity in there? And it's because it's, it's like the only [01:03:00] way really to get passive yield on your NFTs, it's like the easiest way to get passive yield on your wizards.

And so, you know, I think that like, really the best way to combat that is to offer an alternative and something that's like really, uh, like interesting and fun and plays with like the lore. Um, you know, uh, yeah. So that's one of the main things we're talking about. Um, like implementing, we'll have like a lot to share there after we ship Goblin Town, maybe even a little bit before.

So, but, uh, yeah, so, well you can be on the lookout for that for this year. Um, something we're working on,

Bearsnake: and I, I've actually really enjoyed, I'm not gonna go over it again, but I've really enjoyed the, the, the ideas that we've been throwing around in that zone. I think, I think we can approach it, um, in a, in a pretty, uh, novel way.

So, yeah. Yep. I'm

Elf: excited. Super exciting things. This was a really long show today. I don't wanna end just quite yet. Um, although I do think I'm gonna push the hu Hatt lore to next show. Um, I thought

Dotta: Emma was gonna read lore, but I don't know if she Yeah. [01:04:00] Go.

Elf: Okay. So, uh, cosmic Birds has actually volunteered to read Lima Emma's Lo for her.

Okay, great. Uh, so Cosmic Birds, I think this is the first time you've bit up on Wizard Wednesday. Hello. Hello. Hi.

Cult Member: Hi everybody. Um, yeah, this was unexpected. Welcome. So, Emma had to run off to work and so she asked me to read her best friend squad lo for her.

Elf: Okay, let's, uh, whenever you're

Cult Member: ready. All right.

Best friend squad today would start like any other day for enigma, waking up with a smile in her tiny but tidy hut somewhere in the woods of the Fay. Good morning. Lovely. Fred. Did you sleep well? The lovely swamp, which asked sitting up and stretching in her little bed. Though he couldn't speak, Fred managed to eek a squeak of joy as he mimicked Enigmas morning stretch routine.

Oh, good. You'll need your energy. Do you know what today is? Uh, enigma asked her eyes sparkling with pure joy. Squeak. Squeak. Fred started hopping with more intensity [01:05:00] as he did realize indeed what day it was. That's right. Letter day. Yay. Enigma scooped up Fred and started dancing around the house using magic to clean up what little mess may have survived through the night.

Now, letter day was the day for Enigma. The entire year had been spent preparing for this day, making sure she had enough cobalt snacks. They were not fond of mushrooms, that she had filtered enough drinking water, and most importantly, parchment and ink. Two of her best friends, the strongest ghost eaters in the universe, trolling and cobalt would be stopping by for snacks and to write letters of encouragement to their friends across the universe.

When the three of them got together, they were literally a nonstop force of love, acceptance, and hugs. The world literally became a kinder place in their presence. Also, it didn't hurt that they had the squishiest, most huggable faces in the entire world. Enigma and Fred spent the morning ignoring their usual routine, decorating the hut, and getting ready for [01:06:00] company prepping snacks for wizard and familiar alike, making sure there was plenty of comfy sit down space and the like.

Eventually, the time came that they'd been waiting for with great anticipation had finally arrived. Knock, knock, knock, knock. A loud rhythmic banging came from the door quickly followed by a muffled bonk trawling. You only have to knock once a voice said from outside, causing enigma to burst. In the giggles.

Yeah, just n no. Come on. Why do I even knock not even being able to handle being away from her besties any longer? Enigma threw Open the door and scooped both. Cobalts up in a huge hug. Yay. Best friend time. The three sang out in unison amidst their bear snake hug. Oh my God, enigma, we were so excited to see you.

We brought presents and I brought scams and cobalt, who was both a cobalt in name and race, [01:07:00] rambled on as troll and rolled his eyes and stepped inside. So this year I have a whole list of folks who have never received a NMA affirmations, and I think it's high time. We changed some lives, Rolin said, whipping out a very long scroll, filled to the brim with random names, Rolin and Cobalt.

Quickly made themselves at home, releasing their familiars to do their own thing, as well as munching snacks and just overall catching up. These three could talk about nothing and everything for days if fate would allow them. Thankfully, enigma was fabulous at keeping the crew on track, and it wouldn't be long before the trio was fiercely scribbling away at letters of encouragement.

The messages varied in detail, but remained the same. They were amazing for making it this far and had such an impact on those around them, and they were seen, heard, and loved. Enigma was famous for enchanting her letters to grant, small wishes such as specific snacks, a glass of cold water, et cetera, while cobalt and trollin were while infamous for their enchantments.[01:08:00]

Random things like sticks, rocks, scraps of cloth would be summoned when you open a letter from one of those two. Funnily enough, these three would bring about the concept of trick or treat to the universe in the coming years. The one thing you need to know about Cobalts is that while they may be a bit bumbly, they are loyal, fiercely devoted, and seriously good friends.

So even though they may have missed the mark with execution from time to time, heck so did Enigma, if not even more often. They were quite lovable and the best family of swamp witch could ask for the entire day went by so fast, much to the trio chagrin. But for that day, the Faye was filled with love, kindness, and support on a level that was only felt on this day each year.

Before they knew it, the sun had set and all the letters had finally been written. Whew. I think this might be our most successful year yet, ENIG. I wrote over a hundred letters today. Cobalt said, standing from the table, admiring his pile of letters. Agreed. This was the first year that any of our letters were addressed to the penguins up [01:09:00] north.

I hope they liked them. I've been wanting to go on a visit for so long now. Enigma said, stacking the letters in a small basket by the front door. Well, we must be on our way. We had so much fun trolling, exclaimed, hugging the swamp, witch tight, and gathering his things. Now you have to come to us for weather.

Winter celebrations. I won't take no for an answer. The entire family is waiting to meet you. Enigma, hugged, squeezed and loved her friends, helping toga them to gather things and escorting them to her front porch. Fred and I should have these in the post by the end of the day tomorrow. And you know, we'll be there for the holidays.

Enigma said en no. Opening the door and letting her guess out. Take care and see you in a few months. Enigma waved as her besties, wandered down the little path, taking them away from her tiny but tidy hut in the middle of the Fay. The end

Elf: freaking adorable. Woo, I, I've got lots of comments on this. Um, Number one, did she choose you because you could squeak [01:10:00] so well.

Um,

Cult Member: I don't that, that was probably unexpected.

Elf: Um, no, well done on the squeak, well done on the, the door knocks. I, I always love when sound effects are incorporated. Um, this, this was a very Emma story. I could hear Emma through all, throughout, throughout all of it. It was very much her language, um, talking about squishy face faces and bear snake hugs.

Um, another thing I realized is I freaking love that some of the cobalts are just named cobalt. Um, it, you know, it's, it's like such a cobalt thing to do, to just name your kid cobalt. It's just like, I can't think of anything. Just call him cobalt. Um, but, but, uh, yeah, I mean, that, that was really well done.

Thank you, cosmic.

Cult Member: Thank you guys. I'm honored that, um, Emma asked me to read, so thanks for letting me up.

Elf: Um, anytime. Anytime. Um, and you know what, speaking of [01:11:00] cobol, I, I jitsu, you've been up here the whole time and there was a question directed at you earlier. Let's maybe end with this. Um, jitsu you, you maybe more than anyone, there's a few others, but like you've done a lot to like really develop the cobalt lore.

Um, and so Bridge was asking, uh, do you plan to capture that cobalt energy in a bottle this year?

Dotta: Yeah. And the key to it is just. Keep on staying

Elf: stupid. Right. So

Dotta: I guess not.

Elf: Well, one, one of the funniest things is like jitsu always like puts on this, this cobalt, uh, persona, but he's actually one of the smartest people on our team.

Yeah. Um,

Bearsnake: I feel like I'm being cobalt today a little bit. Yeah, totally. Well,

Dotta: yeah, I

Elf: appreciate that. But I think that's the beauty about Cobalts is that as long

Bearsnake: as you can smile and have a good time, you're welcome. So yeah. Love it, I guess. Oh yeah, he's not, he's trying to speak, but it's not coming through.[01:12:00]

Okay.

Elf: Go back to bed.

Um, okay. Uh, we are way over time. Uh, is there anything else? Um, Nope. Um, Dedo, what is, what is that music that you're playing for us today? It's

Dotta: Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass. The song is Spanish Flea.

Elf: Such a good song. So good. Um, okay. Well this has been, uh, her Meta Hump Day Magical Midweek Wednesday Adams A K a Wizard Wednesday, channeling out from the Quantum Downs.

This has been Elf to Bear, snake Chits, cosmic Birds, and the entire Forgottens Wizards Cult G and everybody

Bearsnake: g.