Wizard Wednesday Recap, 2023-05-24
Elf kicks the show off by mentioning he has a million things to say and is unsure if he has time to say them all. He prefaces that most of the meeting will be about the Loracle and all of the benefits he believes it will bring to the Cult. He also notes he will give a 3D Update.
Is There a Better Time For Wizard Wednesday?
Prior to that, he asks a general question about the Wizard Wednesday meetings themselves: Is there a better time for Wizard Wednesday? He says he knows there are a lot of different time zones to accommodate for and wonders if the show might do well at a different time of day. Dotta say this is a tough call, since the show is nearing two consecutive years in the same time slot. He ponders about adding a second show before considering cutting the current setup. Bearsnake thinks early morning PST would do well to accommodate most of the time zones.
Bear says he doesn't think people join in for the show because of the time, they join in because it's Wizard Wednesday. Dotta says he isn't sure that's true and believes that most listeners now have formed their habits, and some have planned their day around the show's schedule. Dotta again suggests trying another show at an earlier time just to gauge the interest of the audience.
Game Changers With Bored Elon
Bear uses this time to mention another Web3 gaming-focused Twitter Space series he is launching with Bored Elon called "Game Changers" on Tuesdays at 8:30 AM. The show will cover everything from TCGs to MMOs to fully on-chain games. Bear says the conversation will cover gaming outside of Forgotten Runes, but it will be a natural way to speak about projects in the Runiverse as well. The show will launch within the next two weeks. Bear also says that in addition to Game Changers, there is another Spaces series in the works that will focus on topics like IP in Web3 and mass adoption.
Wizard Wednesday Time
Elf circles back to the question at hand: should the hour of Wizard Wednesday be changed? He says most of the Cult in the Secret Tower says to leave the time as it is, but defers to Dotta and asks if the team should listen to the Cult on this one. Dotta says the reason to change the time would be if more people would be able to attend. However, he mentions drawbacks.
Dotta says the change is on the table if the possibility exists to 2x or 3x attendance, but notes that no one presently has the habit of attending Wizard Wednesday in the morning, so they might miss out, and then if no new people attend, it could kill the momentum. Dotta posits that he and Elf could try an early morning show to speak about Lore and see who shows up as a trial. Elf says that's a good idea. He then launches into a BlackSand update.
BlackSand Update & Forgotten Worlds Boss Takedown
On the subject of habits, Elf says he now wakes up ready to "race and roll." He mentions that he was a bit confused at first about the mechanics of the BlackSand races, but now that he has been racing, he says it isn't hard at all and encourages everyone to participate. Elf says part of the fun is the ability to see your progress on the official BlackSand website's racing map as soon as you roll. He also gives a shout out to Meat Prisoner, who recently made a 1/1 mount for the races. Elf says it's terrifying in the most beautiful way.
Dotta asks if BlackSand needs its own channel in the Discord, noting that it's currently still in a thread, and Elf agrees that it might. Dotta mentions that there isn't a good way in Discord to promote a thread to a proper channel, but that the current thread could be archived. He says that if Legatus would like BlackSand to have its own channel to get in touch and they will do it.
Forgotten Worlds
Elf also speaks briefly about the recent battling of Boss "Big Daddy Bullock" in Forgotten Worlds, Merlin's dedicated Forgotten Runes Minecraft server.
Cult Questions
Is Everything Going to Be Alright?
Next, Elf launches into Cult Questions, beginning with one that is quite open-ended: "Is everything going to be alright?" Elf says, "I don't think I've ever been more optimistic about Forgotten Runes than I am right now." Then, he asks Bear and Dotta how they feel.
Dotta talks about the topic more broadly and says that he believes we will face challenges as a generation as others have before, but ultimately believes we will overcome. He believes that people who want a peaceful, healthy world for their children will win out in the end.
Dotta says:
"I do think a lot of it is perspective. A lot of it is people learning to take control of their own mind and what they feed their brain...I think that it will absolutely be alright. That said, it's not without change."
He then compares the emergence of AI to the invention of the automobile:
"I think we're in a similar transitionary period with AI...it's going to change work for a lot of people, but I think new work will be created. We will find its limitations in the next few years."
Elf says he thinks what Forgotten Runes is doing with AI will empower humans, rather than the trending narrative, which says that AI will disenfranchise humans. He says more on that later in the show.
Unrevealed Treats
Then, he answers a question concerning unrevealed Treats from Imp Boxes. Dotta says, "All of the Treats that the Nightmare Imp released on Halloween have been revealed...However, the Atheneum Collection is still open and still has room for more Treats to be revealed in the future. There are not unrevealed Treats sitting in Nightmare Imp boxes."
CheddaaBob notes that he has Imp Box #1 and is curious about its contents. Dotta says that there aren't "lore-specific" Treat boxes associated with numerology, though he notes that was something done with the original Wizard collection that people enjoyed. Elf says people got wise to this and were trying to "play that game" with the Ponies. Dotta mentions the ability to create bots that mint specific token numbers if they are sequential.
3D Wizards In Night Run & IP Rights Questions
Next, Elf uses a question about incorporation of Wizards in the project Night Run to talk 3D. Dotta address a part of the original question concerning IP rights: "The rights for Forgotten Runes Wizards and derivative artwork is that it's free for non-commercial use."
The exception here is that in a blockchain game, if the token is going to be collected for use as a PFP, etc. permission is required from the original token-owner. As a token-holder, you have commercial rights that you can grant to other projects. Bearsnake says a lot of his and Jitcy's time is dedicating to talking to other metas that support 3D models and notes that is half of the reason the models are being created. He also notes that the timelines for most metas are very far out, but "we have a handful of very desirable partners." He says, "The friction point is with other people and their products rather than our models."
Elf notes that the Wizards are done, and if you want yours, DM him.
3D Wizard Update
He says the 3D rigs haven't officially launched yet because the 3D website is still under construction. He speaks to all of the different formats and specifications that the rigs have to conform to for each different metaverse. "Every application has different tech specs." Elf says that this is somewhat of a "pipeline nightmare" but the team is working to meet all of the requirements for every interested meta. He notes the complexity of this task is the reason most other projects won't have a 3D stack, which will set Forgotten Runes apart.
Elf says:
"We have the technical expertise and the talent to meet all of these demands for full a interoperable metaverse strategy. This, to me, is one of the reasons why Forgotten Runes is so special...and represents an exponential vector. The 3D stack has not given us a challenge that we can't solve. It's just more labor-intensive than anything."
Wonder Dynamics
Dotta notes recent access to Wonder Dynamics, which is a drag-and-drop video platform for adding 3D characters to existing videos. Dotta and Elf speak to the impressiveness of the lighting in the finished work, as it shades the models in a way that conforms to the lighting in the original video. Elf says, "I was shocked more by the lighting than the animation."
Bearsnake says that he's just so happy that the team that is on the cutting edge and shares an anecdote of Dotta explaining agents within the Large Lore Machine. Bear says that he felt so far behind in understanding the technology and Dotta reassured him by noting that it hadn't even existed two months prior.
Jitcy Returns
Jitcy chimes in back from EDC, even though he is sick with COVID. He speaks briefly about the opportunity that he had to speak with some of his friends about the work he is doing with Forgotten Runes and his joy when he saw how open and accepting that they were. The team expresses their excitement to have Jitcy back, but encourages him to get rest.
After that, Elf launches into the conversation about the Loracle, but first addresses some of the fears about AI as a preamble.
AI Fears & Amplification of Human Creativity
He speaks about seeing concerns from the community and concern in general about "The Machine" replacing human creativity and AI art overwhelming human-made art.
"I am on the artists' side...If anything, for me, Forgotten Runes is about the triumph of the human voice...We will die if it's anything else. Even if Forgotten Runes scales to 25 feature films and a theme park and a chimera plushie in 10 million bedrooms and a floor price of 100 ETH, if all of that is created by bots, it still spells death to the human voice. That being said, Magic Machine will use AI tools to assist in worldbuilding. We absolutely have to. Any person or company that is not using AI will fall behind...This is me saying we are going to find the perfect balance between the Machine and Magic."
He reiterates points from the previous week that the LLM will be used to track and properly attribute the community's creative contributions to the Runiverse and distribute revenue appropriately. He speaks to this as another exponential scaling vector for Forgotten Runes in addition to 3D.
"We're striving to find ways to empower you. Not to forget you. Forgotten Runes was truly made for this moment. 'Put your Rune on the Door so that you will not be forgotten.' That is not just a slogan. That is a prophecy."
He goes on to say that the LLM could not be made possible without the contributions of the community. No other project can replicate this because no other project has a community that creates like Forgotten Runes. The AI tools are only as good as the data they are trained on.
A Cryptographic Audit Trail
Cryptography is one of the ways that you can track that attribution, and is one of the things that the Book of Lore does. Dotta talks about this in relation to Github and open-source coding.
"Coders don't really accuse each other of stealing...because there's an audit trail...If you can establish that with information, which is sort of the analogy that we're making here, instead of saying, 'You stole my idea. You stole my art,' now we have a culture of a clear citation graph. It's not, 'You stole my idea,' it's, 'You took my idea and remixed it into something else, and now we both benefit on the other side. I think that's a key mindset shift that's available with NFTs versus other models."
Elf says this is where we get into the Loracle and notes that it's a one-stop-shop for asking anything about the Runiverse. "It's not a search engine. It's an all-knowing, seemingly-sentient being...You simply ask the Loracle, and it tells you."
Dotta notes that this is an exciting part about this process, because now people know that what they write will be seen and can be incorporated into something bigger. He also notes that once he added citations, he started finding corners of the Book he had never seen before.
On the topic of inspiration for writing, Elf mentions his current efforts to create more lore in Wizzypedia, and shares his newest entry for Bread Friend. "Now the Loracle knows about Bread Friend."
Dotta says that he wants to use these tools to explore deeper the mindsets of individual Wizards as Characters. He says he would like to have more "assisted workshopping" to give more of a foundation to these Characters that aligns with their owners' intentions.
Large Lore Machine Map Experiments & The Life of a Character
Dotta also mentions his experiments with the Large Lore Machine, the map, and ways to increase the resolution of the Runiverse. He speaks about the need to negotiate as a community what we adopt as Truth and what to regard as only suggestions from the LLM.
Elf says one of his long-term desires in his art is figuring out how to give a Character life and notes that technology is offering new ways to do that. He thinks that AI in particular is the technology to leverage in order to give these Characters life and to build worlds.
Dotta then shares the introduction of a comical story the Loracle wrote about a stranded, starving Wolfkin who encounters a Bread Friend (whom the Wolfkin may or may not desire to eat).
Cult Content, Gasless Book of Lore, and GamesBeat
With the remaining time, Elf gives a shout out to Tania Del Rio for her work on this week's Cult Content Chronicle.
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Dotta by Marcofine
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The Heretic by Goobi
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Magus Ixar of the Hills by cmustoart
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Magus Nixie of the Ether by Cable + AI
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Crone Head Rug by Chemical Imbalance
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A Brkfst of Dreams by NARD
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Archmagus Remus of the Palms Concept Art by 3rnesTea
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Magus Devon of the Quantum Downs by Magus Wazir + Stable Diffusion
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Brown Hat Pixar Concept Poster by Magus Wazir + Stable Diffusion
Gasless Book of Lore
During the conversation about Cult Content, the team also lauds Niski for completion of work on the gasless Book of Lore. Dotta addresses concerns about gasless lore "counting," and notes that there is no differentiation for "entitlements." It is as good as gas-paid lore. Elf gives a warning not to use this as an opportunity to spam the Book of Lore.
GamesBeat Conference
Following this, Bear closes out the meeting with a brief update from the GamesBeat conference and notes his excitement about speaking with Epic Games about the Fortnite Editor.