Wizard Wednesday Recap, 2023-10-11

After Elf, Dotta, and Bearsnake introduce themselves for the show, the team talks feelings about the seasonal pumpkin spice craze. Elf then prompts Bear for an announcement.

Halloween Partnership With Improbable

Bear reveals a Forgotten Runes partnership with metaverse company Improbable for a 2023 Halloween Event. Bearsnake notes that Improbable was behind the first few trips to Yuga's Otherside. He says he doesn't want to spill all of the beans, but the 3D event could be the beginning something the team does "in a more consistent manner."

Magic Machine praises Improbable for their work so far, and Dotta paints a picture of all 10,000 Wizards in one space, noting Improbable has the whole collection already imported. "Their technology is ridiculous."

Elf says that Wizards, Souls, and Beasts will all be playable in the Halloween 3D Event. He mentions there may be a special surprise for Beast Masters, though it has not yet been solidified. Elf also notes non-token holders are also invited to participate. Elf says that the 2023 Forgotten Runes Halloween Event will be for the entire NFT ecosystem — not just Forgotten Runes holders. There will be a special character for those who participate and do not own any Forgotten Runes Character tokens.

Madotsuki steps onstage and asks for confirmation that the event will be multiplayer. The team confirms it will be a "massively multiplayer" experience.

"When we say multiplayer, we mean thousands of players at the same time, if we can get that many in."

Runes TCG Gets In the Halloween Spirit

After this announcement, Giveahoot also approaches the stage to share that Runes TCG will be "dabbling in the spooky season" as well. He notes a teaser done by Ozzz on the Runes Twitter account. Elf says he's seen previews of "Runes 2.0," and he thinks it's very exciting.

Bear Prepares for New York Comic Con

Bearsnake talks about his preparations for New York Comic Con, noting they will be at Unknown Comics' booth during the event. Bearsnake also notes that comic artist Reilly Brown will be signing posters at 12:30pm on Saturday. Bearsnake says even outside of promoting Issue #1 of the Forgotten Runes comic, he is just excited to walk the floor of Comic Con and make more connections. Elf notes he was going to attend Comic Con, but will now be working on the Halloween Event instead.

House of Wizards DAO Council Seats Open

House of Wizards DAO Logo

Dotta launches into a discussion about the House of Wizards DAO. He notes that there are four seats opening as a few members step down. These members will stay on until new members are chosen. Dotta says nominations for the DAO can be submitted through the HOW-DAO channel.

Responsibilities

Dotta lays out some of the responsibilities of council members may have:

Signatory responsibility for multi-sig wallet
Remotely work with board of directors in the Caymans
Organizing proposals
Alert community of proposal voting events
Meet weekly (virtually)

Voluntary Work With the Intent of Compensation

Dotta notes that the House of Wizards Council Member position is currently voluntary. He mentions the DAO's conservation of funds until it begins generating regular revenue. He says once that happens, the expectation is that Council Members should be compensated. Dotta says that as Forgotten Runes moves forward, the community should take over the decentralization aspect of it. He says that Magic Machine should only be one actor in the decentralized system. The DAO is a separate actor. He adds that he is only 1 of 9 council members. Dotta says that the DAO needs people who are motivated in being strategic to grow the project. Elf asks if Dotta knows when the DAO should be able to distribute funds. He believes they will be able to begin funding proposals by the end of the year.

Elf reiterates the purpose of the DAO from his perspective: The DAO exists to empower the community to create. He urges the community to really think about their votes when it comes to proposals to the council.

Dotta returns to the nomination process for DAO Council Member position. He notes that members of the council will have to KYC through the board of directors in the Caymans. He says he believes all of council members also know each other's identities, but that is not required. Elf asks if the DAO is starting over with its proposal approvals or if projects which already received approval will remain approved. Dotta says it stands to change, but he believes that the plan remains for funding for proposals which have already received DAO approval.

The Weight of Permanent Lore

Dotta transitions to a discussion about Lore. He notes that a lot of people feel that Lore is "too heavy" in its permanence and acts as a barrier to the community's constant creation. He speaks to the new Lorecord bot that can add images from Discord to the Book of Lore. Dotta says the home base for the Forgotten Runes community is Discord — where people are always sharing images. He says he feels like this art just gets lost and isn't enjoyed for a long period of time, but he realized it could be preserved. Dotta mentions that the current presentation of the Book of Lore is that each post is a full page in the book. He says he wants to add an option to support a "light-hearted media gallery."

Dotta says:

"In my dream, really, for every image that's decent that Magus Devon generates — if it's good enough to post in Discord, it's good enough to post in The Book of Lore."

He believes it should be possible to add "casual attachments" to your Wizard. Dotta notes that the lore recorded with the Lorecord bot is off-chain, editable, and delete-able. Elf says that he and Dotta have argued about this in the past, where Elf has always believed lore to be a living thing. Dotta says Elf's view softened his opinion.

Elf Cautions of AI Tipping Point

Elf again cautions about a "tipping point" in the Book of Lore where most of the content is AI-generated rather than human-made. He doesn't want to see that tipping point. He speaks about data integrity in language models and data degradation by AI trained on AI-generated data. Elf says he doesn't want to bar AI-generated data from The Book of Lore, but he believes human creations are the best thing to put at the foundation of the creative community. Dotta says he agrees on that when it comes to text, but he thinks the framing is different with images. Dotta compares AI image creation to finding a certain book in the Library of Alexandria.

"In this realm of infinite space, here's is the idea that I conceived and I'm passing over to you."

Art's Honesty

Elf rebuttals that his view applies to visual art even more. Elf believes Dotta is speaking about curation and argues that AI-trained models will only produce reproductions of existing styles and will never produce anything new. He says he is most excited by art that is unlike anything he has ever seen before. Dotta says participating in the eternal ideal of a human creating art is an important role that should be preserved and never forget. However, he thinks there is an important role of AI art for Wizards through sharing a Character by way of repeated imagery.

Dotta agrees the memetic value brought to Characters through AI art may be secondary to the "ultimate creation" the Elf envisions. Giveahoot speaks about character visualization through commissioned artwork and how that collaboration can even feel similar to AI prompting. Madotsuki and the team discuss the honesty of AI art Madotsuki comments on the advantage of leaning into AI's strengths rather than focusing on its weaknesses, as this may produce better works. The team wonders if AI art becomes recognized as a medium with its own styles. Dotta speaks about how the weaknesses can sometimes define art's quality. He notes that as mediums progress, their flaws become nostalgic aesthetic.

Forgotten Runiverse Game

After the AI discussion, Dotta mentions that the team played a build of the Runiverse game on the morning of the show. He notes it's getting more polished and says the current build allowed them to wallet connect to play as their own Wizards. Madotsuki says to keep and eye on the Runiverse game Twitter account for more news. He says the still have features to iron out, and they're currently conducting stress tests. He says there will be an addition level cap of 15, but as more content is added, the cap will lift.

Land Sale

A question arises from the audience about the Runiverse land sale. Madotsuki notes the land sale is being reworked and will be a smaller scale. He says natural progression through the game can now earn land. There will also be a mint the day of launch or the day before. Outside of this launch day mint, Madotsuki says there will be another proper land sale at a later time. Dotta reiterates that the game will be open to everyone. The idea is to create a fun game that just happens to also use crypto.

Battle for Goblin Town

Dotta also speaks briefly about preparations for the launch of Battle for Goblin Town. He notes that the Pony Card from last week's conversation has been added. He also says the chain is still a point of consideration, noting they may use Arbitrum Nova due to its low cost. Dotta says the Goblin Town mint will likely be on ETH, with your assets distributed transparently on a L2. He also speaks about the recent Polygon-backed ApeChain proposal, noting that it may be interesting to be a premier game on a new chain that will have a lot of attention.

On the subject of games, Dotta also mentions Sumiez / Pixel Shop's Nouns DAO proposal for a new game that features Forgotten Souls.

Cult Content

To close out the show, the team reviews Week 38 of The Cult Content Chronicle. The Chronicle features content created in the Forgotten Runes community over the course of the week — all aggregated by the illustrious Tania del Rio.