Wizard Wednesday Recap, 2023-01-11

Dotta tweeted a mega-thread about what Forgotten Runes is about, what it's done already, and what it plans to do. The thread got over 100K views within days. (January 2023)

Today, we had our first ever Bearsnake-hosted Wizard Wednesday (he was the host, and dotta and Elf were co-hosts).

Community Q&A

• smolprotecc: Who currently in the crypto space would be Magic Machine’s dream hire?
  • Dotta: A graphic designer. There are some high-end designers that would be so useful.
  • Elf: A lot of people from the Cult. We’d like to hire them at some point. As far as the wider crypto space, I don’t know.
  • Bearsnake: I have a hot take. It wouldn’t hurt to get a CT influencer who is an expert at social engineering. We want to elevate our social media (Discord & Twitter) and there are some sharp people in this area.
  • Elf: We realize that projects that only talk, & don’t build, outperform projects that mainly build & rarely talk. So we’re trying to rebalance somewhat.
• slim: Biggest loss in 2022 that turned into a lesson?
  • Bearsnake: Work harder & smarter. Be more systematic at talking and sharing.

• • Dotta: I went hard into VADER, holdings went to $1 mil, & I didn’t sell. Soon went to 0. Learned that if you’re bragging, you should sell.

• Slim and BiII Gains: How do birds fly & are birds a psyop?
  • Elf: A good question, there have been many theories over the years.
  • Dotta: I don’t think so. I want to make friends with the local crows.
  • Bearsnake: I did NOT like birds growing up, they freaked me out. I think cats are a psyop, & I’m ready to embrace it. I have a lot of robotic cats at my house.
  • Dotta: When I’m in bed at night, I can hear drones - I think my neighborhood is a testbed for Amazon or something.
• Shlee: What are you most excited for in the new year?
  • Elf: 1. 3D 2. Building things with AI.
  • Dotta: Everything we’re building. Esp. 3D models. Excited for Goblintown, it will be so fun.
  • Bearsnake: Runiverse game, Goblintown, TV… (listed all major projects)
• Stoketheory: What is the meaning of life, the universe, and everything?
  • Elf: Put your rune on the door, you are building the world and giving meaning to it. It’s not just a catchphrase, that's the meaning of life to me.

• Tania del Rio: Dogs or cats?
  • Elf: Dogs.
  • Dotta: I have to pick dogs, I own both though.
  • Bearsnake: Am I the only cat person among the founding three?

• 

  Magic Machine shared a preview of the game animations and artwork via Twitter (January 2023)

  The Barren Court: You have mentioned a V1 for Goblintown in Discord. Will there be an expansion?
  • Dotta: I don’t want to commit to more than the first version. That being said, if it ends up being successful, we are more likely to do a “V2”. I was mainly using that term to specify some things that won’t make it into this release, things to balance the mechanics. For example, including Wizard & Warrior tokens in the game directly - instead, these holders will get a larger airdrop, according to different tiers.
• Slim: Why are the Wizards so dummy thicc? (there was a 3D model preview dropped today)
  • Elf: We are testing deformation, which means the way the joints bend in the geometry. That model had a certain thickness that was appealing to Slim.
• Snoopdoug: Wen comic?
  • Elf: Issue #0 is out there, assuming this is about Issue #1. It is completed, but not printed yet.
  • Bearsnake: The whole series is in production. It’s happening.
• Henry Boyd: What smells worse, cat wizard, goblin, or kobold?

  • 

    The BlackSand pony racing works to build the lore of the region along with involving the FRWC community.

    Elf: Goblins smell the worst, but cat wizard litter boxes smell even worse than that. And Kobolds like to play in the litter boxes.
  • Jitcy: Sometimes Kobolds like to eat cat food too.
• Shlee: Are there Runiverse gods?
  • Elf: The spinning icosahedron in the Secret Tower created the randomness in the Wizards. The Cult gives life to Wizards & Warriors. 1 of my favorite artists, William Blake, said “I must create my own world, or be enslaved by another man's.”
• Regarding BlackSand Pony Racing
  • Elf: Race #4 just ended, congrats to BARONVONFANCY for winning with his pony, Ace the Mirthful. Also winning prizes were Malevolent (2nd), Matt D Wrecker (7th), and Ellen the Dependable (last). Why no #3 and #4 placements? This was designed by a Purple Hat Wizard. So the prizes are distributed in a whimsical way. Also, my pony Willow is in 25th place. I was gonna brag about beating Dotta’s horse, but maybe Dotta is in fact ahead of me in terms of being last!

New Discord Channel - the Hall of Cats

The Hall of Cats Discord thread is housed between its parents, Sales Chat and Burn Chat. (January 2023)

Jitcy: Sometimes the community will request a thread on a particular topic. Some don’t get traction, but others do, and even grow into dedicated Discord channels, emojis, etc. This Hall of Cats channel was requested by @qeshmar, and it got 500 messages in 24 hours. There’s already a competition for emojis! I enjoy these types of initiatives a lot.

Next, sami_kitty came up to read a prepared statement that was agreed upon by her and qeshmar. (Note: The following is paraphrased.)

The Hall of Cats is a channel right under Sales Chat, with over 3K qualifying members. We’re hosting an emoji contest, with a reward for those with no cats. But cat-owners can participate too. Create the most AAA-tier emojis to win. 1st place will win a Cat Girl Warrior, 2nd place will get a Warrior with an Onyx Panther companion. Winners will be selected on Jan 18 after Wizard Wednesday by an anonymous panel. Don’t use only Felis heads in the emojis; you can use any of the cat-themed Wizards, Warriors, familiars, & companions. See pinned messages in the Discord thread for details & examples. The Hall of Cats will soon close to new membership forever, so don't miss your chance!

Bearsnake: I will donate a Warrior as well, for 3rd place. Dotta: Do we want to upgrade this into a dedicated channel? Samikitty: Wow, it seems like you’re actually an ally! Yes there should be a dedicated channel just below Sales chat. And also a dedicated Discord role.

Dotta: All the other guilds are in the Guilds section. Samikitty: Our demands are high, but just look at the activity and the contest. Elf: I feel like this is the whole reason you joined the Cult in the first place. Just look at your username. I do love the cats as well.

Wizard Staking Officially Confirmed

Dotta officially confirms Wizard staking in writing. (January 2023)

Dotta: We are quite excited about this. Not ready to share all details yet. But we’ve been thinking about how we clearly communicate aspects about the project. A lot of people ask about the difference between Wizards & Warriors. We have answers already, but we need to make it really clear about the distinction: that Wizards are THE prime collection. Wizards will always get bigger airdrops. Wizards will get things like 3D models 1st. And the staking mechanism requires a Wizard to stake. For at least the 1st year, you cannot stake with Warriors ONLY. I don’t want to go overboard, & keep it simple and easy for everyone. So in V1, you need a Wizard to stake. To reiterate, the staking rewards will only go to Wizard holders, for at least the first year. I want everyone to know that staking requires a Wizard.

Elf: I’m worried that people aren’t paying attention after the Hall of Cats. But this is a big deal. More details soon.

Dotta: To be clear, Souls will be included in staking, because Souls are the souls of Wizards. Elf: That also goes for 3D models, Souls 3D models come after Wizards.

Bad News on Wizard Wednesday Concerning McWazir's

TheOneWhoRings is tired of fending off the competition in the burgeoning Wizard food franchise industry. (January 2023)

Elf: This may be the worst news we’ve ever given on WW. McWazir’s is going out of business. TheOneWhoRings is just sick of everything. He’s one of the most talented wizards in the land, and running a restaurant is beneath him. It’s best for him to return to the tower, ring his bell, and create magic. McWazir’s is looking for a buyout. Jitcy has the estate, and will auction it off, starting at 7 dollars. I don’t want Dannys Diner, CheddaaBob's Pizzeria, or a big chain like Big Potion to buy it. We need an independent buyer who is serious about it. And when people lose their jobs, they usually work at McWazir’s. But what about when you lose your McWazir’s job? So get in contact with Jitcy if interested.

Bearsnake: I’m thinking about buying it. And I may have more than $7. I may or may not have Big Potion in my pocket. Let’s talk offline.

Magic Machine releases a 3D animation testing example. (January 2023)

3D Models

Elf: Dotta released a mega-thread, and we released an associated slide deck. I also did a tweet about 3D models. The main takeaway with the models is that they have to be interoperable with all metas that are out there. So there’s a lot of testing that has to happen to achieve that. The tests are going really well, we’ve resolved almost all the bugs. Once completed, there will be a floodgate of models released. Early adopters who signed up are very close to having their models shipped.

Dotta Posts FRWC Mega-thread and Slide Deck

An excerpt from the Magic Machine Forgotten Runes slide deck, which covers a wide swath of what makes up the Cult. This was released to the public in January 2023.

For my tweet thread/slides, everybody in Magic Machine helped create it, and it includes many community projects and contributions. It’s easier for me to build than to talk about it. So this deck helps to explain, “What is Forgotten Runes?” It's an important milestone for us. And the tweetstorm took a lot of effort to collect the copy, images, and gifs. It got a very good response - 90K views on Twitter. Also, I wanted to shout out CheddaaBob and Belial, who have been the ultimate reply guys on Twitter. When influencers post engagement tweets about NFT projects (eg. "What NFT projects should I be looking at right now?"), these two have been replying to so many of them. And new people have been joining the Discord and even buying their first Wizard or Warrior. Going forward, I will be doing deeper dives on many of the aspects covered in the mega-thread.

Elf: The slide deck was 69 slides. At first I wanted to condense it to 15 digestible slides. But then realized we needed to include more, & allow people to peruse it. And we still left so much out. The deck will be evolving over time.

Bearsnake: We started this deck back in August, and it’s been “done” for a long time. We all knew that it was a good idea to eventually share it publicly. What excites me most, is that it makes it so much easier to have something to show to new people and get them excited about FRWC. We’re planning to do a deep-dive about all the aspects in the slides, in separate Twitter threads. If you’re in the Cult and want to get the word out about what we’re doing, you can utilize these materials any way you want. We want to empower our most passionate fans to be able to convey everything that’s happening - we want to weaponize you.

The Cult Attracts Outside Attention

Gidie_hills: I discovered you in Arbitrum forums, and was impressed with everything I saw. I saw that everyone that holds an NFT gets something. I had a question for Sami - are the kitties having a WL or are they are part of the FRWC collection?

Dotta: You can access the Cat area through ownership of Wizard or Warrior tokens, which you can access through NFT marketplaces like OpenSea. In regards to the game on Arbitrum, it’s called Battle for Goblintown. Everyone who owns a FRWC token will receive an airdrop. We are also working on a longer game - The Runiverse Game, an MMORPG, also likely to be on Arbitrum, but that is a few months away. (Gidie had more questions about the project, which MM was patient in answering. If you need the basics on FRWC, see the Beginner's Guide.)

How the Collaborative Legendarium Works

Elf: There are so many facets to what collaborative world-building means. I get a lot of DMs from Cult members asking me about lore, the Book of Lore, Wizzypedia, etc. The world-build has multiple components to it. It’s Book of Lore, Wizzypedia, and social media, all together. AI will become a big part of it too. In past cultures, oral traditions collected lore. Then they were written on fragile paper. It was carried on in religions, different art forms, and it informed local cultures. Now, in modern cultures, niche lore hotbeds span the world, but are localized on digital platforms.

The Sevenths Wizzypedia entry also featured original art.

Core to Forgotten Runes is the Book of Lore. Unlike lore on social media, this lore is inscribed permanently on the blockchain. In the past, lore has been subject to erosion from the sands of time. Many legends have faded from memory. But blockchain tech ensures that any lore you described will remain forever, it will never be destroyed. The Book of Lore is also the official source material for Forgotten Runes. All the writers we work with, will reference the Book of Lore for material, not Discord or Twitter. This is one reason why you might want to use the Book of Lore.

The Wizzypedia is not immutable or permanent, but it is still a critical resource. There is an officialness to it. I still plan to add to it, but I really love the stuff the Cult has added. Giveahoot recently wrote about The Sevenths, for example.

Social media and Discord are still critical as well. There, lore and world-building is happening in real-time. The Hall of Cats is an example of this. We don’t know yet how much of the HoC will end up in Wizzypedia or BoL, but it’s essential as the well-spring of culture. The lore getting made here is probably the most compelling of all, because it’s in the moment. But it’s also fleeting and ephemeral, subject to the sands of time, and most likely to be forgotten. Outside creators won’t learn about the Hall of Cats inside the Discord. So every component is critical in its own way.

One question that I continue to get is people wanting to know more about the meta-lore. They need a foundation upon which to write their stories. And I’m wondering about how much to reveal. As more time has gone by, I've decided that the more ambiguous descriptions I can give, the better. For example, if I say the Ruiverse is “1000 years in the future” it’s not necessarily literal. Different peoples in the real world measure time differently. Science may have an exact measure of such things, but we’re dealing with art, lore, and magic.

If you study Tolkien, he released LOTR almost 100 years ago. After releasing it, he was plagued by fan mail picking apart his timeline, pointing out plot holes. Tolkien was greatly disturbed by this. So I want to give the Runiverse some room to breathe.

Here's the perfect way to write lore: The Sevenths. It’s described as a Cult that devotes their lives to the Gate of the 7th Realm. The entry includes an image of a Wizard sweeping the streets. I like that he described it as a Cult, a niche community with their own interpretation of the Gate. This allows others to have a differing interpretation. So it adds to the world-building around the Gate, but doesn’t prevent anyone else from writing about the Gate in their own way.

Dotta: Final thoughts. Regarding the slide deck, I would love for people to share the slide deck. We don't really want to follow the "Lazy Lions" path necessarily, but having wizards being reply-guys to some extent helps.

Deltamouse released a series of Twitter threads featuring AI-generated art and written descriptions for each of the Wizard color factions. (January 2023)

Final Q&A, Announcements, and Closing Events

• Legatus: will there be opportunities for places or cities to appear in the Book of Lore?
  • Elf: BoL is character focused, there are no location tokens that would allow you to write lore on-chain for that location.
  • Dotta: You could tell a story about a location, at a particular moment in time. And others could write a story for the same location, at a different point in time, or even a different interpretation altogether. I want to build a tool that facilitates writing these branching yet interconnected narratives. This isn’t a roadmap item, and I don’t see myself having time to do it soon (eg. the next 6 months), but some day.
  • Elf: The Book of Lore will get a redesign this year. I have been working on mock-ups to redesign it. There is potential for more info to be attached to your character token. Perhaps staking will be involved. But that is a subject for another Wizard Wednesday.
• Bearsnake: I want to give a shout-out to Deltamouse regarding the threads with the hat colors. I really enjoy those.
• Elf: After the year-end shoutout show, I thought of some many additional people. I wanted to shout-out the Moron Global team more, for example.
• Henboyd: Some of us (Bridge and Tad) have started a FRWC community Twitter Spaces. We’ll talk about FRWC community projects & other NFT topics. We’ll try to have another one tomorrow night. Anyone interested in leading some of them, reach out to us.
  • Dotta: Also, just today we added new channels in Discord for Community project announcements, links, and discussions. Project owners will get a special role and can post announcements there.
• (For the historical record, at this point there was a live attempt by someone [non-holder] to get hired as a paid mod or community manager. MM was courteous as always, although we were over time.)