Wizard Wednesday Recap, 2022-12-28

Magic Machine announces Gigas Chad Santa, an interactive experience powered by Chat GPT, which was open to everyone. (December 2022)

Dotta opened Wizard Wednesday by mentioning that Mrs. Dotta gave him a concertina, an accordion-like instrument used by pirates. He would love to do a mini-concert WW where anyone with skills is welcome to perform. Maybe for summer 2023 so that Dotta has time to build his skills.

The requests for Gigas Chad Santa were varied. Tania del Rio's request for corgi puppy was among the most heart-warming exchanges. (December 2022)

Elf also announced that it was samikitty's birthday recently. Also, Merlin sent a Beginner’s Guide to MM, for people new to the Cult. It should be shared publicly soon. Dotta mentioned that people can request access to Wizzypedia to contribute.

Moonbirds were one of the NFT communities included in the Nightmare Imp Trick or Treat Event (2022)

Community Q&A

• Tania del Rio asked - Do you make New Year’s resolutions, and if so, what are they?
  • Elf: Get better at Twitter.
  • Dotta: I will turn 40 in January, so Cult leaders, get ready for my mid-life crisis.
  • Bearsnake: Work harder and smarter. The three of us often bang our heads against the wall figuring how to make the Cult easier to access, in a systematized fashion. There is no simple answer, but I want to work on it. Dotta: Sales chat has been super helpful. It’s been wonderful to see a collective Cult effort to discuss the challenges. And we have a lot of good ideas for next year.
• Slim: Who in your childhood inspired you to pursue your current career path?
  • Elf: J.R.R. Tolkien. The original LOTR book trilogy inspired me with its world-building achievement.
  • Dotta: My dad had a big influence on me - he read us LOTR, Chronicles of Narnia, and had the Wheel of Time series in the house. He also had a Mac computer really early on. He got us books on C compilers, and we learned coding together.
  • Bearsnake: Both my parents. My mom taught me how to be a risk-taker. In the past, I’ve tried career paths that are a “default no” - rock band member, writer, entrepreneur. My mom instilled in me the ability to get punched over & over & get back up (metaphorically speaking).
• Slim: Is water wet?
  • Elf: There is deep wisdom in Slim’s question, like a zen koan that embraces the chaos of the world. Considering this, there is no point in answering it. Slim, put your purple hat on, and meditate in the White Wizard Tower for 7 days.
• Cosmic Birds: What was your favorite wish that people made to Gigas Chad Santa?
  • Dotta: I was surprised at how many people wished for a pony. That was probably the most popular request. Chad was lying, unfortunately, when he accepted the requests.
  • Elf: I liked when people asked for beer, and he told them he wasn’t going to serve underage people. He also produced some songs and poems on demand.
  • Bearsnake: Gigas Chad handled most of the requests pretty well. Kudos to Dotta for the idea. Dotta: I'm not sure whose idea it was initially. Props to TheOneWhoRings for putting it together. Elf: ChatGPT..more like ChadGPT (Wazir’s joke)

An example of the Great Forging Warrior weapon enhancement activity. In this case, a Priate King Sword was forged.

End of Year Review - 2022 - Magic Machine

Note: The various Magic Machine accomplishments were presented in reverse chronological order.

• A Very Gigas Wizmas - Elf: As we just mentioned, it was a fun event, and it was open for everyone (even non-holders). And it may have been many people’s first experience with ChatGPT. Dotta: We didn’t keep a lot of context between requests. In the future, we might add that. You can also finetune ChatGPT. In the future, we want to put together a dataset about the Runiverse, and train ChatGPT on it. That way, it will be reflected in its answers.
• Miami Art Basel NFT Event: Elf spoke on stage at a conference.
• Trick or Treat at the Nightmare Imp’s Door: Introduced a whole new collection of items, as well as a whole new collection of tricks. It engaged with many other NFT communities also. Bearsnake: A great world-building event for sure, also the collaborative aspect was great. Dotta: I love burn to reveal mechanics - I want to do that again in the future. Having the unrevealed boxes, combined with the collection of revealed items.

• Wizzypedia: Elf - I think it’s one of the greatest things to happen to the Runiverse. I plan to write in it soon, and it can be a treasure trove of information. Dotta: We had a little bit of spam issues with bots, so it’s invite-only right now. Ask Magus Wazir for access.

Beasts were a legendary addition to the Runiverse in 2022.

• Warriors Collection: Elf - It expanded the World, gave us a new character class. The Warriors are a great entry point into the Runiverse. The great forging allowed for gold weapons. And there are several prominent Warriors now, whom I'll mention later.

• TED Talk: Elf did a TED talk earlier in the year on decentralized world-building. The notable thing about it is that it’s now banned. The TED higher-ups felt that Elf shilled the Wizards too hard.

• The Summer of Magic: This includes the ground-breaking party that happened at NFT NYC. All props go to Bearsnake and LachnessMonsta. Bearsnake: It was a lot of work, but I liked how it turned out. lt wasn’t just a party; it was experiential. It had the Frog Hunt game from the Runiverse. The Hall of Beasts, write a letter with a typewriter & press with wax. It felt like you were stepping into our world. And I’d love to do it again one day. Ideally, it would be a section of Disneyland, but barring that, another experience will be great. Elf: I loved when Quantum Ouroboros appeared in Times Square. It was so perfect. Dotta: All of us felt so proud of Elf to see his art there and part of the Christie’s auction. Bearsnake: And your piece sold for the 2nd highest price, after only Beeple!
• Comic Book, Issue #0: Elf: We also published our first physical comic book and distributed it on the streets of New York City! Bearsnake: And we were at Comic-con New York and Comic-Con San Diego. There’s a lot more coming on that front.

• Beasts: Elf - MM released 7 Beasts that were auctioned off, it might have been one of the most fun drops we have done. Every day you could watch the countdown on the auction, and it created Beast Spawns that lucky members of the community could claim. Dotta: And I liked the mechanic of teaming up to unlock the Gate to kick off the auction. It was all so fun. I wish the supply was higher, but it was overall just so fun.

A scene from the animated trailer.

• House of Wizards DAO: It was started this year, and has been in development until now. The formal legal structure, election guidelines, etc. have taken time. The legal aspect in particular has been breaking a lot of ground. Hoping to have everything signed in January. Dotta: Magic Machine are the originators of FRWC, but we are not the only creators. The HoW DAO is intended to be facilitating community artwork projects. And other DAOs could be created as well, even profit-seeking ones.

• Notable Appearances on Wizard Wednesday: We had Alexis Ohanian (VC and founder of Reddit), Kristian Nairn (Hodor from GoT and narrator of the FRWC animated trailer), and Derek Kolstad (show runner for TV show). Elf: And we would love to have more special guests in the future. I'm sure Bearsnake can make it happen.
• Animated Trailer: Elf - Released last April. The whole show is still on track. Dotta: Some Cult members in Discord expressed doubts about the TV show and whether it has made much progress lately. And traditional media development has a different pace than what the crypto world is used to. We released the trailer in April/May, 7 months ago. It’s actually moving at a regular pace on our side. A lot of character development, plot, tone, themes, FRWC integration discussions. A lot of meetings on a week to week basis. I would love to publish a blog post recapping every meeting, but we keep it internal because it allows you to experiment and make mistakes. But rest assured that we are still working actively with Derek and Titmouse. Bearsnake: The plan is to find the distributor sooner rather than later. The distributor is the streaming service that would publish the show. I think we’ll have one likely by the end of Q1. It just takes a long time. Thanks for being patient everyone, we have the best team to get this done. There are items that impact our decisions with the TV show, that have nothing to do with the TV show. It’s our job to strengthen the connection between the show and the NFT collections. Elf: This could mean seeing your characters and stories on-screen. Potentially some type of royalties system. The Show, in conjunction with all the other aspects of the franchise (merch, comics, etc.) means a lot in the long-term.

Loxley Labs continued to reveal tantalizing artwork previews, including this one, during the winter of 2022.

Cult Content Year-end Shout-outs:

Two categories were presented - community projects and individual contributions.

• First up, BlackSand pony racing - has involved a lot of the community, and is beloved by many.
• The Barren Court - A lot of great artwork, massive world building potential.
• Loxley Labs - Big things are coming, the current art previews are gorgeous.
• Forgotten Punks - MM was very excited when it got released. Features its own SoulPunks token dynamics.
• Forgotten Runes Babies - Amazing derivative collection from earlier in the year, and they had additional events this year with the Farmers Day Camp event and Halloween costumes.
• Heroes of Cumberland - A personal favorite of Elf’s, the product of the cucumpocalypse featuring food-themed characters. Even released a platformer game around Halloween!
• Runes TCG - A classic, still in development but looking great.
• Moron Global - Made the fanny packs, t-shirts, everything they do, Elf loves them.

The WizzBot, created by community member SPZ, memorializes the fact that the Dotta Wizard token was burned to create Angel Dotta.

Individual contributors:

• MeepleDad - Organized the Treasure Trove project. Also made a great audio compilation for the hat colors.
• BaronVonFancy - Ceramic Elf sculpture, it’s still on Elf’s shelf. (Samikitty also does nice ceramics and Elf made a mistake on this one)
• Tabitha of the Marsh - Translated the Comic Book (Issue 0) into German!
• SPZ - Has made so many bots for the Discord.
• Vmark - The lorb visualization.
• Slim - Blue stick man fine art. (This briefly created a schism between red and blue stick figure supporters).
• Crucifore - Hail Draconis comic collection included wizards.
• Lorepunk & SPZ - Chaos Chimera song
• Bambam - Reading the entire Book of Lore for Wizards.
• Kel - WW summaries on Twitter (see all the summaries archived in Wizzypedia)
• TV - Forgotten Market creator, needs to be more front and center. Well designed, amazing tool.
• Merlin - NFTWorlds recreated the full collection in Minecraft style.
• Acideater - Wizard costumes for Halloween.
• MehsterBrown - Doll wizards
• Sweetbread - Wizard Nouns walk-cycles

Ozzz has probably done the most art commissions for the FRWC. Here is one of them (a portrait of Wizards who attended ETH Denver 2022).

Individual shout-outs:

There are over 4000 entries in the Book of Lore. One of the most amazing corners of the internet, although largely undiscovered. Elf has seen new techniques and forms for the entries in the Book of Lore. People will have their minds blown. There have been previous examples of the wider public stumbling on some long forgotten corner of the Internet, and when that happens to the Book of Lore, people will be shocked that it has been happening right under their noses. Now, onto the shout-outs!

• Tad - always doing amazing pixel animations.
• Daniela Illustra - so many great sketches and drawings.
• Tania del Rio - creative powerhouse, constantly making beautiful things, and developing Canis Coven (a new graphic novel).
• Acideater - puts out amazing stuff.
• Wise Sam - New styles, new memes, new takes on the Runiverse.
• Ozzz & Mafriends - a Cult favorite, prolific.
• Colormaster Studios - coordinated the great Wizmas collage with Tad.
• Rapid-fire: Sharkchild, lorepunk, chemicalimbalance, Chuck, Shaman Voidoth, samikitty, BARONVONFANCY, Malevolent, and Tabitha of the Marsh all put out amazing stuff.
• Crew of memelords that bring LOLs to the Cult: TheOneWhoRings, DarickDaWizard, CosmicBirds, Emmaleigh with her amazing movie posters, Sharkchild has a lot of good memes, NightOwlBirdman - the videos he does are constantly awesome, Two Crows, Henry Boyd, CheddaaBob. Cheddaa's mention inevitably brought in the mention of the cucumdog phenomenon during the Summer of Magic. A cult within a cult.
• Dr. Slurp is dropping amazing music, provided some live music / forging / burning events.
• Legendary Warrior shout-outs - MedievalSkull, Joan Danger - the warrior with a shield only.
• Maui has drawn great Warriors.
• Sharon’s storytime is great, best storyteller in the Cult, hands down.
• Lorepunk sings, makes music and poems, an all-star that has been involved since the beginning. She can even sing a capella on Twitter Spaces. Thank you for always bringing magic.
• Shoutout to the mods in our Discord: Jitcy, Wise Sam, O, Madotsuki, and TheOneWhoRings. A core piece of the community.
• ZayLaSoul is always making awesome contributions.

Magic Machine acknowledge that inevitably, many were left out of these shout-outs. Feel free to go to the Discord and remind them of additional community contributions. You can also respond to Dotta's request - he's planning to make a thread about FRWC community projects. MM closed by saying that sometime in January, there will be an updated 2023 roadmap released. There shouldn’t be any surprises, just organizing what has been discussed previously. Dotta is excited about what MM will be building, as well as what the community will be building.