Wizard Wednesday Recap, 2021-12-29

Magic Machine announced Ponies tokens, who were released to Merch Box buyers and lore writers. (December 2021)

Summon Thy Pony!

The Cult was blown away by the surprise reveal of the Forgotten Ponies! Many fun designs and names were among those that released. People who purchased the first ever merch boxes, as well as lore writers, received the opportunity to mint a pony from the website.

A tool allowing Ponies holders to generate an image of their Wizard sitting on their Pony was released along with the Ponies themselves. (December 2021)

Elf mentioned that he wants to create walk-cycles for the ponies soon. But currently, you can already generate an image of your Wizard sitting on your Pony. Dotta mentioned that Niski was pivotal towards making this feature happen on time. Elf shouted out Molly for helping with the Wizard-siting-on-ponies artwork. Souls sitting on Ponies art will be created too. Bearsnake mentioned that they would love if any community members wanted to create minigames based on the ponies.

The Ponies are from the Elysian Fields, an area of the map that has not been revealed publicly, but which is present on an expanded map that the Magic Machine team is working with internally.

The Ponies were very popular among the community. However, there were a lot of people who complained because they didn't meet the criteria, and thus didn't get a Pony. Dotta explained that Forgotten Runes prioritizes "earnest creation." And that does not include "airdrop lore", eg. obvious low-effort Book of Lore entries that are only intended to "qualify" for airdrops. People were mad that the requirements were broadcast in an obvious way prior to the drop. Dotta countered that Magic Machine wants to create "delightful mysteries for our most engaged holders." Going forward, they intend to balance this aspect with being clear about what type of activities get rewarded, because not everybody makes the time to see every clue and detail. At the end of the day, Forgotten Runes exists to provide storytelling tools for storytellers, and the monetary aspect, while present, is secondary. They won't make you play pointless busy games in Discord in order to get on an allowlist. Elf added that the FRWC characters are creative primitives that allow you to express what might be within your heart. He gave various examples from previous fantasy literature to illustrate that. He later provided examples about how lore can give genuine value to something (including a Leeroy Jenkins WoW reference).

Elf said that he and Dotta discussed having a Wizard's lore, or at least the presence/amount of lore entries be added as a metadata trait, so that it appears in OpenSea on the token's page. Dotta responded that it's possible, but he doesn't want to give too much attention to the trolls, because 99% of the lore seems to be coming from a genuine place. Eventually, Dotta would like to hand over more control over the Book of Lore to the community, in a sort of "lore master" role. He sees the eventual DAO as a possible steward for the lore master role, but it's not set in stone yet.

Cult Content Shout-outs

• ZayLaSoul created a funny FRWC version of the Downfall meme.

• 

  The White Lady was minted by Bambam circa December 2021.

  Christmas cookies created by Wizhers Marie
• Henry Boyd made pony-riding artwork
• Daidai made an animation of a pony eating a carrot.
• Bambam had a "special burn of the week", getting the White Lady. She has also been doing nightly lore readings.
• Bonzo is starting a wizard news Youtube channel.

Q&A

• Book of Lore improvements? Elf talked about improvements to the Book of Lore that Magic Machine would like to implement in 2022. This included a search feature, a new cover (Ozzz was mentioned as being the artist to accomplish this). Dotta mentioned that Ponies would be added to the Book of Lore as well.
• Will there be lore about the Elysium Fields? Elf: Not yet, but eventually.
• Will there ever be an individualized, dynamic Book of Lore NFT for holders? Elf: I hadn't thought of that. I guess I see the Wizard token itself as representing that. Dotta: All of the Book of Lore systems are open, so anybody can make their own view of it.
• Any limits to how many times you can edit Lore? Dotta: As long as you hold the Wizard in the same wallet that wrote the previous lore, you can edit the lore as many times as you'd like. You can transfer it out and back, if you'd like.

Magic Machine released this infographic at the end of 2021 to summarize all that the team and community had achieved by that time. (December 2021)

Year in Review Update

Although Magic Machine already had their "Year in Review" discussion a couple of weeks ago during Wizard Wednesday, Elf wanted to add that Molly created an infographic summarizing everything. He believes that this visual answers the question, "Why Join the Cult?" This shows the tangible accomplishments of the team, and that proves it builds and delivers.

There was debate about adding notable Cult contributions, of which there are many. Magic Machine is cataloging Cult Content, with the hopes of creating one or more physical anthology books some day. Dotta added that his family has really enjoyed this type of book in past, for brands such as The Legend of Zelda and Harry Potter. He hopes something of this nature can be a reality by the end of next year.

Dotta finished by saying that he wants to host a "children's edition" of Wizard Wednesday. His son Gee has some Wizard lore to share, and he would love if others' children participated as well.