Wizard Wednesday Recap, 2024-07-10
Elf channels in from the Quantum Downs with Dotta, Bearsnake, Entropy, Madotsuki, Jitcy, and Tad Major for a special early edition of Wizard Wednesday.
Forgotten Runiverse Announced On Ronin
As special guests take the stage, Bearsnake officially announces the news that the Forgotten Runiverse game will be on Ronin. He says that working with the SkyMavis and Ronin team has been a pleasure. Elf asks those onstage to introduce themselves. Dotta says that he has been excited to join Ronin for a long time, noting that they're driven to do great work and have the best games on their platform to fulfill the mission of crypto gaming.
Wizards x Ronin
Axie Infinity and Ronin Cofounder Jihoz takes the stage to introduce himself and Ronin. He says he thinks the Wizard's Cult and Runiverse team have what it takes to "get to the next level" and welcomes everyone to Ronin. Jihoz says that it felt great to pick up a Wizard and that he felt the vibes in the welcome from the community.
Dotta Speaks Axie Infinity
Dotta speaks to the Ronin team's history, and says that he's excited to collaborate on tokenomics:
"There's no book on how to manage a crypto economy that understands the details. That knowledge really lives with the people who've done it."
Psycheout86 Introduction
Ronin Cofounder Psycheout then introduces himself as well. He says that he has followed Forgotten Runes and wanted to work together for a while. He speaks about some of strength of Forgotten Runes' experience creating cross-medium content and congratulates the project on being accepted into the curated Ronin ecosystem.
Choosing Games For Ronin
Dotta speaks to the network effect that can happen within an ecosystem like Ronin where quality games band together. He asks what qualities the Ronin team looks for in games they intend to bring on the chain.
Entertainment & Community
Psycheout says that it's been a long process to determine the kind of games fit for Ronin, but in Web3 games have to be not only fun, but also entertaining. He says he feels like it's also important to stay close to the community, which he says that Forgotten Runes does well.
Long-Term Goals
Psycheout says they have a specialized team that makes it easy to filter out teams that are only in Web3 for short-term plays, which he says isn't attractive to them. He notes that the Ronin team vouches for the projects that they bring in to their community.
Experimental
Psycheout says that nothing great happens from going down the same path as everyone else. He notes the experiments in the Axie economy which lead to 2.7MM Daily Active Players. He says if you don't take risks, you won't succeed.
Web3 Gaming
Elf speaks to the difficulty of compromise when it comes to audiences' particular tastes—some want pure fun, others want yield farming, etc. He says that the Ronin team seems like it is able to find a good balance of all of the key features of Web3 games. Psycheout says that the team feels like it has a lot to offer in consultation and the publishing angle so that teams coming to Ronin don't experience the same pitfalls that they did early on. However, he notes that they are not the game makers themselves.
Market-Tested Teams
Psycheout notes many strong opinions in the space from people who may not have shipped games.
"There's a lot of people who think they know how to succeed, but very few people have done it."
Psyche says Ronin looks for teams who have been around for a while and know how to deal with crypto markets.
"When the markets go down, you live and die by the FUD in your Discord"
Dotta says he feels like this is one of the things he thinks is so great about the Forgotten Runes community—the connections made to the collection Characters, and he acknowledges Forgotten Runes is not immune to the wider market swings. He says people who love the Characters, IP, and game will stick around as the market ebbs and flows, to critical importance.
Elf Goes Fishing
Elf jokes that he is fishing for compliments, asking what the Ronin team saw in Forgotten Runes when deciding to accept the project to take part in their network.
Psycheout Talks Forgotten Runes
Psycheout says that the team thinks the IP of Forgotten Runes has a lot of potential, which is important for the long term of the game. He says he believes we're in a time where new Web3 IP can be launched that can "change the world." He speaks about the care package that Magic Machine sent him, and speaks to the attention to detail, again noting Forgotten Runes' strength in cross-media representation.
Researching to Onboard
Psycheout also speaks to the research that the Ronin team takes on when investigating new projects, noting that they speak with holders, investors, Discord members, etc. He says the consensus was that Forgotten Runes has been handled really well, noting that is not something they often hear when looking for projects.
Challenges With Axie Infinity
Dotta asks if there is any interest in speaking about the challenges that the team faced with Axie in the past, pointing to Axie's seniority as a project. Jihoz says that there have been countless ups and downs and that Axie Infinity is now in its 6th year of continuous development. He touches on community crises, and technological woes that can be caused by success. He says this wave of highs and lows create memories and help bolster a stronger relationship between the developers and players.
Achieving Lindy
Dotta speaks about the idea of the Lindy Effect, and how navigating tumultuous moments and coming out the other side can lead to a higher probability of staying around. Jihoz says this is something that is seen even on Ethereum at large with DAO hacks. He says that overcoming these kinds of crises can help remove toxicity and can help a project reach "the next level."Psycheout says that sometimes you sacrifice the future to make people happy in the moment, and on the subject of being Lindy, he notes the $600MM Axie hack and that the team is still here after refunding their community from their own balance sheet without any legal agreements.
"As much as I would like to say that we have the recipe for success in Web3...we might be the closest team to find the recipe, but right now there isn't any key recipe to product-market fit."
Forgotten Runiverse & Forgotten Runes
Bearsnake speaks to his excitement about the connection with Ronin and how the Forgotten Runiverse game fits in Magic Machine's plans for franchising the business. As a piece of the larger Forgotten Runes picture, the Runiverse MMORPG gives the team another vector for outreach.
Ronin Raid Warning
Elf agrees and points to Ronin's own following and abilities for distribution. He laughs that the Forgotten Runes Discord gave the team a Raid warning on the morning of the announcement, but it was just the Ronin community joining the Secret Tower and vibing.
Bear Brings Bill Gains Onstage
On the topic of community, Bearsnake says that Forgotten Runes community member, Bill Gains has been a proponent of both Ronin and Wizards for a long time, and invites him to speak. Bill joins and says he's excited his two favorite communities come together.
Community Similarities
Elf asks him about the strongest similarities between the Ronin and Forgotten Runes communities, to which Bill answers that there is a large crossover with art and gaming. He says the art community on Ronin is what introduced him to Forgotten Runes and mentions that Cult member SHADOW also came to Forgotten Runes through the Axie / Ronin community. Bill says he is excited to see the Ronin community explore Forgotten Runes, because he believes there are many members who will be interested in creating art and lore for their Characters.
What to Expect From the Forgotten Runiverse
Jihoz then asks what the Ronin community can expect moving into the closed beta test. Bearsnake says that the closed beta test will start Jul. 31 and run for three days. It will not be all of the content in the upcoming "New Foundations" build. The closed beta will be more for testing servers and finding bugs. Bearsnake says that the current public build is planned for "sometime in August" which combines two of the previously planned builds to coincide with the announcement of the Ronin partnership.
Madotsuki Speaks About Game Mechanics
Madotsuki notes a few of the new features of the upcoming Forgotten Runiverse build:
‣ Dungeons
‣ Owning Plots of Land
‣ Building on Land
‣ Decorating Interiors of Owned Buildings
Madotsuki says that the dungeons are designed with a difficulty curve that encourages party play, stating that new skills will be available to play with to find new party dynamics. Elf makes note of the "in-game communication modules" from the last build and asks if the chat has been improved for the upcoming New Foundations build. Mado says that communication has improved with a Map Chat and says there will be Party Chat added later.
Dotta Covers Game Loops For Newcomers
Dotta chimes in to say that the Forgotten Runiverse game as an MMORPG has 3 main gameplay loops: ‣ "Owning Things" / Crafting
‣ Exploring
‣ Combat He explains that Exploring generally leads to combat. Successful combat leads to rewards that can then be used for crafting items, cosmetics, weapons, armor, etc.
Dotta mentions that the items are NFTs and the Land is all hand-placed, as opposed to the "Island Model" like Otherside. He also speaks to the rewards that Land owners will receive for allowing other players to harvest resources from their Land. He notes the economy is rich, which makes the game fun to play.
The Fun of the Runiverse
Elf points out that players do not need to own a Forgotten Runes NFT to play the Forgotten Runiverse MMO.
"But you'll look cooler if you do own one," He jokes.
Madotsuki says that as an MMORPG, it's more fun with more players, so it seemed like an easy decision to open the game up for everyone.
No Wallet? No Problem
Madotsuki says everyone already knows how account creation works with emails, so "normie" friends can sign up without any financial commitment and discover the Web3 component that enhances gameplay rather than being the gameplay. Mado says the team feels like the gameplay loops feel like natural progressions for gamers who aren't in Web3, but will entice them with a sense of missing out on some aspect that makes the game better as they continue to play—encouraging them to onboard. Madotsuki also emphasizes that players who don't care for the crypto aspect aren't crippled by that fact, they just might miss out on something that could make their experience with the game better.
The Forgotten Runiverse Combat System
The team defers to Jitcy to take a question about the combat system in the game. Jitcy confirms that it is turn-based combat, though there is a real-time element. He says this introduces dynamic gameplay when it come to team-play, because certain actions have certain synergies that can create combos. Jitcy says this requires timing and teaming and is more difficult to achieve than it may seem.
Rewarding Gamers
Jitcy says he thinks games in the space should reward time, skill, and energy, and he thinks that this will be emphasized in future builds as well.
The Server Problem
Psycheout asks the team how they plan to handle issues of server capacity and technical issues (bots, etc.) that make come up as the game scales.
Dotta says that he doesn't have a deep answer, but he thinks it's just something they will address as it comes up. Psycheout says he thinks this is the right answer, and he does think anyone actually has the answer, noting that you have to observe player behaviors that are specific to games.
Technomancer Dotta Writes Bots
Dotta mentions his background of bot building in his life before Forgotten Runes, and says that:
"Writing White Hat bots is one of the most fun things you can do...You sort of have to be able to think like someone who creates bots if you're going to think about how to defeat them."
Psycheout speaks to the fact that people are going to try to find ways to exploit games, to which Dotta agrees that it's best to stay vigilant. He gives the example that if a bot that extracts 1 cent / hr goes unchecked, soon there will be a million of them.
Elf Gives a Forgotten Runes Overview For Ronin Newcomers
Elf begins the Forgotten Runes explanation with the elevator pitch: "Open Source Middle Earth" pointing to the fact that most Fantasy worlds have been created by one single person, which led to the question: "What if a community could build a world together?"
He says that everyone in the community comes together to use their talents to help build the Runiverse together, and all creation is welcome even if you don't own a Character token.
Owning a Forgotten Runes Character
Elf says the next step in building the Runiverse is owning a Forgotten Runes Character. This allows you to write in the Book of Lore for Characters that you own.
Why Write Lore?
Stories written in the Book of Lore are used as the base content for the creation of the narratives in the comics, television show script, game, and other media expressions. Elf mentions that the creators behind these stories receive royalties for licensing their Character's use.
Bearsnake confirms that there are currently checks cut for creators whose content has been featured in the comics.
Collaborators
Bearsnake points to the Runiverse's move to Ronin as the best gaming chain, and says that when it comes to Forgotten Runes IP, Magic Machine only wants to work with the best. He mentions John Wick creator, Derek Kolstad's role as writer of the Forgotten Runes script. Elf also notes Kristian Nairn (Hodor from Game of Thrones) was the narrator for the Forgotten Runes television show trailer.
Put Thy Rune On the Door
Elf speaks to one of the phrases that appears in the show trailer: Put Thy Rune On the Door. He says this is the ethos of this project and means that you use your Character as a means of self-empowerment. Elf says this is why Forgotten Runes is using blockchain technology. It is a mark that will not be forgotten.
Cult Content
The team then review the Cult Content Chronicle—a collection of art from the past week within the Forgotten Runes community aggregated by @taniadelrio.
Forgotten Media
Elf says he will throw in one of his own pieces this week, in reference to a piece of a golden Forgotten Runes NES cartridge. He says this may be a continued series currently called "Forgotten Media."
Marketplace(dot)ForgottenRunes(dot)Com
Elf asks Dotta if he would like to speak about the new marketplace. Dotta says yes, noting that the new Forgotten Runes Marketplace is live. He says that he alluded that the platform was cross chain the day before the show in reference to the The Shadows on BTC, and Runes TCG Cards on Polygon. Dotta announces now that Ronin is also integrated into the new Marketplace.
Map Browser
Dotta speaks about an upcoming feature for the Forgotten Runes Marketplace that will act like a "Runiverse Zillow" for Land plots within the game.
Organization
Dotta mentions that another benefit of the new Marketplace is that all of the collections (both "official and community") now have a place where they can live side-by-side. He notes that the team plans to open-source the Marketplace in the future.
"There's just a lot of things in our ecosystem that needed custom features."
DAO Update & Wizard Benefits In the Forgotten Runiverse
Acid takes the stage to provide a reminder from the House of Wizards DAO about the ongoing elections for the open seats on the Council.
Wizard Benefits In the Forgotten Runes Game
Following Acid's reminder, the team receive a few more questions, and begin by answering about Wizard benefits in-game. He says the first concern is that they make a fun game—full stop. Wizards, however, will have a private area in the Secret Tower and exclusive in-game economic benefits among other perks.
The Team Take More Questions
A Question About "Pump-e-nomics"
First, Elf says that the team is not done with announcements. Then Bear responds by noting that the game's success helps feed other areas of the project, just as with the success of the comic, etc.
Bearsnake also notes that there is a huge market for Web3 mobile games, and there is a mobile build of the Forgotten Runiverse coming. He says the team is doing everything that a "normal" game would do, but with a little groundswell from crypto communities.
Ronin Partnership & Goblin Town
Community member ZayLaSoul takes the stage to ask if the team is locked into the partnership with Ronin or if there's a possibility to migrate elsewhere later on. Bearsnake says that's for the team to know, but he thinks if you build a partnership ready to walk away, you're not set up for success. He says he thinks Ronin has the ability to push the Forgotten Runiverse where it needs to go.
Battle For Goblin Town
Zay also asks if Battle For Goblin Town will be on Ronin as well. Dotta says that Goblin Town is on ice indefinitely.
"I'm not even guaranteeing that Goblin Town will even ever be finished."
He notes that it doesn't make sense to launch two competing products simultaneously. He says there's a lot there that he thinks is worth releasing but notes that Forgotten Runes is still a small team and small community, and suggests getting a win under the belt first.
Wizard Chain
The team receive another question about creating a Wizard chain on Ronin. Dotta says they've talked about it before and "never say never." He notes his belief that in five years "you're not going to even notice what chain you're on half the time." He says he would love to take on a Wizard Chain in the future, but he wants the focus to be on releasing a good game first.
NightOwlBirdMan Asks For Elf's Lore
After some time away from the Cult, the community member returns to ask the infamous question: when will Elf write his Lore in the Book? Elf says: "Soon!"
ZayLaSoul Asks For DJs & Musicians
A few Cult members are trying to plan for DJ mixes and live music before and after future Wizard Wednesdays. Those interested should DM Zay.
Will New Wizards Still Be Able To Be Included In Media?
In response to a question for new Wizards, Elf notes that the first comic arc has already been written, but all of the larger media expressions created by Magic Machine use the Book of Lore as the source.
Wrapping Up
Bear notes that the show is approaching two hours and that he has another Spaces soon. Elf wraps the show and invites all new members to join the Discord and come back next week for another Wizard Wednesday!