Wizard Wednesday Recap, 2023-04-26

The space opens to the theme of Ducktales, which Elf notes was a request from the Duck Alliance Headquarters, who he states do not get enough love. After the introduction, Elf and Dotta note that Bearsnake will not be joining in the show due to summons for jury duty.

General Updates

Worldwide Web3

Shortly after, Elf announces the winner of a Worldwide Web3 apartment as the holder of Wizards #278, #279, and #8914.The team is unsure of the name of the exact holder, but give their congratulations to the winner.

BlackSand Updates

On the subject of winning, Elf segues into an update about the BlackSand Grand Tour, noting that the current competitors are rounding Alessar's Keep.

He says he was searching through the collection earlier in the day and realized there are two tokens named "Alessar of the Keep" (and Alessar of the Keep)

Elf says he is unsure if the Keep belongs to either of these Wizards or someone else entirely, but believes that is still a mystery.

He notes that community member Dr4g0n's Pony, Futuristic Mechanic, currently holds first place in the Pony Race.

Elf says that he will be playing games of Runes TCG to try and gain extra points to catch up after his Pony was lost in Calista's Citadel.

He also mentions that BlackSand announced an award for last place as well.

Dotta jokes this is good for himself.

Elf also notes that Feralcounty is looking for help in the Baby Wizard School in BlackSand.

DM @Feralcounty on Twitter for more information.

Cult Questions

Battle For Goblin Town

With that, the team jumps into Cult Questions, starting with questions concerning an update on Battle For Goblin Town.

Dotta says Goblin Town is "full steam ahead" and states that SPZ and two other developers have been assisting with the code alongside the team.

Dotta says they are iterating on the game mechanics due to the complex game economy, but the Discord will open when it's ready.

He also makes note of the in-game Crates which may include Settlements, Roads, Cards, Screelings, and "a Boss or two" for lucky recipients.

Dotta also notes the Goblin Town team has also been developing Card mechanics to aid in battles along with brainstorming ideas about teams and factions in the game.

"Pretty much my whole life is working on Goblin Town at this moment."

Elf asks about Goblin Town as "gamified yield farming" as he saw someone say in the Secret Tower.

Dotta says he loves this idea and says that it will be a PVP, yield farming, map-based strategy game.

Elf also asks about the current state of yield farming.

Dotta says, "People still do it all the time."

Questing

Following this, the team address questions about the upcoming Questing mechanic, which they are still designing.

Dotta says that Questing will be fun because it is a mixture of art, lore, and worldbuilding that includes Character stats which all lead to rewards, but the team has to make sure the rewards schedule has value.

Magic Machine is still working on the story for the mechanic.

Dotta continues: "Saying, 'Throw your Wizards in this staking contract,' and a number comes up and a token pops out is not that interesting for anyone."

Elf stresses that the team is designing around a pure financial mechanic and leaning more into Character-building.

Nobody Needs a Poster

Following that, the team is asked if Bearsnake is able to pull some strings to get a Forgotten Runes poster in the background of an eventual "Nobody 2", as the film "Nobody" was written by Derek Kolstad, who is also writing for the Forgotten Runes TV show.

Elf says, "We'll see."

The Forgotten Athenaeum

Then, Elf receives a question about potential uses for the Athenaeum items.

Elf replies that the primary use for these items is for storytelling and lore-building; however, he states he designed the items for other games and mechanical utility down the line. The intent is there.

Silver & Gold

A question arises about the Silver and Gold Skeletons in the Wizard collection and which is superior.

Elf notes the alchemists who experimented with reanimation used various elements during these practices and found that gilding them in gold and silver was very effective.

Elf says he doesn't think that either is superior — they just have different properties.

He mentions Silver's association with the moon and femininity and Gold's association with the sun and masculinity as very basic alchemy archetypes, but says it's much deeper than that.

Who Built The Secret Tower?

To prevent himself from launching deeper in to alchemical conversation, Elf turns to a question about the constructors of the Secret Tower.

He describes the Tower as a portal built for humans to intersect with their Wizard avatars.

Elf describes holders as currently writing out the lives of the Wizards:

"We're creating the reality for the Wizards. Everyday that we develop them, we bring them more into our consciousness. We make them alive. This process has a profound effect on their timeline..."

"We create their past, present and futures at our whim and thus their spacetime is distorted. This process is personified by the great Quantum Ouroboros, who allows this superposition to occur..."

"The construction of Truth and reality itself is dependent on us defining and observing it. So, who built the Secret Tower? You did. We all did..."

"By summoning your Wizard through this conduit and coming face to face with them, and by speaking your Wizard's name, you began this journey of creating this bridge and the whole world along with it."

Unreal Platforms

Elf then answers a question with regard to Unreal Editor for Fortnite and if the team believes this and similar tools will disrupt the economics of the gaming market with content made by amateurs rather than professional teams.

Elf speaks to a pattern of new platforms embraced by amateurs before capitalists begin monetization that pushes out artists.

Dotta says:

"As platforms always do, they eat their inventors...The point of being a platform is discovering demand that you weren't aware of before."

Madotsuki also jumps onstage to speak about the mainstream media spinning Roblox's user-creation as utilizing child labor to build their platform.

Elf seems to think this is a good argument, because they are creating content others use, though they may not feel the exploitation.

3D Models Update

As the platform conversation winds down, Elf responds to a question about the release of the 3D models.

Elf says he's glad it was asked, and says that the 3D models are done:

"We could ship 'em today if you really wanted. So, why are we not doing that?"

Elf reveals that Magic Machine is building a website in which token holders can interact with their 3D Wizards.

Dotta says this website's completion is still a few weeks out.

Elf also notes that there is still no set standard for metaverses, so all 10k Wizards need to be exported multiple times to different specifications.

"We built the base rigs in a simple enough way to be able to adapt."

He states that the Wizards have been adapted for every project that has asked.

Elf says that if anyone wants their 3D Wizard right now to DM him, and he can probably give them to you.

Runes Trading Card Game Raffle for 1/1 Card Art

Then, Giveahoot steps up to speak about the Runes TCG 1/1 art raffle, the first of which begins 4/27.

He notes that purchasing Core Set packs serves as entry to the raffle.

Elf asks if the packs are still available to mint.

Giveahoot says that there are still a few hundred Special Edition packs left, but Standard Packs are available indefinitely.

He also says that winners will have 5 days to claim their reward, which include the basic and alt art.

Forgotten Worlds

After Giveahoot concludes the Runes raffle update, Merlin steps up to speak about Runiverse-themed Minecraft project, Forgotten Worlds and states that the second Season will begin after the Wizard Wednesday meeting.

He says this Season will focus on collaboration and creativity.

On this topic, Merlin reveals that Forgotten Worlds will be hosting a Wizard Tower building competition during its first week and mentions that the winner will receive a "pretty sweet Warrior."

To start, players receive a wand and protection stone that prevents PVP destruction.

Merlin also speaks about Runiverse-themed bosses, which each require a team of players to defeat. He also mentions the addition of loot and a new combat system for the second Season.

There are new Pony and Soul skins in the game as well.

Elf is left speechless by the scope.

Elf asks Merlin about the number of Bosses in the game, of which there are 4 total, though only 2 are currently live.

Merlin also states that the World is split into Tiers, with the Tier 2 World level-gated at Lvl 15.

A teleporter hidden in each World warps players to Bosses.

Elf also says that he is jealous of the Ponies in the game, as he is dying to make 3D Ponies, but isn't sure Dotta will let him.

Dotta says, "Go for it!"

Merlin also speaks to potential integration with NFTWorlds for a browser-based experience without the need for Minecraft.

Merlin says for now, you need a copy of Minecraft, but all players have to do is simply select the Multiplayer option, add the server URL, and play.

Elf closes out this segment by saying the Secret Tower in Forgotten Worlds may be the most beautiful rendition of the structure.

Other Questions

Ouroboros Observations

ZayLaSoul then asks about the correlation between Dragons and Time and if the Quantum Ouroboros is considered a Dragon.

Elf mentions the Ouroboros is not a concept he invented, but he chose the Double Dragon interpretation due to the intersection of the Wizard and Human Worlds.

Dotta Expands on the Large Lore Machine

Elf then directs a question to Dotta and asks how his experiments in AI are going.

Dotta gushes, "It's so fun."

He says that he wants to have a world-generator such that whenever the Art generation is possible, the World is already laid out in a sensible way.

Dotta says that he wants ways to get the Large Lore Machine in more people's hands, but he notes the GPT APIs are still quite expensive.

"As we progress, we can zoom in and increase the resolution of the Runiverse."

Facets of Forgotten Runes

Elf transitions to conversation on the topic of the multi-faceted nature of Forgotten Runes, as he has been asked if the team is spread too thinly between ideas.

He notes that, personally, his productivity increases when he is able to jump between multiple tasks.

Elf says, "As you get two or three hours into a task, you tend to slow way down and noodle on insignificant details.

That greatly slows you down and you don't even realize it. If you're working on multiple tasks at once, you're getting a good amount of solid, meaningful work."

Elf says this method is deliberate.

Dotta notes, "We're always saying 'no' to 100 other ideas that we have."

Cult Content

With that, Elf dives into the Cult Content from this week gathered in Tania Del Rio's Cult Content Chronicle.

However, during conversation on Madotsuki's Magus Devon AI models, the meeting sees an abrupt ending as Elf realizes he has double-booked himself with another Space that has already started.