Wizard Wednesday Recap, 2022-08-31

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Elf greets the Cult from his trip to South Africa (August-September 2022)

This week, we have Dotta, Bearsnake, and Cosmo from the Magic Machine (MM) team on Wizard Wednesday. Elf is on the 2nd week of his vacation, which was revealed to be in South Africa!

Derivative Forgotten Runes Project Shout-outs

The Barren Court released its Desert Bestiary in late August 2022. This was an opportunity for holders of Barren Court-eligible Warriors to acquire a new familiar that fit the Barren Court setting in The Sands.

Dotta and Bearsnake were excited about minting their Heroes of Cumberland NFTs this past week. Dotta also shouted out The Barren Court, and their new line of desert familiars. Dotta said that this is actually an example of dynamic NFTs, since the desert familiar may in some cases replace the original familiar.

Dynamic NFTs - A Follow-up Discussion

Dotta still thinks that allowing people to customize their tokens into something they like is something worth exploring. Bearsnake said that as long as the original NFT is respected, it’s an exciting area.

Dotta said that new ideas in this area will be presented soon, and he understands that the idea of consent is important. During the Great Burning event, the team made efforts to tell about the mechanics and the risks involved. Dotta agreed that he definitely does NOT support changing token artwork with no prior warning or consent.

BiII Gains talked about the “Baked Bill Mystic,” which was an Axie Infinity character he acquired, which had rare “Mystic” traits. They were intended to be special (only 1100 out of what is now 12 million Axies) and are a collector’s item. It had a special look, and Bill even commissioned artwork for it. However, when a new game was released, they changed the artwork for the Axies, which ruined the look of this rare Axie. This caused Bill to lose attachment to the token, and he decided to put it up for sale the next time he needed liquidity. It’s a cautionary tale.

Update on the Locks

Heroes of Cumberland was open for minting in late Summer 2022. Honorary heroes were given to select community members, such as artist Tania del Rio.

You will be able to melt the Locks to the Gate to the 7th Realm to upgrade your Warrior! If you have a Lock + a Sacred Flame, you will be able to burn the two of them on the FRWC website, select a Warrior (they must have a weapon trait), and upgrade their weapon to something rare. Dotta said that the powered-up weapon art looks fantastic, and this will immutably change the Warrior to get a rare weapon. It will change the metadata of the existing Warrior. There are only 42 Locks at the moment, but a small number of different “golden items” may be issued later.

Both Cosmo & Elf worked on the artwork, and it adds a “new element” to the collection. Cosmo said that there are 128 Warrior weapons, and he had to help create potential artwork for all of them to account for all possibilities. So most of the artwork will go unseen.

Dotta mentioned that the Spell used in the Lock's creation, and the type of Lock (standard or Quantum) will affect what the resulting weapon looks like. Each weapon+spell+lock type combo results in a pre-defined weapon. There is no “undesirable” mechanic - the results are stable.

Dotta acknowledges that this activity can only be completed by a small subsection of holders, but should be a very interesting development for Locks and Flame owners. Bearsnake is interested to see what the market for these items will look like.

ZayLaSoul asked whether this would affect all the 1/1 ultrarare Souls being minted. Dotta answered that yes it is possible, but wouldn’t give a hard answer because it depends on a number of factors that are currently unknown. Overall, there will be fewer potential Souls. Dotta reminded us that when people stopped using Flames, he took it as a personal challenge. His goal is for 100% of Sacred Flames to be used (minus those stuck in smart contract addresses and not recoverable). Lorepunk asked if lore-wise, the locks are burned or melted. Dotta said that they are melted, and only the Sacred Flame can melt this metal. Dotta chatted w/ ZayLaSoul and Madotsuki about different potential mechanics for tokens, such as wrapping tokens to temporarily update its traits. Dotta referenced MoonCats for having interesting token mechanics. Bill Gains mentioned the possibility of using soul-bound tokens.

House of Retired Yield Farmer (RYF) was commissioned by RYF, and created by an unnamed partner (as of August 2022). It showcases many of RYF's Forgotten Runes characters.

TV Show Update

MM is working with Derek Kolstad on scripts, stories, and choosing FRWC characters for main and supporting roles. Derek is looking to stay within the collective world that’s being built. Bearsnake hopes that they will be able to provide more substantive announcements around the show soon. Bearsnake said that originally, a 60-minute show was the idea, but a lot of distributors mentioned that typically, anime is created in 30-minute episodes. So MM has decided to change to a 30-minute format to better fit the expectations of the potential distributors, and also maintain quality while reducing the amount of animation minutes that need to be funded at start-up (meaning a lower price tag for the funder(s).

"Can't Be Evil" IP Rights and the Liquidity Black Hole

Next, Dotta mentioned A16Z’s “can’t be evil” IP rights. These provide a protection for collectors that prevents the founders from taking away rights.

Retired Yield Farmer (RYF) came up next. RYF released a thread this week, with a new art piece featuring many of his characters as well as an explanation why Forgotten Runes is unique. RYF talked about the “DeFi liquidity black hole”. The protocols are designed so that a feedback loop is created; more users generate more fees, which generates more liquidity, which leads to greater incentives for more people to join the pool. In theory, a virtuous cycle. Similarly, as more people start creating stories & side projects with their FRWC characters, it creates more value, Magic Machine can include prominent characters in its big media, even more attention comes, and growth blossoms over time in an exponential curve.

Dotta said that he wishes he could commission “every artist in the world” to create art for Forgotten Runes. Even Dotta’s daughter entered the “Summer Kids Art Contest,” and got a lot of nice comments from several community members, which may encourage her to do more.

RYF said that one of his business partners created the art that he's been showing off. The project was conceptualized almost a year ago, but the ambitious portion started this March, and more people have joined his team. RYF was cagey about providing details, but he hopes to show something tangible in the coming months, with more previews in the coming weeks. Other wizard-holders will get a chance to join the fun later.

Community News

RYF also announced that a new House of Wizards Ministry of Art window will open on September 1st, and will close on September 30th. 10 ETH is available (max 2 ETH possible for any single project). There is a Notion page where you can access the Google Form application.

MeepleDad came up and praised the Writing Contest that was open to non-holders - this brought in new creators into the Cult. He also talked about Treasure Trove - a fundraiser for a “loot box” type offering with creations designed by various Cult members. A few additional items got unlocked by large commitments from certain Cult members. Samikitty and BARONVONFANCY’s “secret item” will now be included, as well as a Gigas Chad dice sack, and the polyhedral dice set. And every contributor will get a double box, no matter what - the idea is to give away loot boxes to friends who might be interested in Forgotten Runes.

Lorepunk came back up and mentioned that “Chimera”, a song by her and spz, is now available on Youtube. She reminded us that they want to create a 5-song EP, and a proposal is planned once House of Wizards re-opens. Anyone who wants to offer additional/matching funds to whatever is in the proposal, can reach out to her, spz, or Tad, who is assisting with this effort. She finished with a new acapella version of a song about what it means to be a Warrior.