Probably Nothing - MARCH 2023

A note from Alex

CO-FOUNDER

It’s been a monumental month for FLUF World and Futureverse as a whole. Not only have we taken our first steps along the Path, pledging and sacrificing Seekers to the Goblin Empire, but we have also seen four Buzzie families reveal themselves, bringing more diversity in design and collectability. It’s tremendously exciting seeing both projects reach these massive milestones, and I’m pumped that we can now transition our focus to the next stages of these collections.

For Buzzies, this means finalising their utility mechanics and continuing to carve out their own unique niche in The Third Kingdom. Meanwhile, the Goblins are busy summoning more of their kind from Evergrim through their now complete portal. The Summoning is set to begin by the end of the month, and we’re eager for everyone to begin building their own personal Goblin horde!

On a more personal note, on behalf of the entire FLUF World team, I want to thank everyone who donated their time, assets, or money to our charity drive helping those impacted by Cyclone Gabrielle. As Aaron said, community is the heart of Web3, and we’re blown away by the generosity of the Fluffle and how quickly you came together to help those in desperate need. I know a lot of our community is located worldwide, and it’s incredibly humbling to see the outpouring of love and support for our New Zealand whanau & community. I’m proud to share we raised a combined total of NZ$222,000, which will be going directly to supporting those affected by the cyclone and floods, thanks to the incredible work of Dave Letele and his team.

Thank you again, and get ready to unleash your inner Goblin mode.

Bunnies up!

Alex Smeele


The Summoning

The Pledge & Sacrifice have concluded with 10,503 Void Seekers sacrificed to the Tinker forges, and the Goblins have all the parts they need to repair their portal. The Bestowing has begun, and the Queen’s Chosen can now claim their hard-earned Amulets. Goblin Amulets are the first NFT to be distributed on The Root Network, and are available via the Underground.

To summon your own Goblin from Evergrim, you must present an offering to the Goblin Gods. For reasons known only to them, their oblation of choice comes in the form of JUNK. JUNK can only be obtained via trade with the strange and unpredictable Junkers, who are willing to part with JUNK in exchange for sacrificed NFTs from eligible collections.

Goblins will require 100 JUNK to summon, and will also be available for mint using cryptocurrency. You can purchase a Goblin using $20USD equivalent in the following cryptocurrencies at launch: ETH/ASTO/SYLO/USDC.

Anyone will be able to nominate a collection for the Junklist, but only those who possess Amulets will be able to vote on which NFT collections the Junkers deem worthy to burn. To have your say, visit the Gods & Goblins website & submit the NFT collection you’re dying to cast into the fires and destroy.

For the first round, the Queen has decided that she alone will choose which collections are added to the Junklist. The Queen's counsel will also safety check collections that Amulet holders vote on prior to acceptance at the Junkyard.

Use this opportunity to unload yourself of your unloved and unwanted NFTs, and amass enough JUNK to summon forth your own Goblin Horde!


A note from Jesse

CHIEF CREATIVE OFFICER

The last month has been so much fun, finally getting to share some of the Goblin content we’ve been working on behind the scenes. Seeing the community’s reaction to the naked dancing Goblin was certainly a highlight, I love creating art that has a shock factor, and Goblins fit this ethos and allow me to explore that style. It was a bit nerve-wracking sharing it but the love we received back was incredible and reinforced the direction we’re taking with Goblins.

The biggest challenge this month for the creative department was putting the final touches on the remaining Buzzie families. When we conceptualized the collection, we wanted to really push the boundaries and create 5 completely unique families in one collection. Achieving a realistic timeline for this has been a trial, but we’ve learnt a lot of lessons and I’m proud of the team for accomplishing something that no one in the space has done before.

As a little tease, if you think you’ve seen all this collection has to offer, just wait. There are going to be a few spectacular surprises as we head towards the final reveals.

As with everything in The Third Kingdom, from the land to the eyes of a character, our collection designs start with lore. The creative and lore teams work side by side to make these decisions, ensuring the lore is exciting, has longevity, and that the creatives tie into this lore while also being realistic and tying into the game mechanics we have planned. Buzzies & Goblins are no exception to this and we can’t wait for you to see all we have planned.


It’s a Buzzies Explosion!

Over the last month, we’ve seen both the Undead & Cyber Buzzies make their triumphant arrival in The Third Kingdom and FLUF World is much richer (and spookier) for it. The demonic visages of the Undead provided an element of Lovecraftian horror, while the mechanical Cyber automatons let us explore classic sci-fi designs that inspired us to become creatives.

We’re sure by now you’ve seen how distinct each family is and the level of individualism and attention to detail that makes every Buzzie unique. And we still have one entire family yet to reveal! The ethereal Cosmic Buzzies are almost home to their HNI Pots, and we can’t wait for you to meet this celestial sub-species in all their glory.

For now, enjoy the dazzling and unique designs of our revealed families, and if you haven’t already, read our Buzzies comic, The Honey Accords.


FuturePass

Unlock the Open Metaverse

Early access to FuturePass is now live and open to all FLUF World asset holders (Flufs, Party Bears, Thingies, Buzzies, Seekers, etc). FuturePass is your portal in and out of apps, experiences, and worlds throughout the Open Metaverse. It helps you to protect your identity and data, manage permissions, and store your digital valuables while you explore the Open Metaverse.

A FuturePass account will be needed to claim your Amulet from the Underground, which will be the first asset minted on The Root Network. Creating a FuturePass is simple, and we see this as being one of the first steps to making Web3 as user-friendly and accessible as Web2.

At the outset, FuturePass will access Futureverse and our ecosystem partner experiences but will eventually allow owners access to third-party experiences. FuturePass will be updated regularly with new features to increase its utility and functionality.

Login to the Underground today to create your FuturePass and begin your journey into the Open Metaverse.


In-Play

As always, we’ve been heads down, tails up BUIDLing. Here are a few of the projects our team is currently working on.

Community Spotlight - Nftbroo

Our Community Spotlight is where we share our favourite content created by the Fluffle.
Tag us on Twitter @flufworld with your original content for a chance to be featured in next month’s update!

Our Community Spotlight for March needs no introduction. His ability to transcribe any FLUF World livestream, AMA or podcast, almost immediately after it ends is legendary. Nftbroo we salute you and appreciate the hard work you do creating content for our community. Nftbroo also provides weekly updates, covering all the latest news in the Web3/NFT industry. His threads are a great resource for those who stay in the know but don’t have the time to check Twitter regularly.
Make sure to give him a follow for updates on FLUF World and the wider industry -> https://twitter.com/nftbroo
Thank you Nftbroo for all the work you do in our community.


Ecosystem News

Check out the latest developments among our ecosystem friends.

ASM

ASTO is now listed on gate.io and trading is live. This is an exciting opportunity for their 12 million+ registered users to learn about ASM.

Community Genome Mapping Event: We’re working with The Prawns to bring this to you, and it’s progressing well. This will be an activation for Genesis Brain holders to participate and provide feedback.

Void Protocol: The Void Protocol will be a short, reoccurring event where community holding ASTO-Energy (Æ) will have the opportunity to respond to calls for help. Deploying an amount of Æ to restabilize Alleriya in exchange for LP token rewards… keep a close eye on Brain 1 for updates.

Migration: Migration is still underway. If you participated in the LBA, please ensure you’ve migrated from the LBA LP Contact to the USDC-ASTO LP to keep generating that sweet, sweet ASTO-Energy.

FIFA AI League

We’ve just opened up testing to AI League Prediction Game users with Android phones, so sign up if you’re eligible to get a first look at the game. A wider audience and Apple users will be in future phases of testing.

The Next Legends

Game and release update: Keep an eye out for the Locker Room, which will be rolling out new features throughout the year. The first mode of the game will be released this year. We are focused on getting at least one game mode up and running first and then see how the community engages with it.

Pro bag and customization update: There will be 3 limited edition Muhammad Ali inspired full fight outfits, one relating to each bag rarity. Each bag will feature one piece of the corresponding outfit: clothing, gloves and boots; they will affect in-game performance. Additional items in the bags will affect gameplay, and others will be purely cosmetic.

Gameplay: The game is about training your boxer, but the game experience is to strategically train your AI boxer in order to fight other AIs and climb the leaderboard.

Brains can be swapped out from fighters, but all Brains require training time to get used to any new body they haven’t been already been trained in.

ATEM

We are thrilled to announce Refined Meteorite membership cards will be joining the Elite TMC Mars community in our cutting-edge ATEM base and garage facilities. This state-of-the-art complex will serve as the epicenter of our partnership with @BoredBox_ and the ultimate gaming hub for all things Mars, offering an immersive experience like no other.

Sylo

This month, we are excited to announce our Spotify playlist will be releasing soon, which features an incredible selection of music inspired by the world of Seekers. Be sure to check it out and let us know your favourite tracks!

The Seeker's Sacrifice has ended, and we are proud to report that 15,538 Seekers have survived the dreaded Pledge and are still safe in the Void. It is a testament to the strength and resilience of the Seekers community.

Additionally, we are pleased to announce that the Seekers Animation Competition has officially ended, and we want to extend our congratulations to the winners. First place, Dropbear_Dad, has won an amazing prize package with 5K USDC, a Futureverse asset pack, a Seekers Merch kit, and 1M SYLO. Our second & third place winners will also receive fantastic prize packages for their entries.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the competition. We are continuously impressed by the creativity and talent of our community and look forward to seeing more incredible works in the future.


Security

Protect yourself from Twitter scammers

Twitter scammers are becoming more and more prolific, these days it seems you can’t even send one tweet without being flooded with bots sharing suspicious links. Since Elon doesn’t appear fussed to fix this, here are some simple changes you can make to your Twitter settings to block most of the bad actors. All of these settings can be accessed by clicking “More → Settings & Support”

  1. Turn off public messages: A good rule of thumb is to only allow DMs from people who follow you. You can change this setting by going into the “Privacy & Safety → Direct Messages” settings and deselecting “Allow Message Requests from Everyone.”
  2. Improve your 2FA: These days, simply using your phone for 2FA doesn’t quite cut it. Phone 2FA can easily be bypassed, leaving your logins compromised. We recommend adding a 3rd party app for your 2FA such as Google Authenticator or Authy to your account by going ”Security and Account Access → Security → Two Factor Authentication.”
  3. Use Filter tools: Did you know Twitter has a quality filter? While it isn’t perfect, it will remove duplicate or spammy tweets from your timeline. You can activate the filter by accessing “Notifications → Filters.”
  4. Manage your Mutes: Limiting what can appear in your timeline in the first place is a great way to stay safe from the ocean of spam on Twitter. You can customize your preferences by blocking new accounts, default pfps, no-confirmed emails/phone numbers or even people you don’t follow! This will prevent spam accounts that are usually only active for a day or so from appearing in your timeline. You can do this via “Privacy & Safety → Mute & Block → Muted Notifications” and select your preferences from there.


There you go! These simple tricks will prevent the majority of low-effort spam from appearing in your timeline, and prevent any accidental clicks on links you want to stay away from.

Stay safe out there Fluffle! And remember if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.



Meet the Team - Nataly Lowe

Every month we will be interviewing one of the incredibly talented people we are proud to have on our team.

What is your role at FLUF World?
My role at FLUF world is Product Manager. I dabble in a bit of project management and I get to explore the ins and outs of our management structure. It's great being in a space where I can try and learn new techniques.

What were you doing beforehand?
Historically I have actually been a 3D artist. I've worked on VR projects. I started out getting super inspired by Weta and managed to join them for a bit, I've worked as a technical artist in film at Technicolor. Then spent 3 years at Soulmachines working on 3D AI Digital Humans doing sculpting, skin textures. I got my taste of agile project management working with some incredible mentors as a Scrum Master. My artist and pipeline lens gave me a unique perspective that I needed to make a positive difference to the artists in a way that works best for them.

What is my favourite collection?
Oooh, that has to be Thingies. They are cute, fluffy, and create art, what more could you want? We have amazing groom artists here and I love the detail!

It also feels like it is the beginning of a new concept of NFTs, where they can add to your environment and create. I am imagining a VR world I've created and having Thingies crawling through and adding their own flare, creating their own spaces within an environment I've created, 3d models growing from the ideas created by the NFTs.... it would be like discovering an intelligence thriving and interpreting a world you've created for them.

What are your interests outside of work?
Art! I am still into doing paintings, drawings and experimenting with different media. I am loving gouache at the moment and am taking inspiration from Studio Ghibli Miyazaki works. I am studying Japanese too and planning my next VR project. I'd love to do a peaceful Japanese garden environment.

I always want to be learning and creating.


Final Thoughts


After two massive months to start the year, we hope you can see we’re only just getting started. March is shaping up to be a marathon, with several big releases happening over the course of the month. Our team thoroughly enjoyed your reaction to the Pledge and our remaining Buzzie family, and we can’t wait for you to see what we’ve still got in store.

As always, we appreciate and value your feedback. If you’d like to share yours with us, please send any questions or suggestions to [email protected].