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Sitting Down w/ @asymes9

Host: Superhighgasfees (@SHGFees) · Tue, 14 Jul 2026 · 1:04:52 · 3 active speakers

TL;DR

Host Superhighgasfees sat down with symesy (@asymes9^* for a one-on-one on Blackwater, his rat-themed NFT project with a "dark underground culture" and an infection mechanic inspired by the mobile game Plague Inc.
symesy walked through his path: UK electrician turned Portugal renovator (and seasonal Christmas-tree importer) who found crypto via a Gary Vee video and drew his way in through Star Cats, Alien Frens, and Feline Fiends.
The centerpiece plans: a browser-based infection/cure map game tied to your NFT and faction, plus a physical deck-building card game (not a full TCG to start) with cards illustrated and signed by Web3 artists.
He's building with a game dev vouched for by Alex Lee (Rug Dolls), and the tokens/artifacts/serums (only 200) already live on OpenSea will have in-game utility, not just clearance-pass value.
The Discord goes public the next day around 3pm GMT — but entry requires solving a code hidden in his X posts, which became a running joke.

Highlights

[12:33] How do you actually say it? After the host cycled through Simsi/Simsy/Simes, symesy settled the matter: as a Brit he says "Symesy," but plenty of people "just gave up and start calling me Sim," which works fine.

[14:12] From the UK to Portugal. symesy explained the move: his soon-to-be wife has a Portuguese mother, and between COVID and Brexit the family decided it was time — "let's go and get some sunshine, let's have a different life for the kids." He now renovates houses (currently gutting the whole left wing of one) and imports Danish Christmas trees by the truckload for two wild months a year.

[18:24] The Gary Vee pipeline. His brother-in-law sent him a Gary Vee video — "he wasn't that hard to find," the host noted — and down the rabbit hole he went, first into fat apes ("they definitely don't exist anymore"), then Star Cats, then an Alien Frens airdrop from Mason Crow that became the real starting point.

[28:02] What Blackwater actually is. symesy laid out the vision: a dark, infectious underground with rats at the core and "the professor" running Blackwater Labs, built to bring back the 2021–22 vibe. The pre-mint experience deliberately makes you work — you "enter containment" and get let in by waves rather than dumped into a generic capture-bot Discord.

[31:xx–32:13] Cards over the couch. He clarified he's starting with a deck-building game (Hero Realms style — pick up a pre-built deck and play a friend immediately) rather than a full trading card game, which is a heavy lift to launch. The goal is a bridge between web2 and web3: "sometimes it's nice to just sit in front of another person and play a game of cards."

[38:xx] Artists sign the cards. A key detail: the cards won't all be his own work — Web3 artists will create and sign cards, giving them exposure while building the game. The host had glossed over this and flagged it as important.

[40:00–41:19] Your NFT plays the game. The digital side is a browser, token-login map game where your faction decides whether you cure or infect the world, tug-of-war style, feeding back into the lore. He described a "surge" mechanic where six holders can band their swarm together to cause an outbreak — deliberately more than "click a button and move on."

[51:12] Why mint into a rough market. Sho asked whether launching a mint right now gave him pause. symesy leaned into it: the down market filters for real supporters over hype-and-flip, "not just 'I made six dollars on this' — that's kind of junk." He'd rather build bonds and grow slowly.

[53:25–54:23] The containment box. The Discord requires finding a code hidden in his X posts, and symesy can see the back end filling with people typing "004, 005, 006" — "no guys, you're not gonna get there." When he told Sho the hint is to look through X, she deadpanned that this crowd doesn't like to look, and he offered it as her chance to change the pattern.

[1:01:28–1:04:06] Wind-down banter. symesy figured it was time for another smoke; the host countered that he'd quit nicotine using a "fume" (flavored air that replaces the ritual). As the two traded warm goodbyes and the promise of a Discord code, Sho lobbied for automatic honorary access and then closed it out with the line of the night about her own academic record.

Topic timeline

Time	Topic
[0:19]–[10:08]	Intro music and the host settling in
[10:08]–[13:16]	Pronouncing "symesy" and setup
[13:16]–[18:12]	Background: Portugal move, renovating, Christmas trees
[18:12]–[27:12]	Finding crypto, early NFTs, learning to draw
[27:12]–[32:53]	Blackwater vision, lore, and the card game
[32:53]–[41:52]	IRL meetups, artist-made cards, the NFT-linked map game
[41:52]–[49:38]	Game design philosophy, working with Alex Lee
[49:38]–[52:38]	On-chain artifacts/serums, minting in a down market
[52:38]–[55:06]	Discord launch plan and the containment code
[55:06]–[1:04:00]	Wrap-up, artists, word of mouth, closing banter

Notable quotes

"Although our rats will be infectious, we just want to bring people back together... sometimes it's nice to just sit in front of another person and play a game of cards." — symesy [32:13]