Lisa asked a very good question about what a Matrix is, and how I go about making them. I wish I had a good answer, but, sadly, I don't. To be quiet honest I make them up, of course there is a little method to my madness so I feel obliged to pass it on. I think three parts should do it. First the cheap Intellectual answer (that leaves everyone in the dark, including me.) A Matrix is a picture of the world. But instead of using paint or shading to describe it, it uses ideas. There is nothing new in doing this waragames have been doing this for over a hundred years. The difference is that while most games use numbers, a Matrix uses words and phrases. The academic definition of a matrix Is that it stores information in a structured and rigid way. Algebra uses matrices -and- Simulation and Games, I have read of "Matrix Games" which use rigid sets of numbers. The Matrix is useless without a corresponding method of interpreting it's meaning. Some methods of deciphering meanings are more complicated than others. For instance, many people find the painting "American Gothic" to be a very understandable painting. These same people look at abstract painting with confusion. They do not know what to look for in say a painting like "Guernica." Both are loaded with meaning, it's just a matter of getting to it. I view a Matrix as being a picture of the way we think about the world. My ideas grow out of the academic school of systems theory. This is a view that combines some of Freud's ideas about the structure of consciousness, with Kant's view that we impose out concepts onto the world, and tied together by Durkhelm's ideas about institutions. The end result of this approach is that any matrix of ideas, so long as it is presented in an internally consistent manner is a good Matrix. (In other words, make up whatever order you want) NOW the nuts and bolts answer about what I actually do. So I want to make a picture using words. So maybe I had better decide what I want to describe first. Now I'm sitting in the library reading a book about Warsaw uprising. Oy vey, what a mess. Sounds like a good topic. So I sit myself down and finish the book already. The book is done and I'm thinking to myself I am. I say, "Chris, you want to describe the uprising. Big job. You think you're so good at this do you? So who should be there?" So I answer myself. Then I think "So you know whose there, so what are they doing? what a game If It only had characters and no action." Thoughts flood my head, oy, a headache I have from all the fighting. Machineguns, and Rabbis, and Nazis, and Soviets, and Starvation, and Deserters, and Death Camps, and Terror, and Torrah on the Sabeth. "How to put all together? Even God had to rest when he made the world. Who am I to presume to do God's work, but I try." I put the ideas in catagorles, I do. Things that make things possible, I put In the possibility file. Things that describe emotions, I put in the emotion file. The other files I use are: what people are thinking (as though Nazis could think more than "Kill the dirty Jew,"), what are their goals (like the Soviets waiting for the Nazis to be finished with the freedom fighters before attacking the city.), and a list of physical factors that will limit play (like the defenders lack of bullets). Then it's done. Such a work of art it is. You should have to work so hard to make such a beauty as this. So I take it to the gamers and what do I find. They ALL want to be Nazis. "Nazi Shmatzi," I says, "What are you? A bunch of anti semitics?" So my efforts are wasted. I know already, so I ask myself "Why am I using psuedo Yiddish English? I'm a Scots Calvinist already." And now some random thoughts to wrap up on. Yea sure, a matrix paints a picture using words, but so does a story. God, even poems do it! May poems do it best. After all isn't a poem a loosely (or rigidly) organised group of ideas that create a mental image when seen together. But a Matrix is different. Unlike a poem, a matrix has to provide readily accessible Information to people who are trying to accomplish a task. They are playing a game. They want to achieve their goals. They want to have fun. The Matrix has to give them reasons for all the possible arguments they will make. It has to direct the players towards arguments that will create the feel of the period. The best way of doing this I do not know. I like to keep the matrix down to one side of a page, just so It will be easily accessible. But keep in mind that it is IMPOSSIBLE to say everything that needs to be said. Matrix making is definitely an art at this point. So if you want to make one, just do it. I guarantee you it will have flaws and blind spots. This is okay, because no matter how gap filled it is you can still have a fun game. (After all, doesn't the fun of most games have nothing what so ever to do with the rules. It's mainly the people who make it fun.) Nuff said. Back to Experimental Games Group # 2 Table of Contents Back to Experimental Games Group List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1989 by Chris Engle This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com