You have an idea. You want it to spread. Say it, and keep on saying it Till people ask Why you are saying the obvious. Once in a while people are visited by ideas. Thoughts that flash into one's mind from out of the blue. Often these ideas are strange and intriguing. Always they are incomplete. Then they flash out. Gone. Most people view such events as minor annoyances or at best mild entertainments. Daydreaming, to pass the day away with. Few people take their ideas seriously. But in those flashes is where all new things come from. Some people fall to the opposite extreme. They feel that all their momentary ideas are real and complete. They do not have to do anything with them for the world to beat a path to their door step. Some where in between these two positions is what works. The following article is on what I have found out about selling ideas, and beyond. INSPIRATION The most exciting thing about game making is that initial burst of enthusiasm one gets when the idea flashes in. The whole project appears before one's eyes, in a completed form. The details are fuzzy, but the feel of the game is clear. The props look beautiful. The players eager to get started. No problems at all. If ideas are not written down then they fade away. Often with surprising speed. For years now I've kept a note book handy. When an idea strikes, I write it down. Even if all it is is a few random thoughts. I am trying to capture the fuzzy perfection of my vision, but words are never clear enough to do that. Often one finds that ideas that sounded so good moments ago, in fact are completely unworkable. That is unfortunately one of the side effects of writing the idea down. Maybe it would be more fun to just let the fantasy continue as a day dream, but then it would likely end there. I write a lot of ideas down. I've found that most of them go no further than that. Still I write them down. No idea ever is useless. In fact they tend to recycle periodically. Frequently an idea comes and goes with no more development than before. But look at what comes after it. One unworkable idea can take the cork out of another genie bottle and release a marvel. Often times I find that asking myself basic questions helps open up ideas. In the mid eighties, I was reading about esthetics and asking questions in Coffee Houses about "What makes something good?" I listened as much as I talked. No one idea came from that, except for a mood. I talked about the game idea of the variable length bound and how to run free kreigspeil games. Again no one idea came out of these conversations. Just the notion that things could be done differently. The idea of verbal matrixes cycled through at least once in 1986 (in the form of the cognitive pyramid game), and passed out again. Other ideas returned. Board games set in ancient Norway or Ireland. Games about information, that used lots of cardboard counters to keep track of everything under the sun. One figure one man rules for fighting battles. An interesting in the push of pike and the psychology of battle. An awareness of philosophy and religion and Germanic Saga literature. A bubbling cauldron of thought waiting for action. My conversation with Chester Gates in January 1988 brought it all together in the Matrix Game. For the next year I thought and wrote and experimented. For some reason I stepped beyond just thinking. THE DECISION TO ACT It is the rare idea that ever gets developed beyond a play test copy. I remember making the first laminated boards to play the first Matrix Game on. They were simple play test tools, of the type I've made lots of. The challenge is move an idea off the pages of one's note book into a real game (hopefully vaguely like the one in one's primal vision). Experimentation of this kind is the first step toward action. Maybe the idea will fall flat during the first play test. Or maybe it only falls apart as the testing continues and entropy sets in. All of which is private, only visible to the playtesters involved. I remember the game I played with my brother Ian. We did a society development game. It worked, after a fashion. Certainly well enough for me to want to try again. And also well enough to take the step across the line from mere thought to action. I wrote the game up in an article to Wargame Development's NUGGET. A second article soon followed the first. Then a third one, in which I changed the name of the game from "Verbal Analysis Wargaming" to Matrix Game. Those articles were a public action. I wanted other gamers to see what I was doing. I hoped that they would give me feedback and help in developing the idea. Throughout 1988 I did experiments on how to run MGs. I ran a few convention games. Small affairs with few players. I was filled with ideas of being able to do riot game, civil rights games, revolution games, political games. By early 1989 the basic for of MGs was set, turn resolution has remained essentially the same, as has argument formation. The idea was whole. A whole idea is a wonderful thing all by itself. But it goes nowhere without something else. Commitment. I realized that Matrix Games were truly new. No other games made before were at all like them. In fact, they required making a shift in the player's thinking in order to be played. I realized that the idea would not be easy to spread. I decided though, that I would make the commitment to do the work to sell them. Even if it took five years. THE ABSOLUTE NECESSITY OF HAVING AN UNREALISTIC OUTLOOK There is a strange fact that comes out of research on depressed people. When a simple test is given to people in which they are asked to judge the possibility of success of certain actions, the following results were found. Depressed people were generally more accurate in their assessments of outcomes than non-depressed people. "Normal" people almost invariably over estimated their chances of success. They did not think that they could fail. Depressed people saw quite clearly the likelihood that they would fail. So it is absolutely necessary to have an unrealistic outlook on life! Why? Because, when one predicts failure, one almost invariably experiences failure - even if one succeeds! Depressed people see the cup as half empty. Failing to realize that if one is in the desert, a half empty glass means life. Self fulfilling prophecy takes over and the person stops trying, even though the initial signs may be favorable. The depressed person wants to see their fantasy fulfilled in a heart beat. And the world don't work that way. They lose heart and lose. Unrealistic people, know they are going to succeed. Maybe one experiences a set back, but victory is still inevitable. It is never even a question. All that remains is to do the work that makes the dream a reality. I remember having this feeling about Matrix Games. I knew the idea was sound. And that further development would make it real. In fact it is this belief that really made my commitment to the whole project. I knew it was up to me to do it. That is an important point about developing ideas. One person takes on himself the sole responsibility to make it happen. One makes an agreement with some unseen creative God, to do all that it takes. In many ways the outcome is taken out of the individual's hands, and given to that God. The point man only has to do the hard work, writing, running games, talking and thinking. The God handles the outcomes. There are many nay sayers out there, so the new game maker must be careful. Nay sayers, all say that 90% of everything is crap. That there is no money in wargaming. That while one's idea is interesting, it is too complex. Or that one's idea is all wrong, and that you should really be making games tike their game! Such people can not be listened to. They can crush one's spirit. I remember showing an early Matrix Game to Steve Jackson in 1989. He said, in true nay sayer style, that he thought it was too complicated for gamers without masters degrees to understand. I remember smiling and saying that the idea need work, and that I did not agree with him about his assessment. By then I had already had nine year olds play the game without great difficultly! I think some nay sayers are really trying to be helpful. They are saying a truth. "Selling wargames is very hard." They are also marking a boundary. "I will not commit any of my resources to your project." Which makes sense since it is not their job to do the designers work for him. There is one particularly difficult variety of nay sayer that is especially difficult to ignore. They are the people whom one expects to get helpful feedback from, but by whom one is actually ignored. I experienced this in my dealings with Wargame Developments in 1988. I wrote three articles for them all of which were printed. I received one piece of feedback in the NUGGET. Chris Kemp, then editor, gave me an award for the most inventive idea of 1988. Then nothing. I did get discouraged by this and stopped writing for NUGGET for several years. Thankfully, this situation has since changed. But I learned from the experience that my project was mine alone, and that I could expect no help from overseas. Nay sayers question one's commitment to the cause. In a way they are probably blessings in disguise. By actively not listening to them, one commits to the project even more. Which is good since there are trials ahead. ACTION AND GOALS Having just said that one can not afford to be realistic in one's outlook, I will not completely change my tune. When starting a project it is vital that one have clear goals about what one wants to do. Earlier the game designer made a personal commitment to a project with the complete faith that God would ensure success. But as everyone knows success is built on small incremental steps. Dungeons and Dragons was on the market for three years before it started to take off. I started into wargaming just after that happened. I remember buying one of their second edition sets in 1977. Little stapled book (much like EGG) with poor production properties and badly written. I loved it. Soon after that I bought a copy of the GDW game En Garde! Another wonderful game from a time when role playing was not the dominate force of the hobby. What they were doing was building a foundation. RPGs are flourishing on that foundation to this day. So what is a goal? Put simply, it is some clearly measurable behavior that happens as a result of one's intervention. Goals can be measured in total sales, numbers of copies of games distributed, numbers of games made, decisions about what activities one will do, etc. When I started making Matrix Games, my first goal was to make a working play test game. My brother Ian, and I played that one in Winter 1988. My next goal was to make a battle MG. Chester Gates played in that one a little later in the Winter of 88. Then I chose to write an article for WD's NUGGET. When it was printed, my spirit's soared. Each accomplished goal made me more willing to go on. By Spring of 1988, I ran my first MG convention game (another two followed later that year). I had no clear long term goals throughout the first year. Short term development goals were enough to keep me going. By Spring 1989, 1 had the basic game, and several successful scenarios: Quest for the Holy Grail, the Viking Raid, Banana Republic, an Arab-Israeli game, and others. I realized that I needed to communicate with more people if the idea was to spread. That is when I made My first long term goal. This magazine was the result of my need to talk to people. 1 decided to commit to running EGG for one year at my own expense "so that I can learn how to do it." I put that into quotes because that was my goal. Six issues in one year. No one had to give me any money, no one had to like it, no one even had to read it! My success was measured by doing the work and learning how to do it better. Hal Thinglum was very encouraging and supportive in that first year. Paddy Griffin was also very helpful. I realized that since MGs were such a new idea, that I would have to build a market for them from the bottom up. Well, not actually from the bottom up, actually from the top down. It seems to be a truth in wargaming that 10% of the people put on 90% of the games and write 90% of the articles found in the hobby. I decided that I needed to expose one hundred of those people to the idea of the Matrix Game. Putting out EGG would be one way to do this. Writing articles for other magazines, running PBMs, doing convention games and talking to anyone who would listen would also spread the word. Note in my goal: All I want to do is expose one hundred pivotal people to the idea of Matrix Games. They did not have to like my games, understand them or even play in them for this goal to be successfully met. By the end of the first year of EGG, I had met this goal. I wanted magazine editors, company presidents, writers, and event runners to hear about the idea, and they did. Next I started counting the number of people playing the games. I decided to get one hundred people to play a Matrix Game in the next two to three years (ending in 1991). While continuing to target critical people with the new idea. By 1991, the goal was reached. It is interesting to note, that in mid 1991 I started to get feedback from other gamers about what needed to happen in MGs next. Steve Dake, suggested that it was time to start writing "intermediate" level MGs. Meanwhile Bob Cordery and Tim Price started their work on MGs over in England. I needed a new goal. MGs were beginning to take off. I decided that I wanted one thousand gamers to have played an MG in the next three years (ending in 1994). I realized that this could not happen if there was no MG produce, so I wrote Campaign in a Day in the fall. It came out in March of 92. In early 1991, Greg Novak gave me a saddle stapler and told me to turn EGG into a booklet. This enabled me to learn how to make books. This was vital since without that knowledge, I would not have been able to publish C in D. Having lost money on a foolish game project in 1986, I knew that if I at most I could sell about 100 copies of C in D in a three year span. Consequently I made 100 copies, of which I am now about sold out of. It is now 1994. The C in D's are nearly gone. I believe one thousand players have played a Matrix Game since 1988, and I have completed all the articles I wanted to write for EGG. Time to set a new goal. THE WORK Don't do this if you don't want to do a lot of work. Because that is what this is. The bulk of the work of selling an idea is in writing. I have written literally thousands of pages on MGs in the last six years. It helps a lot to be able to spell. Unfortunately, as you all know, I can't do that very well. Baring innate ability, a computer helps a lot. Even without a spell checker, typing on a computer is more accurate than on a type writer. Spell checkers are wonderful, but still miss correctly spelled, but misplaced, words. Do a lot of game testing. Game designing seems to be a process of constantly improving on the design. The basic rules of MGs are fairly well set but are constantly open to minor variation. Play with them, let them evolve. Let other people's work influence your own thinking. You are probably not the best thinker about your own subject. Learn how to print, collate, bind, and package books. A computer coupled with a photocopier make it possible to create a middling to high on the low end product or magazine. One does not need to compete with the slick glossies. They print in the thousands, photocopiers print in the hundreds (or more likely hundred). I spend a full week end every two months getting EGG produced. Writing takes even more time. Create an attractive game to take to conventions. Physical attractiveness counts, since players are more willing to play a pretty, bad game than an ugly, good game. Learn how to deal with difficult people, they are out there. Practice patience and grace, they always help. Talk to people well, especially at conventions. The gamers you meet are your peers. Some make games themselves, or put on events that dazzle. Some are game players only. All are worthy of your attention an respect. This is hard to do. Especially when you are tired or rushed. Maybe the most important thing to keep in mind is that this is suppose to be fun. Tensing up cuts the fun down considerably. Relaxing, makes it more fun, and improves one's ability to deal with crisis. Be prepared to sacrifice to the alter you have made. Time, money, energy and even blood (from exacto knife cuts) go into making a game. And finally, when all the work is done, and God has made the game successful, you must let it go. It is no longer yours! You lose by winning. SMELLING THE ROSES AS YOU GO Often I have heard that we are suppose to "stop and smell the roses along the way." That message always seemed to me to be saying that we should enjoy life while it is happening. I have learned from Matrix Games that life happens at the instance it is created. But I am certain that there is another deeper lesson in this. It occurs to me that the rose appreciates being smelled as much as I enjoy smelling it. In wargaming, I have meet a whole community of people. I see many of them at conventions. Some I only know through letters. Still, I count you all as my friends. I value what you have given me as a person (opportunities to grow). At conventions, I see the most wonderful games being played. It would be a crime if I went out and failed to play in at least one of these games. I meet the most interesting people, who share so much in common with me. It would be a crime if 1 did not talk to them and appreciate their humor. The vendors bring wonderful figures, the work of hundreds of artists and merchants. It would be a crime if I do not buy what interests me. And they appreciate my appreciation as well. Then there are those special times when you meet new people. Some young, some old. Some interested in game making, some interested in game playing. It is most beneficial to stop and smell these roses. Especially the very young ones, and those who are new into game making. Appreciating them encourages their efforts more than anything else one can do. I an certain that this is rewarding for everyone involved. MENTORING Appreciating new talent is an obligation and an honor, that is afforded to certain men. For thousands of years, men have encouraged younger men to develop their dreams. It doesn't always happen. It is far from being automatic. When it happens the older person and the younger both grow. That is the secret to all this. I can only grow, if you grow. I set out to make an idea grow. Certain men along my path have helped me out. Though you may not like the term, they nurtured my work, by encouraging words, advice, material aid, and challenging me to do better. Now as I leave one phase of my gaming life, I see that it is my obligation to mentor the people I come in contact with as well. Because as they grow, I grow as a richer, fuller human being. COMMUNITY We are privileged to live in a time when a community can grow up around an esoteric hobby. We live in every part of the world. We play the same games. We pursue the same goals. Some of us are active, many are not. I want to recommend being active. The more I have done. The more comfortable I feel being in this community. People say hello to me now and 1 say hello back, and I feel a connection. Before I did not. It was just a polite greeting. This is worth developing. RESPONSIBILITY TO THE HOBBY None of us "owe" the hobby anything. The fact that we give to the hobby is our own choice. When we leave, some will regret our passing, but life still goes on. Sacrificing to the hobby happens all the time, but it is important to keep it in perspective. We play games. No more, no less. It seems to me that our real responsibility to the hobby is to be the best people we can be. Since it is as the best that we can be that we can give the most to the community. MARRIAGE AND FAMILY How often have I heard people say that they would rather get divorced than give up gaming! What!!!!!!!??????????????!!!!!! Lets get this straight. No matter what game projects I do. I first pay my bills at home. No matter how much time I spend with my friends. I first meet my obligations to my wife and children. To do less is unthinkable. I get a lot from wargaming, but I am not married to it. For me to be the best person I can be I first have to take care of my emotional life. That comes first. Maybe someday, when I have kids, I can introduce them to gaming. Maybe they will even join the community of gamers. But if they do or not, I am still their Dad, and that comes first. OLD MEN OF THE HOBBY; POWER WITHOUT POWER There seem to be people who have done so much for the hobby that we view them as sort of elder statesmen. We listen to what they say and even follow their lead, sometimes. They seem to have power, but that is an illusion. What they have is a habit of work. They lead by example, and challenge us to follow them. This is a kind of power that is very real, but completely unreal. I would like someday to be one of these men. It will take a lot of work, and a lot of giving. And in the end it is really no power at all. AFTERWARD I said at the beginning that this article was about selling ideas and beyond. I afraid it got a little weird in the "beyond" part. For that I apologize. They are just thoughts I've had bouncing around my head for the last few weeks. I'm sort of predicting a future for myself. Setting a goal that rests on something I can control (doing work and giving) towards a goal that does not depend on others (leading by example those who are willing to follow). Only time will tell how this goal will turn out. Back to Experimental Games Group # 30 Table of Contents Back to Experimental Games Group List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1994 by Chris Engle This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com