I need your help.
Matrix Games have been kicking around for over ten years and grown from a weird idea in one person's brain to a weird idea in a few hundred people's heads. Through out all of this time I've been the main person directing "my project." There was a reason for that but that reason has since passed.
I was once worried that some clever company would come along and steal the Matrix Game and "do it wrong." I've always wanted this game to be widely applied which it would not have been if it had been pushed commercially too soon. So I've held it tight and done a ton of development work. Well that work is done. The Matrix Game can now do more types of games than players are likely to ever want! So much so that I'm having to ruthlessly cut out parts to create a solid basic game. Soon a version of that game will be up on the Hamster Press web page ( http://www.io.com/~hamster ). At the same time I've also laid out the basics of what needs to go into a scenario book (which is what a Matrix Game product really is rules are honestly, secondary).
So the game is ready. It can be pushed out into the big world without getting run over. If people fail to see how widely it can be used well that doesn't matter the development is there when people are ready to see.
I always hoped that this game would be like D+D. Instantly popular and in demand by all the game companies. HA!!!! Didn't happen! No cleaver game companies have ever thought this idea was worth stealing. Oh well that leaves the question, how to proceed?
This article is an exploration of different strategies on developing this project. Please read them over and let me know what you think. I have only one dominant value here In the next step I will not be the only voice running this thing. I am a shepherd not a capitalist (more on this later).
DEFINING THE GOAL
What I would like to see happen is for Matrix Games to become widely played around the world. They will become just another type of game like Role Play Games, Board Games, Computer Games, Collectible Card Games etc.
You will note that while certain companies dominate certain portions of these approaches (WOTC and its trademark on CCGs) Over time each of these ideas has become public domain. Used by all. I would like to see that happen to Matrix Games.
This means general acceptance by the game players of the world. A tough goal to be sure. So how do we get there.
THREE BROADLY DIFFERENT APPROACHES
I've always thought of selling ideas as an intellectual market place. The goal is to sell the idea rather than to sell a product. Since ideas are difficult to really own normal business practices don't always apply. But if it is a market place then they must apply some how. If this is true then three very different approaches come to mind.
GO COMMERCIAL!
GO AMATEUR!
DO NOTHING!
The virtues of each approach are as follows.
Commercial ventures produce large quantities of store worthy products that can be widely distributed and potentially even product a profit.
Amateur organizations mobilize true enthusiasts. They produce less attractive product but spread the word about what they do make in the most powerful way by word of mouth.
Doing nothing trusting to Allah as it were, is unlikely to produce any positive outcomes. As the old saying goes Have faith in Allah but don't forget to tie up your camel! This approaches only virtue is that it is easy to do!
ITS ALL A QUESTION OF RESOURCES
If Matrix Games have taught me anything it is that there is only one real resource people's time and energy. Time to play a game, read an article, paint a figure. This is what games compete for people's attention. Money follows people's attention.
Each of us who dedicates himself to a project stand ready to spend our resources (time more than money) to move that project forward. The difficulty is getting other people to give their time and energy.
Players give their gaming time. As well as money spent buying games.
Game demonstrators give their time running games for others to play which spreads the word to the gamers.
Writers do the often thankless job of writing articles about the game as well as writing new scenarios
Game designers (fools) of course design games.
Game distributors spend their money speculating that they can sell the item to game stores.
Stores take additional risk in buying from distributors.
While Game companies take the biggest financial risk since they have to guess what all the other people will do.
When professional printing in quantities of 10,000 are concerned more dollars are risked than any one normal person can easily risk. Not really so much due to the money (that can be saved) but mainly due to time. 10,000 units printed demands a proto company be run like a real business. But 10,000 units of one product will never make an income that would warrant more than one person doing the job (and even then part time). That one person would then be responsible for a wide range of tasks. My guess is that few people can manage this more on this later.
So what approach to do with Matrix Games?
WHY A BUSINESS IS IMPOSSIBLE AND WHY BUSINESSES ARE VITAL
One man business operations require the sole proprietor to know the following things: Writing, Public Speaking, Production (These are the easy skills) Accounting, Marketing, Shipping, and Time Management (The hard skills). Few people have all these skills by themselves. Without them, one tends to encounter that which defeats many small business owners FEAR!
I always knew that for a business to succeed I would have to learn these skills. Between 1995 and 1999 I studied them. I saved money. I ran my own psychotherapy business, I studied accounting. I learned a lot about business and myself. I learned that I am not cut out to do a business like this by myself! FEAR is too big to handle alone. Sadly, though I now have a working knowledge of all these skills I find that I am really not good at several of them. Maybe there are others out there better versed at this. I'm just not one of them.
But business is still the only way to go to get 10,000 units of a product professionally printed. Why? Because it costs too much for one person to do alone. So though running a business is hard it still must be done to get an idea out to a wide audience.
WHY NO GAME COMPANY WILL PRINT A MATRIX GAME
The first reason why a regular game company will not print a Matrix Game is that I've never submitted one to a company for consideration. Like winning the lottery, you can't win without buying a ticket. But from what I've learned about game companies they do not risk money unless they have a sure thing or it is their own project. Matrix Games are NOT a sure thing so I've always doubted that any company would pick them up.
Sad really. I always wanted some knight on a white horse to come in and rescue me from the business side of this project. It hasn't happened and I suspect never will.
So if no game company will do it, how will the games ever get printed?
My guess is that the answer lies in abandoning business for the moment in favor of the next approach Grass Roots Amateur Organization.
CHRIS' EGO AND WHY LETTING GO IS SOOOO HARD
Clearly a lot of my ego is wrapped up in the Matrix Game project. I've spent over ten years developing the game and spreading the word. I've held this sucker tight so that it was fully developed and ready to be mass marketed before going public. Only then to realize that I can't do it. My brain is too much a wet noodle.
I find that I am now the next impediment standing in the way of the project!
What is in the way? My owning "The Matrix Game". So I have these rules, which I think are real neat, that no one else can print because I hold the copy right. So no other company can print a game. I lack the skill to do it myself and others lack the legal right to do it. I'm in the way.
There is still a reason for me to be lodged in this position. I'm sort of a protector of the idea from the flagrant abused that could be done with it by unscrupulous hucksters. But that role of good shepherd needs to ease up. It has to for an amateur approach to be used.
THE 12 TRADITIONS OF ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS AND AMATEUR GAMING
I've always been impressed with how AA functions. Here is a world wide organization of people with a pretty serious behavioral problem that has no hierarchical structure, no membership requirements, no dues, few to no rules and yet works and is in fact growing. Amazing!
How do they do it?
AA is guided (not ruled) by a set of 12 "traditions". These core suggestions help groups deal with problems as they arise. They are as follows.
- 1. Our common welfare should come first; personal progress for the
greatest number depends on unity.
2. For our group purpose there is but one authority a loving God as he may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.
3. Alcoholics gathered together may call themselves an Alcoholics Anonymous Group provided that as a group they have no other affiliation. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking.
4. Each group should be autonomous, except in matters affecting other groups or AA as a whole.
5. Alcoholics Anonymous has but one purpose, to help Alcoholics.
6. An AA group ought never endorse, finance or lend our name to any outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property and prestige divert us from our primary spiritual aim.
7. Every group ought to be fully self supporting, declining outside contributions.
8. AA Twelve Step work should remain forever non-professional, but our service centers may employ special workers.
9. Our groups as such ought never to be organized, but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
10. AA has no opinion on outside issues; hence our name ought never be drawn into public controversy.
11. Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio and films.
12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions ever reminding us to place principles above personalities.
There is a lot to be said for these principles in regards to a purely amateur hobby. Though we gamers have many organizations and no over riding principles the above set of principles fit will until one reaches the level of game companies, distributors and stores. What they do is mobilize the maximum amount of people's energy by allowing individuals to be in charge of themselves. As such people amy overlap their work but because they are all running in roughly the same direction a lot gets done.
I take the following lessons from this.
- 1. Progress depends on unity. Unity of purpose.
2. Leaders serve, they do not govern. No one has more authority than others. They only difference is how we vie with one another in service.
3. Any group of people can join or drop out of the cause.
4. Each group is autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or the cause as a whole.
5. The purpose is to play games and help other people join in so they to can enjoy our hobby.
6. Groups need not be commercial. But if they are they should refrain from pulling the cause into public controversy.
7. Groups should be self supporting. No one person or company should have a straggle hold on a game genre.
8. Gaming should remain forever non-professional.
9. Groups do not have to be organized but they can create any structure they want for themselves.
10. The cause has no opinion of outside issues. Individuals my use games to explore their own opinions but they do not speak for everyone.
11. Gaming is best spread by word of mouth. Attraction rather than promotion.
12. Humility is the foundation of the cause, every reminding us to place principles before personalities.
The Future of the Matrix Game
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© Copyright 2000 by Chris Engle.
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