Orklord’s Haven

This post is short and to the point, it exists as a marker and a touch stone as I continue to develop the game.

I was having an IM conversation with Seth Ben Ezra recently about MtB.  He was kind enough to indulge me.  I often feel guilty when I drag people into conversations “about the game I’m writing” because so many gamers I know are making their own games and it just feels rude to me.

Nevertheless, I was originally asking Seth about his current project Waiting Room, which is a second jeep-style game (his first being the acclaimed A Flower for Mara).  Seth had mentioned how he was writing his jeep-style rules in terms of metaphor.  This led to some observations about how metaphor is more comprehensive as a teaching tool than giving exact situationals.  I told Seth I was interested in metaphors because I think it could be helpful in helping people engage with Making the Bigs, especially gamers who may not be baseball fans.

Seth asked me what was my metaphor for Making the Bigs.  I realized that this was something I hadn’t considered, that the game itself was a metaphor for… acting.  Seriously, Making the Bigs is a metaphor for struggling actors trying to make it to Broadway or Hollywood.  It just clicked in my head.  So now I could recommend someone watch Fame or heck, even something like American Idol (which is singing, but it is more similar than dissimilar).

I know this could easily be twisted and warped into something I don’t see about Making the Bigs, but it was a startling realization for me as I noodle over how to communicate this game to others.