The Culture: The Man Behind The Only Not-D&D D&D Game Worth A Damn

Last night Alexander Macris lets another take the host chair and be the interview subject.

TLDR: Dad was a Glowie, and the Family Fix is real. Right out of Confessions of an Economic Hit-Man.

This is not the only Glowie or Glowie-adjacent figure in Tabletop (I know of one other), and it's not at all the only Glowie(-adjacent) figure that's rotated through my life at some level, but no one ever went so far as to prepare me for being entered into that life. (I was approached for the GATE Program; that likely was the filter.)

Now a lot of things make sense.

Listen to that interview. Listen to his past interviews. Macris is not shy about his command of demographics, economy, logistics, culture, and geopolitics. All of these are vital elements to how Muh Democracy works; you see Mike Benz talk about this on the regular now.

I've got news for you folks: Ancient and Medieval regimes worked the same way because they are the origins of the three (soon to be four) imperial regimes on this planet.

This also means that what ACKS, AD&D1e, and other Real Games in the hobby actually do is to put players in the mindsets of those that are active players in such regimes. The trappings change; the structure remains the same.

War, economics, logistics, diplomacy- all of these come down to the power of one man to impose his will upon the world. That is what the Real Game allows players to experience in a virtual environment. It is this assumption of mindset that sifts suck players from great ones, and it is this underappreciated capacity that allows the savvy to learn habits and practices that translate into real life success.

All respect to Macris. At the risk of sounding like Pangloss, this is the best of all possible Macris timelines.