The first city states sprang up along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Eridu. Uruk. Ur. The history of cities is the history of trade, because it is impossible to centralise all those amenities and bureaucracy in one place without centralising goods and/or services.
Without trade everyone starves.
We merchants serve a function. The Jamey Stegmeier of throwing spears might make the best throwing spears in the world. But if he divides his time between making throwing spears and selling throwing spears… he makes less throwing spears. As a publisher you give up a portion of your profit – a margin – to people who can increase the reach and market penetration of your product. Heck, if you think you can go it alone be my guest. Plenty of people do on Kickstarter.
The biggest game on Kickstarter was Exploding Kittens. No, not the most funded. The most backers. They had the advantage of the Oatmeal, so global reach before they launched. And they sold 219,000 copies. I mean, that’s pretty amazing. We’d all be happy with that, right?
Settlers of Catan has sold 20 million.
Now, they have had a twenty year head start, I’ll give them that. But there’s a difference of magnitude between the sales of Catan and Kittens. Kittens on Kickstarter was 1% of the Catan sales. And that’s the biggest Kickstarter EVER in terms market penetration.
That’s what merchants do. They sell your throwing spears in Uruk as well as Eridu. In Lagash and Umma. In Kish. And if you make the very best throwing spears, your name spreads. And you can demand a higher price for your better quality. People will seek them out.
The first recorded boardgame comes from Ur. We know the rules because a Babylonian scribe called Itti-Marduk-balāṭu transcribed them a thousand years later. Copies were found in the tomb of Tutankhamun, and as far away as Crete and Sri Lanka.
The earliest cities were city states. They fought amongst each other for resources. Before the Lydians invented money in 600BC, trade was by tally and token. By barter. The early civilisations often used representative clay tokens instead that are instantly recognisable to any boardgamer. Literally they traded wood for sheep.
Some say that money is the root of all evil, but to me it is democratising. If you own five hundred bushels of grain you cannot travel with it. Your options are limited. With money your options are limitless. Trade wasn’t just bringing goods, it was bringing something else.
It was bringing lifestyle.
In 2004 the critical theorist Homi K Bhaba invented third space theory. Third spaces are what the modern game stores are – places where people come together, between work and education and home, to forge their own cultural identities. Before the city states of Ancient Greece, your society was top down or it was toppled down. It was all god kings and smiting.
And then suddenly it was philosophy.
The Greek City State was known as a polis. But more importantly, this is also the word used to describe a body of citizens. The Greeks were no longer thinking of the citizens of inhabitants of a city; they were thinking of the city as a physical manifestation of the citizens. Up until then history, society, culture – everything had been built by winners. Now it could be built by thinkers.
When Plato wrote his Republic he laid out the template for the ideal polis, one ruled by wisdom, courage, moderation and justice. Socrates took it one stage further by suggesting that human choice was motivated by the desire for happiness.
Your store is a third space. And by extension, your store is also a polis. A place with its own laws, its own codes, its own citizens. And you are its platonic ideal – the enlightened philosopher monarch.
When you transgressed in an ancient Greek City State, the citizens would get together and vote on your expulsion. They would cast ostakon – tiny clay chips – into bowls. In secret. This wasn’t about your guilt or innocence – it was about whether or not you were a dick. More ayes than nays, and you were out. Ostracised. Banished from the City State for ten years to think about maybe not being a dick.
As an enlightened philosopher monarch, you understand that the things that hurt your citizens hurt you. You ARE your citizens. You are your store and your customers are your store. If it wasn’t a partnership before, it is now – they can buy everything cheaper from a tax avoiding weasel online and both of you know it.
If your customers have a problem, you have a problem. Transgression is not about burden of proof, it’s about burden of perception.
In D&D perception (and insight – social perception) is based off Wisdom, the first platonic ideal.
The second is courage. Look, that dick player may be the biggest whale in your community. You would honestly be surprised how often that is, in fact, the case. having money gives you options, and one of those options is to intimidate others through your buying power.
There’s a famous story about Kerry Packer the Australian aviation magnate. He was once playing cards in a casino, and a very loud American on the next table to him was disturbing his game. So he asked the guy to maybe moderate his behaviour. And this guy turns to him and says “I’m a millionaire, buddy. I can do anything I want” so Kerry Packer says:
“Flip you for it?”
Players will come to you if they think you are going to act. If you have the courage to step in.
Here’s the thing. Stepping in doesn’t mean escalation. There’s a lot of reasons that people are dicks, and escalating isn’t usually a way of stopping people being dicks. Believe it or not I used to work security for a while. I’d be working a shift with all these big guys who would talk a good fight about how they hoped something would kick off so they could use their Krav Maga or whatever, and when something looked like it would kick off I’d be there buying both parties a drink. There’s a lot of “you spilled my pint” shit in British pubs, and neither side wants to back down.
But both sides like a free pint.
This is where the third platonic ideal comes in. Moderation.
If there is a problem in my polis I want to know why. Not who. Why is often a function of who. Once I have identified who, we need to talk. There are lots of reasons why people are dicks. We are social spaces where people go to unwind, and sometimes they are facing shit in their lives that they can’t process. So they punch down or they punch out. Adult mental health support is minimal. Depression can make you self harm in more ways than just the obvious physical ones.
You shop has worth. It has a value beyond the goods you sell. Our customers – our citizens – have a value above and beyond the amount they spend. I owe it to everyone to give anyone the chance to take stock, to learn that their behaviour may be antithetical to the other members of the polis and that they are on a path to ostracision. And then I will listen to whatever shit has gone down that they cannot process.
And then comes justice. Some people are too far gone. When you steal of others you betray the trust of the entire polis. I once had this friend. I had popped around to his house and he had these huge stacks of books everywhere. “You must be an avid reader!” I said, admiring his eclectic taste. “nah, professional shoplifter. Any book you want, half price!” Turns out he would steal to order, but it was easier to take an entire shelf to get one book that he’d sell at half price. To order.
I did not buy any books from him. One day he was admiring my new TV, and asking if I was insured.
NO. THIS IS NOT THE SOCIETY I WANT.
Some Yugioh players think it is OK to steal because they themselves have had stuff stolen. NO. NOT THE SOCIETY YOU WANT.
Justice can be heading that off. Drawing a line. It’s not about what you want, what makes you feel better. It’s about what your society needs. We are store owners. We do not need burden of proof. The management ALWAYS reserves the right of admission. That’s a given policy in every store, in every third space. Policy comes from polis, as does police force.
Everyone likes a good banning. As a total liberal I ban very few people, but sometimes you’ve done things that leave me no choice. And sometimes – occasionally – you haven’t, and I still have to ban you. The Greeks understood that sometimes you needed to be told to go to get your shit together. Outside the city walls there was no protection, no companionship, no comfort. I’ve seen Les Mis. You aren’t a prisoner of your past. You can change at any point. Redefine yourself. Dedicate yourself not to total selfish dickery but to increasing the sum total of human happiness.
Maybe you’ll even open your own game store.
The Quantum Retailer 