Worlds of Wisdom - Vol. 1 Ed. 30
Feb 10, 2021 2:01 am
World Builders' Guild Newsletter
World Builders,
My birthday is this week.
We've been building and sharing worlds together for over half a year now.
The gift of your attention is more important to me than any material item I could hope to receive.
Without your encouragement and enthusiasm for our little world here, we wouldn't be where we are today, 30 weeks in and growing daily.
Instead of a look inside another world, I want to share with you a few tenets of my own slice of the universe. I hope they guide and inspire you as they have me all these years.
It's Okay to Dine Alone
In my younger days, the shame of doing anything alone, in public, was enough to scare my ego into a corner and my body back into my dingy hermitage. I would never be caught dead at a bar, a restaurant, or coffee shop without human companionship.
What would the world think of me if they caught me without my cohort?
Harsh truth: nobody cares.
Beyond the fact that I'm just not that important, nobody who stands to judge me for my perceived lack of companionship matters anyway.
They don't know anything about me!
I love to eat alone or sip coffee in public solo. I enjoy the meal and atmosphere at my own pace, without anyone else's approval or oversight. I can get mustard on my shirt and nobody cares.
Some of the best ideas come to you while you're watching the snow fall beyond a steamy pizza shop window. Try it sometime.
That's a nice Saturday afternoon there.
Aside from the mental benefits, there are a few tangible reasons to go it alone:
You'll almost always get in.
Busiest place in town? Solo walk-ins have high odds of getting a seat. Even better, you may get to eat at the bar and have an enlightening chat with the bartender (I can hear my father grumbling, "You can't eat at the bar at a nice place, that's not right!" Sorry, Dad. It's the best.)
You might get better service.
I learned this from a dear friend who is a talented veteran of the restaurant industry (Thanks, Reg!). The Michelin Group, apparently, sends its undercover critics into restaurants alone. A high-end restaurant will take no chances on disappointing solo diners in case they're being assessed for their star rating that year. Increase your odds by dressing nicely and be polite, yet not obsequious.
You'll get more intimate recommendations.
When you're with a group, servers won't initiate banter because that can distract from your company. Servers and staff tend to take more time with a single diner since they only have one party to cater to. They're free to engage and make it a more personalized experience. Enjoy the customized meal.
Being a silent, anonymous barfly is one of the most underrated entertainment experiences in life.
You don't even have to drink. Find the whackiest diver in town, order a club soda, throw on a jukebox classic, tip the bartender up front, and wait to hear tales beyond belief. If you need inspiration for a story or an article, there live infinite premises at the bottom of some old grump's pint glass.
Never Destroy a Book
Donate it or give it away.
I don't have any cute anecdote. It's a feeling I have in my gut. I cannot bring myself to remove so much information from existence at once. If you're a fan of the Myst series, you know that destroying a book is literally (I mean it) ending a world.
Someone may love that world even if you hate it. Someone may find the information life-changing that you couldn't find a use for.
Give those worlds a fighting chance.
Know Exactly Where You Are at All Times
This is not the same as, "don't ever get lost."
It also doesn't mean that if you're abducted in the middle of the night with a gym sock stuffed in your mouth and potato sack over your head you should feel any worse about the situation.
When you visit a new place, what's the first thing you do?
I like to make a game out of triangulating my whereabouts using whatever physical or analog inputs I can find.
Pick up the shiny tourism magazine on the hotel end table: there's a map in the back. Look out the window at the horizon. Any interesting buildings rise to meet the eye? Waterways, byways, green spaces? Can you plot them? What adventure lies between?
I've found so many great doughnut shops and bakeries like this.
The world coalesces around your sense of immediate wonder.
Open that map.
Thank you, friends, for all your support and I can't wait to build more great things with you in time.
To future worlds,
Matt Ventre
Sharpening the Toolkit
- Eat your way through America with Bits and Bites, hosted by Billy Vegas of RebelVisionTV. It's a tasty weekly live stream with local culinary artisans from all 50 states.
- I've been binging replays of the exceedingly competitive Age of Emipres II: Definitive Edition tournament Hidden Cup 3. It's like watching Rome burn in real time.
Hey World Builders!
Did you know I started a game company called PlayArchitect Games?
I believe that fun makes the future bright. If you're ready to make your brain sweat and your heart smile, come win with PlayArchitect Games' first title, in development now, Legends of the Cage:
Legends of the Cage is a combat-focused mixed martial arts tabletop roleplaying game.
It's a full-on "fight simulator" with uppercuts and armbars.
Visit our site and sign up for the PlayArchitect Games Bulletin to stay up to date on the latest Legends of the Cage updates, behind-the-scenes developer news, and insider info on private playtesting and product discounts.
You're a winner, right? Check it out today.
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