IdeaSpace

I remember Warren Ellis writing something about the "IdeaSpace". This is where things go when someone thinks them up. Every idea goes into idea space, and once there, it is there for the taking by anyone else. I relate to this theory too well, because as my close friends know, and my wife especially, I lose to many things to the IdeaSpace.

I wanted to be a game designer for a number of years, a job that is highly coveted, and almost impossible to get. So I settled for just writing up ideas, stories and treatments for things that I could never really bring to reality. But sho'nuff... I see my ideas being implemented all the time. I like to think it because I'm ahead of my time.

Long before HBO's Rome, and Gladiator, I lived for the ancient world of the last great empire of the Romans. I loved the grandness of movies liek Spartacus and Ben-Hur. I had to make an homage to them in game form. I even had a chance to show my idea to several professionals in the game industry, all of them commenting on the originality of the idea in a genre long thought to be dead.

Bread and Cirusues was my chariot racing/fighting game, complete with all the settings and detailed character backgrounds, as well as a decent description of game actions and dynamics. I kicked this idea around to whoever would listen, placing it upon numerous game forums, and just getting the idea out there. Maybe someone would like it and want to work with me on a hobby level.

Then I read about Circus Maximus.

I was pissed. Someone had taken my idea, and actually made a game out of it. No one had even thought about the roman era till the success of Gladiator. Now I had to sit by and watch as something I had worked on for a number of years was turned into a pile of shit by a second rate game company. Anyone buy Circus Maximus? Anyone even play it? No? I have a theory why.

You can take an idea out of the IdeaSpace, and try to make it work. But unless it was yours to begin with, it will never be 100% of what it could be. Its like a built in safety feature.

Yes, I am glad Circus Maximus turned out to be shit. I hope people got fired over it. I dont even think the company that made it exists any more. Yes, maybe I am bitter about never making my dream job come true. But my idea is still my idea.

And it still leaves me a chance to make Bread and Circuses into what it should be. One day.

Behold the crap that is Circus Maximus here:
IGN Review