END BOsses
Just as it’s hard to have good story without a compelling bad guy, it’s hard to design a good game without an end-boss. And our world is certainly not short on them! Here are some of the biggest, baddest bosses we need to defeat… or at least domesticate… until we can figure out how to turn them into allies.
MOloch
Humanity’s biggest end-boss right now is Moloch. What is Moloch? Well, it first appeared in a creepy bible story about a power-obsessed cult who would sacrifice their own children to an effigy of a horned demon, in the belief it that it would reward them for their ultimate sacrifice with money, power and victory. Horrible stuff.
In modern times, Moloch has become associated with the broader idea of excessive sacrifice - where someone sacrifices too much for a quick win.
For example an athlete who sacrifices their integrity by cheating for a medal.
A CEO who cuts corners on environmental protections to boost their quarterly earnings.
A politician who spreads lies about their opponents, or who war-mongers for personal gain.
These are all examples of Molochian behaviour, and they’re bad because once a few people start doing it, they force else down a similar dark path too, else they get left behind
So can think of Moloch as the god of competition-gone-wrong. The demon of lose-lose games. It’s because of Moloch that the addage “nice guys finish last” is so often true. Moloch is the dirty mechanism that creates the many race to the bottom dynamics currently plaguing our world.
So that’s why it’s our biggest end-boss (for now at least). And it’s what Win-Win is here to defeat… or at the very least, domesticate.
NORMA
Who is Norma? Norma is the demon of Bureaucracy. The Siren of Stagnation. The mistress who loves to tie you up in red tape and tell you no. And not in a good way.
More on Norma later, I have other more urgent things to write.
Like our next level: The Ten Principles!
LEVEL 5