Imagine a game, playable by anyone, anywhere in the world, over the Internet or on a board in the living room. This game focus on any topic imaginable: literature, movies, sports, history, music, mathematics, or many topics at once. This game's strategy is simple to understand and play, but nearly impossible to master. Communities center around the game, discussing possible moves. Well-played games bring respect to the players. The game evolves according to the input of those who play it. A game can be played in a single sitting, or can extend over nearly a month's time. Teams can play against other teams. Text, pictures, music, and video all play a part in the game. The single most important skill in the play of this game is imagination - the ability to envision links between ideas, and connections between concepts.

The Glass Bead Game Network is a large and ambitious undertaking which began in 1999. I have long been a Hermann Hesse fan, and while the real purpose and point of his Nobel-Prize-winning novel "The Glass Bead Game" has little to do with the game itself (IMO), I had been intrigued by the ideas it proposed. It was when I came across Charles Cameron's Hip Bone Games that I started thinking seriously about my own variant on this theme. I suggest reading Cameron's "A Game Designer's Holy Grail" to better understand the motivation for anyone interested in this genre.

So, what's the big deal? Why does this interest me? Well, my interests tend to be extremely varied, and I enjoy reading about most anything. The glass bead game model struck me as an activity which could encompass ALL learning, and all interests, and do so in a very scholarly manner, requiring imagination, knowledge, study, and strategy.

I wanted to create a variant which would have the following criteria:

1. Be playable by any skill level
2. Have simple and specific rules
3. Be a real 'game' in that it is enjoyable :)
4. Involve simple to learn, difficult to master strategy
5. Give players opportunity for imagination and brainstorming
6. Use a system to track game statistics, slowly compiling a gigantic network of interconnected concepts.

Most variants thus far created have tended towards the general, as the broad game description encompasses inumerable possibilities. I wanted to create a game which a player could sit down and look at, and explore ideas supplied to them by the game, rather than inventing their own. Such a game would be more easy to play, but would still require knowledge, research, and strategy. Basically, it's the game I most want to play.

The requirements for such a system are many, and include the need for a comprehensive database of knowledge, art, music, literature, and so on. Given the time constraints and the tremendous work involved, so far the database compilation is the only completed part of the development. Look for a completed site sometime in late 2005.