I’m Brent Holtsberry, a game store manager and roleplaying game community organizer in Sacramento. I recently remembered a beloved book from my high school days and did some internet searches about it. Guess what book that is? I found that you guys were podcasting (and also found Into the Abyss), and am excited about diving into the Maze again and seeing what I can figure out.
I’ve seen the first few episodes sequentially and stopped watching when SP was going to start discussing his theory regarding the guide during the room 24 episode. I realized at that point that I’d like to try to figure some things out by myself before joining with the community full bore. I also realized that since you guys were looking for new blood to compare notes with, and see what they try out, I decided to volunteer blogging my experience so that you guys get something out of seeing someone trying to crack this thing with fresh eyes.
Blogging this comes with some obvious caveats. I fully expect that most of my efforts are going to be heinously redundant regarding the work that most of you have done in solving Maze. My apologies in advance to those of you who would want me to just dive into the Abyss and catch up with the rest of the community as quickly as possible, but I do want to take at least some time in the beginning to try to solve things with only a few spoilers. I hope that the value of me working on my own for a little while will be in seeing the process that I take, and not the content that I discover. I might get extremely lucky and make a legitimate discovery or two, but I hope that by adding my voice and personality to the community I can enrich it with my playstyle and efforts.
Entering the Maze
I vaguely remember being in high school when Maze showed up at one of the book stores I used to troll. Right away I could tell that it was amazing and unique, and spent many hours wandering through it, exploring the rooms, trying to make heads or tails of the puzzles and making many a trip to Page 24. Then I lost it. I don’t know where I lost it otherwise I would have found it right away again. 🙂 After an extensive search of my room, places at school that I could have left it, and the freak show that was my locker, I decided to get another copy. To my horror, it was nowhere to be found. Back then, there weren’t that many copies of this niche book to begin with, and none of the bookstores that I checked with in my small city had it. So even though it continued to creatively inspire me, it was gone from my life.
Occasionally through the decades since then I would look for it, and as the internet sprang into existence and grew I was at least able to verify that it wasn’t just a fondly remembered figment of my high school imagination. However, I have always seemed busy with other things in my life, and have always respected the monumental endeavor it is in facing off this beast. Although it became more easily accessible, I never felt like I had the time or energy to give it the honest effort it was due. So although I would remember it every few years and glance at it occasionally, I always put it back down (figuratively) until now.
I can’t tell you exactly what’s different this time, but I’m excited to see this podcast community coming together to create friendships and work at solving the bits that are left. 🙂
I look forward to interacting with you, and hopefully you’ll have at least some fun following my efforts. 🙂
Have Fun!
Brent Holtsberry