Hello, my name is Melissa Makak and I am a board game content creator for Room
51 and the Dice Tower. I thought it might be fun to blog about becoming a
content creator and Room 51’s journey from my perspective. I suppose I am
writing this as something nice for myself to look back on in the future and for
anyone who is at all interested in reading about one’s journey in the world of
board game content creation. I will share some personal things that were going
on in my life during all these moments as they pertain to becoming a Dice Tower
contributor and starting up Room 51 with my brother, Justin. I welcome you to
come along for the ride. Let’s do this thing!
I think the best place to start is how I got into board gaming in the first
place. Justin and I speak a bit about this on our “Reintroduction” episode on
Room 51, but I will elaborate on it here. I am a painfully shy individual who
was always at odds with herself. I was always looking for a means of escape from
myself and a chance to be whomever I saw myself as that the world around me didn’t
see. My absolute favorite cartoon when I was a child was Recess as I loved watching
these 5 best friends play and run with their imagination. There was an episode
called “Lord of the Nerds” where a group of children called “the pale kids” were
playing a game a lot like Dungeons and Dragons. I had no idea a tabletop game like
that existed or that board games could send you on an adventure and allow you to be
whomever you want to be. This episode stuck with me, but it wasn’t until I started
college that I started digging. I figured they must have gotten that idea from
somewhere, right?! Turns out, they totally did, and it indeed was a parody of
Dungeons and Dragons (D&D). This was my first step into the wonderful world of
tabletop gaming. Growing up as someone who is gay and questioning her gender
identity (still am), D&D allowed me to explore those facets of myself in a safe
way without ever having to come out to anyone as I wasn’t quite ready to do that
yet (I didn’t start coming out about my sexuality until I was about 21). This
had me hooked; what other adventures could I go on? What other facets of my
identity could I explore? I started looking deeper into board games and that was
when I stumbled across a little channel on YouTube called the Dice Tower. The
first video I saw was Tom Vasel’s Top 100 Games of All Time and the first thing
I thought was, “Woah! There are 100 board games??!” I clearly had no idea the
rabbit hole I was about to dive into. I watched endless amounts of Dice Tower
content, but it wasn’t until I began grad school (6 years later) that I started
to actually buy and play all these different board games. The reasons being that
I didn’t have the money at the time to afford these board games and for some
reason, I felt as though I wasn’t special enough to play and buy these games. I’m not sure why, but it felt as though you needed to be a special,
certain someone to be able to experience such amazing games. They seemed so out
of reach. Then, I was finally starting to make some sort of pocket change
(getting a job in New York is no joke) and I had an amazing idea…. I could use
Amazon! And so it began.
The Dice Tower has meant a great deal to me and I
always admired all their members and would totally fangirl over all the Board
Game Breakfast contributors (a series on The Dice Tower that showcases many different contributors talking about board games!). I always thought it would be so cool if I could be on
Board Game Breakfast somehow…
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