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What reason, more than any other, keeps you from playing more Play-By-Mail games?

I think it is more depending on how much time you have. If I have quality time with a pbm game I don't mind spending more money on it.

How many games are nowadays more depending on the amount of time I have then money I can spend.

Of course service is important but I think 95% of all pbm companies are very friendly and capable Gm's.

Maybe it is interesting to ask in a Poll which pbm company gives the best service and quality???

I agree with Walter entirely, and haven't voted as I can't find a category thats even close to the reason I don't join more PBM games. Time is the rare commodity. I prefer to be in a few PBM games that have depth, quality and lots of involvement and demands commitment. Ive no wish to "collect" participation in numbers of PBM games.

There are games out there that I would like to join, only that I don't want to spread myself too thinly over many games.

I have added another choice to the poll pertaining to the lack of time issue.

You know what I am interested in? In how much time people spend on their hobby :-)
In this case pbm.
Curious about that one..

PBM games come in different kinds, like the never-ending story (many tribal and space odyssey games are like this), determinate games that have a clear ending with a winner declared, small games (some people do prefer having a small number of particpants to interact with), closed-ended as against unstructured written order systems, Moderating by computer only, purely by human moderation or variants in between, and so on.

From a marketing point of view, PBM companies and other providers of PBM games are probably interested in knowing what the cutting edge of different kinds of PBM games is like and which genre of PBM is popular and/or a niche that is under-provided for.

with me it is time, money I will pay if the game is worth it, but time is the most important thing I have...

There may come a time when the opposite is true but for the moment I'm time poor and cash (relatively) rich and thus time is most definitely my limiting factor.

There are so many games out there I would like to play and this site throws up more every few days.

As for the amount of time I spend playing, I would estimate it to be about an hour a day for writing orders and conducting diplomacy etc.. I also play various board wargames via PBEM and would probably spend another hour a day involved with that. Wife, child and work seem to take up most of the rest of my time.....

GrimFinger Wrote:What reason, more than any other, keeps you from playing more Play-By-Mail games?

As a Games Moderator I am constantly amazed at the number of people who show an interest in a game right up until the point where they find out that the game is not run for free. Too many people want something for nothing and not all of us can offer are time and hard work for nothing in return...

Personally its a matter of teasing out those games that i like - hand moderated, preferably open ended that are likely to surive for a long time. I play in 6 at the moment and am about to try Glory of Kings...