GrimFinger Wrote:Mark Wardell over at WyEast Games is seeking writers for a new PBM Magazine called "Mail Call." Learn more about it here:
http://www.wyeastgames.com/article.php?s...5230212590
I have to admit I feel a little funny posting this on the Flagship website, but since GrimFinger was so kind as to post a link here in the first place I thought I'd add just a little bit to what he said.
Not to take anything away from Flagship or the many fine years they've been publishing, but what I'm looking to start is a new magazine devoted exclusively to PBM gaming. I feel the PBM hobby could easily support, and would benefit from, having a second magazine, perhaps offering a different view, also covering PBM games.
If you are interested is seeing this idea move forward please visit
Wy'East Games, or contact me directly for additional information, to discuss what this magazine should or shouldn’t look like, or just follow the progress as it develops and perhaps help get this project off the ground.
PNMarkW2 Wrote:I have to admit I feel a little funny posting this on the Flagship website, but since GrimFinger was so kind as to post a link here in the first place I thought I'd add just a little bit to what he said.
No need to feel funny about posting about it here on the Flagship site. Flagship has historically and traditionally covered Play-By-Mail related stories, and a new PBM-focused magazine does fall within the ambit of that coverage.
PNMarkW2 Wrote:Not to take anything away from Flagship or the many fine years they've been publishing, but what I'm looking to start is a new magazine devoted exclusively to PBM gaming. I feel the PBM hobby could easily support, and would benefit from, having a second magazine, perhaps offering a different view, also covering PBM games.
If you are interested is seeing this idea move forward please visit Wy'East Games, or contact me directly for additional information, to discuss what this magazine should or shouldn’t look like, or just follow the progress as it develops and perhaps help get this project off the ground.
I'd certainly be interested in subscribing - I always enjoy reading about new or unknown games which may whet the appetite. Contribution, while a pleasant thought, would be a bit more tricky - essentially I don't have the depth of experience necessary as I only started playing PBM's around 18 months ago.
I do wonder how large the market would be for such a publication and how one of the stated goals - "A way to expand PBM gaming beyond the current pool of active players" - might be achieved.
As I see it the current range of PBM games are bit like a scattered group of oases in a very large desert. Clustered round each oasis are a number of players, an ageing population, sometimes keeping steady or more commonly declining slowly but, more or less, inexorably. How likely is it that someone from the 'normal' gaming world will stumble across any such oasis?
Furthermore, while a few nomads wander round trying new games, I feel there is a certain amount of inertia which stops people crossing the desert in search of a new game and keeps them restricted to one or two games they have become accustomed too. Maybe this is due to the older player base having less desire to learn something new and accordingly not wishing to waste the, potentially many, years of effort that have gone to learning the intricacies of a favourite game.
Any thoughts? ..... or better analogies?
To Mark -- good luck with your new venture!
To the people running Flagship -- good luck with this old-to-new venture!
To all of you -- please consider updating your format. I played PBM games a lot back in the 80s. They'll always have a place in my heart, just like the RPGs my friends and I used to play. But the old PBM model is doomed, in my opinion. (Mind you, I'm only now getting back into it, so my opinion means little.)
I simply can't fathom paying Flying Buffalo $3-$4 a turn to run some software that ingests my email and spits out another email in a few seconds. Nor can I imagine it costs FB anything close to that to run the games.
This is the age of the internet. Everything must be free and web-based if it is to succeed. Think less in terms of publishing "issues" and more in building communities (like this forum). Think less of subscriptions and turn fees, and more about social networking and banner ad revenue. And think less in terms of monthly (or quarterly) publication cycles, and more in terms of constant updates, open archives, blogs, and wikis.
Those running PBM games may or may not have already shifted their thinking -- I really don't know the state of the industry now. But PBM games were always a small fraction of the RPG total, and RPGs are dying out. Even Gygax's venerable D&D juggernaut has had to overhaul itself and is now preparing a new "web-assisted" version to build a bridge to the 10 million MMO gamers out there.
I say all this out of love for the old PBM spirit. I was always thrilled when the mail truck came. I sent out scads of hand-written treatises and schemes to game-mates. I ran a couple of amateur games and a newsletter for my Empyrean Challenge games that was a labor of love.
I just don't want it all to die out with us 40-somethings...
I warmly await your thoughts and hope I'm not typing this into a vaccuum!
I agree with many of your sentiments
Just as the move from PBM to PBEM has been good for the genre so I believe a move to greater use of the internet would be beneficial. Especially important I feel would be easier and more intuitive tools for analysis and order entry.
However if games are offered free and revenue created mainly via advertising then you would need a large user bases spending all of their time with the game online. From my perspective this a step too far away from the elements that make PBM enjoyable - analysis, diplomacy, planning, anticipation etc..
In the end PBM is a niche of a niche and I think it is better to attract mature gamers who have largely decided on where their personal gaming goodness lies. Therefore I think a more realistic goal is to try and maintain a viable replacement rate and minimise people leaving the hobby.
I'm not sure it will be easy or even possible. The trend for meaty but still short games (4hrs or less) that can be played FtF and also the increasing ease with which hardcore board wargames are playable via PBEM, in a highly visual manner, compare favourably against a largely text based format.
smurphboogie Wrote:However if games are offered free and revenue created mainly via advertising then you would need a large user bases spending all of their time with the game online. From my perspective this a step too far away from the elements that make PBM enjoyable - analysis, diplomacy, planning, anticipation etc..
You can facilitate all of these elements online. Give people reports and analytical tools to examine their positions and options. Give them secure diplomatic channels. Let them plan out their moves with visual tools. The whole while, you'll be delivering a steady stream of banner ads, and earning off ad-impressions and click-throughs.
I remember back in my Empyrean Challenge days, I wrote an article describing a way to plan out the design of a mining ship, such that you could decide the number of mine units to include, carry out some calculations, and determine all the other ship design elements (engines, fuel, structural, etc.) One of my readers brushed it aside and said "just use a spreadsheet. Nobody should design a ship without a spreadsheet."
As further evidence, I'll direct you to civfanatics.com. This is a fan site devoted to the Civilization computer games, where there are always a number of "public games" being run -- someone runs a few turns, posts a few screenshots, and then solicits input from the community on what to do next. These have been so wildly popular that many people have commented "it's as much fun to watch the game being played as it is to play it!"
If a site like that can thrive off ad-revenue (and it does), then imagine what a site that lets you actually play the games can do.
smurphboogie Wrote:In the end PBM is a niche of a niche and I think it is better to attract mature gamers who have largely decided on where their personal gaming goodness lies. Therefore I think a more realistic goal is to try and maintain a viable replacement rate and minimise people leaving the hobby.
I'm not sure it will be easy or even possible. The trend for meaty but still short games (4hrs or less) that can be played FtF and also the increasing ease with which hardcore board wargames are playable via PBEM, in a highly visual manner, compare favourably against a largely text based format.
I think the days of 80s-style PBM are numbered. I'd be surprised if there were more than a handful of new players each year, compared to the steady departures. People still want to play games, they just want it done better. D&D was great in its day, but it can't compete with WoW, unless it goes online. PBM must follow suit or wither on the vine.
Now that I'm done ranting, are there any decent PBEM games that are free? I found a couple of them listed under Manifesto Games (great company -- check them out if you haven't already!)
Any new news, of late, Mark?