PBMR-Grandel Aritcle From: kmgraphiks@aol.com (KMGraphiks) Date: Sun, 26 Jul 1998 00:00:00 +0000 To any interested, Here is my original post to the AOL PBM Forum in the Galactic Prisoners 4 folder. I was motivated to post it when I read how a dropped player was being roundly trashed because he dared to criticize the game. One fellow claimed he was libelling Grandel and attempting to destroy his livelihood...which is where I chimed in with my 'deja vu' comment below. In retrospect I fear it may have appeared a little adversarial (especially to some with a certain mindset). As my later posts in the folder will bear out, my ultimate goal was to do an update article on GP with just a mention of it's past, especially if it was just written off as an unfortunate overreaction. Since then I've been besieged with some of the most spittle ridden replies I've ever seen, usually laced with conspiracy theories. Since Bill Bowersox felt the need to bring the discussion to this newsgroup I thought I would help provide some background info so people can decide for themselves if the PBM Report is really out for revenge against Ed Grandel for some reason. Ken Mitchell ================== Greetings GP players, I've been a lurker in the GP folders for a couple years now. Although I found most of the posts interesting, they was always a little too much role-playing posturing and bragging for my tastes. Anyway to get to why I finally came out of the lurking shadows... I publish a 12pg bimonthly newsletter called The PBM Report. I've had a classified ad of my own in the PBMR trying to fill the gaps in my PBM magazine collections of Paper Mayhem and Flagship. Just today I got in the mail a resubscription check minus the price I was willing to pay for my last missing issue of Flagship...#36. I was devouring this issue and came across a number of letters in response to the 'Big Controversy' of 1992. That controversy involved GP and some of you veterans will probably remember it. It seems a player (or former player) sent in some comments to Flagships 'Rumors' section about GP. In those comments, besides praising the great moderation, he commented that game was simplistic and not for him. This was printed and Mr. Grandel threatened legal action against this person and Flagship for printing slander about his game. Well a firestorm of letters were printed defending the first amendment rights of players to voice their opinions about games they play. The flipside is that Mr.Grandel feels that negative comments about his game cause damage to his livelyhood and thus infringe on his rights. Anyway, with the current thread of postings regarding criticism of the game I felt a bit of deja vu and felt compelled to post. If you all don't mind if I ask, what is the current state of the game, approx. # of players, changes in the game over the years, etc.? I haven't seen any press about the game in any gaming magazine for years and wondered if that was because they feared legal reprisal. Since my newsletter tries to keep its readers informed as to the present state of the PBM industry I think an article about the present state of GP, one of the longest running games in the industry, is long overdue. If anyone would rather contact me by private email instead of in a public forum I would be open to that as long as they sign their messages with their full names and don't mind if I quote them in the article. ============== Ken Mitchell Ken Mitchell Graphics The PBM Report http://www.tightbeam.com/pbm-report Referenced By Up