Re: British GMs here?

From: echack@crl.crl.com (Edmund C. Hack)

Date: Thu, 21 May 1998 00:00:00 +0000

In article <1998052016072800.MAA11494@ladder01.news.aol.com>,
Thpanknin <thpanknin@aol.com> wrote:
>I've got one question:
>
>why do so many English PBMers set up enterprises as pro GMs? I mean, here in
>Germany, we only have about two or three pro GMs, I believe.

There was an article in Flaghip US, IIRC, that explained this phenomena
of there being so many UK GMs. The UK had a government program that
would subsidize the wages of employees of a new, small business for up
to one year. (I thik they paid UK minimum wage for 1 year.) This allowed
a number of small firms to start up and fold about a year later.

> I would assume
>that setting up an enterprise as pro GM is not a viable undertaking, be it in
>Germany or England, since the market's already taken by other firms?

The problem with most startups is lack of capitalization, lack of a
business plan, lack of marketing. Programming a PBM game is not a simple
task, and a well-developed PBM game might represent hundreds of hours of
programming and debugging time. This is worth a lot of $$.

Hand-moderated PBMs have the problem that the barrier to entry is low,
so competition can be brutal. In addition, since you can't leverage your
time, the only way to increase revenues is to increase prices or
decrease the time spent on a turn. Adding emplyees can be a fatal
mistake - having an employee is a paperwork burden in the US and how can
you find someone to work for low wages in a creative job? Right now,
college graduates can easily earn in excess of $15/hour plus benefits.
Overhead makes the "cost" of the employee even higher.

In short, it is very hard to make a living as a PBM moderator. Don't
give up your day job.

--
Edmund Hack   \ "If I had a time machine,
echack@crll.com\ I know just where I'd go." - Al Stewart
N.B. remove second l in email address above.

References

British GMs here?
thpanknin@aol.com (Thpanknin)
Wed, 20 May 1998 00:00:00 +0000

Referenced By

British GMs here?
thpanknin@aol.com (Thpanknin)
Wed, 20 May 1998 00:00:00 +0000