PBM Report, ad discussions, observations From: flemyng@cse.ucsc.edu (E.P. Flemyng) Date: Mon, 23 Jun 1997 00:00:00 +0000 I too received and read the PBM Report and found it worth the paper it was printed on, something all too uncommon. I suspect that when I find the bottom of the bill basket, I shall pen a check for a subscription. Perhaps, amongst my other tasks, I'll pull together an article in coop- eration with my partner. I am intrigued by this entire ad discussion thread that threatens to spill over into the PBM Report: don't we have anything better to do with our bandwidths and time? Obviously, a certain amount of advertising is necessary to draw new players into games, and by and large, what I've observed here on rec.games.pbm is not excessive. Since we can't really "enforce" rules, and since we all have DELETE and KILL abilities, it seems like a waste of time to discuss or debate it further here. As for a discussion in the PBM Report, I'd rather not read it. Instead, a reasonable discussion about how to "pay for" pbem games, capital in- vestment in pbm programming and development, free (with ads) vs sub- scription gaming, etc. would be a fascinating and informative article to read...if written well. Which means PROBABLY NOT written by someone currently in the business. It actually sounds like something I'd enjoy writing if I had the time to do it! Concomitantly, I have to say that the game discussions I've seen over the last month are rather slim. Where are all the avid players of the various and diverse pbm and pbem games discussing pros and cons, ideas for strategies, things that haven't worked, glitches and bugs and all the fun things we could be discussing? Come on, gamers are usually the hardest people to interrupt when they're discussing the minute details and intricacies of games! Ah well, it is late and I have work to do. Ciao, EP Referenced By Up