Re: Objections to adverts?

From: Derek Sorensen <Derek@bumblbee.demon.co.uk>

Date: Sun, 12 May 1996 00:00:00 +0000

In article <831827494.11251.1@amb1.demon.co.uk>
           amb1@amb1.demon.co.uk "AMB" writes:
>
>         Why not let each game be advertised once per month only? Repeated ads
> do annoy but once a month isnt enough to annoy me, what do others
> think? This is IMHO of course, if I get shouted down and cast from the
> earth then fair enough :)
>

While I have no objection in principle to the odd advert - be it
commercial or otherwise (I've been known to post *short* playtest
recruitment adverts myself in this group), I think we need to be a
little cautious here.

Consider for a moment - how many active play-by-mail games are there at
any one time? Hundreds?  Thousands?  If every GM posted an advert - even
a short one - every month, I think we'd see the traffic on this group
increase by a *very* large amount.  Consequently the people who simply
want to share game tips, etc. (which I am given to understand is what
this group is about) would rapidly find the signal to noise ratio for
them dropping dramatically.

If people genuinely want to know about commercial PBM games - be it
postal or email, then IMHO they really ought to subscribe to one of the
hobby magazines. And I feel that advertisers would be a lot better off
advertising in those places too, for good commercial reasons.  People
who pay for a regular magazine are more likely to also pay to play your
game.

Having said all that, my objection really is related to the likely
volume if GMs do take up the suggestion of posting an ad every month.
Six monthly or so would IMHO be ok, although as I say rather pointless.

Playtest ads (I mentioned them in the first paragraph) I see as being a
different thing altogether.  Conducting a playtest by email is a lot
easier and faster than doing it by post. You get better (or at least
faster <g>) player feedback, and thus it makes sense to try to recruit
people who have access to email, irrespective of their ability or
willingness to pay to play.

The volume of such ads are by their nature a lot less - if you are
playtesting a new game every six months then you are doing well - hence
the noise level caused by such posts is a lot less.

Just my UKP0.02

References

Objections to adverts?
Jim McLennan <jmclennan@trashcity.org>
Fri, 10 May 1996 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Objections to adverts?
amb1@amb1.demon.co.uk (AMB)
Sat, 11 May 1996 00:00:00 +0000