Re: pbm game fees

From: Steve Pritchard <Steve@spelbind.demon.co.uk>

Date: Tue, 05 Sep 1995 00:00:00 +0000

In article <4221od$1ec@protocol.protocol.com>
           chrisk@yogi.NoSubdomain.NoDomain "Chris Kessel" writes:

> In article <809722754snz@spelbind.demon.co.uk>, Steve Pritchard
> |> PBM is
> |> a hobby you either get totally involved in, or find an odd idea that is
> |> beyond your understanding. For me it's the former, for yourself the latter.
>
> Whoa!!  Hold on there, no insults please.

Sorry Chris, it wasn't meant as an insult, but now I can see how it could be
taken as such. By "beyond your understanding" I meant, in the same was as
people who enjoy fishing are beyond mine - nothing personal.

> I played PBM's for about 3 years
> all told in college.  Played Hyborian War, Alamaze, Adventurer Kings, and
> Star Fleet Warlords.  I *know* what I'm talking about and I know how
> involved the hobby can get.  That is part of my point, the hobby is
> tremendously expensive.  I regret the money I spent in the past.  When I
> think of the money I spent over those 3 years I could come close to
> having the down payment on a small house.

In just three years! Wow, what fees were you paying??

> I still stand by my statement that PBM will slowly die out and be replaced
> by PBeM companies.  Maybe the same game, but run via email.  PBM may not
> totally die off, but most likely will diminish to a few large companies that
> can make use of a low profit margin.  Why?
>
> 1) Rising free or low cost access to email, from school, business, etc.

Yeah? So how crushing is a 25p stamp to someone's budget? And how many people
in their office don't end up paying for their personal mail anyway?

> 2) The target consumer.  PBM's are expensive, by and large only
> those with some money to spare can play and those are exactly the
> kinds of people than tend to have email access through school or
> work.  *MANY* of the PBM'ers I knew 3-5 years ago had email access,
> and I'm sure that percentage has only gone up over the years.

But this doesn't allow them to play the vast majority of PBM games. Most of
the big PBM games will remain as PBM not PBEM so that they remain open to a
mass market. Even those which do offer both options tend to have a much more
snazzy output for the dedicated paper players.

> 3) Dimished costs to the PBM company.  Adventurer kings has long offered
> reduced turn fees to it's PBM players (or used to, I haven't played in
> a while) because it is much cheaper to send and receive turns via email.
> I imagine most game companies that run things via email would agree it's
> cheaper to run things without US mailing and printouts.

Can't argue with that.

> I'd be interested to hear from some PBM companies on using Email.  If all
> their customers had email would the company prefer to run everything over
> email? Email also offers options such as 1 week turn arounds, a situation
> where paper/mail costs are avoided and the company gets to double the amount
> of turn fee's it receives each month.

This I'll argue! Most PBM players don't want a 1 week turnaround. And even if
they did; let's say by your earlier logic, I reduced the cost of my games by
50% - by offering a 1 week, not 2 week turnaround, are the games therefore
not as expensive, but now require double the dedication of a player? I don't
want to sound disrespectful to my customers, but most of them simply would be
unable to handle a 1 week turnaround; they struggle with the standard 10-12
days as it is!

This argument is moving away from "how cheap PbeM is and how expensive PBM is"
through to the realms of "why I think PBeM is a great idea". I think you are
now beginning to lose the thread a little. PBM and PBeM can, and often do,
attract a different set of players. Most of my customers don't think that
spending a couple of quid over ten days or so is too high a price to pay for
the fun it gives. Most of my players don't have Internet access at all, let
alone having it for free! This is why the vast majority - 95% - of my current
customers will remain PBM players rather than PBeM players. I don't have
anything against PBeM (I play a few myself) and I'm not some Luddite that wants
to banish such technology from the hobby. I'm just trying to put across the
view of someone who makes his living from PBM, and expects to be able to do so
for the foreseable future.

Steve Pritchard
********************************************************
* The only thing in life that's guaranteed is failure, *
*    To succeed you must be willing to take risks.     *
********************************************************
                       Arutha ConDoin - Prince of Krondor

References

Re: pbm game fees
lepag001@maroon.tc.umn.edu (Garrett R Le-Page)
Tue, 29 Aug 1995 00:00:00 +0000
Re: pbm game fees
Steve Pritchard <Steve@spelbind.demon.co.uk>
Tue, 29 Aug 1995 00:00:00 +0000
Re: pbm game fees
chrisk@yogi.NoSubdomain.NoDomain (Chris Kessel)
Wed, 30 Aug 1995 00:00:00 +0000
pbm game fees
keith.langley@mdcs.com (Keith Langley)
Mon, 28 Aug 1995 00:00:00 +0000
Re: pbm game fees
chrisk@yogi.NoSubdomain.NoDomain (Chris Kessel)
Tue, 29 Aug 1995 00:00:00 +0000