Re: pbm game fees

From: cezton@nvg.unit.no (Kjetil Friden)

Date: Wed, 06 Sep 1995 00:00:00 +0000

Chris Kessel (chrisk@yogi.NoSubdomain.NoDomain) wrote:

: 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.

: 2) The target consumer.  PBM's are expensive, by and large only

: 3) Dimished costs to the PBM company.  Adventurer kings has long offered

4) In contrary, a very important point of note is that E-mail is far less
available to the customers.  Immensely much fewer have e-mail access than
an address.  Of the "western" countries, only the US have a problem with
people without any address, but then again, these people have no money to
spend at anything.  IF PBeM replaced Bm entirely, then the industry would
scrap say 80% of its potential customers, as they haven't got it.

5) Investment costs/Contined e-mail: It is cheap to use e-mail if you
already have the equip.  Me for example, will not be a student forever,
and cannot count on having an e-mail account in my future job, and the
time in between can ruin any ongoing game.  This means, I have to buy a
modem etc.  Replacing snailmail with e-mail entirely, will cause lots of
problems, and PBeM will have to offer special snail-mail services.

6) Snail-mail is much more fun than e-mail.  Period.

7) Graphics etc is harder to administrate by e-mail, and will require
extras like all players having a client.

8) The new speed possibilities is not entirely positive.  Sometimes, the
good thing about PBM is that you have time to fix your turn and mail it
back.  This makes the hobby something you can do when you want and have
time.  Ultrafast turnarounds could eliminate this advantage.

9) Costs: Just because you spent a lot of money does not mean that you
have to.  The hobby has its openings for all economies.  Typically, you
take the wrong conlusion out of a problem.  The problem is that you think
you spent too much money in afterhand, and your conclusion is that the
hobby in itself is too expensive.  I don't follow, and would rather say
that you're an idiot not too see that you were not capable of seeing that
you spent too much money while you were playing and cut down then.  To
draw a paralell, if all smokers came together and calculated how much
they spent on smoke, then they most probably could run a colony on the
moon for it.  It's the same.

PBM Economy: Playing PBM can cost you from say �4 to �100 a month.  It is
you who decide, not "THE HOBBY".  If you can't spend �4 a month on PBM,
then your economy is already so bad you need to work on it.

Summary, PBeM puts higher demands.  To play a PBM all you need is an
address and a pen.

I also figure that if PBeM becomes the standard, then investment costs
will rise for the companies, making it harder to compete for all those
nice small companies.  I run a PBM game for friends myself and am in the
early days of designing another (will probably not be completed...:-))
and with todays techno-socio stand, they CANNOT be run properly by
e-mail.  You could want to join, but I'd had to turn you down as tech
says you're not able to play, as your e-mail system is by modem, via a
lousy company with half coverage, your system does not support the client
etc.  Does the PBM industry want all these new challenges?

The day when the games I play gets 100% in my e-mailbox and the
player-to-player diplomacy happens electronically, then _I_ will search
for a new one, hope you can handle that, Doomesday Prophet!
--
|                   Cezton@nvg.unit.no                       |
| Kjetil Friden, Nedre Flatasvei 119 N-7079 Flatasen, Norway |
|    Alias: Lady Iztaca (Be IMPerial), Mephisto, Xhosa...    |
|  *I am to Humanity, what Cro Magnon was to Neanderthal...  |

References

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
Re: pbm game fees
lepag001@maroon.tc.umn.edu (Garrett R Le-Page)
Tue, 29 Aug 1995 00:00:00 +0000

Referenced By

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
Re: pbm game fees
lepag001@maroon.tc.umn.edu (Garrett R Le-Page)
Tue, 29 Aug 1995 00:00:00 +0000