Re: pbm game fees

From: gl8f@fermi.clas.Virginia.EDU (Greg Lindahl)

Date: Thu, 07 Sep 1995 00:00:00 +0000

In article <42ju5b$4i9@due.unit.no>, Kjetil Friden <cezton@nvg.unit.no> wrote:

>4) In contrary, a very important point of note is that E-mail is far less
>available to the customers.

If you must have a computer to play, that does reduce the customer
base.  But if your charges are lower, that increases the customer
base.  Remember that the computer wargame market is now bigger than
the computer boardgame market; you can still get new boardgames, but
the market has made a huge shift and probably won't go back.

>5) Investment costs/Contined e-mail: It is cheap to use e-mail if you
>already have the equip.

The investment to buy a computer and communications is pretty small
compared to the cost of designing a game, especially the 100%
computer-moderated games which are today's standard.

>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.

Funny, most of the companies doing PBEM games are small, new
companies, not the old, established PBM companies. The old guys are
all listening to your point #4; they say "only 20% of my current
customers have email access, therefore it's not worth it to me."
That's a very conservative analysis, and the new guys are happy to
establish themselves in the market while the old guys wait for it to
develop.

-- greg

References

pbm game fees
keith.langley@mdcs.com (Keith Langley)
Mon, 28 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
Re: pbm game fees
cezton@nvg.unit.no (Kjetil Friden)
Wed, 06 Sep 1995 00:00:00 +0000

Referenced By

pbm game fees
keith.langley@mdcs.com (Keith Langley)
Mon, 28 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
Re: pbm game fees
cezton@nvg.unit.no (Kjetil Friden)
Wed, 06 Sep 1995 00:00:00 +0000