Re: For PBM game moderators

From: "Ryan S. Johnson" <dowrie@guildofblades.com>

Date: Thu, 06 Feb 2003 11:33:53 +0000

> You think the next generation are all cyber-kids, living and comfortable in the electronic world, and that this trend will continue.

> I think that this is an oversimplification, albeit a common one.<

Sure, its a tad bit of an oversimplification. And I realize we are
probably also comparing apples and oranges. I mean, I am largely
referencing my local market, which is here in the US and Canada. While I
suspect the bulk of your postal players are in the UK or Western Europe.
I will say, of all the 1483 Online players, we draw more players from
the UK than from any other nation besides the US. And probably a third
or more of the total number of players from the US. The number of UK
players is very much disproportionate relative to the size of the
populations of the two nations. We also get a rather skewed showing from
Germany, Australia and Croatia. I actually have some pretty solid
speculations on why the higher than normal participation from those
three nations, but the only thing I can think makes any sense for the UK
is either 1) You've simply built a support a much more vibrant market
for these sorts of games over there throught the history of the PBM
market, 2) Brits simply like postal messages in general more (weather
mail or e-mail) or 3) Your culture grows more people less prone to the
whole instant gratification thing and hence they are more likely to
enjoy a slower paced turn based strategy game.

I will qualify my previous statements and say that the marketing data I
had access to from my dot com days were studies done on the American
markets. While I think the trends held within will hold true world wide,
or at least in all portions of the world where kids have regular access
to PCs and the Internet, the degree that this trend takes root may very
well vary nation by nation. Almost certainly. Here in the US our culture
continues to evolve more and more towards the instant gratification
services. Any game hoping to operate under such conditions must provide
some form of "instant" activity to survive. Sure, a turn based game
won't give them the results till the turn update is resolved, but if
they are given enough graphics to drag around and play with, choices to
make, buttons to push, etc, that they feel like they "did something"
right there and then, then it'll have a chance. Of course, as you say,
those are just the bells and whistles of the physical appearance. Any
game that is to endure the long haul will *also* need a quality design
that provides a fun gaming experience, room for potential growth and/or
exploration, chances to overcome, and an ever expanding or evolving
world/setting to stave off bordome.

> People think that email will completely replace regular mail, yet I receive as many requests for mail turns as email ones, and people often convert to mail from email after a while.<

Oh, no, e-mails won't totally replace postal mail. Certainly not until
the legal system over here institutionalizes the tracking aspects of
e-mail for the purposes of delivery confirmation. Also, adverts and such
sometimes just need to be in print to be effective, as opposed to
digital. But Postal usage here in the USA is WAY down since such large
tracks of our population are now online. People personal correspondences
have largely moved online. Postal rates have climbed fast since the
arrival of e-mail, and other revenue stream have been implemented by our
post offices as means to offset revenues lost to e-mails. Over here that
trend is only going to continue. Once massive bandwidth restriction
issues are solved I expect to see a great deal more print advertising
switch to online delivery systems as well. Right now that still not very
feasible.

> "used to" computers and the net, but there are many thriving Football (Soccer, for you yanks) PBMs here in the UK,<

You know, most of us Yanks just CAN NOT figure out what the rest of the
world's attraction is to Soccer (Football for the rest of you). :)

> cousins.  95% of their commercial players are under 16, and they virtually all ONLY play by mail and do not want to play by email.<

Interesting. Let me ask a few questions. Over there,

1) How much is the average cost to mail an average letter?
2) How long does delivery usually take?
3) How accessible are postal drop locations?
4) You don't pay minute by minute charges for Internet access do you? (I
know some nations still have that)

The more we talk the more I think what we have here is 2 very different
markets in two different cultures.

Of course, one major advantage purely online game can wield is they can
truly and fiscally be delivered to a global player base. I know 1483
Online has perhaps 30-35% of our player base located here in the USA. A
third of that number again, perhaps close to half of it are Brits. Halve
the number of Brits and you get the number of Australians, and reduce
that number a bit more to get the number of Croatians and Germans. (No,
I still have no idea why we have as many Croatians as German players,
short perhaps some very vocally outspoken locals going out a recruiting
literally everyone they know). The rest of the player base is spread out
around the globe. When last I checked I think we have players from over
90 nations. Kinda of also explains why our International mail order
sales are way up too.

One study I would like to conduct would be to figure out what percentage
of our players are using language translation software just to play and
conduct their diplomacy with other players. That would be an interesting
figure to have, I would think.

Ryan S. Johnson
CEO, Guild of Blades Publishing Group
http://ww.guildofblades.com
> Steve T.

References

Re: For PBM game moderators
"Ryan S. Johnson" <dowrie@guildofblades.com>
Thu, 06 Feb 2003 05:13:38 +0000
Re: For PBM game moderators
madcentral@aol.com (MadCentral)
Thu, 06 Feb 2003 10:48:04 +0000