Re: For PBM game moderators

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

Date: Mon, 03 Feb 2003 23:42:34 +0000

> Any PBM or PBEM GM who thinks its dead cool to slate Rick Loomis should perhaps consider why they are even involved in the hobby and to whom they owe it.  Rick Loomis is the godfather of PBM (in a non-mafia sense, maybe) :)  The man's a legend.  You don't like his games winning every year?  Make a better one.  If you can.  Which I doubt.<

PBM or even PBEM in the traditional sense and style of games is a dead
end road. Those games that hope to survive successfully as commercial
operations will have to attract the newer generations and that means
more of traditional computer game, multi player online game approach.
The hobby as a whole needs to adapt or die. Or slating Rick Loomis, I
won't do that directly. I have no evidence that the events that have
transpired to make the Origins Awards such a joke were in any directly
linked to him. There *Are* a couple of names that are, though. But Rick
IS the President of GAMA and the GAMA member with the greatest invested
interest in this gaming field; that alone is enough to make me wonder.

> In closing, and again IMHO only, any PBM or PBEM GM who wants to expand and who doesn't sub to Flagship and actively participate by sending news is, quite simply, a bloody fool.  It doesn't matter a hoot to me if they ignore my opinion, they'll be gone in a year most likely anyway.<

Truth is, I don't subscribe to Flagship at present. Its something I have
considered doing a couple of times, but haven't yet. And I don't think
they are on our news update lists. Maybe that's something we ought to
think about changing. In any case, we have been running 1483 Online for
over three years now and the rate of new members joinning only increases
over time, not diminishing. Though at present 1483 Online is a human
moderated game and is free to play, we estimate that nearly 1/3rd of all
company mail order activity and roughly 5% of the retail shops that
carry our products have happened because of the draw of the 1483 Online
site. Considering that 60% of all company revenues presently come from
mail order sales and the company employes 2.5 people now, that not an
inconsiderable income for a game publisher.

So, based upon those numbers we definately consider 1483 Online to be a
success at present. We have had the fully interactive computer game
version of the game in development for over 6 months now. We look
forward to its completion, as I sincerely believe we'll achieve x10 or
greater player participation once the limitations of human moderation
have been lifted and it becomes worth our time to actively promote the
enterprise. Currently we almost no promotion for the game as word of
mouth and web listing bring us more new players than we have human
moderator capacity to give them play opportunities.

The key thing here is I believe we draw only a small fraction of our
player base from existing PBEM players. The Internet draws more online
players and board gamers to us, as well as historical enthusiasts. In my
opinion, games designed to primarily target only the current PBM/PBEM
player base are severly limited and most likely to fail, for the simple
reason that the current playing audience is pretty small.

Ryan S. Johnson
CEO, Guild of Blades Publishing Group
http://www.guildofblades.com

References

Re: For PBM game moderators
Carol Mulholland <carol@pbmgames.com>
Mon, 27 Jan 2003 18:20:38 +0000
Re: For PBM game moderators
madcentral@aol.com (MadCentral)
Mon, 03 Feb 2003 20:23:46 +0000

Referenced By

Re: For PBM game moderators
Carol Mulholland <carol@pbmgames.com>
Mon, 27 Jan 2003 18:20:38 +0000
Re: For PBM game moderators
madcentral@aol.com (MadCentral)
Mon, 03 Feb 2003 20:23:46 +0000