Re: State of the hobby? : Commercial games

From: madcentral@aol.com (MadCentral)

Date: Thu, 08 Nov 2001 12:59:30 +0000

>>Back in the early 80s I played many Play by Mail games.  David Webber
was still running "Paper Mayhem" and Bob McClain was working on a new
mag to cover the hobby as well.<<

The problem with mags that cover PBM is that they find it very hard to provide
coverage that lots of people will buy.  Consequently, only Flagship remains
(although, to be fair, Paper Mayhem is only gone because Dave Webber is.)
Since even RPG mags tend to fold regularly, the lack of magazines isn't
indicative of much.

>> In the late 80s many games were able
to lower prices and speed processing time by taking turns over the
internet or email and I thought the hobby would really take off.  <<

PBM is always going to be a niche hobby because its not 'immediate' enough for
many people.  But that is also its greatest strength and the reason its still
going strong in many forms.

>>Real
life got in the way for me and I have been away from the PBM gaming
for some time. <<

Good to have you back!

>>many of the companies running PBM games are gone<<

PBM has seen a decade of consolidation.  The fact is, the vast majority of
firms in the old days were one man bands running games on a wing and a prayer,
with no commercial vaibility.  Lots of firms have gone, but the few that remain
are stronger for it, I suspect.

This has its ups and its downs.  It used to be great fun to see a bunch of new
games in every issue of Flagship, all of which sounded great.  it was fun to
sign up for the latest wild adventure and see what it would be like.  Trouble
is, most of them proceeded to fold three months later and take all your money
with them, which didn't help the hobby at all.

There was also the problem that many PBM players are, by their nature, creative
fellows.  It never takes long for them to decide they want to run a PBM of
their own (usually thinking its the path to riches).  When it doesnt work out,
it sours them to the whole hobby.  This is less common these days as the
quality of most remaining commercial games is extremely high, and its just not
possible anymore for a player to launch a new commercial game with some stuff
he typed in an hour or two one evening.

>> and those remaining
do not seem to have the large following that existed before. <<

I doubt thats true.  Im not sure about the US market, but the largest PBM firms
in the UK are KJC, Madhouse (thats me) and Harlequin, all of which have
followings every bit as large, if not larger, than the folk from the 'old
days'.  (KJC are ONE of the original PBM firms, of course, and Madhouse have
been running for over a decade ourselves.)

>>Has
anyone started a hobby mag to replace "Paper Mayhem"?<<

A couple of attempts have led to nothing.  Running a PBM mag is a hard job with
few rewards beyond personal pride in a job well done.  takes special sort of
people to do it.

>>PS: I was an avid LEGENDS player by Midnight games...a game truly
ahead of its time, but I have tried almost everything at one point <<

Legends is still booming.  Check it out at the Harlequin website.

Steve T.

References

State of the hobby? : Commercial games
womerd@lvcm.com (Dave Womer)
Thu, 08 Nov 2001 08:23:38 +0000

Referenced By

State of the hobby? : Commercial games
womerd@lvcm.com (Dave Womer)
Thu, 08 Nov 2001 08:23:38 +0000