The Death of PBM - a response From: "Mark Grimbley" <doctor@grimbley.freeserve.co.uk> Date: Tue, 07 Sep 1999 00:00:00 +0000 Thank you to all who replied to the original posting, and a large number of comments were very pertinent. The original posting was intended to be mildly provoking, and some of you may have got the impression that I have little regard for PBM. In actual fact I like PBM's and have played them regularly for the past 14 years, and I have to admit that I do prefer hand moderated games as I've generally found them to be more personal, the GM's more personable and the games themselves more in depth. It does concern me that some computer run games can become little more than pure number crunching exercises with turns becoming done to formula, whilst enjoyable as a logistics exercise these types of game do become boring after a while. Although the interaction with other players in these games is probably more important than the actual game itself. Alot of Free PBM's fall into this category formula and lacking real depth, it is the depth that separates the good commercial games from the rest. Steve from Madhouse UK (madcentral) is absolutely correct in saying "there's nothing wrong with the commercial PBM hobby. If it's done right, there's plenty of life in it." The trouble is that too often it isn't done right, how many games have we seen come and go? By this I mean both good and bad games, like all products in all marketplaces there must be continual development and improvement to keep the customer a happy camper, and the switch to electronic mail methods is a good example of moving forward. I could go into this further but i think your all bright enough to get what I'm hinting at. Rob Harper hit the nail on the head regarding games like EQ and UO with respect to their immediacy - no turn deadlines to meet and you can play when you like, but I still like the thud of a reply coming through the letterbox and the curiousity of how things went. I think that there will always be a market for PBM's but I do believe that it will be eroded by online gaming in the future, the extent of any erosion will be dependant upon how the PBM industry faces the challenge. There you go rant over. At the end of the day it doesn't really matter so long as people enjoy themselves, for 99.9% of people its a hobby the other 0,1% its a job and to them it does matter. Thanks for your time. Mark "more devious than he looks, and he looks pretty devious" Grimbley Referenced By Up