Re: PBM deposits & value for money

From: Dale Poole <dpoole@upei.ca>

Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Well, as usual, I leave the group for a a few weeks and everyone decides to
get chatty!

None-the-less I love all you guys and gals - you've covered tremendous
territory in this thread, all of it educational, if not entertaining to
boot!

(Why do folks snipe so? I have a feeling that if we were all in a bar, there
would soon be a lot of weepin' over beer, as people clutched each other
saying "I really LOVE you man!")

I have never run a commercial PBM, and have only minor experience running a
free playtest and as a player in the venerable Beyond the Stellar Empire.

But a couple of things stick out for me and at the risk of repeating what
other folks have said, I'd like to write 'em out:

1. Carol said that the most important part of the game was if it was fun. I
agree with this. I just don't see the point otherwise.  However, we can all
twist in the wind trying to figure out what fun is!  For me, I loved the
complexity of the games I played.  I would wait for weeks for the next
dispatch to arrive in the mail, and would spend hours poring over the
details, wearing out pencils and killing trees in my quest to find just the
right combination of moves to satisfy my latest endeavours.

This has always been the best part of Play by Mail games for me.

2. As far as how the game is presented, I agree that some minimal attention
is required if for no other reason than to make everything easy to
understand. Colour is good if you can afford it, and heavy paper is too, for
the same reason. But you can pretty up the stuff as much as you want - if it
cannot be interpreted than it's just so much pretty poo.

In a couple of ways, I'd prefer less pretty and more more
depth/understanding. The game I am currently working on offers the chance to
design a space-craft from the ground up, without preassigning ship types or
making assumptions about what will work best. In the same sense I have
offered no visuals of ships in the game. Who really knows what an advanced
spacecraft will look like anyway?  Some folks will see the Enterprise, some
the X-wing fighter, some the hammerhead and others still will envision huge
bubbly streamlined guppies or star shapes or discs or spheres...etc.

I refrain from casting my vision on my players in order that they can live
out their imaginative fantasies. After all, the imagines *they* evoke in
their minds' eyes will cast the final vote on whther the game is a good one
or not.

3. On the issue of how to attract players. You've put out a lot of good
ideas. Here is what I am working on:

I have a space opera (or whatever), open-ended game. You pit yourself
against other players, who may be individuals or faction based, as well as
against the wide unknown. I have had several playtest sessions in the past
few years, which I have offered free of strings with the single proviso that
I don't see *my* game appear somewhere as *your* game.

The playtest is conducted in an arena - a known area - but is still
generally open ended.  So far, game mechanics and the need to refine them,
has brought all three sessions to a halt, long before the action had
dwindled. During this course, it has occured to me that continuing to run
the arena based game would be an excellent manner for letting folks try it
out, before committing to a larger wide-open galaxy setting, in which they
would pay to play, but would have a broader field of opportunity to make
their mark. The arena game is also a great way to get experienced players
mixed with new players, and to test new mechanics or other facets of the
game without disturbing your paying customers.

Based on this, I am hard pressed to determine if (if/when the game gets out
of playtest) I qualify as a dedicated hobby GM or as a commercial concern?
Personally, I think there is room for both types as there is room for both
players who can commit or are only interested in a short term romp.

4. Finally, the issue of computer moderation vs. hand moderation -OR- paper
delivery vs. electronic delivery.

I'm biased beyond all belief toward the paper based game. After all, that
was part of the reason I started in this hobby in the first place - I wanted
to game in a broad scope, but could rarely afford the nice games at the
local game shop, or couldn't get enough reasonable people together to spent
a bunch of time over the game.

However, the big advantage I see in electronic delivery, is speed, and the
ability to efficiently handle large volumes. I am trying to combine both
schemes into one game. I have spent a lot of time to ensure that the game is
entirely playable on paper, for those folks who are unable to take advantage
of the Internet. The game includes clear visual props, well organized data,
and lots of groovey forms to keep it all organized.

Yet, I still have an eye open to how things can be moderated by computer, so
that I can run multiple games and gain the most benefit for my pocket book.
And I hope to provide utilities to my computer equipped players to help them
do their planning visually, without killing as many trees as I have in the
past. Hell, they don't even *require* the internet to use them, just some
old computer.

I don't know a lot about programming (mostly magic and selling yer soul if
ya ask me) but even if I was proficient, or had someone on my side who was,
I still can't see getting away without some hand moderation. My biggest
lesson in playtest has been that no matter how many aspects you plan for,
there is always at least one player who tries to do something you hadn't
thought of.  For me, a program that would allow human moderation in such
instances, is the way I will go.

Indeed, if this big pipedream in the sky pans out, I would be able to offer
long term "slow" games for the paper players, and a variety of shorter
turn-around games for the electronically enhanced players.

To sum up, Play by Mail gaming has been around for eons, in one form or
another. The advent of computers, and the Internet will not subvert this,
nor will it become the be all and end all. The variety of opinions in this
group shows that in excruciating detail, with every message. Like most good
things in life, there is no correct way to do the thing, just the way that
*you* do it and the way that *I* do it and the only difference is that they
are different.

Gads, I feel like a mandarin in the Department for Redundancy Department.

Anyhoo, thanks for listening and allowing along time lurker to break cover
for this small moment.

Dale Poole

dpoole@upei.ca
http://www.upei.ca/~dpoole

References

PBM deposits & value for money
ColinForbes <timewyrm@suilven.demon.co.uk>
Sun, 05 Sep 1999 00:00:00 +0000