Re: Industry Stats

From: jonmmorris@aol.comnospam (JonMMorris)

Date: Sat, 12 Jun 1999 00:00:00 +0000

>>> I can't imagine how bad the comparison would be between 1991 and
>1999
>
>But this isn't necessarily bad. Games may close because their
>popularity has waned, so moderators can't get enough players to
>continue.
>
>Why not argue that one of the things that's good about the hobby is the
>constant influx of new GMs with new ideas? - it's not so awful for GMs
>to move on to something else when they've served their time, as long as
>they refund outstanding credit.
>

That's a good point.  Another benefit of the influx of new GMs should be the
addition of fresh recruiters of players.

>Dirty folds are bad, of course, though we've a Refugee Rescue scheme in
>the UK which helps, by listing GMs who'll cover players' credit. Most
>of the recent UK folds have been clean ones.
>
That's encouraging to hear.  The US postal Diplomacy hobby did (does?) a decent
job of trying to restart "orphaned" games but that's relatively easy compared
to PbM (do any moderators allow players to import characters from other
worlds?)

Moderator folds are one dilemna of PbM.  Another is player drop-outs.  I've had
pretty decent luck mainly because most of my players are friends or friends of
friends.  Also, I generally only run one game at a time so I have a healthy
list of standby players.

I did have one nasty experience when a group of players joined a fresh game and
then quit en masse when it became apparent that they probably would not win.  I
checked with some other moderators who ran similar games and found that that
was their usual pattern: Sign up for many different games and quit as soon as
victory looked doubtful.

I expect a certain number of dropouts due to jobs, family, school, etc. but
their calculated self-interest was an eye-opener.

Role-playing games probably don't have this problem but it is potentially
disastrous for Empire-Building games.

Anyone have any similar experiences?

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References

Re: Industry Stats
Carol Mulholland <Carol@flagship-uk.demon.co.uk>
Sat, 12 Jun 1999 00:00:00 +0000