Re: The nature of the beast

From: September Virgin <mouse@network.ucsd.edu>

Date: Sat, 27 Feb 1999 00:00:00 +0000

In article <htp-1802990907030001@htp5500.metropolis.net.au>,
  htp@dove.net.au (Henry Penninkilampi) wrote:
> Greetings!
>
> I've been following some recent threads in which various opinions were
> expressed about the demise of PBM gaming.  I don't want to open up any
> cauterised wounds, but I was wondering if you folks would mind giving me
> your opinions regarding (what you see as) the difference between PBM, PBEM
> (et al), and their evolutionary future?

The difference is as you inferred one of medium, but preferential associations
such as feeling more comfortable with paper than computer screens is not an
encompassing truth.  I personally adore the computer screen in excess of my
friendship with paper.

> Superficially, PBEM seems to be little more than an offshoot of PBM which
> utilises electronic mail to streamline operations.  The vendor saves time
> and money by replacing the paper-filled envelope with a character-filled
> message.  The consumer gets faster and more reliable delivery of turns.
>
> Let's consider the main characteristics of PBM for a moment:
>
> 1)  Paper turns.  Most people feel more comfortable reading stuff printed
> at 600dpi on 80gsm paper than they do at 72dpi on a 640x480-pixel screen.
> In addition to the fact that it is physically easier to read information
> on a printed page than it is on a screen, the pages can be spread out so
> that specific information is actually easier to get at than navigating
> through layers of windows on a computer.  Couple this with auxilliary
> hand-drawn maps, post-it notes, and lists of things-to-do, and what it
> boils down to is that paper turns are easier to digest, manage, and use
> than computer turns (where you have to wrestle with a program's interface
> and have few options for customisation).

All depends on the technology one has at hand.  Peruse of the computers at my
school computer lab, window shifting becomes simple.  and hand-drawn maps can
appear suddenly in their clumsiness (should the GM be less than artistic) or
materialize as shimmering products of map drawing programs.

I think the primary difference between PBMs and PBEMs could be pinpointed to
the item that Isaac Asimov noted in a famous speech of his comparing
computers to books, namely, that books will always be cheaper to produce as
they are technologically simpler.  Even if woodlands vanish, paper can be
constructed out of chemicals, animals, and even bathroom walls if worse comes
to worst.

Anticipation also differs from person to person.  Not everyone enjoys
waiting, but in fact some people enjoy shorter periods of anticipation or
longer for that matter than the Nelson family might.

> 2)  Shorter turn-around.  With the added efficiency of email, PBEM games
> tend to have a shorter turn-around than PBM games.  Because of the
> increased rate, the amount of anticipation experienced by PBEM players
> between each turn is less than experienced by PBM players.  A shorter
> turn-around also implies that there is less time for diplomacy - ergo less
> diplomacy.  Now, one *can* argue that because anyone playing by email also
> conducts diplomacy by email, that the level of diplomacy would remain
> unaltered; however, diplomacy is a human action - if it takes five days to
> think of a devious plan to pitch to your allies, then it takes five days -
> having access to email during that time *won't* make your brain think
> faster.  Shorter turn-arounds *do* result in less diplomacy.

You express yourself very much like a dear friend of mine with whom I
regularly lose chess games with, but win arguments with.  You're an emotive
talker and it seems to me that you reflexively think with an engaging style
of solipsism that seems popular right through this time.

And while it may seem as if there is less time to conduct diplomacy in the
fast moving world of email and internet chat rooms, with paper mail there is
less opportunity in many games to send sudden messages unless it be over the
phone in games between distant friends.  Also, brilliant plans may appear
over night.  If it takes four days for a letter to appear in one's mailbox in
Antarctica, then it takes four days for another letter to appear.  So someone
may recieve a declaration of enimity when suddenly the player who sent said
declaration realizes that another player really must have sent the assassin
to slay his cousin the Arch Duke Ferdiderd.

> Now for the third generation of PBEM games, which I will refer to as PFEM
> (Paper Free Electronic Mail) games.  Not a particularily great acronym,
> granted, but it emphasises the major evolutionary step taken by this
> mutation.  Here we talk about games like VGA Planets, Stars, etc., where
> the turns were never meant to be displayed on a paper medium - a program
> not only being used to display reports, but compile orders as well.

Clever!  Perhaps this term will begin to circulate.

> [As an aside, if there is already a label for these types of games
> commonly in use, could someone please tell me?  Also, is this an
> acceptable forum for discussion of these types of games?  If not, what
> newsgroup is more appropriate?  Finally, where can I read the charter for
> this newsgroup, and check out the latest FAQ?]

Hm!  Online computer strategy games? :)

MU*s are a fairly intriguing way of playing over a distance, something that
goes beyond email but still uses a long distance media conveyance technology
to allow communication for entertainment purposes.  By MU* I mean to
insinuate MUDs, MUCKs, MUSHes, MOOs, Ubers, and all the derivations from
Multiuser Underworld Domains.

[edit]

Now, in response to your stimulus: I believe that the principles underlying
long distance gaming are variable and personal in the cultural principality.
The speed and flexibility of a computer in networking and processing quite
outdoes human organic capacity in similar matters, sorry to sound like an
technocratic science fiction villain, but my use of computers as primary
communication tool are the ease of access and certain minutiae that are
entirely insubstantial to anyone else but myself and those who resemble me
internally.  Other cyborgs, don'tchaknow.

love
september

In the splendoured hush between glasswrought diaphane,
a luminous patter: entry doors wing the raining glaze.
Lookout: I posit faint towers to quiver on showered wald;
A squirrel could perch on their crowned crowd.

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References

The nature of the beast
htp@dove.net.au (Henry Penninkilampi)
Thu, 18 Feb 1999 00:00:00 +0000