Re: Paying for games

From: Shadowjack <peladon@peladon.demon.co.uk>

Date: Tue, 16 Feb 1999 00:00:00 +0000

>What a load of rubbish.

Ah, the cut and thrust of reasoned debate...

>I'll tell you why. It's PBEM that has no future, not PBM.

Well, to greater and lesser degrees I think _both_ have their place. My
apologies for disagreeing...

> The reason
>is simple - people simply are not prepared to pay a reasonable turn
>fee to play email only games.

That depends on your definition of reasonable. People generally appear
to want to pay a _lower_ turn fee for email games. But with a properly
set up game, the GM input is lower since good code can ensure that turn
processing is minimised by auto IO routines. Hence the effective hourly
rate for the GM increases. In addition, more games can be run in a given
time frame and with the world of email contact a larger number of
players are available to be marketed to.

> How many times do you see the posting on
>here... 'help people I'm looking for a game that will give me so much
>pleasure that I will give up sex forthwith... oh yes, and it has to be
>free' or something along those lines?

Many times. But the fact that there are those who want to game for
nothing does not deny the existence of those who will pay.

> The reasoning is that it costs
>nothing for you to send me an email so why do I need to pay for it. Of
>course it's going to be harder and harder to find people to pay enough
>to keep a business running when all they get in return is an email.
>No, the future is PBM still as long as that market can adapt.

Adapt how? GMs, games or players?

> My own
>football (football = soccer to you Americans) game has now been
>running for 6 years, we accept turns by email, we post match results
>onto the internet but the managers still look forward to the results
>package arriving with a great big thump on their doorstep.

Nor would I deny them the pleasure of doing so. There is room for both.
However it would appear logical that postal games be all postal ( ie all
players get their return in the same form) and email games the same.
Check out the post system in some countries to see why this could
increase the market pool of players ( also the availability of GMs in
some countries is limited).

> You just
>don't get that buzz getting an email! From my own experience my
>customers seem to think it's well worth paying for.

Then by all means continue to offer it to them! My congratulations for
having a worthy product which the market enjoys. But there would seem to
be viably alternatives which can happily co-exist...

--
'Twas long ago and far away, and besides the wench is dead
                The MK Mouse
                The Ghost from the Coast
                aka Mere, Naive, Ignorant Provincial

References

Bye everyone!
Phil Shulkind <phil@phildee.demon.co.uk>
Sat, 13 Feb 1999 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Bye everyone!
"Jon B." <jbbiz1@aol.com>
Mon, 15 Feb 1999 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Bye everyone!
Shadowjack <peladon@peladon.demon.co.uk>
Mon, 15 Feb 1999 00:00:00 +0000
Paying for games
summit@easynet.co.uk (Steve Walker)
Tue, 16 Feb 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Referenced By

Bye everyone!
Phil Shulkind <phil@phildee.demon.co.uk>
Sat, 13 Feb 1999 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Bye everyone!
"Jon B." <jbbiz1@aol.com>
Mon, 15 Feb 1999 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Bye everyone!
Shadowjack <peladon@peladon.demon.co.uk>
Mon, 15 Feb 1999 00:00:00 +0000
Paying for games
summit@easynet.co.uk (Steve Walker)
Tue, 16 Feb 1999 00:00:00 +0000