Re: Survey of PBM games: email, snail mail, and prices

From: Sjoerd Schreuder <sjoerd@geodan.nl>

Date: Thu, 01 Oct 1998 00:00:00 +0000

Greg Lindahl wrote:
>
> ad013@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca (Brent Stanley McKee) writes:
>
> > It may be different for RPGs but many of my fellow
> > publishers (especially in North America where the Internet can be much
> > more easily accessed than in much of the world) feel that far from being
> > the salvation of the PBM Diplomacy hobby, it is the principal murderer of
> > the PBM hobby.
>
> I'm not that surprised -- email is quick and convenient. The only
> problem with the Judges is dropouts. But if that doesn't hurt your
> game, I think most people prefer email games to 'zines.
>
> However, these players may check out other pbEm games, commercial
> ones. That's how I think free games benefit the commercial industry.

That's the way I got involved in PBeM: I once started to play galaxy,
Judgement Day, and other free PBeM's. I also joined several free beta
tests for free games, but most of them stopped within a few turns.
Then I joined a (free) beta-test for a commercial PBeM (Odyssey),
and joined the first game as soon as it started. Nowadays, I'm playing
Olympia II and Eldritch, while I've played many Odyssey games as well,
but I just don't have enough time anymore.

So in short: the free games gave me a feeling what to expect, but the
commercial games gave me the depth and dedication I was looking for.
Without the free games, I would never have joined any commercial game.

Sjoerd Schreuder

References

Re: Survey of PBM games: email, snail mail, and prices
ad013@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca (Brent Stanley McKee)
Thu, 01 Oct 1998 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Survey of PBM games: email, snail mail, and prices
lindahl@pbm.com (Greg Lindahl)
Thu, 01 Oct 1998 00:00:00 +0000