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

From: ad013@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca (Brent Stanley McKee)

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

Benjamin Foy (bfoy@access5.digex.net) wrote:
: On 27 Sep 1998, KMGraphiks wrote:

: > >Large cutting-edge comanies? Generally cutting-edge companies start
: > >small.
: >
: > Since only a handful of these games are well established well
numbered games it
: > does not support the premise that totally email games are the future
of PBM or
: > that existing PBM companies are missing out on phenomenal business
growth by
: > ignoring them.

: In the diplomacy world, the consensus is that PBEM will save the PBM
: hobby.  PBM Diplomacy games tend to have fewer new players so you
: generally have a more competitive game with fewer dropouts.  PBEM games
: introduce new players to the hobby.  Once they get good, they will
: naturally want to play in the PBM games (for the reasons stated above).

: 					- Ben

Ben, based on my experience, I am afraid that your assessment is wrong.
I entered the Diplomacy hobby about 10 years ago based on an article in
the Avalon Hill games magazine the General.  At the time there were over
70 PBM Diplomacy zines published in North America alone.  Five and a half
years ago I started my own Diplomacy zine "Making Love In A Canoe".  At
that time there were about 50 Diplomacy zines published in North
America.  Today there are at most 25 zines being published in North
America and possibly as few as 18 including mine.  When I began playing
e-mail was an esoteric concept available mainly by people in universities
who lost their access when they left college.  Today the PBEM hobby is
far larger in terms of game starts than the PBM Diplomacy hobby.  I
occassionally get enquiries regarding my zine from PBEMers and I always
send them a sample together with all of the pertinent details, but I can
count on the fingers of one hand the number of people who now subscribe
to my zine who came to me from the PBEM hobby without having originally
been PBMers.  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.

Sorry to produce such a downer.

Brent McKee
Publisher "Making Love In A Canoe"

References

Re: Survey of PBM games: email, snail mail, and prices
lindahl@pbm.com (Greg Lindahl)
Sun, 27 Sep 1998 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Survey of PBM games: email, snail mail, and prices
kmgraphiks@aol.com (KMGraphiks)
Sun, 27 Sep 1998 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Survey of PBM games: email, snail mail, and prices
Benjamin Foy <bfoy@access5.digex.net>
Mon, 28 Sep 1998 00:00:00 +0000

Referenced By

Re: Survey of PBM games: email, snail mail, and prices
lindahl@pbm.com (Greg Lindahl)
Sun, 27 Sep 1998 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Survey of PBM games: email, snail mail, and prices
kmgraphiks@aol.com (KMGraphiks)
Sun, 27 Sep 1998 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Survey of PBM games: email, snail mail, and prices
Benjamin Foy <bfoy@access5.digex.net>
Mon, 28 Sep 1998 00:00:00 +0000