Re: Newsgroup suggestions - for moderators

From: madcentral@aol.com (MadCentral)

Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1998 00:00:00 +0000

>>With the elimination of the sniping, this has gotten fairly interesting.<<

It has, hasn't it?

>>First, the costs of being on-line are probably going to change fairly
rapidly in the next few years.  The US is admittedly way ahead of the
curve as far as computer networking goes,<<

I woldn't say the U.S. are particularly far
ahead in networking, and its not really the networking costs that are the
problem.  It's the *phone* costs.  With flash sessions the phone
costs can be cut down, but people don't care about that... they think 'big
phone bills' and then simply dont get online.

>> It might
therefore behoove you to be forward-looking to those changes. <<

I'm certainly not ignoring E-Mail at all.
I'm simply not getting much demand for it
in the UK.

>>While you might have the right business
model for right now in the UK, why should you bother with that market?
As a PBEM company on the network you could sell your games to a vastly
bigger market. <<

I do sell to a vastly bigger market, but I do it
by licensing my games elsewhere.  That's
why Madhouse is a global organisation,
with branches in the US, Australia and soon,
it all goes well, Austria, France and Poland.
Each Mad-branch can certainly give better
support and service to players *local* to
them than I could from the other side of
the world... E-Mail or no E-Mail.

>>All that aside, I think that most PBM GMs are better off making
decisions
based on what pleases them, rather than how they can make the most
money.<<

I certainly do agree that you should have fun
when running your company, but your
own viewpoint is not entirely mine.  While
I certainly do what I enjoy, I can't ignore
things that will make more money because
Madhouse provides jobs for eight people,
all of whom would be pretty disappointed if
I couldn't pay their wages anymore!  This
sort of thing becomes an issue when you
reach a certain size <sigh>.

I remember those days back when I could
pick and choose as easily as you suggest...
I envy you the position in some ways...
but I can't complain, we've had very good
fortune with PBM.

In the end, the business decisions I make
RE; E-Mail and Mail play are decided by
what is commercially sensible for me, in
my opinion.  The buck stops here, as they say, so I have to take responsibility
for
the final word and simply hope I'm smart
enough to decide the right thing.  That often
means flying in the face of public opinion,
but it's worked pretty well so far.

Steve Tierney
-Madhouse UK

References

Re: Newsgroup suggestions - for moderators
"Scott R. Turner" <srt-nospam@pbm.com>
Thu, 24 Sep 1998 00:00:00 +0000