Re: Newsgroup suggestions - for moderators

From: madcentral@aol.com (MadCentral)

Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 00:00:00 +0000

>>PBM charges are decreasing rapidly. VGA Planets, the biggest PBM in
the world, doesn't charge any fee per turn.<<

VGA Planets is only the ''biggest PBM in the world'' because it's easy to buy a
registered copy and run it for your friends.  That's also why it doesnt charge,
although there are certainly instances where it has charged in the past, in
some incarnations.  If I released one of our games as a 'anybody can have a
copy and run it' game, that would spread all over the place too.  I doubt I
would though.

>> Many new games are only
play-by-email and have significantly lower per-turn charges as a
result... for example, Olympia charges $2.50 per turn for what would
probably be a $7 or bigger fee for snail mail. <<

That's true.  But there's still a huge market
for people who want to play by mail.  At
least there is in the UK, where next day mail
is cheap and reliable (by other countries
standards.)  But I dont want to get into
PBM vs PBEM here... its an old boring
subject.  People like what they like.  Its as simple as that.

>>Online fantasy sports
leagues are much cheaper than snail mail ones. The free game industry
has grown dramatically due to cheaper technology. If you want to
convert these free game players into commercial game players, you'd
better be ready to make good games that charge less.<<

I dont want to convert those guys into commercial games players.  Well, no more
so
than anybody else.  Why should I attempt
to force my idea of a good way to play upon them?  And why should I run games
at a ridiculously low profit-level, far lower than any other commercial market,
when I don't have to.

I've always charged a fair price for games, not extortionate, but not silly-low
either.  Lots of E-Mail games and Mail games have appeared, with companies
trying to undercut us (and our other sensible competitors) with new super-cheap
games.  We're still here.  Many other good commercial PBM companies with
similiar policies are still here.  The cheapy competition has withered and
died.  We stood firm against the policies you
put forward as something we 'must do' and we
are still doing very well thank you.

Im sorry greg, but it doesnt seem you are
at all 'in touch' with commercial PBM.  I can tell you for an absolute FACT
that from my own experiences we have seen a growth of 25% this year... the
biggest ever... virtually *all* playing by *mail* players and all more than
willing to pay decent turn fees for decent games.  The days of everybody
cutting each other's throats to run games that are too cheap and make almost no
profit are over.  At least they are here in the UK from my companies
perspective.

You like your games cheap and you like
your games by E-Mail.  Great!  Good for you.
There's certainly a lot of fun to be had.
But (lucky for all of us commercial companies
I guess) there and thousands of people who
prefer to play commercial games and don't
mind paying a reasonable amount to do so.
And those people are still growing pretty
rapidly.

Steve Tierney

References

Re: Newsgroup suggestions - for moderators
lindahl@pbm.com (Greg Lindahl)
Tue, 22 Sep 1998 00:00:00 +0000

Referenced By

Re: Newsgroup suggestions - for moderators
lindahl@pbm.com (Greg Lindahl)
Tue, 22 Sep 1998 00:00:00 +0000