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+--- Thread: Stirs the dragon of play by mail! (/showthread.php?tid=130572)
Stirs the dragon of play by mail! - GrimFinger - 08-09-2019
Life is funny. So many things to distract you, or to consume your time with. It's a lot like being lulled into a deep state of slumber. Sometimes, it can last for what seems forever.
Then, the dragon awakens!
It stirs. Barely an eyelid raised, at first, the blood surges as the adrenaline rushes to become fire. The nostrils flare! The flames roar, once more!
From deep within the Abyss of Failure, the dragon rises, to fly once more. Battered. Beaten. Defeated!
Yet, unbowed and unrepentant, as defiant as ever. Behold, the dragon cometh!
As in the days of olde. . .
Suspense & Decision magazine - A new issue coming to a website near you, soon!
So, climb aboard. Or get left behind.
Forward, ever forward!
RE: Stirs the dragon of play by mail! - ixnay - 08-09-2019
I think the best way to keep up momentum and energy is to build a community around it. The PBM scene seems siloed and fragmented -- there are active games and groups of players, but they don't cross-pollinate much.
This forum (and S&D) encourages mixing and interplay. Maybe there are things we can do to get more participation and build a sense of belonging, a sense of common purpose and espirit de corps. Does the forum software support "microbadges" like they have on BGG? Should we have group events where we get members to sign up for a PBM game en masse? Can we form a players guild, and bestow honors on players who finish games to the end, write up sessions reports, and get newbies to post? Maybe a few regular game-nights, where we play a boardgame online "live" or within a weekend, and then do a humorous post-game review?
RE: Stirs the dragon of play by mail! - GrimFinger - 08-09-2019
We CAN do a lot of things. Whether we actually do them or not is another matter, altogether.
Honestly, I don't know the answer to the microbadges question, but probably, or some variant thereof. I use BoardGameGeek, occasionally, but I've never cared about their microbadges, though I'm sure that many do.
We SHOULD do a LOT of things. Therefore, go forth and do them! I just sent off an e-mail to a local printer, to get a price quote for print copies of Suspense & Decision. Winners of PBM game scan take YEARS to decide, in some instances. Do you have that much staying power, Bernd?
I do hereby anoint you both PBM Prophet and PBM Ambassador to the world (Just this planet, though, and none other!), so sally forth and immerse yourself into all kinds of initiatives. Do much good, my friend! Just be sure to get your article sin on time.
DO all of those things. See how simple that was? At the root of them all will lie a need for ongoing discussion. Post in this forum, both frequently and at length, and it will be like PBM honey. The real challenge lies in getting up sufficient momentum for the momentum to maintain (and accelerate) itself in your absence. Forums die off, because people quit posting in them.
Go forth and gather the PBM masses! You have several good ideas. Now, pick those balls up and run with them!
RE: Stirs the dragon of play by mail! - Davin - 08-09-2019
Ixnay, that sounds effective and fun!
I'm still open for a free forum-wide game of Galac-Tac, if that's of interest to enough people for this purpose. We could award badges for killing out an opposing empire , surviving to the end-game (last 2-3 empires), and winning a game (defeating everyone). Galac-Tac also allows technological advances, and the higher levels are difficult to acquire, so we could create badges for some of those as well.
RE: Stirs the dragon of play by mail! - GrimFinger - 08-09-2019
(08-09-2019, 03:28 PM)ixnay Wrote: I think the best way to keep up momentum and energy is to build a community around it. The PBM scene seems siloed and fragmented -- there are active games and groups of players, but they don't cross-pollinate much.
The way(s) in which people communicate has changed over the years, as has the concept of community. If a fragmented community is what reality has dealt us as a hand, then those are the cards that we play.
Fortunately for you, the dragon lost in slumber was also the dragon lost in thought. A great treasure in ideas is ours to grow the sense of community with. Unfortunately for you, I'm pretty much a hermit, so you'll have to be the one going forth to fight the windmill obstacles, my friend. I'll be guarding the refrigerator.
I would encourage you to take the word forth into the scattered PBM communities, for my own presence there largely went unnoticed. Ah, the price we quiet types pay!