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+--- Thread: The Biggest Threat to PBM (/showthread.php?tid=55)
The Biggest Threat to PBM - GrimFinger - 02-22-2011
But PBM *could* die, or at least fade almost completely, if a few things happened. The hobby has a large number of ''leading figures'' and it is the loss of these people which does more damage to the hobby than anything else. Unfortunately, some are going to go, for one reason or another. Hopefully, new ones will rise to replace them, or the remaining ones will take up the slack. In my opinion, the biggest threat to PBM as we know it is the loss of our industry captains. A lot of these people leave because they listen too much to doom and gloom and don't look enough at the actual figures, which is a shame. Some of them just get tired, which can happen in any industry, even one you love.
- Steve Tierney (Madhouse UK) - September 11th, 1999
Source: http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.pbm/browse_thread/thread/749594311fbcc4e0/cc7509024e2f4fdb?lnk=gst&q=pbm#cc7509024e2f4fdb
So, what do you think? Was old Steve Tierney of Madhouse Games right? Is the loss of industry captains the biggest threat to PBM? Or was Steve Tierney simply wrong?
I certainly think that the loss of what Steve termed "industry captains" has had a noticeable impact on the postal genre of gaming. But, in hindsight looking back over the approximate eleven and one half years since Steve posted his remarks in the rec.games.pbm newsgroup, I find myself hard pressed to conclude that he was correct.
As far as "doom and gloom" are concerned, I seem to recall that doom and gloom has been a part of discussions pertaining to postal gaming, since at least my entry into the hobby of play by mail back around 1986. That was twenty-five years ago - a full quarter of a century!
The doom and gloom for PBM gaming, of course, started well before I ever began playing PBM games. So far, play by mail gaming has survived the loss of every industry captain that it has suffered, to date. The clock is still ticking, but if you pause and think about it, the clock is always ticking. The clock will always tick for PBM games, and for the play by mail industry as a whole. Ask not for whom the bell tolls. Likewise, ask not for whom the clock ticks.
PBM has survived the loss, not just of industry captains, but of publications devoted to covering the genre of play by mail. It has survived the loss of countless individual PBM games, and the loss of thousands upon perhaps tens of thousands of PBM players. It survives, even still.
Like a Timex, PBM takes a licking, but keeps on ticking.
RE: The Biggest Threat to PBM - Ramblurr - 02-24-2011
Hm. Interesting thoughts. I agree with you Grim, the loss of "captains" didn't cause the decline we have seen, at least not on its own.
Another major factor contributing to the decline, and IMHO the greatest threat, is the lack of new blood entering the scene. As you mentioned it has lost many publications and players, but with no one to replace them. It is unreasonable to expect any gaming "scene", let alone PBM, to consist of the same people today as it did two or one decades ago.
In many ways this is a catch-22 for PBM. New players cannot be attracted without a substantial and attractive showing/demonstration of a PBM game, yet such a game cannot be achieved without new players.