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+--- Thread: The Walking Dead and Play By Mail Gaming (/showthread.php?tid=669)
The Walking Dead and Play By Mail Gaming - GrimFinger - 08-30-2012
Today, I decided to give a "social game" a try. The game in question is one titled, "AMC The Walking Dead Social Game."
Primarily, my interest in giving the game a try was two-fold. First, I am a fan of the zombie genre of entertainment. Second, I am a fan of The Walking Dead television series by AMC.
Though tomorrow will mark my 8th month anniversary of using Facebook in conjunction with having broadband Internet access, I have only try a mere handful of Facebook games, thus far. My initial impression with these particular Facebook games that I have tried, prior to trying AMC The Walking Dead Social Game? The boredom factor tends to kick in pretty quickly. Bland novelty is how I would describe them.
Very shortly after I began playing AMC The Walking Dead Social Game, this morning, the game informed me that I had come across the remains of one of my real life cousins. That was a humorous find, to be certain, and one that was repeated a little later in the game, though this time with someone who was merely an acquaintance in real life, and not an actual family member. A little further in the game, and I encountered the remains of someone who is a fellow PBM gamer.
Unfortunately, the game also shares the bland novelty of the other Facebook games that I have tried. The zombie genre proves insufficient to save the game from becoming boring, fairly quickly. So, what does any of this have to do with play by mail gaming, you might ask?
Well, everything, of course. Everything!
Play by mail games are certainly no stranger to inducing boredom. However, AMC The Walking Dead Social Game's clicking-requirement swiftly left me yearning for the freedom that my imagination provided for many years, during my play in various PBM games. The human imagination is a vast playing field, one where no mouse clicks are required.
Over the last few years, as I have encountered and explored efforts by PBM game moderators of old to resurrect old PBM offerings, or to bring new PBM-like games to fruition, by and large, these undertakings leave me feeling as though they have co-opted the bland novelty aspect quite well, but I am far from persuaded that what they are pursuing will ultimately prove to be a success. Hopefully, I will prove to be wrong, in that regard, but it is how I feel at present, nonetheless.
The Facebook games that I have tried, thus far, seem to incorporate enticement fairly well, insofar as they make it both easy and timely to try and persuade the player to get their Facebook friends involved, where playing the game is concerned. It's one thing, for a game to entice prospective players on its own, and it's quite another thing for existing players to entice prospective players to play a given game in question.
The Walking Dead is a good analogy to play by mail gaming, I think, simply because many of the genre's adherents have felt that PBM gaming is a dead man walking for years on end, now. The postal genre of gaming seems to defy the bullet that so many doomsayers have been striving to put into its proverbial head, even as the stench and pallor of death accompanies PBM gaming in the current era. With a few exceptions, PBM gaming never seems to be far from death's door, at any given moment.
Much like the zombie virus, the search for a cure to what ails PBM may ultimately prove to be in vain. But, when one is faced with the prospect of the extinction or near-annihilation of the genre of PBM gaming, what is one to do?
Maybe the would-be saviors of play by mail are simply trying too hard. Perhaps they are missing the forest for the trees, and are unable to see the nose on their very own faces. Could it be that "the cure" is right where it has always been - right in front of us? Is it simply too obvious for any of us to notice?
To resurrect the walking dead that is play by mail, perhaps a new kind of gaming necromancy is required.
RE: The Walking Dead and Play By Mail Gaming - Dragon - 07-01-2013
I know what you mean. The only non PBM game to ever hold my interest longer than 1-2 years was Everquest. I played it like 8-9 years, and now that it is free I log in a couple times a year just to say high, and see what is new.
PBM is hard to compete with, but in today's society it seems to be about instant gratification.