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+--- Thread: Your PBM flight is now boarding (/showthread.php?tid=825)
Your PBM flight is now boarding - GrimFinger - 02-12-2014
So, I'm up early, this morning, awaiting the arrival of a snowstorm, and in the midst of doing some Internet searches for things PBM related, it dawns on me how very much that the PlayByMail.Net website is like an airport.
While an airport is often a destination, it is never THE destination that one ultimately aspires to going to. Rather, we're here, if you need us, in order to help you catch a flight to somewhere else.
Like a real airport, we ultimately have no control over the quality of your in-flight experience with various PBM companies. From time to time, you might see a representative for a game company dart in or out of this place, but none of them really run the equivalent of a kiosk here.
Cluster Wars has a dedicated forum section here that their players and staff use, but that game is still in development. Rather than a ticket booth or a formal kiosk, it reminds me more of a garage that is attached to this airport. Not what one might expect to see at an airport, necessarily, but it does provide the convenience of visitors to this site being able to walk into the equivalent of Vern Holford's garage, and just start asking him and his game neighbors about Cluster Wars.
I've been visiting various game sites, lately. It's been an interesting week, needless to say. It's hard to be everywhere, especially simultaneously at once. Receptions vary. A little glitz. A little glamor. A lot of in between. None of it, however, either individually or collectively, deters me from my self-appointed rounds.
Continuously, I flip through the pages of old issues of PBM magazines. It's a small collection, to be certain, but it's what I've got. I use what I've got, in order to try and figure out a way forward.
On its face, this airport is looking a bit aesthetically challenged. But, we do have flights being booked and travelers arriving and departing. It's a small airport - but, it's not quite as overlooked, as it once was. At the same time, it's no major thoroughfare for gaming adventurers. But, it is in operation, and it does offer those who happen by here some degree of functionality that may prove useful to them.
For the most part, we're a no-frills kind of place. Yet, we cater to what some might consider to be those who seek an exotic gaming type of experience.
Construction is an ongoing fact of life, here. Some of it, you may encounter. It may even cause the occasional delay. Some of it, however, you won't see. Back-ups being performed. Site ads being switched out. Problem areas identified and remedied, even before you encounter them. Even web hosting upgrades are being seriously considered (to add more disk space) - we still have some leeway, but I don't want to pushing things too far.
There's nothing wrong with taking direct flights to your gaming destinations of choice. But, if you ever need us, we're here.
Enjoy your flight! Enjoy your game!
RE: Your PBM flight is now boarding - tstone - 10-31-2015
I'm slowly completing my move to my apartment. Not only do I have most of my old PBM stuff, but I've all my old periodicals, Flagship, Paper Mayhem and some smaller specialized PBM zines.
Once I considered clearing out this stuff. Now, glad I held onto it. Not only is it irreplaceable gaming history, I might do something academic with it someday.