07-06-2012, 05:39 PM
There is a poster for the movie, Prometheus, which features a giant head of some sort, and the text teaser overlaid onto it says:
This got me to thinking, is this the future of play by mail gaming?
I don't mean the movie, Prometheus (which I have not yet seen, but probably will, when it comes out on Netflix at some point in the future), but rather, advertising by posters.
It really isn't so much that I am preoccupied by, nor obsessed with, posters. Rather, isn't this pretty much what the majority of those old advertisements for PBM games boiled down to?
I see numerous attempts by various individuals and various companies trying to recapture that old PBM flavor, in their latest attempts at game crafting. Are they on the right track? Or are they all destined to miss the mark? Only time will tell.
As site user Starkadder continues to unearth some of his ancient materials left over from his days spent warring in the PBM classic of old, StarMaster, I cannot but help to wonder about such things. What he has dug up is not state of the art graphics, even for those days. Rather, he is treating us to some textual tidbits. Is mine the only imagination that they refresh?
I never played StarMaster, back in the day. Hell, back in the day, I had never even heard of it. Word of other PBM games traveled slow, in those days - and particularly if you didn't have access to or awareness of magazines specifically dedicated to coverage of the play by mail genre of gaming.
With much of what remains of PBM materials still secreted away in stasis vaults lost in time, only dust particles are interacting with what the once dominant players of PBM treasured more than gold. It is my belief that vast hoards of PBM gaming materials still exist out there - somewhere. I have no reason to believe otherwise.
So, as programmers and game designers sally forth with their wares in progress, what is it that we can all expect? What shall we gain, but perhaps more importantly, what shall be left to our imagination?
Or, like the voice that hearkens unto the prospective Prometheus fan, shall the search for PBM's beginning lead to its end, no matter what renewed efforts to reignite the golden lamp of PBM past are made in the present era?
Got PBM moxie? Then show me your poster, kid!
THE SEARCH FOR OUR BEGINNING
COULD LEAD TO OUR END
COULD LEAD TO OUR END
This got me to thinking, is this the future of play by mail gaming?
I don't mean the movie, Prometheus (which I have not yet seen, but probably will, when it comes out on Netflix at some point in the future), but rather, advertising by posters.
It really isn't so much that I am preoccupied by, nor obsessed with, posters. Rather, isn't this pretty much what the majority of those old advertisements for PBM games boiled down to?
I see numerous attempts by various individuals and various companies trying to recapture that old PBM flavor, in their latest attempts at game crafting. Are they on the right track? Or are they all destined to miss the mark? Only time will tell.
As site user Starkadder continues to unearth some of his ancient materials left over from his days spent warring in the PBM classic of old, StarMaster, I cannot but help to wonder about such things. What he has dug up is not state of the art graphics, even for those days. Rather, he is treating us to some textual tidbits. Is mine the only imagination that they refresh?
I never played StarMaster, back in the day. Hell, back in the day, I had never even heard of it. Word of other PBM games traveled slow, in those days - and particularly if you didn't have access to or awareness of magazines specifically dedicated to coverage of the play by mail genre of gaming.
With much of what remains of PBM materials still secreted away in stasis vaults lost in time, only dust particles are interacting with what the once dominant players of PBM treasured more than gold. It is my belief that vast hoards of PBM gaming materials still exist out there - somewhere. I have no reason to believe otherwise.
So, as programmers and game designers sally forth with their wares in progress, what is it that we can all expect? What shall we gain, but perhaps more importantly, what shall be left to our imagination?
Or, like the voice that hearkens unto the prospective Prometheus fan, shall the search for PBM's beginning lead to its end, no matter what renewed efforts to reignite the golden lamp of PBM past are made in the present era?
Got PBM moxie? Then show me your poster, kid!