07-17-2013, 02:09 AM
Back when David Webber was the editor, his magazine, Paper Mayhem, featured a section titled, "Where We're Heading..." So, in tribute to David, I thought that I would use that as the subject heading for this editorial.
Domain renewal time is fast approaching for the PlayByMail.Net URL address for this site. I will be renewing the domain, probably later this week. I don't want it to expire. The actual web hosting is not due for renewal until a few months down the road, if memory serves me correctly.
Though the obituary for play by mail gaming has been written by many down through the years, nonetheless, reality being what it is, several decent sized chunks of the PBM landscape from yesteryear are still with us, today. Granted, while these chunks - PBM games, PBM companies, PBM moderators, and the PBM player base - may not be as large as some of us might otherwise prefer, they are still intact, with varying degrees of vibrancy evident in several different ones of them.
The relevance of it to this particular article is that they translate into links for me to post, and occasionally update, on this site.
In a nutshell, it ends up being quite a few links, several dozen at the very least. So, one challenge becomes, how to present them to site visitors who happen across our little island of PBM interest that floats here in the vastness of the Internet.
I want to make the site a little more presentable, a little more aesthetically pleasing, for site visitors. I just need to decide what I want it to look like, before contacting someone to help me to create that look.
As time passes, more and more PBM related material will likely become lost to one and all who find the play by mail genre of gaming to be of interest. As PBM players and PBM moderators pass away, one by one, their experiences and their views about PBM gaming become voids, never to be filled.
On a purely personal level, I have no desire to violate anyone's copyright on anything that is PBM related, nor any desire to violate anyone's trademark on anything that is PBM related. In many instances, I have no idea, whatsoever, whom holds what claim to various PBM related material. So, archiving various things of PBM interest is always problematic, at best.
Thus, instead of a central repository, of sorts, of all things PBM related, I strive, instead, to facilitate and nurture an interest in PBM gaming in a rather limited way.
It would be really nice, if there were the equivalent of a PBM Museum, even if it were only an online one. However, trying to look at things in a manner that is realistic, I suspect that none of us will ever be quite so lucky as to have a PBM Museum at our convenience.
Of course, there's no grand conspiracy to keep such a thing from ever happening. Rather, those individuals best suited to making it happen are either dead or disinterested or have simply never given such a thing a thought.
I really wish that Paper Mayhem and the other PBM magazines from years gone by could be preserved in electronic format, for the future benefit of those that come after us, as well as those of us who still retain an interest in such, currently.
We have the PlayByMail.Net forums, here, and we have the PBM Wiki. The forums are dreadfully underpopulated and sparingly used, and the wiki is little more than a hollow shell and bare list of a portion of the PBM games and PBM companies that have existed down through the years.
Yet, it is what it is, as the saying goes.
For the real meat, for the true substance full of details about various PBM games, one must venture elsewhere on the Internet, to the various locations that collectively comprise what I call, the Hivemind of PBM Gaming.
Here, at PlayByMail.Net, we basically serve as a hub, of sorts - a portal that is limited in what we offer, based on the reality of the PBM scene as it is, today.
Numerous PBM related forums litter the Internet, like virtual equivalents of ghost towns. Fortunately, there are several forums or discussion groups out there where PBM players gather in more concentrated numbers.
The PBM games that continue to thrive, those with sizable numbers of active players, they don't really need nurturing - for the very simple reason that they are not on the verge of dying, anytime soon.
The PBM magazines of old, those were driving forces in play by mail gaming. They were tangible, meaningful, and possessing of great substance to growing and to perpetuating the genre of gaming that is play-by-mail.
And PlayByMail.Net? PlayByMail.Net plays a role. It serves a purpose. But, it is more of an observer than a catalyst for energizing the PBM community. Where the PBM magazines sought to be active catalysts for PBM gaming, PlayByMail.Net tends to be far more passive in nature.
Maybe that needs to change. Maybe it doesn't. For the foreseeable future, at least, it is what it is, I suppose.
PBM's Old Guard, as I like to call them, remain very influential to PBM gaming as it has evolved to be. There's fewer of them, now, still active in this genre of gaming. Yet, they remain relevant - not just to PBM in its current state, but to the future of PBM gaming, at large.
Whether one agreed or not with what Paper Mayhem editor, David Webber, said, in those "Where We're Heading..." columns that he wrote, time after time after time, one things is certain - Where PBM gaming was concerned, David Webber was always heading somewhere.
The same could be said for Carol Mulholland, editor of Flagship magazine.
Across the vast cosmos that is PBM gaming, Carol's voice has fallen silent. Yet, time and time and time, again, Carol put forth her voice. Her investment of time, energy, effort, and interest into the hobby of PBM gaming bore much fruit, over the years. Carol, too, was always heading somewhere, where PBM gaming was concerned.
In the old days, PBM companies contended with one another for paying customers. The spirit of competition was alive and well across the entire length and width and breadth of play by mail gaming. That fire burned. It burned brightly, and it inspired countless legions of PBM fans, and it attracted a long procession of newcomers to a realm where ideas and paper met gaming.
These days, that spirit of competition has died. A vastly different atmosphere reigns. The flame flickers weakly. The genre attracts little attention, little interest from a world that has more people than ever before.
With each envelope that arrived in one's mailbox, the heat from that flame could be felt. The air of mystery was great, and anticipation built to a staggering crescendo, as each mailbox yielded forth to PBM players across the world a healthy serving of tension and excitement. The world of the PBM gamer was alive with meaning. The future of PBM gaming was bright. The world of PBM gaming would never end.
Then, reality set in.
Not content with annihilating the hobby of PBM gaming, by taking a massive toll on both PBM games and PBM companies, the PBM Plague has proven to be relentless in its pursuit of saddling play by mail gaming with a slow death and a torturous existence.
A mere shell of its once inspiring greatness, the PBM genre of gaming has lost its innovation. It has lost its way. It has lost its competitive spirit. It languishes in an abyss of its own making.
PBM gaming was about more than just turn orders and due dates and turn results. It was about more than just gaming. It was a people enterprise. People brought the genre into existence, and people have kept the genre alive, in spite of all odds being stacked against its continued survival.
I can't speak to the entirety of the PBM community, nor even for a majority of it, as far as what they intend for the future of their participation in the hobby that is play by mail gaming.
For myself, though, I can speak. It is my hope that the coming year will be a better and more productive one for me, as far as how my own interest in PBM gaming - the hobby, the genre, the experience - plays out. Granted, time may ultimately bear me out to be wrong, but as I stand upon this Rock of PBM Memories that I enjoy, this day, I feel the flicker of that flame, once more.
I see it. I sense it. I feel it in the marrow of my PBM bones.
Now, if I can only stir myself to action.
Domain renewal time is fast approaching for the PlayByMail.Net URL address for this site. I will be renewing the domain, probably later this week. I don't want it to expire. The actual web hosting is not due for renewal until a few months down the road, if memory serves me correctly.
Though the obituary for play by mail gaming has been written by many down through the years, nonetheless, reality being what it is, several decent sized chunks of the PBM landscape from yesteryear are still with us, today. Granted, while these chunks - PBM games, PBM companies, PBM moderators, and the PBM player base - may not be as large as some of us might otherwise prefer, they are still intact, with varying degrees of vibrancy evident in several different ones of them.
The relevance of it to this particular article is that they translate into links for me to post, and occasionally update, on this site.
In a nutshell, it ends up being quite a few links, several dozen at the very least. So, one challenge becomes, how to present them to site visitors who happen across our little island of PBM interest that floats here in the vastness of the Internet.
I want to make the site a little more presentable, a little more aesthetically pleasing, for site visitors. I just need to decide what I want it to look like, before contacting someone to help me to create that look.
As time passes, more and more PBM related material will likely become lost to one and all who find the play by mail genre of gaming to be of interest. As PBM players and PBM moderators pass away, one by one, their experiences and their views about PBM gaming become voids, never to be filled.
On a purely personal level, I have no desire to violate anyone's copyright on anything that is PBM related, nor any desire to violate anyone's trademark on anything that is PBM related. In many instances, I have no idea, whatsoever, whom holds what claim to various PBM related material. So, archiving various things of PBM interest is always problematic, at best.
Thus, instead of a central repository, of sorts, of all things PBM related, I strive, instead, to facilitate and nurture an interest in PBM gaming in a rather limited way.
It would be really nice, if there were the equivalent of a PBM Museum, even if it were only an online one. However, trying to look at things in a manner that is realistic, I suspect that none of us will ever be quite so lucky as to have a PBM Museum at our convenience.
Of course, there's no grand conspiracy to keep such a thing from ever happening. Rather, those individuals best suited to making it happen are either dead or disinterested or have simply never given such a thing a thought.
I really wish that Paper Mayhem and the other PBM magazines from years gone by could be preserved in electronic format, for the future benefit of those that come after us, as well as those of us who still retain an interest in such, currently.
We have the PlayByMail.Net forums, here, and we have the PBM Wiki. The forums are dreadfully underpopulated and sparingly used, and the wiki is little more than a hollow shell and bare list of a portion of the PBM games and PBM companies that have existed down through the years.
Yet, it is what it is, as the saying goes.
For the real meat, for the true substance full of details about various PBM games, one must venture elsewhere on the Internet, to the various locations that collectively comprise what I call, the Hivemind of PBM Gaming.
Here, at PlayByMail.Net, we basically serve as a hub, of sorts - a portal that is limited in what we offer, based on the reality of the PBM scene as it is, today.
Numerous PBM related forums litter the Internet, like virtual equivalents of ghost towns. Fortunately, there are several forums or discussion groups out there where PBM players gather in more concentrated numbers.
The PBM games that continue to thrive, those with sizable numbers of active players, they don't really need nurturing - for the very simple reason that they are not on the verge of dying, anytime soon.
The PBM magazines of old, those were driving forces in play by mail gaming. They were tangible, meaningful, and possessing of great substance to growing and to perpetuating the genre of gaming that is play-by-mail.
And PlayByMail.Net? PlayByMail.Net plays a role. It serves a purpose. But, it is more of an observer than a catalyst for energizing the PBM community. Where the PBM magazines sought to be active catalysts for PBM gaming, PlayByMail.Net tends to be far more passive in nature.
Maybe that needs to change. Maybe it doesn't. For the foreseeable future, at least, it is what it is, I suppose.
PBM's Old Guard, as I like to call them, remain very influential to PBM gaming as it has evolved to be. There's fewer of them, now, still active in this genre of gaming. Yet, they remain relevant - not just to PBM in its current state, but to the future of PBM gaming, at large.
Whether one agreed or not with what Paper Mayhem editor, David Webber, said, in those "Where We're Heading..." columns that he wrote, time after time after time, one things is certain - Where PBM gaming was concerned, David Webber was always heading somewhere.
The same could be said for Carol Mulholland, editor of Flagship magazine.
Across the vast cosmos that is PBM gaming, Carol's voice has fallen silent. Yet, time and time and time, again, Carol put forth her voice. Her investment of time, energy, effort, and interest into the hobby of PBM gaming bore much fruit, over the years. Carol, too, was always heading somewhere, where PBM gaming was concerned.
In the old days, PBM companies contended with one another for paying customers. The spirit of competition was alive and well across the entire length and width and breadth of play by mail gaming. That fire burned. It burned brightly, and it inspired countless legions of PBM fans, and it attracted a long procession of newcomers to a realm where ideas and paper met gaming.
These days, that spirit of competition has died. A vastly different atmosphere reigns. The flame flickers weakly. The genre attracts little attention, little interest from a world that has more people than ever before.
With each envelope that arrived in one's mailbox, the heat from that flame could be felt. The air of mystery was great, and anticipation built to a staggering crescendo, as each mailbox yielded forth to PBM players across the world a healthy serving of tension and excitement. The world of the PBM gamer was alive with meaning. The future of PBM gaming was bright. The world of PBM gaming would never end.
Then, reality set in.
Not content with annihilating the hobby of PBM gaming, by taking a massive toll on both PBM games and PBM companies, the PBM Plague has proven to be relentless in its pursuit of saddling play by mail gaming with a slow death and a torturous existence.
A mere shell of its once inspiring greatness, the PBM genre of gaming has lost its innovation. It has lost its way. It has lost its competitive spirit. It languishes in an abyss of its own making.
PBM gaming was about more than just turn orders and due dates and turn results. It was about more than just gaming. It was a people enterprise. People brought the genre into existence, and people have kept the genre alive, in spite of all odds being stacked against its continued survival.
I can't speak to the entirety of the PBM community, nor even for a majority of it, as far as what they intend for the future of their participation in the hobby that is play by mail gaming.
For myself, though, I can speak. It is my hope that the coming year will be a better and more productive one for me, as far as how my own interest in PBM gaming - the hobby, the genre, the experience - plays out. Granted, time may ultimately bear me out to be wrong, but as I stand upon this Rock of PBM Memories that I enjoy, this day, I feel the flicker of that flame, once more.
I see it. I sense it. I feel it in the marrow of my PBM bones.
Now, if I can only stir myself to action.
