05-05-2011, 07:06 PM
Welcome, Cort.
I find myself agreeing with most of what you said. I think the internet killed the PBM industry, but the internet is also making possible its rebirth. I keep thinking there's a good way to move many of the best PBM games from the old times over to a mobile platform, for casual, asynchronous gaming. There is a deep wealth of game-design experience out there, from the perspective of both player and moderator. And here today we have free games popping up out of nowhere by the thousands, waiting to take up our time. Why not combine the best of both eras and come up with something new?
The one thing I disagree with in your post is the notion that somehow this "turn based gaming" arena might be 5% of the market. I think it is probably a small fraction of that. But that's okay, because either it's large enough to make good game designers rich (witness silly games like Angry Birds) or it's too small to even be a blip on the radar, which will keep all of this a labor of love. It's all good.
I find myself agreeing with most of what you said. I think the internet killed the PBM industry, but the internet is also making possible its rebirth. I keep thinking there's a good way to move many of the best PBM games from the old times over to a mobile platform, for casual, asynchronous gaming. There is a deep wealth of game-design experience out there, from the perspective of both player and moderator. And here today we have free games popping up out of nowhere by the thousands, waiting to take up our time. Why not combine the best of both eras and come up with something new?
The one thing I disagree with in your post is the notion that somehow this "turn based gaming" arena might be 5% of the market. I think it is probably a small fraction of that. But that's okay, because either it's large enough to make good game designers rich (witness silly games like Angry Birds) or it's too small to even be a blip on the radar, which will keep all of this a labor of love. It's all good.