09-01-2011, 02:48 PM
The famed Mike Fay conducted what I believe to be one of the longest interviews in play by mail history, with his grand inquisition of Galactic Prisoners game moderator Ed Grandel in issue # 38 of Paper Mayhem magazine.
I never played Galactic Prisoners, back in the day. I was tempted to, though. Hell, I'm still tempted to play it, even now, all these many years later.
In that interview, Ed Grandel said that he designed the game, Galactic Prisoners, "so that the player would feel alone and isolated when he first got into the game." Ed was seeking to simulate the conditions that he would feel, if he were actually placed as an ATV (All Terrain Vehicle) on an alien world.
I don't know what ever became of either Ed Grandel or Galactic Prisoners. All PBM players now appear to be in a world similar to what the Nibor decided the fate of human race should be. We are all prisoners on the alien world of Internet. We're scattered. We're relatively few in number, compared to the count of our postal playing species from the height of postal gaming civilization's apex now past. Much like Galactic Prisoners, our future is now a game of discovery. We aren't necessarily liking all that we discover, however, even though some of what we discover we do like.
If I were to create a new play by mail game, today, then I think that how Ed Grandel approached the design of his game, Galactic Prisoners, would still be good guidance, all these many years later. A lot of postal gaming was about "feel." Not about perfection. Just about "feel."
Many modern incarnations of games seem to lack this very same quality, this "feel" thing. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. They have plenty of click, but click definitely isn't the same thing as "feel."
There's a lot of talk these days about instant gratification in gaming. New games come along, they grab your attention, they fire the imagination, and the fire quickly burns itself out, leaving the game in the ash bin of history. What happened?
Postal games, often referred to as correspondence games across the big Pond of the Atlantic, suffered a host of different maladies, to be sure. But, one thing that many of them got right, perhaps aided by the nature of the beast, itself, which was the postal medium, was pace. The medium lent itself well to allowing the entertainment factor to proceed at a pace that imbued the end product, the game, with longevity of play.
Clicking to kill opposing forces, whether Indians or space aliens, is quite a distinct thing from thinking about how to kill them. When I play Hyborian War, these days, I still spend a lot of time thinking about both what I should do, and about what I think that my dastardly enemies will likely do. That quality of thought aspect of gaming is a byproduct of the game, which is facilitated by the pace of the game, the unfolding of the grand adventure that is the whole game played out over a period of many months.
In the very same issue of Paper Mayhem as the Ed Grandel interview, issue # 38 (the September/October 1989 issue), there is also an article titled, "Playtesting: Orion Nebula Preview." In this article, it's author, Stephen Marte, mentions CompuServe. Thus, the Internet and the pre-Internet technological revolution enveloped play by mail gaming more than two decades ago, at a bare minimum.
It is indisputable that this tsunami of technology has changed the face of gaming, forever. But, has it really conquered the core basics of challenges that inhere in the gaming paradigm of entertainment? Are the new games kings and conquers of the old PBM games, in the areas of feel and pace? Pound for pound, content-wise, which has proven to be the more efficient medium?
I ask, in the interest of rehabilitating the prisoners of modern day gaming. Is there any hope for rehabilitating even a relatively small portion of them back to gaming that flourished under the banner of play by mail?
I never played Galactic Prisoners, back in the day. I was tempted to, though. Hell, I'm still tempted to play it, even now, all these many years later.
In that interview, Ed Grandel said that he designed the game, Galactic Prisoners, "so that the player would feel alone and isolated when he first got into the game." Ed was seeking to simulate the conditions that he would feel, if he were actually placed as an ATV (All Terrain Vehicle) on an alien world.
I don't know what ever became of either Ed Grandel or Galactic Prisoners. All PBM players now appear to be in a world similar to what the Nibor decided the fate of human race should be. We are all prisoners on the alien world of Internet. We're scattered. We're relatively few in number, compared to the count of our postal playing species from the height of postal gaming civilization's apex now past. Much like Galactic Prisoners, our future is now a game of discovery. We aren't necessarily liking all that we discover, however, even though some of what we discover we do like.
If I were to create a new play by mail game, today, then I think that how Ed Grandel approached the design of his game, Galactic Prisoners, would still be good guidance, all these many years later. A lot of postal gaming was about "feel." Not about perfection. Just about "feel."
Many modern incarnations of games seem to lack this very same quality, this "feel" thing. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. They have plenty of click, but click definitely isn't the same thing as "feel."
There's a lot of talk these days about instant gratification in gaming. New games come along, they grab your attention, they fire the imagination, and the fire quickly burns itself out, leaving the game in the ash bin of history. What happened?
Postal games, often referred to as correspondence games across the big Pond of the Atlantic, suffered a host of different maladies, to be sure. But, one thing that many of them got right, perhaps aided by the nature of the beast, itself, which was the postal medium, was pace. The medium lent itself well to allowing the entertainment factor to proceed at a pace that imbued the end product, the game, with longevity of play.
Clicking to kill opposing forces, whether Indians or space aliens, is quite a distinct thing from thinking about how to kill them. When I play Hyborian War, these days, I still spend a lot of time thinking about both what I should do, and about what I think that my dastardly enemies will likely do. That quality of thought aspect of gaming is a byproduct of the game, which is facilitated by the pace of the game, the unfolding of the grand adventure that is the whole game played out over a period of many months.
In the very same issue of Paper Mayhem as the Ed Grandel interview, issue # 38 (the September/October 1989 issue), there is also an article titled, "Playtesting: Orion Nebula Preview." In this article, it's author, Stephen Marte, mentions CompuServe. Thus, the Internet and the pre-Internet technological revolution enveloped play by mail gaming more than two decades ago, at a bare minimum.
It is indisputable that this tsunami of technology has changed the face of gaming, forever. But, has it really conquered the core basics of challenges that inhere in the gaming paradigm of entertainment? Are the new games kings and conquers of the old PBM games, in the areas of feel and pace? Pound for pound, content-wise, which has proven to be the more efficient medium?
I ask, in the interest of rehabilitating the prisoners of modern day gaming. Is there any hope for rehabilitating even a relatively small portion of them back to gaming that flourished under the banner of play by mail?