Hunted Down

[jperkins]

It sounds as though you have already been committed to an institution - namely, the institution of PBM.

Tell us more.

Yes, it seems an institution not easily escaped. Mind you as long as it is the appropriate institution, full of the similarly afflicted, that is not necessarily a bad thing.

I think there could be a parallel for pbm/pbem with the music industry. There are a lot of songs out there on the internet, some free, some cheap and yet audiophiles often prefer to listen to records on a class system. Its harder to find the music in that format, it takes up physical space and requires greater effort to access and use, but its better, offering a depth of experience that the quick and convenient mp3s played through a phone don't offer.

Of course a lot of the old original records are scratched/warped pieces of almost unlistenable pain that grate and no-one would put up with compared to a sterile, but clean, modern digital recording.

So some things work in the niche format well. Other things are better delivered through a server available 24 hours a day. PBM/PBEM are also largely competing for the same gaming dollars and game time availability. They need to strike a balance of taking up enough time to justify the cost, but not demand too much time compared to the entertainment provided. Especially if players at the height of their enthusiasm can end up creating large complicated incurring a significant long term time commitment and possibly comparatively large cost that can't be easy backed away from when the initial passion fades into an interest that no longer justifies as much outlay of time and money. This is especially the case for open-ended campaigns.

While I feel the temptation to design something, I don't have the time for anything major and things would have to get really bad for it to make any kind of economic sense to do it commercially. But, once an addict... no, I couldn't. Not like that again.