After the PBM lovin'

[ravenzachary]

Mega-PBMer Raven Zachary sent me an e-mail, today, and in it, he compared me to Sisyphus - so it is nice to get Issue #18 of Suspense & Decsision magazine out the door and into the hands of the magazine's readership. Forever rolling a boulder up a hill in Hades certainly has a nice ring to it, where describing what it felt like hauling S & D out of mothballs and reacquainting myself with old processes, while simultaneously learning the ins and the outs of new software. What can I say? I'm tired.

Pooped! Worn out. Worn to a frazzle. These are all phrases that come to mind to describe the experience that was the compiling and the refining of Issue #18. But from the outside looking in, it's more a case of, "Eh? What's the big deal, here?"

And in the midst of it all, Rick Loomis of Flying Buffalo, Inc. passed away. For those that aren't good at grasping the significance of events, Rick Loomis dying was the equivalent of a cataclysmic event in the realm of play by mail gaming. He was the founding father of commercial PBM gaming. He was running commercial PBM games for right at fifty years - half a century! Plus, he also seemed to be the most successful figure associated with play by mail gaming in the entire realm of modern day crowdfunding. If anyone had the mojo, it was Rick Loomis, no question about it!

For Rick Loomis, PBM gaming was a profession - a way of life! For me, PBM gaming has been a hobby interest of mine since the mid-to-late eighties. Rick Loomis, whatever else might be said about the man, has been a constant in the realm of play by mail gaming longer than anyone else in the Old Guard of PBM gaming. Me? I'm not even close. I come and go as I choose, but for whatever combination of reasons, it appears that I have now come back, once again. Plus, I'm getting older by the minute, so honestly, I don't know how much longer I can keep on coming and going. For now, though, I'm here, so let's try to make the most of it, OK? After all, as Rick Loomis' recent passing vividly demonstrates, none of us are promised tomorrow.

If life has taught me anything, it's that irony is an omnipresent force in this universe of ours. It may well yet prove to be the case that the passing of commercial play by mail gaming's founding father may yet revitalize the soil of the PBM scene, leading in time to the dawning of a new golden era in PBM gaming.

As Bernd Jaehnigen phrased it in his article in Issue #18 titled, Tribal Starfleet Trade Report: The Shortcomings of Modern Board Games,| "But there is a large and growing community of gamers out there who have no idea PBMs or PBM-likes even exist. There is demand that no one has tapped into."

Let's find out!

Calling you Sisyphus was a compliment to your dedication and willpower.  But, you know that already.

If we didn't have you as the Sisphyus of Play-by-Mail Games, there would be no Suspense & Decision Magazine!

It's better to be the Sisyphus of Play-by-Mail Games than to be the Prometheus of Play-by-Mail Games and have your internal organs eaten by a bird for eternity. I wonder who the Prometheus of Play-by-Mail Games is? There's a lot of people who probably qualify for the that. All the grossly underpaid PBM GMs who are doing this for passion and can't make a living doing it, as much as they deserve to.