Opening the floodgates of play by mail

[Davin]

Would you'd define PBM games as those that require orders to be submitted by Mail (or Email)? Does the interface or the experience define the genre?

Could you extend that to be web-based as well as email?  Galac-Tac provides both turns and input directly on the web, but it also has XML interfaces so that anyone can automate that access and use only a local interface to read and write their turns and access the web for them, so even the web is not a requirement for the users to speak directly to.

I think it would be sufficient to say that the game would need to be centrally controlled and you have to send and receive your turns via that central location.