11-22-2011, 10:34 AM
It's been a while since I fired up the old editorial pen, so let's take the beast our for a spin, and see what PBM related thoughts occupy my mind, this morning.
Tell me something - what would Play By Mail have been like in its heyday, if Wikipedia had been around, then? I think that it would have sparked many-a-more PBM games across a wide range of genres.
It's a great resource, Wikipedia is. It isn't the epitome of accuracy, in all instances, but it sure beats buy a set of encyclopedias in book format - an over-priced curiosity of a bygone era.
I recall spending many an hour "surfing" my grandpa's dated set of World Book encyclopedia volumes. Today, all these many years later, I browse Wikipedia, sometimes for a few moments at a sitting, and other times for extended periods of time. Invariably, I tend to end up somewhere well removed from where I started, as interest in one topic almost always leads to interest in another topic.
What does any of this have to do with play by mail gaming? Quite a lot, actually. Or, at least, I like to think so. As I can't seem to decide what type of PBM game to craft for the modern age, Wikipedia is a great resource to dredge from.
At some point in the coming weeks, I should finally (hopefully) make the transition from my current 14.4K-to-21.6K dial-up Internet connection to a broadband Internet connection. What that transition bodes for this site remains to be seen.
I invest far less time in this site, now, that I did at various intervals in the past. However, that has as much to do with how much others participate in the site, as it does with anything else. The site isn't going anywhere, for the foreseeable future, but it isn't my place to compel nor to pressure anyone else to post their own PBM experiences and PBM thoughts.
While the possibility looms large that I could broadband-warp out of PBM existence, my gut instinct tells me that I will likely use this site more - not less, after the transition, simply due to the fact that broadband Internet will make it possible for the pages of other websites to load almost instantly (at least, compared to what I have been experiencing on dial-up, to date).
Of course, who knows? There's no certainty in any of it.
I do know, from first-hand experience, that it is very tiring and very time consuming to try and sift through pages on various PBM related websites of other companies and individuals. It takes the proverbial forever to do most anything, online.
I speak from the perspective of someone who has never played World of Warcraft, nor participated in any of the more recent online gaming rages of the massively multiplayer variety. Some things simply are not feasible on a dial-up connection.
As the United States Postal Service again contends with remaining viable for the future, perhaps some future de-monopolization of the postal service could hold some glimmer of promise for play by mail gaming to take hold, again. Perhaps not. Probably not. But, at some point in time, after all of us current PBM dinosaurs have gone the way of the extinct, who's to say what the future holds? What if there were lots of local postal services? What if someone found a way to make local postal delivery profitable in ways that the United States Postal Service has not been able to do, in light of changing times, changing technologies, and changing consumer habits?
I had turn results arrive, yesterday, for a game of Hyborian War that I am in. Getting that envelope in the mail is still a good feeling - even if the results that it holds are not always so well received.
If you went to your postal mailbox tomorrow, and opened it to find set-up materials for a new play by mail game, would it intrigue you? Sure it would. You might not end up playing it, but I dare suggest that you would be intrigued.
In due time, I think that I am going to test that theory - with a few of you who visit this site, and with a few others who probably do not visit this site. Consider it to be an experiment, of sorts.
I won't be after hundreds. I won't be after thousands. I certainly won't be after millions of players. No, what I am after will be a more manageable number, a more localized affair.
I pause from writing this editorial piece to flip through a copy of an old rulebook for my defunct play by mail game, Starforce Battles. A PLAY-BY-MAIL GAME OF GALACTIC CONQUEST it loudly proclaims in all capital letters on the front cover, just beneath the title of the game, which I created using the old Dr. Halo graphics program on a 386 16Mhz Emerson computer with 1 MegaByte of RAM.
The names of Scott M. Estrin, John Byrne, Robert Dickenson, Noel Sheffield, Pete Weis, Vinny O'Neil, Eddie Brown, Doug Scharbrough, and Charles M. Sayre all adorn the Credits page on the inside of that rule book. The individual pages of the rule book were all typed up in all capital letters, too. What can I say? My typing skills in those days were not quite what they are, now, all these many years later.
What did I like most about that game? Oh, I don't know. I liked the fact that it was fun. It was fun for me, even though I didn't play in it. It was fun watching how the various players reacted to - and interacted with - one another. It was fun to see enthusiasm for the game grow, one player at a time. It was fun to learn how players tended to perceive their own empire's power in relation to the power of other players' empires.
And the hardest part of it all? Man, that's a tough one. It was probably not being a programmer, which all but ensured that there were things that I wanted to do with the game for the players, that I simply never knew how to do.
Not being a programmer still bites me in the ass, today, all these many years later. But, such is life in the realm of those who consider themselves to be play by mail gamers and would-be PBM moderators.
Life goes on.
Tell me something - what would Play By Mail have been like in its heyday, if Wikipedia had been around, then? I think that it would have sparked many-a-more PBM games across a wide range of genres.
It's a great resource, Wikipedia is. It isn't the epitome of accuracy, in all instances, but it sure beats buy a set of encyclopedias in book format - an over-priced curiosity of a bygone era.
I recall spending many an hour "surfing" my grandpa's dated set of World Book encyclopedia volumes. Today, all these many years later, I browse Wikipedia, sometimes for a few moments at a sitting, and other times for extended periods of time. Invariably, I tend to end up somewhere well removed from where I started, as interest in one topic almost always leads to interest in another topic.
What does any of this have to do with play by mail gaming? Quite a lot, actually. Or, at least, I like to think so. As I can't seem to decide what type of PBM game to craft for the modern age, Wikipedia is a great resource to dredge from.
At some point in the coming weeks, I should finally (hopefully) make the transition from my current 14.4K-to-21.6K dial-up Internet connection to a broadband Internet connection. What that transition bodes for this site remains to be seen.
I invest far less time in this site, now, that I did at various intervals in the past. However, that has as much to do with how much others participate in the site, as it does with anything else. The site isn't going anywhere, for the foreseeable future, but it isn't my place to compel nor to pressure anyone else to post their own PBM experiences and PBM thoughts.
While the possibility looms large that I could broadband-warp out of PBM existence, my gut instinct tells me that I will likely use this site more - not less, after the transition, simply due to the fact that broadband Internet will make it possible for the pages of other websites to load almost instantly (at least, compared to what I have been experiencing on dial-up, to date).
Of course, who knows? There's no certainty in any of it.
I do know, from first-hand experience, that it is very tiring and very time consuming to try and sift through pages on various PBM related websites of other companies and individuals. It takes the proverbial forever to do most anything, online.
I speak from the perspective of someone who has never played World of Warcraft, nor participated in any of the more recent online gaming rages of the massively multiplayer variety. Some things simply are not feasible on a dial-up connection.
As the United States Postal Service again contends with remaining viable for the future, perhaps some future de-monopolization of the postal service could hold some glimmer of promise for play by mail gaming to take hold, again. Perhaps not. Probably not. But, at some point in time, after all of us current PBM dinosaurs have gone the way of the extinct, who's to say what the future holds? What if there were lots of local postal services? What if someone found a way to make local postal delivery profitable in ways that the United States Postal Service has not been able to do, in light of changing times, changing technologies, and changing consumer habits?
I had turn results arrive, yesterday, for a game of Hyborian War that I am in. Getting that envelope in the mail is still a good feeling - even if the results that it holds are not always so well received.
If you went to your postal mailbox tomorrow, and opened it to find set-up materials for a new play by mail game, would it intrigue you? Sure it would. You might not end up playing it, but I dare suggest that you would be intrigued.
In due time, I think that I am going to test that theory - with a few of you who visit this site, and with a few others who probably do not visit this site. Consider it to be an experiment, of sorts.
I won't be after hundreds. I won't be after thousands. I certainly won't be after millions of players. No, what I am after will be a more manageable number, a more localized affair.
I pause from writing this editorial piece to flip through a copy of an old rulebook for my defunct play by mail game, Starforce Battles. A PLAY-BY-MAIL GAME OF GALACTIC CONQUEST it loudly proclaims in all capital letters on the front cover, just beneath the title of the game, which I created using the old Dr. Halo graphics program on a 386 16Mhz Emerson computer with 1 MegaByte of RAM.
The names of Scott M. Estrin, John Byrne, Robert Dickenson, Noel Sheffield, Pete Weis, Vinny O'Neil, Eddie Brown, Doug Scharbrough, and Charles M. Sayre all adorn the Credits page on the inside of that rule book. The individual pages of the rule book were all typed up in all capital letters, too. What can I say? My typing skills in those days were not quite what they are, now, all these many years later.
What did I like most about that game? Oh, I don't know. I liked the fact that it was fun. It was fun for me, even though I didn't play in it. It was fun watching how the various players reacted to - and interacted with - one another. It was fun to see enthusiasm for the game grow, one player at a time. It was fun to learn how players tended to perceive their own empire's power in relation to the power of other players' empires.
And the hardest part of it all? Man, that's a tough one. It was probably not being a programmer, which all but ensured that there were things that I wanted to do with the game for the players, that I simply never knew how to do.
Not being a programmer still bites me in the ass, today, all these many years later. But, such is life in the realm of those who consider themselves to be play by mail gamers and would-be PBM moderators.
Life goes on.