PBM is dead! Long live PBM!

[GrimFinger]

While I'm on the subject, I think World of Warcraft could count as a PBM-like. It's very visual, of course, but it involves developing your position over extensive periods of time, in cooperation with your teammates and in conflict with the enemy. The users think they are playing a computer game (which they are), but they are also playing a PBM game. Or no? What are your thoughts?

I've never played World of Warcraft. Some things simply would not be practical on a slow dial-up Internet connection.

That said, I did play a lot of Warcraft II, back in the day, and Starcraft, as well. Lots of repetitious destruction, but fun, nonetheless.

I don't believe that text can really die, as a medium for gaming entertainment, simply because reading isl never likely to become obsolete. Where old school play by mail games are concerned, the player's imagination was a de facto substitute for graphics. While turn orders and turn results manifested themselves on paper, the games, themselves, were played out in players' minds. Computer graphics are ever at a disadvantage to an imagination that is engaged. At least, that's how I perceive things to be.

Where Hyborian War is concerned, if I may use that as an example, I have far more means at my disposal, these days, to communicate quickly and efficiently. However, communication in the current day and age utterly pales in comparison to communication in the pre-Internet days, in terms of how inter-player communication imbues Hyborian War with a greater veneer of quality. The conniving bastards of today simply pale in comparison to the conniving bastards of yesteryear.