07-26-2013, 01:40 AM
My dear Grimfinger,
I too have lost count of how many times the hobby has been pronounced dead, but still flickers of life continue to register, even here in the Antipodes. I happened across a mention of Peter Rzechorzek having started a new game of that old chestnut TribeNet from a couple of years back and dropped him an email to see how it was going. I played in the Mangalian game of TN for 7 years, and enjoyed myself immensely, and was frankly surprised to hear the game was still alive. Not just alive but a new game had very recently started, so in I dived again, having missed only the first 2 turns. But I was used to having my 7 year old mega tribe and it's a big step down to start again. I'll stick at it despite my stupidity in skill allocation forgetting to give myself the ability to break off a sub tribe immediately. I now have Adm 2 so can get moving at last. Argh, wandered from my point again. The point of course is that TN is still going. With minimal publicity, no GUI at all to entrap the masses who "need graphics" for a game to be playable and mostly the same rules the game has had forever, it still manages to persist. And now that I can carve off an element I will certainly go back into my old daze of wandering home after work thinking about whether I'll find Iron in those distant mountains and will it be too far for a mounted element to transport it back to my village in one turn. So I'll need to allocate defenders to it, with horses and weapons and why wasn't it closer dammit.
I had been playing Olympia G3 run by Tom Droeshout (aka Bockor) with many luminaries of the hobby in there as well but that seems to have died a server host related death though it may return. Maybe. I know there is other action out there to be found but gaming time isn't as unlimited as it used to be.
Perhaps the "death" of PBM is more related to the ages of people playing. As those of us who were heavily involved have got older and got other responsibilities including family and work commitments we cannot play in so many games as before. The cohort of people that could be attracted to the hobby gets smaller as video games, sport and other entertainment compete for our time. Most of the people I play with (or against) are in my 40+ age bracket (ok, 47+ to be specific) and I haven't found a lot of young'uns replacing us. I loved playing 10 games at a time at my peak, it made sitting on a train to work for an hour an exercise in logistics at juggling turnsheets, maps, rulebooks and writing threatening and non-threatening letters, all to the amazement of the poor soul sitting next to me. Is casual gaming on smartphones and ipads offering another nail into our coffin, or is that the way to develop the next gen of PBM games? I'm no developer but perhaps there is a future for the hobby there in specialist apps to play these games rather than just web interfaces or using WordPad to submit my orders. I remember with amazement Peter Catling's old DinoWars program for players via email and BBS which gave you all the stats and reports you could possibly need on separate screens prior to submitting your orders. Loved that game.
Anyway, I have prattled enough. I'll tie this message to the pigeon's leg and hope Bockor doesn't eat it before it gets to you. You just cannot trust an Orc.
I too have lost count of how many times the hobby has been pronounced dead, but still flickers of life continue to register, even here in the Antipodes. I happened across a mention of Peter Rzechorzek having started a new game of that old chestnut TribeNet from a couple of years back and dropped him an email to see how it was going. I played in the Mangalian game of TN for 7 years, and enjoyed myself immensely, and was frankly surprised to hear the game was still alive. Not just alive but a new game had very recently started, so in I dived again, having missed only the first 2 turns. But I was used to having my 7 year old mega tribe and it's a big step down to start again. I'll stick at it despite my stupidity in skill allocation forgetting to give myself the ability to break off a sub tribe immediately. I now have Adm 2 so can get moving at last. Argh, wandered from my point again. The point of course is that TN is still going. With minimal publicity, no GUI at all to entrap the masses who "need graphics" for a game to be playable and mostly the same rules the game has had forever, it still manages to persist. And now that I can carve off an element I will certainly go back into my old daze of wandering home after work thinking about whether I'll find Iron in those distant mountains and will it be too far for a mounted element to transport it back to my village in one turn. So I'll need to allocate defenders to it, with horses and weapons and why wasn't it closer dammit.
I had been playing Olympia G3 run by Tom Droeshout (aka Bockor) with many luminaries of the hobby in there as well but that seems to have died a server host related death though it may return. Maybe. I know there is other action out there to be found but gaming time isn't as unlimited as it used to be.
Perhaps the "death" of PBM is more related to the ages of people playing. As those of us who were heavily involved have got older and got other responsibilities including family and work commitments we cannot play in so many games as before. The cohort of people that could be attracted to the hobby gets smaller as video games, sport and other entertainment compete for our time. Most of the people I play with (or against) are in my 40+ age bracket (ok, 47+ to be specific) and I haven't found a lot of young'uns replacing us. I loved playing 10 games at a time at my peak, it made sitting on a train to work for an hour an exercise in logistics at juggling turnsheets, maps, rulebooks and writing threatening and non-threatening letters, all to the amazement of the poor soul sitting next to me. Is casual gaming on smartphones and ipads offering another nail into our coffin, or is that the way to develop the next gen of PBM games? I'm no developer but perhaps there is a future for the hobby there in specialist apps to play these games rather than just web interfaces or using WordPad to submit my orders. I remember with amazement Peter Catling's old DinoWars program for players via email and BBS which gave you all the stats and reports you could possibly need on separate screens prior to submitting your orders. Loved that game.
Anyway, I have prattled enough. I'll tie this message to the pigeon's leg and hope Bockor doesn't eat it before it gets to you. You just cannot trust an Orc.