07-26-2013, 02:38 PM
For some time, now, I have given thought to creating a new PBM magazine, one whose primary focus is the postal genre of gaming. Would such an undertaking be worth whatever time, energy, and effort would be required to get it up and off the ground and published?
Honestly, I don't know. But, what I do know is that I would certainly like to try.
What would go in it, that I don't already post here on the PlayByMail.Net website? Again, I don't know. Maybe that's the challenge - perhaps the biggest challenge of all, for me, personally.
What I do know is that I don't want it to simply be a compilation of material already posted on the website here. Sure, now and again, we could inter-splice a few articles. But, by and large, what I hope to aim for would be original material, not just a rehash of existing material.
Both Carol Mulholland and David Webber, the former editors of former PBM magazines, Flagship and Paper Mayhem, respectively, have been on my mind, of late. I have been torn by the dilemma of which of the two of them that I would like to commemorate the first issue of this new PBM magazine in honor of.
Unfortunately, David passed away a few years back. Carol had a stroke, a while back, but she is still with us. Over the years, many individuals - countless individuals, perhaps - have played a pivotal role in the development and progression of the postal genre of gaming. Yet, because the focus of this particular undertaking is the creation of a new PBM magazine, I believe it to be especially appropriate for the maiden issue of this new publication to be figures closely associated with PBM magazines from the past.
Even that narrow category would properly have many names associated with it. Yet, even still, it is Paper Mayhem and Flagship that I, personally, have the longest first-hand association with.
The very first issue of any magazine holds special significance - for those who publish them, if no one else. Likewise, such holds true in the current instance, with the first issue of this new PBM magazine, as well.
And, for the very reason that the first issue holds special significance - extra special significance, if you will, all the more reason then, I think, for the first issue to be dedicated in honor of more than one person.
I could easily see either David or Carol as being properly deserving of having the first issue dedicated in their honor. That's not the part that troubles me. Rather, the thing that I have difficulty digesting is publishing a first issue of a new PBM magazine, and either of those two individuals not being paid tribute to.
So, rather than pick one or the other, I choose to pick both. This is one instance where we can have our cake and eat it, too.
That said, I really do not think that a proper first issue of a new PBM magazine is something that I can achieve alone, without assistance from others.
However much PBM gaming may have fallen by the way along the years, nonetheless, it remains indisputable that a great many warriors well indoctrinated in PBM lore remain among our number. Now, whether they - whether we - choose to share part of our PBM gaming selves with others in the form and format of a new PBM magazine, well, that remains to be seen.
I have not yet decided on a name for this new PBM magazine, and neither have I decided on a publication date.
What I have decided, however, is to give it a go.
For ease of dissemination, which might prove to be helpful to the PBM hobby a a whole, electronic format for this new magazine is imperative, I think.
However, for nostalgia's sake, as well as for advertising purposes, I believe that print on demand will suffice to facilitate placing an actual, physical copy of this new PBM magazine into people's actual, literal hands.
Others who might undertake such an undertaking as this, I fully realize might well do things an entirely different way. I understand that. I accept that. I respect that.
However, like the PBM magazines that came before, as each of them did things their way, this new PBM magazine will have to chart its own course. We'll have to find our own way.
I invite each and every last one of you, you Scions of PBM's Ever-Lasting Legacy - to join me on this journey into the future of PBM gaming.
Whether time proves this venture to be cursed, blessed, or neither, I nonetheless believe that the time is right to move forward with this project.
So as it is written, so let it be done!
Honestly, I don't know. But, what I do know is that I would certainly like to try.
What would go in it, that I don't already post here on the PlayByMail.Net website? Again, I don't know. Maybe that's the challenge - perhaps the biggest challenge of all, for me, personally.
What I do know is that I don't want it to simply be a compilation of material already posted on the website here. Sure, now and again, we could inter-splice a few articles. But, by and large, what I hope to aim for would be original material, not just a rehash of existing material.
Both Carol Mulholland and David Webber, the former editors of former PBM magazines, Flagship and Paper Mayhem, respectively, have been on my mind, of late. I have been torn by the dilemma of which of the two of them that I would like to commemorate the first issue of this new PBM magazine in honor of.
Unfortunately, David passed away a few years back. Carol had a stroke, a while back, but she is still with us. Over the years, many individuals - countless individuals, perhaps - have played a pivotal role in the development and progression of the postal genre of gaming. Yet, because the focus of this particular undertaking is the creation of a new PBM magazine, I believe it to be especially appropriate for the maiden issue of this new publication to be figures closely associated with PBM magazines from the past.
Even that narrow category would properly have many names associated with it. Yet, even still, it is Paper Mayhem and Flagship that I, personally, have the longest first-hand association with.
The very first issue of any magazine holds special significance - for those who publish them, if no one else. Likewise, such holds true in the current instance, with the first issue of this new PBM magazine, as well.
And, for the very reason that the first issue holds special significance - extra special significance, if you will, all the more reason then, I think, for the first issue to be dedicated in honor of more than one person.
I could easily see either David or Carol as being properly deserving of having the first issue dedicated in their honor. That's not the part that troubles me. Rather, the thing that I have difficulty digesting is publishing a first issue of a new PBM magazine, and either of those two individuals not being paid tribute to.
So, rather than pick one or the other, I choose to pick both. This is one instance where we can have our cake and eat it, too.
That said, I really do not think that a proper first issue of a new PBM magazine is something that I can achieve alone, without assistance from others.
However much PBM gaming may have fallen by the way along the years, nonetheless, it remains indisputable that a great many warriors well indoctrinated in PBM lore remain among our number. Now, whether they - whether we - choose to share part of our PBM gaming selves with others in the form and format of a new PBM magazine, well, that remains to be seen.
I have not yet decided on a name for this new PBM magazine, and neither have I decided on a publication date.
What I have decided, however, is to give it a go.
For ease of dissemination, which might prove to be helpful to the PBM hobby a a whole, electronic format for this new magazine is imperative, I think.
However, for nostalgia's sake, as well as for advertising purposes, I believe that print on demand will suffice to facilitate placing an actual, physical copy of this new PBM magazine into people's actual, literal hands.
Others who might undertake such an undertaking as this, I fully realize might well do things an entirely different way. I understand that. I accept that. I respect that.
However, like the PBM magazines that came before, as each of them did things their way, this new PBM magazine will have to chart its own course. We'll have to find our own way.
I invite each and every last one of you, you Scions of PBM's Ever-Lasting Legacy - to join me on this journey into the future of PBM gaming.
Whether time proves this venture to be cursed, blessed, or neither, I nonetheless believe that the time is right to move forward with this project.
So as it is written, so let it be done!