09-13-2013, 04:26 PM
A play on words and a play on themes - these are at play, pardon the pun, in my pursuit of a name for this magazine.
Sure, it's a magazine that we are creating - but, is that it? I mean, is that all that we are aiming for?
Beyond the name, itself, what is it that is the grand object of our crafting?
For contemporary commercial PBM companies, they may take a pragmatic view of it all. The postal genre of gaming is either dead or practically dead, so why belabor the point? Why beat a dead horse? If it looks like a duck, and if it walks like a duck, and if it quacks like a duck, then it's a duck - Right? Accordingly, should the emphasis be on PBM (play by MAIL) or upon the POSTAL genre, at all?
Everyone is pretty much free to create any new magazine on any subject that they want, as far as I, personally, am concerned. That said, it's not exactly as though there is an over-abundance of PBM magazines (or turn-based gaming magazines, if you prefer), of late. Or, maybe there is, and I am simply staggering blind in the dark on the subject.
For me, though, I find myself wondering how that I - me, myself, and I - can invest myself (my time, my effort, and my energy) into such a project, if it doesn't contain a part of my gaming genetic code? In other words, how vested will I become in this project, over the long term, if I feel that I have no personal connection to it - that it doesn't connect with my gaming history, that it doesn't resonate with my gaming preferences?
To be honest about it, I really don't think that it has a snowball's chance in Hell of succeeding, if I fail to sink a part of myself into this undertaking. That's not a reflection on anyone else, mind you. Granted, with sufficient participation on the part of others, a new magazine of this nature could easily thrive. But, any other magazine is not what lies posited firmly in front of me.
Rather, it's this particular magazine that confronts me.
It looms large before me. It beckons unto me. It calls my name. It cries out for me to embrace it.
For that to happen, though, there has to be what I will call "ties that bind." For one thing, it has to tie me to my gaming experience - and that entails a link, a connection if you will, to Play By Mail gaming. Thus, for me, personally, the postal genre lies at the very core of the attraction of such a project. Remove that from the equation, and I am ready to flip the off switch and move on to other things, and leave an undertaking of this nature to more capable souls.
Sure, it's a magazine that we are creating - but, is that it? I mean, is that all that we are aiming for?
Beyond the name, itself, what is it that is the grand object of our crafting?
For contemporary commercial PBM companies, they may take a pragmatic view of it all. The postal genre of gaming is either dead or practically dead, so why belabor the point? Why beat a dead horse? If it looks like a duck, and if it walks like a duck, and if it quacks like a duck, then it's a duck - Right? Accordingly, should the emphasis be on PBM (play by MAIL) or upon the POSTAL genre, at all?
Everyone is pretty much free to create any new magazine on any subject that they want, as far as I, personally, am concerned. That said, it's not exactly as though there is an over-abundance of PBM magazines (or turn-based gaming magazines, if you prefer), of late. Or, maybe there is, and I am simply staggering blind in the dark on the subject.
For me, though, I find myself wondering how that I - me, myself, and I - can invest myself (my time, my effort, and my energy) into such a project, if it doesn't contain a part of my gaming genetic code? In other words, how vested will I become in this project, over the long term, if I feel that I have no personal connection to it - that it doesn't connect with my gaming history, that it doesn't resonate with my gaming preferences?
To be honest about it, I really don't think that it has a snowball's chance in Hell of succeeding, if I fail to sink a part of myself into this undertaking. That's not a reflection on anyone else, mind you. Granted, with sufficient participation on the part of others, a new magazine of this nature could easily thrive. But, any other magazine is not what lies posited firmly in front of me.
Rather, it's this particular magazine that confronts me.
It looms large before me. It beckons unto me. It calls my name. It cries out for me to embrace it.
For that to happen, though, there has to be what I will call "ties that bind." For one thing, it has to tie me to my gaming experience - and that entails a link, a connection if you will, to Play By Mail gaming. Thus, for me, personally, the postal genre lies at the very core of the attraction of such a project. Remove that from the equation, and I am ready to flip the off switch and move on to other things, and leave an undertaking of this nature to more capable souls.