03-18-2011, 08:07 PM
In my PBM days, I played mostly computer-moderated stuff.
One of the hand-moderated games was called Silverdawn or something like that. The writing of the GMs was pretty good, and they responded well enough to my narrative turns, but I still felt like it was a flat one-on-one experience. There was very minimal interaction between players -- mostly it was a game between player and GM. The other was "computer assisted", but I didn't stay in it long enough to have my special actions come into bloom. I will say that the GM in that game spent a fair amount of time telling me about the errors on my turn form, but failed to see my (clear) intent and correct it for me.
Most of the computer-moderated stuff felt a little flat as well. I played It's A Crime, Monster Island, and a couple of others for a little while, but they seemed like an awful lot of money for what I was getting. I mean, you sent in a turn, someone sent back a print-out -- why should that cost $3+? There was some player interaction there, which helped.
The best experiences I had lay on both extremes. Empyrean Challenge was the ultimate close-ended computer-moderated space empire game. The design forced people together (sharing a home planet) so there was intense player contact from the start. We had newsletters, alliances, etc. Great fun. There were so many errors/bugs on the part of the player, the data-input team, and the software -- you could almost call it a computer-assisted game.
And on the hand-moderated side was the home-made games my brother and I ran. Role-playing, with intensely long and lovingly crafted narrative turns, lots of team-building among the players, etc. It was an enormous amount of work, though, and eventually we got girlfriends. ;-)
I am probably still on the side of computer-moderated gaming, if only because it can be (and should be) free. I still plan to build a PBweb game. One of my most important goals is to make it a more compelling experience than the proto-PBM stuff you see on facebook (mafia wars, et al). But if there were a compelling human-moderated game out there with vigorous player interaction, I could probably be convinced to pay for it.
One of the hand-moderated games was called Silverdawn or something like that. The writing of the GMs was pretty good, and they responded well enough to my narrative turns, but I still felt like it was a flat one-on-one experience. There was very minimal interaction between players -- mostly it was a game between player and GM. The other was "computer assisted", but I didn't stay in it long enough to have my special actions come into bloom. I will say that the GM in that game spent a fair amount of time telling me about the errors on my turn form, but failed to see my (clear) intent and correct it for me.
Most of the computer-moderated stuff felt a little flat as well. I played It's A Crime, Monster Island, and a couple of others for a little while, but they seemed like an awful lot of money for what I was getting. I mean, you sent in a turn, someone sent back a print-out -- why should that cost $3+? There was some player interaction there, which helped.
The best experiences I had lay on both extremes. Empyrean Challenge was the ultimate close-ended computer-moderated space empire game. The design forced people together (sharing a home planet) so there was intense player contact from the start. We had newsletters, alliances, etc. Great fun. There were so many errors/bugs on the part of the player, the data-input team, and the software -- you could almost call it a computer-assisted game.
And on the hand-moderated side was the home-made games my brother and I ran. Role-playing, with intensely long and lovingly crafted narrative turns, lots of team-building among the players, etc. It was an enormous amount of work, though, and eventually we got girlfriends. ;-)
I am probably still on the side of computer-moderated gaming, if only because it can be (and should be) free. I still plan to build a PBweb game. One of my most important goals is to make it a more compelling experience than the proto-PBM stuff you see on facebook (mafia wars, et al). But if there were a compelling human-moderated game out there with vigorous player interaction, I could probably be convinced to pay for it.