02-25-2014, 06:47 PM
(02-25-2014, 04:49 PM)GrimFinger Wrote: Free versus paid versus donation.
Price versus value.
If only things were really quite so simple.
(snip)
Considering the amount I have spent on tabletop roleplaying game books in the last 3 years, and the very few times I have actually gotten to play them, I am pretty sure I'd get better value from a paid PBM at this point, although I'd have to set a budget and stick to it. In some games that would limit how big my position could grow.
On BSE - yeah I've heard of it going back many years to those old Paper Mayhems and Dragon Magazines, and some old 1980s Space Gamer issues I picked up years ago (heck they are so old there are StarMaster reports in some of them).
Always sounded a bit intimidating to learn the ropes.
That may be part of why I never got all that deeply involved in an one PBM back then - I shied away from the ones that seemed to have a high learning curve, even though the promised experience would have been higher as well.
For instance I spent a few months doing SuperNova II back around 1994, but all I did was "turtle" and build industry and defenses for 10 or 12 turns for fear of encountering an experienced player and getting squashed. Never left my home system at all before I gave up playing.
However, 20 years later I realize I should have just concentrated on having FUN, instead of making it too much like doing chores.
In computer strategy games such as Master of Orion, I always play to the bitter end these days even if getting squashed, just for the experience of fighting heroically to the end even if I lose.