When I was playing I was assigned Account #140, ID #2982 from an itemized turn cost sheet on 6/14/84. The #140 is only on the itemized cost sheet but the #2982 is on every turn sheet. It is my assumption that the ID# was computer ID that specified every race in the StarMaster game including NPC's and the Account number would be the bookkeeping account to keep funds separate.
Those numbers are low enough to know that there were not very many people playing/paying. One does not ever reuse account numbers and they tend to be enterprise-wide (rather than specific to a game) for fear of accidentally mixing people's funds. It also tells something about how rare my manuals are since the standard way to get them was to signup and play which would generate a new account number. I do not even know if the numbers are unique to StarMaster or whether they applied to every game Schubel and Son ran at the time. I have no timeline for all the different games Schubel and Son ran and thereby know not how many, if any, ran concurrently over what years. Even if it is just StarMaster with the larger number of 2,982 paying players It is still hard to believe they could stay in business with multiple game masters to pay wages for.
A successful modern business would need vastly larger numbers to make a profit. WoW works because it is in the millions ... I would argue that Schubel & Son's business model was more a motivation for the love of the PBM idea than for profit.
P.S. I do not remember excessive delays while playing. It may be my poor memory (30 years ago); a function of the lack of players when I was playing vs. when you were; Or just the number of GM's/player that KSK Concepts hired vs Schubel & Son.
Those numbers are low enough to know that there were not very many people playing/paying. One does not ever reuse account numbers and they tend to be enterprise-wide (rather than specific to a game) for fear of accidentally mixing people's funds. It also tells something about how rare my manuals are since the standard way to get them was to signup and play which would generate a new account number. I do not even know if the numbers are unique to StarMaster or whether they applied to every game Schubel and Son ran at the time. I have no timeline for all the different games Schubel and Son ran and thereby know not how many, if any, ran concurrently over what years. Even if it is just StarMaster with the larger number of 2,982 paying players It is still hard to believe they could stay in business with multiple game masters to pay wages for.
A successful modern business would need vastly larger numbers to make a profit. WoW works because it is in the millions ... I would argue that Schubel & Son's business model was more a motivation for the love of the PBM idea than for profit.
P.S. I do not remember excessive delays while playing. It may be my poor memory (30 years ago); a function of the lack of players when I was playing vs. when you were; Or just the number of GM's/player that KSK Concepts hired vs Schubel & Son.