02-10-2011, 11:15 PM
It is fortunate for me that Sean Cleworth of Gad Games happened along, today. Otherwise, this article would not exist, or it would have been about something else.
Sean made a good case, I feel, for why he feels that the postal genre of gaming is dead. Not only does he believe that PBM is dead, he truly believes that it is dead. Is this where we burn him at the stake for heresy? If we burn him at the stake, though, then none of us will ever get to play Gad Games' forthcoming gaming extravaganza, Ilkor: Dark Rising.
I consider myself to be neither an optimist nor a pessimist, so much as I consider myself to be pretty much a realist. Sean Cleworth makes a very good case, albeit a rather short one, for why PBM is dead. Of course, in the Additional Info About Gads section of his forum profile here on this site, Sean also stated the following:
I certainly can't find an online game that matches the shear excitement and enjoyment of waiting eagerly for the postman to deliver my PBM turn results!!
Go Sean!And that's just exactly the sort of thing that gives me reason to pause, cause to re-assess, and conjures up a glimmer of hope for the postal genre of gaming. The beauty of PBM gaming is more than the sum of its individual parts.
In his epitaph that he authored for PBM gaming, Sean points to Facebook, singling it out for special mention in underscoring his point.
What is Facebook, though? According to the omnipresent Wikipedia, that sage of the modern techno-age, Facebook is a social networking website launched in February 2004 that is operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc., with more than 500 million active users in July 2010. Click here and read it for yourself from the source, itself.
Social networking is a big thing in this day and age. Sean Cleworth, in fact, would probably be the very first to tell you that Facebook isn't dead, and that social networking isn't dead.
Then why is he telling us that PBM is dead?
Play-By-Mail is a form of social networking. Oh, sure, the gaming element of it is usually what's stressed, but if you think back, for those of you who remember PBM at its apex, I think that you will begin to comprehend what I am trying to say.
Facebook has much in common with PBM. Facebook is a modern variant of social networking, a hybrid descendant of the PBM orchid.Except, of course, that PBM games have more depth than Facebook games. At least, that's what I have heard, from people familiar with both Facebook and PBM.
The Internet enjoys the benefits of decentralization that the postal medium continues to be denied. For some bizarre reason, even though monopolies tend to be contrary to the public good in numerous ways, society at large still suffers under the burden of monopolies, where postal services around the world are concerned.
That aside, the electronic sphere makes it easy to communicate,
quick to communicate, and efficient to communicate. Thus, turn results can be communicated quickly, easily, and efficiently - and in practical terms, at no additional cost beyond what one pays, already, for their Internet access. How can the postal medium ever hope to compete with that?
Well, why would anyone expect for it to make sense for the postal medium to compete with the Internet on unfavorable grounds? That's not the strength of the postal medium. As a medium for gaming and to facilitate gaming and entertainment, postal games must maximize the strengths of their medium of delivery, if they have any realistic hope of surviving and thriving.
If the Internet is truly where it's at, then why hasn't old Sean Cleworth of Gad Games been able to find an online game that matches the sheer excitement and enjoyment of waiting eagerly for the postman to deliver his PBM turn results? Is it because there are no games online? Is it because there are no free to play games available online? Is it because Sean is lying to himself? Or is it just plain because Sean Cleworth hasn't bothered to actually look for any?
You tell me.
NOTE: Originally posted in 2010 on the old PlayByMail.Net forums.
Sean made a good case, I feel, for why he feels that the postal genre of gaming is dead. Not only does he believe that PBM is dead, he truly believes that it is dead. Is this where we burn him at the stake for heresy? If we burn him at the stake, though, then none of us will ever get to play Gad Games' forthcoming gaming extravaganza, Ilkor: Dark Rising.
I consider myself to be neither an optimist nor a pessimist, so much as I consider myself to be pretty much a realist. Sean Cleworth makes a very good case, albeit a rather short one, for why PBM is dead. Of course, in the Additional Info About Gads section of his forum profile here on this site, Sean also stated the following:
I certainly can't find an online game that matches the shear excitement and enjoyment of waiting eagerly for the postman to deliver my PBM turn results!!
Go Sean!And that's just exactly the sort of thing that gives me reason to pause, cause to re-assess, and conjures up a glimmer of hope for the postal genre of gaming. The beauty of PBM gaming is more than the sum of its individual parts.
In his epitaph that he authored for PBM gaming, Sean points to Facebook, singling it out for special mention in underscoring his point.
What is Facebook, though? According to the omnipresent Wikipedia, that sage of the modern techno-age, Facebook is a social networking website launched in February 2004 that is operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc., with more than 500 million active users in July 2010. Click here and read it for yourself from the source, itself.
Social networking is a big thing in this day and age. Sean Cleworth, in fact, would probably be the very first to tell you that Facebook isn't dead, and that social networking isn't dead.
Then why is he telling us that PBM is dead?
Play-By-Mail is a form of social networking. Oh, sure, the gaming element of it is usually what's stressed, but if you think back, for those of you who remember PBM at its apex, I think that you will begin to comprehend what I am trying to say.
Facebook has much in common with PBM. Facebook is a modern variant of social networking, a hybrid descendant of the PBM orchid.Except, of course, that PBM games have more depth than Facebook games. At least, that's what I have heard, from people familiar with both Facebook and PBM.
The Internet enjoys the benefits of decentralization that the postal medium continues to be denied. For some bizarre reason, even though monopolies tend to be contrary to the public good in numerous ways, society at large still suffers under the burden of monopolies, where postal services around the world are concerned.
That aside, the electronic sphere makes it easy to communicate,
quick to communicate, and efficient to communicate. Thus, turn results can be communicated quickly, easily, and efficiently - and in practical terms, at no additional cost beyond what one pays, already, for their Internet access. How can the postal medium ever hope to compete with that?
Well, why would anyone expect for it to make sense for the postal medium to compete with the Internet on unfavorable grounds? That's not the strength of the postal medium. As a medium for gaming and to facilitate gaming and entertainment, postal games must maximize the strengths of their medium of delivery, if they have any realistic hope of surviving and thriving.
If the Internet is truly where it's at, then why hasn't old Sean Cleworth of Gad Games been able to find an online game that matches the sheer excitement and enjoyment of waiting eagerly for the postman to deliver his PBM turn results? Is it because there are no games online? Is it because there are no free to play games available online? Is it because Sean is lying to himself? Or is it just plain because Sean Cleworth hasn't bothered to actually look for any?
You tell me.
NOTE: Originally posted in 2010 on the old PlayByMail.Net forums.