PBM Gaming: Expanding the Beachhead

[Gads]

Using the postal system is dead.

We've discussed this before and I can see you are still clinging onto the past. Sure, no-one can be sure of the future, but all the evidence, trends, future projections and forecasts point to the chance of the postal systems playing a major role in gaming is non-existent.

A handful of games which still continue to use the postal system does not justify it's existence for such purposes. These games are just a drop in the ocean when compared to the PBMs of old let alone the vast array of online games of today. There are 10s if not 100s of millions of online gamers. I doubt there is even 1,000 players today playing via the postal system. I would bet it is closer to 100

History has shown that there will always be a small niche group of loyal people that refuse to move with the times. There are still fan-bases for the very first games ever to appear on the PC. It's true that they exist but its such a niche market it is extremely unlikely it will ever return to the heights that they reached back in the 80s.

I'm not saying there is anything wrong with that, in many ways I think it is great, but realize it is a minority interest.

You need to face the fact that the majority of the population look forward and embrace new technologies and advancements. It is in the human makeup.

But Grim, I am sure you are going to come back with a string of justifications of why postal systems still have a part to play in gaming. I agree it does, but it is something like 0.00000001% of the gaming market and declining.

I might have to put you in the same category as those that forecast the end of the world in 2012. Sure I don't know, maybe they are right, but my gut instinct tells me they are crazy. The return of postal gaming is just as nuts!!

The future is online, just as your website is also online.

Nice post JonO

For my money, you are 100% on the mark. It's nice to talk about the past from time to time, but surely it is time to accept the Internet has replaced the postal system and lets start talking about the exciting times ahead of us.

I'm certainly not aware that anything precludes discussions of either the Internet and its capabilities for acting as a conduit or medium for gaming, or the exciting times ahead of you, Sean.

I would not agree, however, that the Internet has replaced the postal system. If that were the case, then I could get rid of my mailbox at the end of my front yard. The Internet and the postal service co-exist, side by side. I will likely be long dead and buried, before the postal service fades into non-existence. Furthermore, de-monopolizing the postal service could well re-energize it. Until and if that happens, we simply won't know, for sure. The Internet isn't going away, to be certain, but neither is the postal service, anytime soon.