09-17-2011, 05:31 PM
As I flip through Issue # 48 of Paper Mayhem magazine (the May/June 1991 issue), one thing that stands out is the visual variety of the ads for various play by mail games advertised therein.
It is interesting to just flip the pages of various back issues of Paper Mayhem, all these many years after the fact, and take note of the visual impact (or lack thereof) that each ad, or each portion of a given ad, has on me, now.
By and large, ads for PBM games were never in any real danger of winning any awards for artistic greatness. Many of the ads were, in fact, rather crude, or pretty cheesy. But, in spite of those characterizations, I think that that was also a part of the beauty of the PBM genre of gaming.
Because most play by mail gaming companies were relatively small scale affairs, quite often one-man or two-person operations, in-house art departments existed largely in flights of PBM game moderator fancy. PBM moderators had to make do with the artistic skill sets that they either possessed, themselves, or the often limited availability of art talent that was local to each of them. As someone who possesses absolutely zero degree of skill when it comes to drawing, it is easy for me to sympathize with and relate to the position that PBM game moderators of yesteryear all too often found themselves in, when they weighed whether to advertise in one of the various play by mail magazines in publication back then.
The very recent arrival of the creator of Zorphwar and Quest of the Great Jewels on the PlayByMail.Net website is an event worthy of heralding, to be sure. At least, for me it is, anyway. Both himself and the guy that he sold Quest of the Great Jewels, to Rich Van Ollefen, are the equivalent of two of PBM gaming's crown jewels. And to think, we have them both right here at our virtual fingertips.
There are other PBM figures of play by mail legend that are still alive and kicking, to be sure, and it's a great thing that they are still with us. Each one that fades into oblivion, and each one who passes away, take with them their own unique perspective, recollections, and thoughts on things PBM related.
We may not capture all of the PBM Hivemind's thoughts and memories. Indeed, I readily concede that we will never archive the absolute vast majority of creative thought and gaming experience that the play by mail genre has visited upon the human population of planet Earth over the span of its existence.
And, I realize all too well that some who do visit the site here will never register, even as others who drop by stay for a bit, and then depart to pursue other interests, each for their own respective sets of reasons. But, for the time that they do spend here, and notably for the time that they participate in the discussions here, the treasure vault of PBM memories shines and glows all the brighter. What they leave behind, others can happen across at future intervals. For them, the treasure that each of you deposit on this site, with your words and your memories and experiences put onto virtual parchment in the form of forum postings, hold the potential to be a grand find. El Dorado!!
Or is it?
It has been said that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. This site isn't the most visually appealing to the Internet's human eye. It tends to get neglected, almost as if its creative force lies dormant. The site administrator here is certainly not the most pleasant of human personalities to encounter. Earth is a big place. You will find better treatment and more abundant hospitality elsewhere.
In the old play by mail game called Galaxy: Alpha, the one ran by the now-defunct PBM company known as Intergalactic Games, the back history of that game yielded frequent references to ancient, extra-dimensional complexes, series of micro planes, and warp gates of various sorts. This site reminds me of those things, only substantially less interesting, I suppose.
Even still, like those old PBM ads for games that no longer exist, we're still here. Few take notice of us. Fewer still detect any magic here on the site. The greatest security that PBM's El Dorado has is that hardly anyone expends any significant effort searching for it in earnest.
Maybe it doesn't exist, after all. Or, maybe it's not what we originally and subsequently conceived it to be.
I leave it to each of you to discern and to unearth whatever value that this site has to offer, if any.
Once upon a time ago, many were they who caught the PBM Fever. Like polio, this scourge has largely been eradicated from our world. Unlike polio, however, PBM Fever was a good thing.
Spread the contagion. Spread the world. PBM is dead. Long live PBM!!
Bring out yer dead! If play by mail is truly dead, won't you at least help to write its obituary, lest this once worthy beast fade into oblivion beneath the ever-falling sands of time?
It is interesting to just flip the pages of various back issues of Paper Mayhem, all these many years after the fact, and take note of the visual impact (or lack thereof) that each ad, or each portion of a given ad, has on me, now.
By and large, ads for PBM games were never in any real danger of winning any awards for artistic greatness. Many of the ads were, in fact, rather crude, or pretty cheesy. But, in spite of those characterizations, I think that that was also a part of the beauty of the PBM genre of gaming.
Because most play by mail gaming companies were relatively small scale affairs, quite often one-man or two-person operations, in-house art departments existed largely in flights of PBM game moderator fancy. PBM moderators had to make do with the artistic skill sets that they either possessed, themselves, or the often limited availability of art talent that was local to each of them. As someone who possesses absolutely zero degree of skill when it comes to drawing, it is easy for me to sympathize with and relate to the position that PBM game moderators of yesteryear all too often found themselves in, when they weighed whether to advertise in one of the various play by mail magazines in publication back then.
The very recent arrival of the creator of Zorphwar and Quest of the Great Jewels on the PlayByMail.Net website is an event worthy of heralding, to be sure. At least, for me it is, anyway. Both himself and the guy that he sold Quest of the Great Jewels, to Rich Van Ollefen, are the equivalent of two of PBM gaming's crown jewels. And to think, we have them both right here at our virtual fingertips.
There are other PBM figures of play by mail legend that are still alive and kicking, to be sure, and it's a great thing that they are still with us. Each one that fades into oblivion, and each one who passes away, take with them their own unique perspective, recollections, and thoughts on things PBM related.
We may not capture all of the PBM Hivemind's thoughts and memories. Indeed, I readily concede that we will never archive the absolute vast majority of creative thought and gaming experience that the play by mail genre has visited upon the human population of planet Earth over the span of its existence.
And, I realize all too well that some who do visit the site here will never register, even as others who drop by stay for a bit, and then depart to pursue other interests, each for their own respective sets of reasons. But, for the time that they do spend here, and notably for the time that they participate in the discussions here, the treasure vault of PBM memories shines and glows all the brighter. What they leave behind, others can happen across at future intervals. For them, the treasure that each of you deposit on this site, with your words and your memories and experiences put onto virtual parchment in the form of forum postings, hold the potential to be a grand find. El Dorado!!
Or is it?
It has been said that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. This site isn't the most visually appealing to the Internet's human eye. It tends to get neglected, almost as if its creative force lies dormant. The site administrator here is certainly not the most pleasant of human personalities to encounter. Earth is a big place. You will find better treatment and more abundant hospitality elsewhere.
In the old play by mail game called Galaxy: Alpha, the one ran by the now-defunct PBM company known as Intergalactic Games, the back history of that game yielded frequent references to ancient, extra-dimensional complexes, series of micro planes, and warp gates of various sorts. This site reminds me of those things, only substantially less interesting, I suppose.
Even still, like those old PBM ads for games that no longer exist, we're still here. Few take notice of us. Fewer still detect any magic here on the site. The greatest security that PBM's El Dorado has is that hardly anyone expends any significant effort searching for it in earnest.
Maybe it doesn't exist, after all. Or, maybe it's not what we originally and subsequently conceived it to be.
I leave it to each of you to discern and to unearth whatever value that this site has to offer, if any.
Once upon a time ago, many were they who caught the PBM Fever. Like polio, this scourge has largely been eradicated from our world. Unlike polio, however, PBM Fever was a good thing.
Spread the contagion. Spread the world. PBM is dead. Long live PBM!!
Bring out yer dead! If play by mail is truly dead, won't you at least help to write its obituary, lest this once worthy beast fade into oblivion beneath the ever-falling sands of time?