12-03-2011, 05:52 AM
After I arrived home, tonight, I logged online and visited the PlayByMail.Net website, only to notice that several more PBM gamers had registered, including a couple of Phoenix players and a fellow by the name of Bob McLain.
It's good to see a few of KJC Games' players of the game Phoenix signing up on the site here, and discussing that game.
It's also good to see Bob McLain drop by, and take a few moments out to register. Bob's visit got my old brain wheels to turning, and now as I sit here drinking my Pepsi and pondering on all things PBM, I cannot help but to wonder who the real King Midas of PBM really was?
Those old fading memories and rusty recollections of play by mail gaming during its heyday are the equivalent of gold to those of us who still cling to the hobby of PBM gaming as a valid form of entertainment, one with value and substance. Now, I don't know that Bob McLain is the true King Midas of the postal gaming genre, but I suspect that he's certainly in the running, what with his vast stash and secret caches of PBM materials stuck away in various nooks and crannies. Open that PBM vault, Bob, and let us all take a good, long peek inside. It would do our souls good!
Site user Walter is probably turning cartwheels, right about now, what with Jim Landes and Bob McLain both arriving onsite within a couple of days or so of one another, replete with those Phoenix players that I mentioned, above.
Jim Landes would be a contender for the crown of PBM King Midas, as would Rick Loomis of Flying Buffalo fame. There' a lot of contenders, if you pause and dwell on some of those old PBM icons of fame who are still around, all these many years later.
You know as well as I do that, somewhere out there, there are still some copies of rulebooks and turn results floating around. They're stored in old boxes, and gathering dust, doing nobody any good. Maybe they're hoarding all of that PBM gold in the hope that, someday, it will all be worth a fortune. Or, maybe they've just plain forgotten all about it. In the case of the latter, then that PBM stuff is as good as non-existent, at this point.
Maybe what we need is a PBM Museum, of sorts, an archive to preserve the DNA of PBM gaming. That's pretty much an exercise in wishful thinking, though. It would probably receive less visitors per year than the largest ball of twine. Perhaps the Internet shall have to suffice to serve as curator for the museum that never was.
There are a number of things that I would be willing to scan and to post online, that are PBM related, but I have no innate desire to step on anyone's copyright or trademark toes, if you know what I mean. But, the sum totality of all things PBM related that I possess in physical form would be smaller than a garden gnome.
King Midas acquired the golden touch - everything that he touched would turn to gold. Here's hoping that the close of this year (2011) and the dawn of the new year (2012) will herald a stronger, more vibrant PBM scene.
It's good to see a few of KJC Games' players of the game Phoenix signing up on the site here, and discussing that game.
It's also good to see Bob McLain drop by, and take a few moments out to register. Bob's visit got my old brain wheels to turning, and now as I sit here drinking my Pepsi and pondering on all things PBM, I cannot help but to wonder who the real King Midas of PBM really was?
Those old fading memories and rusty recollections of play by mail gaming during its heyday are the equivalent of gold to those of us who still cling to the hobby of PBM gaming as a valid form of entertainment, one with value and substance. Now, I don't know that Bob McLain is the true King Midas of the postal gaming genre, but I suspect that he's certainly in the running, what with his vast stash and secret caches of PBM materials stuck away in various nooks and crannies. Open that PBM vault, Bob, and let us all take a good, long peek inside. It would do our souls good!
Site user Walter is probably turning cartwheels, right about now, what with Jim Landes and Bob McLain both arriving onsite within a couple of days or so of one another, replete with those Phoenix players that I mentioned, above.
Jim Landes would be a contender for the crown of PBM King Midas, as would Rick Loomis of Flying Buffalo fame. There' a lot of contenders, if you pause and dwell on some of those old PBM icons of fame who are still around, all these many years later.
You know as well as I do that, somewhere out there, there are still some copies of rulebooks and turn results floating around. They're stored in old boxes, and gathering dust, doing nobody any good. Maybe they're hoarding all of that PBM gold in the hope that, someday, it will all be worth a fortune. Or, maybe they've just plain forgotten all about it. In the case of the latter, then that PBM stuff is as good as non-existent, at this point.
Maybe what we need is a PBM Museum, of sorts, an archive to preserve the DNA of PBM gaming. That's pretty much an exercise in wishful thinking, though. It would probably receive less visitors per year than the largest ball of twine. Perhaps the Internet shall have to suffice to serve as curator for the museum that never was.
There are a number of things that I would be willing to scan and to post online, that are PBM related, but I have no innate desire to step on anyone's copyright or trademark toes, if you know what I mean. But, the sum totality of all things PBM related that I possess in physical form would be smaller than a garden gnome.
King Midas acquired the golden touch - everything that he touched would turn to gold. Here's hoping that the close of this year (2011) and the dawn of the new year (2012) will herald a stronger, more vibrant PBM scene.
