New PBM Magazine from PlayByMail.Net

[GrimFinger]

By all means, keep on going with suggestions for the name for the magazine.

As far as writing an article goes, sure, all the better. As long as it relates to PBM gaming, you pick the topic. I haven't issued a formal call for article submissions, yet, but it's coming. I would prefer that it be original material, not a reprint from the past. We are marking forward into the future of PBM. To do that, new and original articles are a necessity.

Here are a few links that may prove useful to you, in tracking down that old Space Gamer article in question.

http://index.rpg.net/display-search.phtm...e=pictures

http://archive.org/details/space-gamer

http://www.sjgames.com/spacegamer/

[ixnay]

PBM Panic
Grimfinger's Grimmoire
Grim Post

I actually have that Space Gamer in possession. I had thought about typing it out for a fun post here, but I should probably email Steve Jackson Games before doing anything like that.

I'll wait until you post a "formal call for article submissions" before I draft anything up...

[Harlequin]

If this is now getting going, re: your recent email? I (Harlequin Games and Middle Earth Game) will support this as much as we can with articles!

I vote for:

Turn-Based Gaming Monthly

Or some TBG based title. PBM is a term that new players do not understand and if you START by having to explain that, you increase the % chance of not converting them! But the title MUST contain the Essence of what we are about to pull in the NEW player and that has to be the PRIMARY aim of this endeavour. WE, 'the converted', will read this magazine whatever the title is.

Turn-Based Gaming Monthly

might appear boring to us but it does the Primary job!

Harlequin

[GrimFinger]

If this is now getting going, re: your recent email? I (Harlequin Games and Middle Earth Game) will support this as much as we can with articles!

The recent e-mail that I sent out from the site is just an e-mail. The magazine will be in PDF format.

Support with articles would be welcome, certainly. Go ahead and start writing one. I'll include it with issue # 1. We're aiming for original content, as in new articles, rather than stuff that's already been printed or already been posted online, somewhere.

I vote for:

Turn-Based Gaming Monthly

Or some TBG based title. PBM is a term that new players do not understand and if you START by having to explain that, you increase the % chance of not converting them! But the title MUST contain the Essence of what we are about to pull in the NEW player and that has to be the PRIMARY aim of this endeavour. WE, 'the converted', will read this magazine whatever the title is.

Turn-Based Gaming Monthly

might appear boring to us but it does the Primary job!

Harlequin

Understood. Of course, one question to ask is whether a boring title conveys a boring message?

It won't be a magazine displayed on a typical magazine stand or rack, so it may not even matter, since word of mouth is what will likely be the driving force behind dissemination of the magazine. If it is your friend or regular gaming associate who forwards a copy of the magazine to you, I think that the initial potential barrier posed by having a boring title will be rendered largely moot.

On the other hand, can a boring title connect with a potential recipient in a way that an interesting title can? Of course, what appeals to each individual can vary. So, how does one strike the right balance? Or does it even matter? This isn't directed at you, specifically, Dean, but rather, I'm just thinking aloud, here.

[GrimFinger]

But the title MUST contain the Essence of what we are about to pull in the NEW player and that has to be the PRIMARY aim of this endeavour.

As I ponder this statement, I think that there is truth to it - although I also think that there may be more than one way to accomplish imbuing the new magazine title with the essence of what we are about.

What is the "essence" of what we "are about?"

Turn-based gaming, to be certain. But, is that the essence, or is there something more?

Fun? Entertainment? Camaraderie?

What about choosing sides? I mean, basically speaking, isn't the whole underlying purpose of going to the time, effort, and trouble of crafting a new magazine of this nature from scratch to invade the gaming world anew?

PBM is back. Right? Turn-based gaming takes many forms. Right?

What is the full measure of this essence of which you speak? For that matter, what is the bare core of the same?

The magazine is going to open the door of adventure to the reader. Right?

Or, is the essence simply - and only - turn-based gaming, the kind made famous by play by mail, but not limited thereto?

[ixnay]

Obscure Games Quarterly (riff off a scene in 'Dodgeball')

Phoenix

Gamicron Delta

PostGame Dispatch

[GrimFinger]

This likely is an incomplete list, but here's the names of some PBM magazine from the past, all of which are now no longer in active publication.

Nuts & Bolts
Paper Mayhem
PBM Universal
Gaming Universal
Flagship
American Flagship
Campaigner's Newsletter
American Gamer
The PBM Report
Simulacrum
PBM Worm

Issue # 1 of Flagship contains words from that magazine's first editor, Nicky Palmer, about why he was launching Flagship magazine. If anyone has a copy of issue # 1 of Paper Mayhem, or the first issue of any other PBM magazine, I would appreciate it if you would take time out in order to share what the stated reasons were for publishing those first issues.

For Flagship, here is the WHY behind why Nicky Palmer launched that PBM magazine all those many years ago (Winter of 1983, to be exact).

------------------------
WHY? FLAGSHIP has been launched because the Play-By-Mail hobby needs a reliable and entertaining guide through the multiplying forests of PBM games on the market. If any one of us tries to play them all we will end up spending a fortune, sometimes for an ill-conceived game which extracts money from its players for a few turns before expiring with a sigh, sometimes for more popular games which don't happen to suit our individual tastes. On the other hand, if we only play one or two games we may be missing something great! FLAGSHIP will sort out the sheep from the goats, and keep you in touch with the latest developments. We also want to bring together players from the professional and amateur wings of PBM, who today seem to have very little contact with each other.

SOURCE: Flagship - Issue # 1 - Report from the Bridge
------------------------

[GrimFinger]

Yesterday, I started compiling a list of potential candidates for the name of this new magazine. While the actual list includes all suggestions posted in this forum thread to date, here are the names that I came up with, so far.

BEEYOND
Swarm of the Ancients
Godspacular
Swarming With Interest
Swarmtacular
PBM Titans
Titans of Twilight
Postal Titans
Titanic Swarm
New Guard
Hive
Ancients Scorned
Hordes
Cosmic Swarm
Stasis Vault
Pandemonium
Fundemonium
Stasis Zone
Rising Swarm
The Swarm Cometh
Minions of Mayhem
Postal Fury
Creative Violence
Postal Vengeance
Vengeful Voices
Twilight Swarm
The Swarm Cometh!
Destiny Revisited
Cosmic Spawn
PBM
TBT
Turn Based Titans
Legacy Unfolding
Postal Treasures
Turn-Based Fury
Extinction Level Event
Catastrophic Fun
Extinction Defiance
Armchair Armageddon
Geddon McFun
Beyond The Brink
Toxic Pleasures
Lotta Nerve
Nerve Center
Masters of Destiny
Destiny Ho!
Conquering Spirit
Conquerors of Extinction
American Bismarck
Worthy Souls
Game Train
Bridging The Future
Star Music
Railroad of the Gods
Chosen Friction
You Are Here!
Moon Legion
Time Heist
Groundbreakers
Funderdome
Children of Annihilation
Will Destiny
God's Will

Some of them, I simply like a given word or theme. Others have a deeper meaning, or some link or allusion to something else that I am considering exploring.

Boring has its place, in the overall scheme of things. But, is it what we want for the name of such a magazine?

[GrimFinger]

A play on words and a play on themes - these are at play, pardon the pun, in my pursuit of a name for this magazine.

Sure, it's a magazine that we are creating - but, is that it? I mean, is that all that we are aiming for?

Beyond the name, itself, what is it that is the grand object of our crafting?

For contemporary commercial PBM companies, they may take a pragmatic view of it all. The postal genre of gaming is either dead or practically dead, so why belabor the point? Why beat a dead horse? If it looks like a duck, and if it walks like a duck, and if it quacks like a duck, then it's a duck - Right? Accordingly, should the emphasis be on PBM (play by MAIL) or upon the POSTAL genre, at all?

Everyone is pretty much free to create any new magazine on any subject that they want, as far as I, personally, am concerned. That said, it's not exactly as though there is an over-abundance of PBM magazines (or turn-based gaming magazines, if you prefer), of late. Or, maybe there is, and I am simply staggering blind in the dark on the subject.

For me, though, I find myself wondering how that I - me, myself, and I - can invest myself (my time, my effort, and my energy) into such a project, if it doesn't contain a part of my gaming genetic code? In other words, how vested will I become in this project, over the long term, if I feel that I have no personal connection to it - that it doesn't connect with my gaming history, that it doesn't resonate with my gaming preferences?

To be honest about it, I really don't think that it has a snowball's chance in Hell of succeeding, if I fail to sink a part of myself into this undertaking. That's not a reflection on anyone else, mind you. Granted, with sufficient participation on the part of others, a new magazine of this nature could easily thrive. But, any other magazine is not what lies posited firmly in front of me.

Rather, it's this particular magazine that confronts me.

It looms large before me. It beckons unto me. It calls my name. It cries out for me to embrace it.

For that to happen, though, there has to be what I will call "ties that bind." For one thing, it has to tie me to my gaming experience - and that entails a link, a connection if you will, to Play By Mail gaming. Thus, for me, personally, the postal genre lies at the very core of the attraction of such a project. Remove that from the equation, and I am ready to flip the off switch and move on to other things, and leave an undertaking of this nature to more capable souls.

[ixnay]

PBM Titans
Postal Titans
Stasis Vault
Minions of Mayhem
Postal Fury
Creative Violence
Turn Based Titans
Turn-Based Fury
Extinction Level Event
Conquerors of Extinction
American Bismarck
Railroad of the Gods
Children of Annihilation

I like all of the above, particularly the bolded ones. To which I will add (for no particular reason):

- Screaming Toward Extinction
- Game Funk Railroad
- Valley of the Ancients

In regard to your last post, I must ask -- is this magazine intended to cover traditional PBM only? Postal turns, postal results? Is PBEM excluded? PBWeb?