New PBM Magazine from PlayByMail.Net

[Harlequin]

Greatly TBG slant!

[Steve Tierney]

Turn-based gaming CAN refer to board games online - and if you think about it - that's very much what PBM is too. The crossover is so close as to not matter and it widens your sphere of potential readers and contributors. Any game that is played incrementally, turn by turn, is turn-based gaming. That's the hobby's only real connection between disparate types of game from interactive fiction through postal chess to Quest and the like.

For a name suggestion I'd offer "Turnaround" - the magazine of turn-based gaming.

[GrimFinger]

There's already a magazine called Turnaround in existence. There's one called Turn magazine, also.

Hmmmm...What about Turn Cycle?

Turn-Based International

Turn Based

Positive Turn

[ixnay]

I still think Turn-Based Gaming can apply to face-to-face games, single-player computer games, etc, and as such is too broad. But the real trick is to latch on to whatever term the larger community uses most. Many of us (well, me at least) found this site while searching for "PBM Games", so as flawed as that term is, it is still useful. By the same token, if TBG is the emerging new standard, then go with it.

Grim -- I plan to pen a submission for your consideration this weekend. Any closer to choosing a name yet?

[PNMarkW2]

Some suggestions for the name the magazine mix...

PBM Gamer (admittedly a name I had planed to use for a PBM magazine a couple years ago, but still a good name)
PBM Review
PBM World
PBM Archive
PBM R Us
PBM Survey
PBM Files
PBM ...

Well you get the idea. :-)

As I'm late to the thread I didn't read every single post, but I did notice some that spoke of some style elements (font size, etc.). I'd be willing to help with a style guide if you like. It may seem a trivial point, but it's the details that set apart an armature newsletter from a magazine. While it's something that would evolve over time, it would be best to get at least a first pass at it before issue 1.

~Mark

[KJC Games]

Turn-based gaming CAN refer to board games online - and if you think about it - that's very much what PBM is too. The crossover is so close as to not matter and it widens your sphere of potential readers and contributors. Any game that is played incrementally, turn by turn, is turn-based gaming. That's the hobby's only real connection between disparate types of game from interactive fiction through postal chess to Quest and the like.

Might be worth starting a new thread as this is a very salient point. Anyone that has been to the Birmingham games expo can't have helped by notice the rising tide of board games. This I think is the origin of PBM more so than roleplaying games. As such I think that we need to renew our links with boardgames more so than online games. Storming boardgame geek is therefore a good first stop. Let's try to get a dedicated section on the home page, let's try and get reviews and updates on that site and finally, let's try and get some of their traffic into our games.

[ixnay]

Now THAT is a good idea! BoardGameGeek is HUGE in the board game community, and board games are HUGE now. That would be the biggest potential source of new players by a longshot. I snoop around there occasionally, since I have a regular game night with the neighborhood dads. Beer is consumed. And there is a pretty fat streak of gamers out there hungry for more game-time but unable to sate their desires fully -- not enough opponents, not enough time, no time that works for everyone, etc.

PBM solves all that, and adds a lot more as we all know. If you manage to get a presence on BGG, you're getting some new eyeballs for sure.

[KJC Games]

So we can add 'virtual board game' to the mix of potential titles for our gaming niche.

[KJC Games]

Or how about Play by Correspondence?

[Harlequin]

Turn-based gaming CAN refer to board games online - and if you think about it - that's very much what PBM is too. The crossover is so close as to not matter and it widens your sphere of potential readers and contributors. Any game that is played incrementally, turn by turn, is turn-based gaming. That's the hobby's only real connection between disparate types of game from interactive fiction through postal chess to Quest and the like.

Might be worth starting a new thread as this is a very salient point. Anyone that has been to the Birmingham games expo can't have helped by notice the rising tide of board games. This I think is the origin of PBM more so than roleplaying games. As such I think that we need to renew our links with boardgames more so than online games. Storming boardgame geek is therefore a good first stop. Let's try to get a dedicated section on the home page, let's try and get reviews and updates on that site and finally, let's try and get some of their traffic into our games.

This is an idea that I support thoroughly. I emailed you on this KJC, do get back to me.

Harlequin