Mining the Gold of Play By Mail Gaming

[GrimFinger]

While browsing the World Wide Web, today (or should I just refer to it as the Internet?), I came across what I think is one of the absolute best PBM related postings that I have encountered in a long, long time. It is a blog posting/article titled: Games that I have worked on

If you haven't checked it out, yet, then go and do that now. Go on. Yes, it's mandatory. You know that you want to, anyway. So, what are you waiting for? Just read the article, already.

It would truly be nice if there were more PBM gemstones such as this one lying around. There may be, in fact, but the Web is such a vast expanse of information and collection of individual websites, that just trying to sift through them is akin to panning for gold. Most of the time, I come up empty handed. This time, though, I struck solid PBM gaming gold.

Our site here at PlayByMail.Net is hopefully adding a few PBM nuggets to the Webosphere, from time to time, and it's really great seeing several of the user base here posting frequently, and growing the dialogue on PBM gaming. This is contributing greatly, I think, to our site now enjoying a regular flow of repeat visitors to the site on a daily or near-daily basis. It's not a huge crowd, but I do believe that it is an interested crowd, and that, I think, counts for something.

The underlying reason for establishing the PBM Wiki, as I recently did, was to try and come up with a better format for the PBM Boneyard list. I have a feeling, though, that the PBM Wiki will eventually evolve into something more substantial than just a list of PBM companies and PBM games, both active and inactive.

It's good to have site users Rich Van Ollefen and Victory still visiting us, from time to time, even though neither seem to have much to say, of late. Those guys form links of substance to PBM's past, and hopefully, we'll be hearing more from both of them going forward.

One change that I made to the front page of the site, today, was to add an Interview Queue section. This is to serve as a continual reminder to me to catch up with interviews that are outstanding, plus to keep site users abreast of new additions to the interview list, as various individuals agree to be interviewed, in the future.

There's always so many different areas that are play by mail gaming related that I can invest my time with, that some areas inevitably end up on the short end of the stick. Doing a PBM game of my own seems to be a project that I make little, if any, progress with. Maybe the coming weeks and months will be kinder to me, where such is concerned.

Site user Walter seems to have his nose stuck right in the middle of several new PBM games (well, new to him, anyway). I'm looking forward to hearing him review Starweb from Flying Buffalo, Inc. and Cruenti Dei from Sardarthion Press.

Even though time is always in demand, there are several new undertakings that I want to embark on, also. I think that I will hold off on announcing what those things are, for now, though.

If, during your own web searches, you happen to strike PBM gold, then be sure to share PBM sites of value that you happen across.

[Justin Parlser]

Thanks for the kind words Grimfinger - though 'PBM gold' might well grant me more kudos than I really deserve -that blog post was mostly to stop me having to constantly explain to students what I had been doing the last twenty years

[GrimFinger]

Thanks for the kind words Grimfinger - though 'PBM gold' might well grant me more kudos than I really deserve -that blog post was mostly to stop me having to constantly explain to students what I had been doing the last twenty years

Oh, I definitely think that the blog posting of yours in question qualifies as PBM gold.

First, it's a lengthy posting, one of some substance. You don't just mention the commercial PBM games that you were involved with over time. You also gave a paragraph about each of those play by mail experiences. Most PBM related postings that I encounter online tend to be relatively brief affairs of a paragraph or less. In comparison, your blog posting has some meat on its PBM bones.

Second, you've mentioned some PBM games that I've never even heard of, before, plus some that I have heard of, before. In doing so, you broaden my knowledge of PBM history, albeit a bit and a piece at a time.

Third, your postings on the commercial PBM games that you were involved with over the years whet my appetite to know more. In essence, your blog posting sparked my desire to learn - to learn more about both the PBM games in question, as well as your own individual experiences with them.

Fourth, your posting wasn't dredged up as an artifact from ancient PBM history. Sure, it was posted near the beginning of last year, but that's still fairly recent. It's wasn't posted during the height of the PBM era, and while it took a while for me to find it, it stands to reason that others will find it, also, in due time - and when they do, I think that it makes for good bait to get them interested (or re-interested) in the postal genre of gaming.

Definitely, PBM gold!