How now, brown PBM cow?

[GrimFinger]

The deadline for issue # 3 of Suspense & Decision magazine is racing straight at me, and the individual articles lay scattered in cold digital storage, begging and pleading with me to promise them that I will include them in the upcoming issue's publication.

But, I'm having none of that, this morning, as I sit here, cold and drinking Pepsi. My son has just been dropped off at school, and it's not quite time to head off to work, yet. It's time to let the old brain matter swirl in the cauldron of thought, once more.

Starting with issue # 4, what I think that I will do is, as soon as a given article arrives in my e-mail in-box, I will just go ahead and compile it into the next issue of the magazine. Then, when the publication deadline arrives, I will just boldly foist the issue forward right under the electronic noses of the magazine's readership. Take that, you scurvy dogs!

Yeah. Right. It sounds good on paper, doesn't it. Well, that's what I am going to be aiming for, anyway. Will I miss the mark? Or will I split the apple, William Tell style?

I ponder many things. One of these Things of Ponderment is the magazine place, in the proverbial Scheme of Things. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?

Sorry. I couldn't resist. Pardon the pun, s'il vous plait.

Anyway, we're wading in the water, now. Actual issues have been published. The Trolls of Hecklement may bicker endlessly over the decision to publish in digital format, bit it is what it is.

So, like I said, we're wading in the water, and with each issue, we head further out. At what point do we get in over our head and do some proverbial drowning?

Or is there a point to it all? In the Constellation of All Things PBM, is there a place for what we are doing, from the standpoint of the gaming public of today? Is it even necessary? Is the magazine superfluous? Articles could be posted directly into the forum, here, couldn't they?

What is the role of the magazine, in relation to the site, itself? Do they compliment one another? Or is the magazine a distraction from growing the site's content, and from managing the forum? Is one more important than the other, and if so, which one and why?

Or does any of it even matter?

From my perspective, which is a perspective that may or may not matter, mind you, the magazine is less a vehicle for growing this website and more of a vehicle for growing the twin hobby of play by mail and turn-based gaming.

Paper Mayhem's David Webber had a green thumb, when it came to putting together a PBM magazine. Carol Mulholland of Flagship magazine fame was successful at cultivating both readership and relationships for that PBM rag. Me? I'm trying to plow right through what appears to be the solid rock of resistance. People resist PBM gaming. PBM companies and game moderators resist advertising. Is anyone even reading this thing that we call Suspense & Decision?

At times, it feels a lot like a low-budget production of the S.E.T.I. project. Is there life out there?

Ah, Hell! I already know that there's life out there. It just doesn't seem to be interested, regardless of whether I am trying to contact it or not. There are some exceptions, of course. A few, anyway.

I send out reminders. I initiate communication. I throw out a life line to a genre of gaming that many say is either dead or dying. More than a few, it seems, are content to wait for the next ship passing in the night.

Maybe the next PBM magazine will do a better job.

Until then, however, we will continue pushing forward - at least, until the one year mark arrives, at which point I will assess, anew, the merits and demerits of this PBM-esque undertaking.

I've commented on the advertising aspect several times, of late, in different places. Should I retain free advertising for Suspense & Decision magazine? Should I charge for it? Should I grand-father in those who advertised in our pioneer issues? Or should I just eliminate advertising, entirely?

You see, it's not that I never think about such things. Indeed, I do. Here's the spiel, in a nutshell, though, where the whole advertising thing is concerned.

To utilize an advertising model that is based upon free advertising lowers barriers to entry. To rebuild the PBM industry and hobby necessarily entails either rebuilding/replacing whole component segments of the industry that are noticeably absent from it, today, or it requires something entirely new to cover the gap. And since I am fresh out of highly advanced alien technology, I'm seeing the former as more achievable than the latter.

All of those "pissant" (that's piss-ant for you American types) little individual PBM game moderators collectively comprised a huge body of innovation in the play by mail industry. Their existence is relevant to the PBM industry being a healthy industry.

So, I compare that objective, that desirable goal, to an advertising model based upon paid advertising. Immediately, a barrier goes up. How is a guy who is only wanting to run a PBM game for fun supposed to scrape up money to advertise in a magazine whose primary focus is upon PBM and turn-based gaming?

Commercial PBM companies, on the other hand, they know the routine. They're well-versed in it, in fact, They've been advertising their games for years, for entire decades on end. They have what they feel are good, solid, quality entertainment products - products that time-tested and more than amply demonstrated. For them, advertising is a natural part of a successful business formula. That a new PBM magazine comes along this late in the game, and that it offers free advertising to PBM companies and to game moderators, is simply a boon - a boon to an industry that doesn't seem to catch a lot of breaks, these days.

If I eliminated free advertising for these entities in Suspense & Decision magazine, what would happen? Most who advertise in it would likely cease - abruptly cease - to advertise with us. Would it be the end of the world? Nope, not at all. Would it hamper out ability to publish issues on a monthly basis? Not as I can tell, it wouldn't. A few might actually opt to continue advertising with Suspense & Decision. A couple probably would, anyway - of for no other reason than just to experiment, as the magazine project ceased to be less of a temporary experiment of its own, and more of a lasting, permanent fixture on the PBM scene.

While even a modest number of paid advertisements could unquestionably fund more art for the magazine, which would increase the visual quality of this publication, the diminishment of ads, overall, would decrease the visual interest of the magazine.

Of course, I could always go the route of charging a nominal fee for ads, or even a "pay what you think it is worth" model of advertising, either of which would likely generate some revenue for the magazine to reinvest into itself, which is more than exists under the current status quo of free advertising.

The grand object, of course, is to gather interest and to grow the hobby. People like the concept of "free." If the magazine is free, it is easy to sample it. It is easy to justify sampling it. It is easy to distribute it, to disseminate it. It is easy to share it.

Well, if the advertising is free, then it is easy to sample it, to run some sample ads, to try a test or two (or three, or four, or more). It is easier for me to persuade individual PBM moderators and PBM companies operating on a shoestring budget that we offer something that has potential positive value to them.

The commercial PBM companies that exist, the Old Guard as I often refer to them, they will exist either way, whether our magazine offers free advertising or whether it doesn't. For that matter, they will go right on existing, regardless of whether Suspense & Decision even exists or not.

Commercial PBM companies, or the electronic and digital game companies that they have evolved into from PBM roots, are more discerning. If this new PBM magazine won't last, then why waste their time? Time is money, after all. If this new magazine has low readership numbers, then why bother? They can simply invest their time energy, and advertising efforts and resources elsewhere - in some place that will yield better return on investment than some upstart new magazine in PDF format that pretends it exist, when it offers no hard numbers that it actually does.

My interest, of course, doesn't lie in trying to turn the clock back, or to rebuild the PBM industry, as it once existed. That would be impossible. Indeed, at least some of the more widely known and colorful PBM personalities from play by mail's golden era are no longer with us, having passed away or simply lost all interest in this genre of gaming that once held such promise.

Well, from my vantage point, from my perspective, this genre of gaming still holds a LOT of promise - one Hell of a lot of promise, in my considered opinion.

And I am not guided, I am not driven, I am not motivated, by whether the Old Guard of PBM think that Suspense & Decision magazine may be a temporary fluke or a good idea being pushed by the wrong person. If any of them think that ignoring Suspense & Decision is a solution to mass of modern gamers that continue to ignore both them an their entertaining gaming products, then they are certainly entitled to have and to hold such opinions. I don't view such a mentality to rise to the level of even a speed bump, however. It simply won't prove to be an obstacle to accomplishing something positive for the industry and the hobby.

Then, too, everyone has their own, individual idea and take on what constitutes positive accomplishments for the hobby and the industry of play by mail. We don't have to agree on everything. Heck, we don't really even have to agree on anything. Our dialogue and our discussions and our conversations and our postings on things PBM-related can be all the more colorful and interesting and full of depth, for that very reason.

There are so many PBM enclaves out there that are not geared toward the growing of PBM, generally. Some PBM companies and game moderators still fear competition. If you mention other games and other game companies in your postings, it is considered persona non grata. God forbid that PBM have a middle ground to it. How many isolated pocket are required? How much self-imposed isolation is enough?

For others, it's fear of spam - or weariness from fighting the endless hordes and countless legions of auto-spambots. It's like being under constant siege from electronic cyborgs. Forum terminators! Discussion group assassins! They mole and wiggle and sneak their way in, and then - Bam!! AVALANCHE!

There's all kinds of PBM life out there. I know. I look for it. I have encountered it. I have lived with it, first hand.

Want to be a part of it? Then you must first enter Helm's Deep! Security is pretty tight. Registration is a must. Otherwise, you only get an appetizer menu. Here? One can have access to read pretty much everything - without even registering, as far as I know. Because the spambots are real, and because they are always out there, trying to make us part of their Spam Matrix, we do have a few precautions in place, as far as posting goes. But, to just read? Read to your heart's content, as far as I am concerned. If you never raise a toast or introduce yourself, then so be it. It's no sweat off of me.

All things considered, I think that I've got a pretty big PBM footprint. At times, it feels like I am building a monolith. Construction of it is slow, but bit by bit, it is finally starting to take form. It's actually beginning to resemble something. It's starting to matter. It has a sense of underlying purpose.

I just wish that I knew what it was.

How now, brown cow? What now? Where to, now? What does the future hold? Where shall I venture, next? When shall this monolith be completed?

What is its purpose???