I honestly believe that every good PBM game should have a companion newsletter to support and enhance the playing experience, and for Galactic Empires that newsletter has always been the Interstellar Communicator. Published irregularly, but at least several times each year, the Interstellar Communicator provides a means for the game moderator to update players on various goings on, and player to express their views on galactic affairs in general.

While Galactic Empires has been on hiatus, so has the Interstellar Communicator, but for your reading pleasure I have posted several back issues for you to download. These should provide a good sample of some of the fun players can experience between turns. I will be adding more back issues as time permits. It seems some of that old formatting didn't hold up so well in updated programs. The issues that are online now are the issues that were created as PDF documents. With the older issues I need to update some things before saving them as a new PDF.

A point worth remembering, as these are back issues many, I'd even say most, of the addresses (email, snail mail and web) are out of date and no longer valid. I mention this only because I fully expect someone will send me something via one of those addresses and then wonder why I never respond. Now you'll know.

~Mark

Just a quick, and long overdue, update on the status of things. We might also see if anyone is still out there. :D

If the best website is a single page updated daily, then the worst is one that's not updated at all.

The title of this post reflects the children’s story about a little hen that finds a grain of wheat and who seeks to plant it and grow the wheat so she can make some bread. The story itself goes through the different steps required between finding the seed and baking the bread, and at each step the little red hen asks “who will help”. Over and over the answer is “not me” until the little red hen asks “who will help me eat the bread”, and then of course there is more then enough help.

I’ve received several responses to my initial email, which was good, but not nearly enough. While I’ve responded to several directly I realized that perhaps posting the answers in an almost FAQ like manner would address a larger audience.

If you have the ability to string words together in a coherent manner on PBM related subjects and a desire to share your insights and opinions with others, then please consider writing for Mail Call.

More then anything else a magazine can not function without writers. If you don’t have something to print then you don’t have a magazine. So please, if you want to see the first new PBM magazine in over 20 years make its first issue, if you want to see your name in print or if you just want to write about your favorite PBM game don’t wait, start writing.

A copy of our writing guide lines can be found here.

At different times, particularly over this last year, I’ve had discussions with various people about starting a new magazine devoted exclusively to PBM gaming. The model for this is of course Paper Mayhem or Flagship back in their early days.

So what about this new PBM magazine, tentatively titled Mail Call? Nicky Palmer, the founder and original managing editor of Flagship, began issue #1 of that magazine by answering the questions of why, what, when and who as related to Flagship. His answers served as both the vision and mission statement of Flagship for many years. As I look at following a similar path I felt the need to answer these questions myself.

As if you couldn't tell by your being here and reading this the Wy'East Games web site is online.

Wy'East Games was formally known only as MMJ Enterprises. MMJ Enterprises is still the name we use for our family run business activities, but I wanted a different company name to uniquely identify our PBM related activities.

Currently on our plate as you will see reflected on this site we are promoting a new PBM magazine tentatively titled Mail Call. This is something I've been talking about for awhile now and I felt the time had come that I either put up, or shut up.

A second PBM magazine is also rolling around in the back of my head, but I'm going to focus on one at a time for the moment.

Last, but certainly not least, is our PBM game Galactic Empires. Currently going through a redesign we hope to have it up a running either toward the end of this year, or early 2009.

The forum will be use to support all of these and any future projects. This specific area of the forum will be used to announce any updates or changes to this website.

That's all I've got for now. Naturally there isn't much here right now, but that will change as we all participate.