Mail Call

WyEastUpdate

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 09:26:37 -0800

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

The CMS code behind this website has been updated, and with that came a new look. This is NOT the final look, but I needed something quick that would work with the updated code, and this is it. I'll work on a more custom look sometime when I have a minute.

All "PBM Magazine" related items will be removed from this site soon. As mentioned in a previous post I'll be taking that idea a different direction, and that includes a new, non Wy'East Games, website. I should have used a separate website in the first place, we live and learn. This new website, while up, is not yet ready, so I'm not announcing the URL just yet. Bonus points though if you can Google it.

My own game, and an increased focus of this site, is moving forward again. The updated rules are being proofed as we speak, and other progress has been made. If anyone is interested is helping get Galactic Empires running again let me know, or just check back here periodically.

I'm still seeking some 80's era PBM games that I would like to see revived. These would be Terra II, Robalgon (sp?), Death by Startlight and maybe one other that I can't remember right now. If anyone knows how to contact the former operators of these games please contact me with that information. I'm not opposed to designing new games along similar themes, in fact if I had the rights to run those games I would likely tweak them anyway, but it's easier to start with an established base instead of starting from scratch.

That's all I have for a Saturday morning. I hope you all had a good Thanksgiving, and continue to have a great Christmas season.

~Mark

Reviewing Options

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 10:52:00 -0800

If the best website is a single page updated daily, then the worst is one that's not updated at all.
While my big plans have not panned out as I expected, I'm still around.

I'm currently working with several others in the PBM game community on the PBM 'Game of the Year' nominations for the Origins game convention this summer. I'd say something about the game moderators of the games under consideration who haven't contacted us with info about there games, but that's not only not productive, but who am I to talk.

Should anybody be paying attention, this site will be undergoing some changes in the near future that will also bring about a change in focus. The PBM magazine project is still alive, but I'll be taking that in a different direction on a new, as yet to be announced, site.

I expect to make one more post here for anyone still following the RSS feed, or just stopping by, before I make any changes, so you should be able to keep track of what's going on.

So now you know.

~Mark

Mail Call FAQ

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 14:31:00 -0800

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.

Q) Are you talking about a printed hard copy magazine or email magazine?

A) The current plan is to publish Mail Call as an Adobe PDF document. With this format trying to prevent sharing would be near to impossible. So my thought would be to just give the pdf version away, but strongly encourage downloading it directly from this web site so I can track circulation. This becomes an issue because I do intend to take advertising, and knowing how many eyes are seeing each issue becomes important.

Hard copies would be available to anyone wanting one, specifically those without internet, but these would be priced to cover the cost of printing.

Q) We might be interested in advertising depending on your rates and circulation.

A) With the first issue still not in print I can safely say I have zero circulation, and to be honest I have no idea if we reach that first issue we’ll get to a second, or a third. This is an uphill ride all the way.

While at some point I will be looking for advertising we’re not there yet. When we do get there expect it to be more then reasonable, either free or nearly so until a circulation has been developed. As the circulation develops a more realistic ad rate structure will be developed.

Q) What do you mean by PBM? Will you include PBeM or PBW (play by web) games?

A) Short answer is yes. PBM is the general term that in my mind covers all of these forms of play. Others use “turn-based” as a way to describe the games we’re talking about. We could get more specific about it, but that’s another debate for another time.

Q) I will forward your mail to my players and ex-players.

A) Okay, this one is not a question but still it’s vitally important. Please, please, pass this information on to anyone and everyone who might have even the remotest interest in PBM gaming. This is currently a one-man show and it won’t last long that way. I need writers, I need editors, and once something is printed we will need readers. All of those people are going to come from the people we know who are into PBM gaming, but only if they hear about it.

Q) I for one would be very interested in contributing.

A) Great, without contributors I’ll have nothing to print but my own mindless ranting. If you want to write something or get one of your players/customers to write something, either way is fine with me.

Q) If you are short of articles or need something interesting to fill the pages you may consider making part of our game newsletter a regular feature.

A) Again, not really a question but an interesting point none the less. I have actually thought about a feature that would reprint, with permission of course, a portion of a game or company newsletter. For anyone who is not already reading playing your game this would be new information about a game they aren’t familiar with. I’ve not made a firm decision yet, so we’ll see.

I also have an idea about a following a game either from start to finish, or at least for an extended period of time in a reality show fashion. I’m still working out the details, but this would be less review and more an inside look of how the game plays while playing it.

Q) This last one is a three part question/comment:
1) Check your numbers first before you put a ton of effort into this. PBM isn't the large market that it used to be.
2) I doubt the feasibility of this project simply because PBM players may not be willing to invest into their hobby as much as e.g. computer gamers do.
3) You might be better off to just host an online forum, or just use rec.games.pbm.

A) These are actually just of a few of the comments I received along the same lines, and largely echo thoughts I’ve had in the run-up to starting down this path.

PBM isn’t what it was, but I think it’s better then what it’s generally believed to be. The proof will be in the response, or lack of response, so we shall see. A big part of my plan is not just to cater to current PBM players but to use Mail Call as a means to expand the hobby to new or returning players.

Part of what I see, and this may be just my view of things, are game companies and players who happily go about their business on their own. There seems to be very little sense of an overall “hobby” community. What I hope to do is use Mail Call as a vehicle to help create that sense of community. Part of that is not just the magazine itself, but also this website.

The magazine I’ve outlined to some degree already, and will continue to refine that as we go along. And while it will be available through the website it will not be the website. You will not need to visit the website to get full value out of the magazine, except perhaps if you need to download it there, but visiting the website will offer additional value to the general PBM community beyond the magazine.

The website I haven’t talked a lot about yet and many of my ideas are still forming. But I want to see a place where PBM players can come and share their experiences, where they can makes new friends, where they can learn about other games and game companies. This would come mainly through a forum where game companies and game moderators can have their own space to promote and support their games. Many do this already on their own sites, and certainly that would continue, but there is value to being seen in a community. Examples of this can be seen in the board game side of the gaming hobby at two or three different hubs of activity.

We talked briefly about possibly reprinting portions of newsletters, is there value of having your newsletter available for download from a community site? I think there is, that should also be an option also.

The rec.games.pbm usenet group could work for some of this, but in this day I don’t think it’s the best choice. Aside from the fact it’s not being used now for this purpose, it’s also not going to pop up in a general web search and does not allow for all the features that a reasonable modern community website would have.

If such a place as I described does exist for PBM gamers I don’t know where it is, and I’ve looked. So if it does exist they aren’t doing a very good job getting the word out. For the lack of such a place I’m purposing this website, WyEastGames as that place. So while you’re here please register and let’s move this discussion into the forum and see where it ends up.

One last point as an FYI, at the suggestion of one of the contacts I made about Mail Call I’ve been talking with the publishers of Flagship, a UK based magazine that use to be exclusively PBM but expanded their coverage years ago when there didn’t seem to be enough PBM material to fill their pages. I’m not sure what kind of cooperative effort we might be able to work out, but they have many of the pieces already of what I’ve been talking about. However, I don’t see it as a negative to have two passionate driving forces supporting PBM gaming. We’ll just need to see if anything can really be made to fit and work together.

~Mark
~Wy'East Games

Help Wanted – Writers

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 06:00:00 -0800

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.

New PBM Magazine - Mail Call

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 06:00:00 -0800

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.

Why? More then any other question this needs to be adequately answered before proceeding too far down this path or all the other answers won’t that matter.

In Flagship issue #1 Nicky felt that PBM gaming needed a “reliable and entertaining guide through the multiplying forests of PBM games on the market” and a means to “bring together players from the professional and amateur wings of PBM, who today seem to have very little contact with each other”. These are both excellent reasons for a PBM magazine, and I feel are just as true today as they were when Nicky originally wrote them.

Recently I came into possession of most of the print run of the magazines Paper Mayhem, the PBM Report, and a great many issues of Flagship. While I did not read each issue in full I did read each editorial, and the letters to the editor sections of each publication. What I read seemed to chronicle the rise and decline of PBM gaming through the 80’s and early 90’s. Many quality PBM companies and their games came and went during that time; with little to take their place. Where once there were several PBM exclusive publications now there are none that I know of.

On the flip side, there are still a great number of PBM games out there, with very active followings, more then I suspected before I started doing research for this project. More then enough, I believe, to support a PBM exclusive publication. Like Nicky all those years ago I see a need for a “reliable and entertaining guide through the multiplying forests of PBM games on the market”. But I see the primary roll of Mail Call not just as a resource to help players find the best PBM games, but also to help promote PBM gaming to a whole new set of potential players. I also feel there needs to be a resource that brings together the “professional and amateur” (i.e. paid and free) PBM gaming spectrums.

Additionally in this age of the Internet it has become far easier to cross oceans then it was 20+ years ago. So I would have no intention of making this a US publication vs. UK vs. Australian vs. wherever. I will be looking for Associate Editors to help bring it all together, but if it’s PBM it will be covered.

What? Each regular issue of Mail Call would include the following sections:

* “Spotlight” provides in depth reviews of games covering the strategy, history, and design. Providing readers with a complete view of the games strengths, weaknesses and unique twists. What makes the game fun, or what makes it a pass
* “Reviews in Brief” are short reviews, either an introduction or quick summary to introduce a game, old or new, or compare two different yet similar games
* “Design 101” is a design workshop open to GMs and would be game designers to discuss and debate the tips and tricks of PBM game design and operation
* “GM Soapbox” is where GMs can offer their views on PBM gaming in general, future plans, or current projects
* “Readers’ Soapbox” is your basic letters to the editor featuring your feedback, compliments, complaints, and player notes
* “Authors’ Corner” is reserved for game based fiction written by and for players of the game
* “Game Line” is a comprehensive list of known, active, PBM games including contact info, web site, costs if any, a one line summary of the game and genre. If we do a game rating of any sort we would include it here also
* “News Line” provides place general PBM news and press releases gathered from players, PBM companies and GMs
* “Back Page” some of the most interesting things get printed on the back page of magazines. A great place for guest editorials or other odds and ends

As someone who also runs a PBM game I see this magazine providing several things for the PBM hobby.

* A means for people to learn about games they might not otherwise have discovered on their own through reviews and other features of the magazine
* A means for GMs to advertise their games to a larger pool of potential players
* The website for the magazine will also provide additional opportunities to attract new players via advertisements and increased exposure for games
* A way to expand PBM gaming beyond the current pool of active players

When? Mail Call would be published quarterly at first beginning sometime in the second half of 2008 with the goal of becoming a bi-monthly when there is sufficient support. I also have some ideas for some semi-annual special issues that would likely increase the publishing schedule to six to eight issues per year.

Who? This is a good question. My name is Mark Wardell, I live in Portland Oregon, and I’m PBM gamer. I started playing PBM games in 1981 when I received a flyer sent to me in the mail at random about a game called Galactic Empires. Since that time I have played in numerous other PBM games (Robalgon, Terra II, Spiral Arm, Starweb and more). Later on I licensed and then bought Galactic Empires, so I’ve had first hand experience designing and running games and publishing a newsletter to go along with it. More recently I took part with several other GMs to review and select the PBM games for the 2007 Origins awards.

While that is all well and good, none of it will happen on its own. By myself I could happily write about my own game, or games I’ve played, but on the whole that won’t be very interesting for most people. So if there is going to be a new PBM magazine I need writers, I need associate editors and once I have those then we will need readers.

How? While there are valid reasons for either an electronic publication vs. a paper hard copy the primary means of publishing will be as an Adobe pdf document that can be delivered via email. Traditional paper copies will also be available for those without email or who simply prefer a paper copy. The idea here is of course to keep costs down, but also to make traditional hard copies available as needed for a price. With a pdf it is also easier to make back issues available.

While I originally wrote this with the idea that it was the first draft of my editorial for the first issue of Mail Call we’re not there yet. In fact we’re far from it.

I first saw the need for a new regular publication devoted to PBM gaming when Paper Mayhem stopped publishing years ago, but I wasn’t able to devote the time for it then. Today that need still exists, and while my available time isn’t all that different I’m willing to try to make this happen. But it will only happen if I can get the support I need from GMs, writers, players and readers to fill each issue.

So if there is going to be a first issue at all I need to find people willing to start writing. I’d also like to start finding some of those Associate Editors that I spoke of. If you’re a GM or a PBM gamer start talking Mail Call up with your players and friends and either give them my email address, or point them back to this website.