The thought occurred to me that I'll do better moving the Galactic Empires 3.0 forward to eventual play test and release if I started posting my progress here every now and then. By reporting back to you, the potential players of the game, I'll be making myself more accountable to the progress I'm making, and I'll be keeping you informed instead of waiting patently while I'll plug away at writing code.

So where are we at. The version 3.0 rules have been done for awhile now. Yes, I still venture in there and tweak some thins now and then, including a fairly major tweak to combat a couple weeks ago, but the core system is complete and remains very much as it started over 30 years ago. Let me know if you're interested in reviewing the rule book and letting me know of any errors or questions that don't seem to be answered. I've sent it out to a couple people already, but I have yet to hear anything back.

Coding on the program is moving along, but I have nothing significant to report here. I will post another update with some more details soon.

~Mark

 

A new PBM news and information website was launched this week and can be found at PBM Gamer. This new site is dedicated to the support of the PBM gaming hobby in general, and not any specific gaming company or individual. The site will report news, reviews, editorials, with a forum for user generated content and company support sub-forums, with a PBM gaming wiki on the way.

Both Wy'East Games and PBM Gamer remain my projects, but I felt it best to separate the content specific to Wy'East Games as a PBM company, and the more general content of a news magazine website that is now found at PBM Gamer. As such the content related to former new magazine publication efforts of Wy'East Games, namely Mail Call and A Game With A View, has been removed from this site.

Please continue to check back here for updates on the pending play test of the revised Galactic Empires, and other PBM gaming projects I may see fit to develop. And be sure to visit PBM Gamer regularly for news and information related to the PBM gaming world.

~Mark

I know a few Flagship readers have monitored this site in the past, so maybe someone with some knowlege will chime in.

It seems the Flagship website been offline for an extended period of time now. I had heard it went offline a few weeks back, but had assumed just a technical glitch that would be quickly resolved. The longer this goes on the more serious it appears. I've sent an email to the last address I had for Carol, the main driving force behind Flagship, but I have yet to hear a reply. I'll update my post as I learn more.

A related side note, as some of you know I had been looking into starting a new PBM magazine, but for various reasons opted to go with a web option instead with some ideas about going print down the road. I've been working on a new site for some time now and with only a few more tweaks I think I may be ready for some user feedback. So if you're interested in seeing a new web based PBM news resounce let me know. Tell me why I shouldn't do it, or what you'd like to see changed.

As taken from the unofficial promotional material (Wikipedia) "Origins Game Fair is one of North America's most prominent annual gaming conventions, second in size only to Gen Con. Origins takes place each year in Columbus, Ohio at the Greater Columbus Convention Center, in late June or early July."

One of the activities each year is to pass out various awards, including an award for the "best" Play by Mail/Post game of the year. While most categories have some criteria related to when a game is published to be considered for an award for that year, PBM gaming is different in that the same game(s) can be nominated, and win, repeatedly. As I understand it this is because the award is not purely for the game, but for the game moderator/company and the gaming experience that a player has while playing the game. Are turns processed in a timely manner, are they correct, and problems resolved quickly and correctly,, etc, etc. Over the years we've used different criteria, sometimes it works well, sometimes not so much.

Recently I received my annual invitation to participate in the selection  process for the Play By Mail/Post Origins award. For this process five jurors and one alternate play each of the game, sometimes up to 15 different games, to select the top five that will be presented at Origins as the nominees for the award. This year Rick Loomis has put out a request for replacement jurors.

Rick wrote: "The jury consists of 6 pbm experts - 5 members and an alternate. Unfortunately three of those folks have said they can't do it this year. So I need three volunteers. Do you know anyone who would like to do this? The only qualification is that they know something about pbm, and they are willing to play in 10 or 15 pbm games for the next year in order to rank them, and they are willing and able to answer emails about the awards! I could ask my customer list, but that would end up getting people biased in favor of my games. I just want someone conscientious enough to do a thorough job and talk with the other jury members about the games. If you'd like to try it, email me and let me know. If you know someone else who might be a good choice, please ask them to contact me. Ask them to put "Origins Award" in the subject line. (And no, I am not on the jury.)"

I do not want to give out Rick's email without his permission, so I will ask that if you're interested you email me instead if you're interested and I will pass your request on to Rick.

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

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.