Slashdot Mirror
Does Anyone Still Play-by-Mail?
manganese4 asks: "With the ever increasing complexity of games and the desire to buy the bleeding edge of hardware, does anyone still participate in games in the old-time 'Play by (e)Mail' format? Remember the anticipation of wondering if the snow storm was going to delay the post and prevent you from executing a crushing blow with your rook or pacing your emails to give your opponent time to become distracted by something else on the Usenet groups!"
No, no one does anymore. And I would have had the first post had the damn snowstorm not delayed my message.
google:"play by email" -> Yes
Next Question.
I like tic-tac-toe by e-mail. With the extra time between moves, I only lose 1/3 of my games now. Downside: I think my opponent is using a computer.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
KJC Games
All their games are PBM. I particularly like Phoenix.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
My score is a lot higher than yours. Keep trying... some day you might break 100,000.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
www.lasersquadnemesis.com
:) It's by the creators of XCOM and is basically XCOM with internet play (only much better). Sadly enough, it was so addictive I had to cancel my subscribtion. I wasn't strong enough not to look at my emails every half hour or so :)
:)
It just has to be one of the most addictive games out there
I never paced my emails though. I always found it frustating when the other players stopped for a day or for the weekend. When that happened, I just started other games and concentrated on those. I'd rather win or lose against an opponent that is giving me his/her 100%
I still remember when I was just JGTS41C...
:)
:P
CNVD10C
I wonder how much valuable memory that's taking up.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.
My friend and I email (or MSN) a excel chess board back and forth throughout the workday. I haven't played a game with him for quite a while, and I think the record stands something like 10-1 (him, not me). Much fun!
Derek Whipple, former Nintendo Power game counselor, might.
This game is prefectly designed for PBM and it still plays well directly connected.
The grahics are a bit dated compared todays standards, but it's got the best gameplay and realistic ballistics I've ever seen in a game.
If you want a true WWII wargaming experience, check this game out, it's great.
Left 4 Dead Gaming Group - http://www.l4dgg.com
I guess you might say that I was on the bleeding edge of "play by e-mail."
My goodness, my group gripes about how long RPG combat takes in normal sessions. It must have taken a month to resolve a single combat that way!
I've been in a PBEM Champions RPG for 6 years.
"An unarmed man can only flee from evil, and evil is not overcome by fleeing from it." Col. Jeff Cooper
PLEU96B...but that was the school's account. I worked in the library, so I was able to have my own login.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
- Evelyn Beatrice Hall
I've been in active PBEM (or PBIM) games of:
Warlords 3
Empire Deluxe
VGA Planets
All classic (old) games - but there just isn't the same amount of good PBEM coming out nowadays - most are realtime oriented.
In my humble opinion though, for strategy oriented games, PBEM is the only way to go - otherwise all you are ultimately testing is your reflexes and mental quickness. Problem with PBEM is that you need dedicated opponents - and the more you have, the tougher it is to get them all to submit turns...
It's called '419', the Nigerian Email Scam.
;=)
It's easy to play.
You just pay upfront and wait for the money to come in. If you've heard of other players complaining that the game takes too long to play, it's part of the game to see if you have what it takes to last the longest.
Go ahead, give it a try.
I've been part of an active PBeM RPG for a few years now. Slow paced, but a fun diversion. But the original post seems more along the lines of what Flying Buffalo has been doing forever...
A full list is here http://www.flyingbuffalo.com/pbm.htm (The junk filter won't let me quote the page with links...)
This sig intentionally left justified.
There's also still a lot of Diplomacy PBEM going around.
Siggy Wiggy Figgy Tiggy a bana bo Biggy!
I play there regularly... currently doing 15 games simultaneously...
After 3 days without programming, life becomes meaningless
- The Tao of Programming
I'm currently playing Half Life 2 via email. I've take 5 steps so far, this game rocks!
I've been playing Quake via snail mail for a few years now, I think I just killed my first monster...
Whatever happened to X-COM PBEM? I remember there being a range of PBEM game being available in my local software outfit including X-Com (Called UFO in the UK) but they seem to have disappeared.
I don't know if they relied on a central server or something but I couldn't even see any copies going on eBay last I looked.
BattleMaster is a web-based, team-oriented blend of strategy and roleplaying. You can play it as a strategy game with roleplaying elements, or as a roleplaying game with a strategy wargame background, whichever aspect suits you better.
BattleMaster is designed to be a light-weight game. Most online games require that you spend hours every day if you want to achieve anything, and reward only the most dedicated players, which usually means those with nothing else to do with their day.
BattleMaster is meant to be played alongside your other activities, and you will not gain much advantage from spending more than the few minutes a normal turn takes.
BattleMaster is also a game under active development. New features are being added and gameplay and balance are constantly tweaked to improve the game further.
The Diplomacy variant, Slobbovia, would have been nice to move from snail mail to the Web. The game was only an excuse to publish the "Slobbopolit Zhurnal," anyway. Perhaps it could be revived; but how many of the original Slobbs are around?
Nyekulturniy... Proudly confusing readers and editors since 1981!
You need the powerup to beat him. CmdrTaco is hiding just before the boss, look for the wall texture that's just a little off-color and press "post"
Some friends and I play the old board game Diplomacy over email. It lengthens the game from its normal 14 hours to about 3-4 month doing one turn a week, but it adds to the suspense and makes it so that no one gets sick of it.
Yes, I still play Combat Mission PBEM every day. Fantastic game. http://www.battlefront.com/
pbembb.com
Largely superceded by the Java client (home.austin.rr.com/javabbowl/), but still a good user community.
I track more than 2,000 play by mail and play by email games in my pbm list.
From: Halflife2
To: David Leblond
Subject: Game Time
Message Contents:
From: David Leblond
To: Halflife2
Subject: Game Time
Message Contents:
W
You stole my obligatory Penny-Arcade reference!
*blink* *blink* Florida? Izzat you?
There was a web site that I used to play two GMT board games. The first was "Paths of Glory" the second was "Barbarossa to Berlin". They are both excellent board games but required 8 hours to play. The other problem is that they are a card based system which means that you cannot use a pure email system. There has to be a way of keeping track of cards.
There is a web site called the Automated Card Tracking System that addresses both these issues. It provides card tracking, die rolls and a game log. It would then send an email when an entry was put into the log to the other player. While not strictly a play-by-email system is has the same mechanics.
The web site provides a useful service because I could not play some of these games at all because they take too long and it is hard to find a local player. I know that I would not purchase some of these games; I would never get a chance to play them without this site.
Is a great game, a guy offers you money for doing an international money tranfer and you mail them back funny/bogus replies. highly recomemded.
Laser Squid Squad Nemesis, from the guys who did X-COM, was play-by-email, but I had to drop it after my school's idiot IT Dept. became convinced the LSN people were spammers.
[o]_O
I'm actually DMing a PbEM using 3.5E rules. It's more time consuming than I thought it would be, but that's okay because no one is on a specific schedule for it.
for strategy oriented games, PBEM is the only way to go - otherwise all you are ultimately testing is your reflexes and mental quickness
Or you could play turn-based strategy games (anything from chess to freeciv). I loath RTS games.
rage, rage against the dying of the light
My wife and I, before we were married, used to play Age of Wonders by email. It met our needs well, in that we were able to play the online strategy games we both loved, while still being able to work around our respective school schedules. I wish more gaming publishers would integrate the format into their turn-based multiplayer games.
Your reality is lies and balderdash and I'm delighted to say that I have no grasp of it whatsoever. - Baron Munchausen
I'm actually running a Rifts PBeM. It's a rather small group but things are going smoothly.
"There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." Proverbs 16:25 (NKJV)
mods, the parent post is in no way a troll.
ok, just how long until i can meta-moderate? i've been on here a while.. i think i read i must be in the bottom 92.5% of new users, but how do i tell the highest user # in existence to figure out how long i've got to wait?
http://www.eressea.de/en/
This strategy game is a remote cousin of Atlantis, has 1300 players and is running since 1997 or so. It's been at 2000 players at some point, but I agree, other games like MMORPG eat into the market share.
What's nice is that signup for english players is free, to play in German (currently the majority of players) you have to pay a 15 Euro signup fee which the GM donates to a good cause (protecting endangered species).
My friends and I actually play Dungeons & Dragons over email. The DM handles all the dice rolls and gives descriptions of events, locations, situations, etc. to the players. The players respond by letting the DM know what courses of action their chracter will try to take, perhaps adding actions for different contingencies. We're all low level right now, so combat isn't as complicated as it could be. As a result, the DM can usually run through a few rounds before having to ask the players for input.
I'm currently the DM of two games, both using the Edition 3.5 rules. One is with a bunch of college friends the other with some people I know from a bulletin board. It's better with people you know well because there's enough trust that you can write actions for each others characters. That's important because if nothing else the DM is probably going to have to steer some or all of the characters sometimes, putting words into their mouths and controlling their actions, in order to move the game along.
It does take forever, though, so much patience is in order. We've been playing for a year and we're just now at second level. The previous DM was beginning to flag, so as the new manager I'm hoping to speed things up. Just as shame I'm not as good a writer as he. On the upside, play by email gives you lots of time to plan updates, whether to a dungeon description or a chess move.
My friends and I have played other games over email, including Twilight Imperium and Illuminati. We regularly try online games (such as Euphrat & Tigris over at boardgamegeek.com) which are asynchronous (as opposed to synchronous, or real-time). Those vary in quality. One that I find consistently good is itsyourturn.com, but all the games are limited to two players.
All in all, slow games like these are perfect for me, because my friends are all in different time zones, and I rarely have huge chunks of play time anymore.
Don't blame me, I voted for Durga.
I recently played some RPG PBEM (a year ago).
:)
The key is to have a GM that treats it more as a story - combat is not really a turn-by-turn affair, it is more a "I intend to do this, now the GM replies saying how everything turned out".
It's different and a little removed from normal RPGs, but as a collaborative story-telling effort, it can be quite fun
VGA Planets! That brings back memories - I ordered 3 sets of Planets3, for myself and my friends, from Tim Wisseman.
:)
(I'll have to see what he's up to now)
Very cool - just not enough time to play games like that anymore with stupid work
I play in a poker tournament by email called the World Rec.Gambling Poker Tournament. I posted an article about it before this years registration closed, but it wasn't approved.
Not only do I get dragged into the occasional VGA Planets game when all my friends snap and get the craving for it, I also take part in what amount to the Forgotten PBEM games -- online sports management sim leagues.
You have a franchise, you micromanage operations for say, a weeks' worth of games, then send in files and insuructions to a commissioner who process and runs them, then saves and posts the updated gamefile and within a couple days the entire process in repeated again. Instructions and processes incluse contract offers, sending people up and down to and from the farm, making trades, setting lines and/or lineups for particular games, managing ticket prices... it's as involved as a Conquer Space game like VGAP, if not moreso, and even as other PBEM gametypes are dying out online leagues are still going strong -- look at EHM, OOTP, CM/FM or Front office Football.
PBEM's doing fine overall. For all those highly-detailed management games, it'll be around as a genre as long as email remains around. It just has no penetration with the FPS, twitch crowd anymore (thank god).
-- Primis.
Average Joe Somebody sends playfull letter to Hot Actress and she responds by playfully sending him a restraining order. :-P
It's plenty of fun, you should try it sometime.
DEAD DEAD DEAD DELETE ME
Alright, you asked for it.
HELLO SLASHDOT USER
I AM AHEMD AHKBAR. IN AN UNFORTUNATE ACCIDENT MY FATHER, THE TRADE MINISTER IN NIGERIA PASSED AWAY. CURRENTLY THERE IS A GRAND TOTAL OF $300000000 (300 MILLION) US DOLLARS LOCKED AWAY IN HIS SECRET GOVERNMENT ACCOUNT. UNFORTUNATELY, OBTAINING THIS MONEY REQUIRES MUCH LEGAL CONSULTATION AND WOULD COST TOO MUCH FOR MYSELF. THEREFORE, IF YOU PROVIDE ME WITH A SMALL AMOUNT OF ONE THOUSAND US DOLLARS ($1000), I WILL PROVIDE YOU WITH 10% OF THE MONEY (30 MILLION US DOLLARS) UPON ITS AVAILIBILITY. THIS IS NOT A SCAM.
THANK YOU
AHMED
Frink: Nice try floyd, but you were designed for scrubbing, and scrubbing is what you shall do.
I play Gazillionaire Deluxe by e-mail with my girlfriend, but only because there is no better way (except hotseat).
I remember seeing lots of PBM ads in video game magazines in the early 90s. I guess they died out around 94. I never got into them because they were expensive. (for a kid, anyway)
Snail Mail is being outdated. There is no reason to play by mail anymore.
I used to have a classmate in middle school who was originally from Uganda. The next year he moved back, and we mainly kept in touch by writing eachother e-mail. Back then I was all into the whole QBASIC thing, and I wrote and compiled a pretty neat VGA program that showed a graphical chess board with fun sprites that I had drawn. We'd take turns moving and then e-mail the data file back and forth between one another. That was lots of fun. :)
Agreed - about the only good "real time" games out there are the ones that break out of the warcraft mold - such as Europa Universalis.
My first online service. I had the pimp setup with my luggable NEC Powermate Portable that I could dial up Prodigy from whichever friend's house I was at to get video game help or cheat codes.
I remember one stupid prank that got a surprising number of people all worked up. I said that I had a trick to turn 'N's into 'Z's in any video game... and that I would post the trick once 50 people had replied. So 50 anxious replies later, I told them to turn their TV sideways. I couldn't believe how many people first got so excited about such a stupid code, and second got so upset and felt they'd been cheated.
Remember those crappy vector graphic maze games they had? Good times.
ChessVariants.com has a play by email system for Chess, and a whole whack of chess variants (Xiang Qi, Shogi, Shatranj, etc). So I'd say, yes, play by email is alive and kicking.
Julie Moult is an idiot.
Sure, check out the International Email Chess Group. I haven't played there much recently, but they have a good system for playing email games, with time limits and everything. They also run thematic tournaments every so often.
Use Ctrl-C instead of ESC in Vim!
At this moment, as well as three play-by-email games of Stars! right now. Trying to hook up a game of Alien Crossfire, too, but no such luck.
I like to place meaningful quotes in my sig, so people will know that I know what meaningful quotes are.
Our last game lasted 8 months. I won :-)
I play Go on the Dragon Go Server, it's the concept of PBeM adapted to an internet where web access is more common then email.
Analogies don't equal equalities, they are merely somewhat analogous.
PBM for this game is just great, everytime we send our turns on our SMAC list, we feel the urge to add some roleplay.
we just started with another game of Stars! by PBEM. It's a game from 1997 (at least the copy i have is) and still a lot of people are playing it. It has a lot of strategic depth and requires a lot of planning. If you're interested, you may find the Strategy Guide there. I think there must be a FAQ around and there is a freeware trial version out.
Regards, Martin
A couple of PBEM game aides are:
ADC - Aide de Camp from hpssims.com supports many different games
ASL - Advanced Squad Leader (via VASL) is a very complex board game.
From the comments here, it seems quite a few people here have only tried games like Diplomacy, chess etc. You're missing a whole other world of games which aren't chess. :-) Some of the hand-moderated games, in particular, have incredibly detailed worlds and plotlines. Ever wanted to be in a novel?
;-)
You might want to start here, with the PBM list. Or you could drop by the rec.games.pbm newsgroup for recommendations, chat etc. (Actually, do that anyway.) You might even consider looking at Flagship. There used to be a policy of sending a sample copy to interested folk, although I don't know if that policy still exists.
From games I've played, Lizards! is good fun; Madhouse run some good games, and have extremely good customer service. You've also got Middle Earth Games running various LoTR games.
Go on, have a stab. You too can get addicted.
I play chess at Gameknot.com ... it's not exactly PBEM, but it's not real-time either, and if you get e-mail notifications on when it's your turn to move --- well, I guess it's similar.
Hell yes, granted it's a little bit longer than getting connected over a lan but it is still played by myself and two of my friends. I call it a guilty pleasure for the turnbased 2D lookdown hex gameplay. Steel Panthers Main Battle Tank is our weapon of choice http://linetap.com/www/drg/SPCamo-4.htm
I still play Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri via e-mail; the only crappy part is when the game gets stalled by one team taking forever to get to their turn :)
:wq
I don't play by e-mail, but I do play by post rpg games on a message board. My current one just started and it's pretty fun although they can take a while to go, it's the only way for me to play DnD right now though as I don't know any people around here who play pnp games.
I AM AHEMD AHKBAR. IN AN UNFORTUNATE ACCIDENT MY FATHER, THE TRADE MINISTER IN NIGERIA PASSED AWAY. CURRENTLY THERE IS A GRAND TOTAL OF $300000000 (300 MILLION) US DOLLARS LOCKED AWAY IN HIS SECRET GOVERNMENT ACCOUNT. UNFORTUNATELY, OBTAINING THIS MONEY REQUIRES MUCH LEGAL CONSULTATION AND WOULD COST TOO MUCH FOR MYSELF. THEREFORE, IF YOU PROVIDE ME WITH A SMALL AMOUNT OF ONE THOUSAND US DOLLARS ($1000), I WILL PROVIDE YOU WITH 10% OF THE MONEY (30 MILLION US DOLLARS) UPON ITS AVAILIBILITY.
That sounds like a scam to me.
THIS IS NOT A SCAM.
Sorry, my mistake. Guess it's not a scam after all.
I think it took me about a year of posting on a regular basis before I was able to.
I PBEM with this game, and it has a pretty decent interface. I just tell it where Eudora drops my attachments, and what my smtp server is. Then all I have to do is download my email and launch AOW:SM.
I think everyone here would be surprised by how many people still PBEM. Just in the Star Trek realm alone (which, admittedly, probably carries the large majority of these players) you've got thousands of RPGs out there. And even more surprising, they're not /all/ crappy. starbase118.net has been around for 10 years and carries about 125 active members. A small community, but a prolific one.
I think the difference between a PBEM RPG and graphical games is the same as the appeal to popular fiction against movies. Movies are great, and we all enjoy them, but it's also fun to read and stretch your brain every now and then.
Plus, you can't play HalfLife 2 at your 9-5.
Tristan Paine -- Founder, UFOP: StarBase 118 RPG
SB118 is a great place! :D
It really does carry quite a few members, a number of whom have been around for years.
RPG's like 118 aren't dying out, they're growing!
I completely agree.
;)
The number of simmers in those PBeM RPG groups is amazing. I have been simming for 1.5 years myself now, and I will be doing so for a long time to come. It is very entertaining to write a good story plot together with your colleague simmers.
Everyone who didn't try yet, really should.
Lt.Cmdr. Robin Phoenix
http://www.starbase118.net/victory
www.Starbase118.net is simply one of the best forms of entertainment available on the Internet for Star Trek fans.
Give it a go and I'm sure you'll get as much enjoyment out of it as me.
Cmdr Rocar
USS CONSTITUTION
Yes. I play Age of Wonders by e-mail. PBEM is a superb feature in turn based games. I really wish more turn based games would allow for PBEM.
People still play chess by (snail) mail...
For USCF (United States Chess Federation) - sponsored play, you go through them. The USCF arranges the matches, and you are assigned a score / rating based on your wins / losses. ( I imagine the USCF still does this - I remember it from my undergrad college days...). You also had stacks of templated-postcards to show your move / chess positions.
http://chess.about.com/od/emailpostalchess/
Real mail. No need for a computer.
I play Dominions 2 by email all the time it is one of the best PBEM games out please check it out at: http://www.illwinter.com/dom2/index.html
This was my first hint that it's a trap.
I'd rather be lucky than good.
Have you tried visiting http://slashdot.org/metamod.pl? I didn't find out I was eligible to metamod for a while because there used to be a bug in slashcode where that link didn't show up on the homepage for you until after the first time you had metamodded. That bug may or may not have been fixed by now. (Hint: If you haven't figured out yet that no bug here is ever fixed, you certainly haven't been here long enough to m2).
I'd rather be lucky than good.
Been doing a Play by Email campaign of classic Battletech since September of 2003
Dune is a terrific boardgame by Avalon Hills that was published back in 1979. It takes a long time to play a game by email (6 months to a year is not uncommon) but there are dozens of people who do it each year. The game takes about 6 hours to play in a face-to-face format so playing by mail makes it much longer. However, in the recent years, there have been some really neat rules variations and expansions implemented.
indeed..