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Does Anyone Still Play-by-Mail?

Posted by Cliff on from the turn-based-internet-gameplay dept.

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!"

5 of 114 comments (clear)

  1. Laser squad nemesis? by Zutroy+Of+Earth · · Score: 5, Interesting

    www.lasersquadnemesis.com

    It just has to be one of the most addictive games out there :) 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 :)

    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% :)

  2. PBEM the only way to go for strategy games by dtolman · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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...

  3. Re:No by Stripe7 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I stopped playing PBM games almost 10 years ago. The one that I really enjoyed the most was LEGENDS by midnight games. (http://www.mgames.com/) It was awsome. Had a character go from being the mayor of a small town with a bunch of aides to ruling flying cities with hundreds of thousands of troops. Ended up with a Dragon as one of the 40 characters I had to play with. I tried some 20 or so other PBM games and nothing ever came close to LEGENDS.

  4. Diplomacy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    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.

  5. Stars! by mseeger · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Hi,

    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