Play-by-mail game
Encyclopedia
Play-by-mail games, sometimes known as "Play-by-post", are game
s, of any type, played through postal mail
or e-mail
. One example, chess
, has been played by mail for centuries (when played in this way, it is known as correspondence chess
). Another example, Diplomacy, has been played by mail since the 1960s, starting with a printed newsletter (a fanzine
) written by John Boardman
. More complex games, moderated entirely or partially by computer programs, were pioneered by Rick Loomis of Flying Buffalo
in 1970. The first such game offered via email through a major online service was Quantum Space
from Stormfront Studios
, which debuted on AOL
in 1989.
Play by mail games are often referred to as PBM games, and play by email is sometimes abbreviated PBeM—as opposed to face to face (FTF) or over the board (OTB) games which are played in person. Another variation on the name is Play-by-Internet (PBI) or Play-by-Web (PBW). In all of these examples, player instructions can be either executed by a human moderator, a computer program, or a combination of the two.
In the 1980s, play-by-mail games reached their peak of popularity with the advent of Gaming Universal, Paper Mayhem and Flagship magazine
, the first professional magazines devoted to play-by-mail games. (An earlier fanzine, Nuts & Bolts of PBM, was the first publication to exclusively cover the hobby.) Bob McLain, the publisher and editor of Gaming Universal, further popularized the hobby by writing articles that appeared in many of the leading mainstream gaming magazines of the time. Flagship later bought overseas right to Gaming Universal, making it the leading magazine in the field. Flagship magazine
was founded by Chris Harvey and Nick Palmer
(now an MP
) of the UK. The magazine still exists, under a new editor, but health concerns have led to worries over the publication's long term viability.
In the late 1990s, computer and Internet games marginalized play-by-mail conducted by actual postal mail, but the postal hobby still exists with an estimated 2000–3000 adherents worldwide.
Postal gaming developed as a way for geographically separated gamers to compete with each other. It was especially useful for those living in isolated areas and those whose tastes in games were uncommon.
In the case of a two player game such as chess
, players would simply send their moves to each other alternately. In the case of a multi-player game such as Diplomacy
, a central game master would run the game, receiving the moves and publishing adjudications. Such adjudications were often published in postal game zine
s, some of which contained far more than just games.
The commercial market for play-by-mail games grew to involve computer servers set up to host potentially thousands of players at once. Players would typically be split up into parallel games in order to keep the number of players per game at a reasonable level, with new games starting as old games ended. A typical closed game session might involve one to two dozen players, although some games claimed to have as many as five hundred people simultaneously competing in the same game world. While the central company was responsible for feeding in moves and mailing the processed output back to players, players were also provided with the mailing addresses of others so that direct contact could be made and negotiations performed. With turns being processed every few weeks (a two week turnaround being standard), more advanced games could last over a year.
Game themes are heavily varied, and may range from those based on historical or real events to those taking place in alternate or fictional worlds.
Inevitably, the onset of the computer-moderated PBM game (primarily the Legends
game system) meant that the human moderated games became "boutique" games with little chance of matching the gross revenues that larger, automated games could produce..
Actual move/turn submission is traditionally carried out by filling in a turn card. This card has formatted entry areas where players enter their planned actions (using some form of encoding) for the upcoming turn. Players are limited to some finite number of actions, and in some cases must split their resources between these actions (so that additional actions make each less effective). The way the card is filled in often implies an ordering between each command, so that they are processed in-order, one after another. Once completed, the card is then mailed (or, in more modern times, e-mailed) to the game master, where it is either processed, or held until the next turn processing window begins.
By gathering turn cards from a number of players and processing them all at the same time, games can provide simultaneous actions for all players. However, for this same reason, co-ordination between players can be difficult to achieve. For example, player A might attempt to move to player B's current location to do something with (or to) player B, while player B might simultaneously attempt to move to player A's current location. As such, the output/results of the turn can differ significantly from the submitted plan. Whatever the results, they are mailed back to the player to be studied and used as the basis for the next turn (often along with a new blank turn card).
While billing is sometimes done using a flat per-game rate (when the length of the game is known and finite), games more typically use a per-turn cost schedule. In such cases, each turn submitted depletes a pool of credit which must periodically be replenished in order to keep playing. Some games have multiple fee schedules, where players can pay more to perform advanced actions, or to take a greater number of actions in a turn.
Some role playing PBM games also include an element whereby the player may describe actions of their characters in a free text form. The effect and effectiveness of the action is then based on the judgement of the GM who may allow or partially allow the action. This gives the player more flexibility beyond the normal fixed actions at the cost of more complexity and, usually, expense.
, e-mail
and websites have largely replaced postal gaming and postal games zines. Play by mail games differ from popular online multiplayer games in that, for most computerized multiplayer games, the players have to be online at the same time - also known as synchronous play. With a play by mail game, the players can play whenever they choose, since responses need not be immediate; this is sometimes referred to as turn-based gaming and is common among browser-based
games. Some computer games can be played in turn-based mode: one makes one's "move", then play for that player stops, and the turn passes to another player who to makes his or her move in response.
Several non-commercial email games played on the Internet
and BITNET
predate these.
game. The main advantage of this is that the players can be presented with a graphical representation of the game and an interactive interface to guide them through their turn. Since the notifications only have to remind the players that it is their turn they can just as easily be sent via instant messaging.
Some sites have extended this gaming style by allowing the players to see each other's actions as they are made. This allows for real time playing while everyone is online and active, or slower progress if not.
Game
A game is structured playing, usually undertaken for enjoyment and sometimes used as an educational tool. Games are distinct from work, which is usually carried out for remuneration, and from art, which is more often an expression of aesthetic or ideological elements...
s, of any type, played through postal mail
Mail
Mail, or post, is a system for transporting letters and other tangible objects: written documents, typically enclosed in envelopes, and also small packages are delivered to destinations around the world. Anything sent through the postal system is called mail or post.In principle, a postal service...
or e-mail
Email
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
. One example, chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
, has been played by mail for centuries (when played in this way, it is known as correspondence chess
Correspondence chess
Correspondence chess is chess played by various forms of long-distance correspondence, usually through a correspondence chess server, through email or by the postal system; less common methods which have been employed include fax and homing pigeon...
). Another example, Diplomacy, has been played by mail since the 1960s, starting with a printed newsletter (a fanzine
Fanzine
A fanzine is a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon for the pleasure of others who share their interest...
) written by John Boardman
John Boardman
Jack Melton Boardman, commonly known as John Boardman, is an American former professor of physics at Brooklyn College.- Academic career :...
. More complex games, moderated entirely or partially by computer programs, were pioneered by Rick Loomis of Flying Buffalo
Flying Buffalo
Flying Buffalo Incorporated is a Scottsdale, Arizona game company that publishes role playing games, card games, gaming materials, and runs Play-by-mail games....
in 1970. The first such game offered via email through a major online service was Quantum Space
Quantum Space
Quantum Space was the first play-by-email game offered as part of a major commercial online service. It ran on AOL from 1989 to 1992. The game was developed by Stormfront Studios, designed and programmed by Don Daglow and produced by Kathi McHugh....
from Stormfront Studios
Stormfront Studios
Stormfront Studios was a video game developer based in San Rafael, California which had one of the longest creative histories in the industry. In 2007, the company had over 50 developers working on two teams, and owned all its proprietary engines, tools and technology. As of the end of 2007 over...
, which debuted on AOL
AOL
AOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...
in 1989.
Play by mail games are often referred to as PBM games, and play by email is sometimes abbreviated PBeM—as opposed to face to face (FTF) or over the board (OTB) games which are played in person. Another variation on the name is Play-by-Internet (PBI) or Play-by-Web (PBW). In all of these examples, player instructions can be either executed by a human moderator, a computer program, or a combination of the two.
In the 1980s, play-by-mail games reached their peak of popularity with the advent of Gaming Universal, Paper Mayhem and Flagship magazine
Flagship magazine
Flagship Magazine is an independent magazine for gamers . Published in the UK, it started in 1983 for PBM players . Since its hundredth issue in 2002, it has extended its coverage to include boardgames, role-playing games, web games and massively multiplayer online games, along with collectible...
, the first professional magazines devoted to play-by-mail games. (An earlier fanzine, Nuts & Bolts of PBM, was the first publication to exclusively cover the hobby.) Bob McLain, the publisher and editor of Gaming Universal, further popularized the hobby by writing articles that appeared in many of the leading mainstream gaming magazines of the time. Flagship later bought overseas right to Gaming Universal, making it the leading magazine in the field. Flagship magazine
Flagship magazine
Flagship Magazine is an independent magazine for gamers . Published in the UK, it started in 1983 for PBM players . Since its hundredth issue in 2002, it has extended its coverage to include boardgames, role-playing games, web games and massively multiplayer online games, along with collectible...
was founded by Chris Harvey and Nick Palmer
Nick Palmer
Nicholas Douglas Palmer is a British Labour Party politician. He was the Member of Parliament for Broxtowe in Nottinghamshire from 1997 until he lost the seat at the 2010 general election to Conservative Anna Soubry, by 390 votes.Described by Andrew Roth as "quietly effective", he was...
(now an MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
) of the UK. The magazine still exists, under a new editor, but health concerns have led to worries over the publication's long term viability.
In the late 1990s, computer and Internet games marginalized play-by-mail conducted by actual postal mail, but the postal hobby still exists with an estimated 2000–3000 adherents worldwide.
Postal gaming
In the case of a two player game such as chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
, players would simply send their moves to each other alternately. In the case of a multi-player game such as Diplomacy
Diplomacy (game)
Diplomacy is a strategic board game created by Allan B. Calhamer in 1954 and released commercially in 1959. Its main distinctions from most board wargames are its negotiation phases and the absence of dice or other game elements that produce random effects...
, a central game master would run the game, receiving the moves and publishing adjudications. Such adjudications were often published in postal game zine
Zine
A zine is most commonly a small circulation publication of original or appropriated texts and images. More broadly, the term encompasses any self-published work of minority interest usually reproduced via photocopier....
s, some of which contained far more than just games.
The commercial market for play-by-mail games grew to involve computer servers set up to host potentially thousands of players at once. Players would typically be split up into parallel games in order to keep the number of players per game at a reasonable level, with new games starting as old games ended. A typical closed game session might involve one to two dozen players, although some games claimed to have as many as five hundred people simultaneously competing in the same game world. While the central company was responsible for feeding in moves and mailing the processed output back to players, players were also provided with the mailing addresses of others so that direct contact could be made and negotiations performed. With turns being processed every few weeks (a two week turnaround being standard), more advanced games could last over a year.
Game themes are heavily varied, and may range from those based on historical or real events to those taking place in alternate or fictional worlds.
Inevitably, the onset of the computer-moderated PBM game (primarily the Legends
Legends (PBM)
Legends is an award-winning computer moderated play-by-mail fantasy strategy game. Legends was created in 1986 by Jim Landes from his previous game, Epic. The original system had three paper manuals and operated by print-based turn-sheets via snail mail...
game system) meant that the human moderated games became "boutique" games with little chance of matching the gross revenues that larger, automated games could produce..
Mechanics
The mechanics of play-by-mail games require that players think and plan carefully before making moves. Because planned actions can typically only be submitted at a fixed maximum frequency (e.g., once every few days or every few weeks), the number of discrete actions is limited compared to real-time games. As a result, players are provided with a variety of resources to assist in turn planning, including game aids, maps, and results from previous turns. Using this material, planning a single turn may take a number of hours.Actual move/turn submission is traditionally carried out by filling in a turn card. This card has formatted entry areas where players enter their planned actions (using some form of encoding) for the upcoming turn. Players are limited to some finite number of actions, and in some cases must split their resources between these actions (so that additional actions make each less effective). The way the card is filled in often implies an ordering between each command, so that they are processed in-order, one after another. Once completed, the card is then mailed (or, in more modern times, e-mailed) to the game master, where it is either processed, or held until the next turn processing window begins.
By gathering turn cards from a number of players and processing them all at the same time, games can provide simultaneous actions for all players. However, for this same reason, co-ordination between players can be difficult to achieve. For example, player A might attempt to move to player B's current location to do something with (or to) player B, while player B might simultaneously attempt to move to player A's current location. As such, the output/results of the turn can differ significantly from the submitted plan. Whatever the results, they are mailed back to the player to be studied and used as the basis for the next turn (often along with a new blank turn card).
While billing is sometimes done using a flat per-game rate (when the length of the game is known and finite), games more typically use a per-turn cost schedule. In such cases, each turn submitted depletes a pool of credit which must periodically be replenished in order to keep playing. Some games have multiple fee schedules, where players can pay more to perform advanced actions, or to take a greater number of actions in a turn.
Some role playing PBM games also include an element whereby the player may describe actions of their characters in a free text form. The effect and effectiveness of the action is then based on the judgement of the GM who may allow or partially allow the action. This gives the player more flexibility beyond the normal fixed actions at the cost of more complexity and, usually, expense.
Play-by-Email
With the rise of the InternetInternet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
E-mail
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
and websites have largely replaced postal gaming and postal games zines. Play by mail games differ from popular online multiplayer games in that, for most computerized multiplayer games, the players have to be online at the same time - also known as synchronous play. With a play by mail game, the players can play whenever they choose, since responses need not be immediate; this is sometimes referred to as turn-based gaming and is common among browser-based
Browser game
A browser game is a computer game that is played over the Internet using a web browser. Browser games can be created and run using standard web technologies or browser plug-ins. Browser games include all video game genres and can be single-player or multiplayer...
games. Some computer games can be played in turn-based mode: one makes one's "move", then play for that player stops, and the turn passes to another player who to makes his or her move in response.
Several non-commercial email games played on the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
and BITNET
BITNET
BITNET was a cooperative USA university network founded in 1981 by Ira Fuchs at the City University of New York and Greydon Freeman at Yale University...
predate these.
Play-by-web
An increasingly popular format for play-by-email games is play-by-web. As with play-by-email games the players are notified by email when it becomes their turn, but they must then return to the game's website to continue playing what is essentially a browser-basedBrowser game
A browser game is a computer game that is played over the Internet using a web browser. Browser games can be created and run using standard web technologies or browser plug-ins. Browser games include all video game genres and can be single-player or multiplayer...
game. The main advantage of this is that the players can be presented with a graphical representation of the game and an interactive interface to guide them through their turn. Since the notifications only have to remind the players that it is their turn they can just as easily be sent via instant messaging.
Some sites have extended this gaming style by allowing the players to see each other's actions as they are made. This allows for real time playing while everyone is online and active, or slower progress if not.
See also
- Correspondence chessCorrespondence chessCorrespondence chess is chess played by various forms of long-distance correspondence, usually through a correspondence chess server, through email or by the postal system; less common methods which have been employed include fax and homing pigeon...
- Diplomacy (game)Diplomacy (game)Diplomacy is a strategic board game created by Allan B. Calhamer in 1954 and released commercially in 1959. Its main distinctions from most board wargames are its negotiation phases and the absence of dice or other game elements that produce random effects...
(first non-public-domain game known to be played by mail; first game to generate a broad hobby of postal gaming zines) - Play-by-post role-playing game
- Flying BuffaloFlying BuffaloFlying Buffalo Incorporated is a Scottsdale, Arizona game company that publishes role playing games, card games, gaming materials, and runs Play-by-mail games....
- The Glory of KingsThe Glory of KingsThe Glory of Kings is an award-winning play-by-mail game recreation of the real world of the 18th century, run by Agema Publications. Players take part as one of the leading figures of the time, who can range from King Louis XIV, the Sun King of France, down to the likes of the infamous pirate...
- Harlequin GamesHarlequin GamesHarlequin Games is a business which designs and moderates PBM games by email of which there Legends engine is the most recognized. From there "" page - "We fuse wild imagination with good game-play in everything we produce and do so with professionalism and love for the hobby...
- Turn-based