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Classic Games (Games) Communications

Does Anyone Still Play-by-Mail? 114

Posted by Cliff 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!"
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Does Anyone Still Play-by-Mail? More

Does Anyone Still Play-by-Mail?

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  • No (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 19, 2004 @04:55PM (#10868539)
    No, no one does anymore. And I would have had the first post had the damn snowstorm not delayed my message.
    • I think I tried about three times to play RPGs by email in college. Each time the GM lost interest after the first week, while he or she was trying to round up all the people to finish making up their characters. Always thought it was a neat idea though and I might be interested in something still if I had confidence it wouldn't die before it became fun.

      Alex.

    • Re:No (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Stripe7 ( 571267 )
      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.

    • I disagree, I for one do play by (e)mail. I am currently playing 5 games of Civilization 3 (Using "Complete" boxed set, although its a part of the Play the World expansion) via e-Mail. Each game moves at different speeds, they vary from 3-4 moves a day to 1 move every two days.

      It is slow, but allows me to keep my Civ3 addiction in check by getting my fix in installments.

  • Tic-Tac-Toe (Score:4, Funny)

    by MyLongNickName ( 822545 ) on Friday November 19, 2004 @04:59PM (#10868588) Journal
    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.

  • KJC Games (Score:4, Informative)

    by Xaviar21 ( 790883 ) on Friday November 19, 2004 @05:03PM (#10868635)
    KJC Games [kjcgames.com]
    All their games are PBM. I particularly like Phoenix.
    • That brings memories of playing "It's a Crime" by play-by-mail almost 20 years ago! Fond memories, though I had to give up as it was a little expensive, taking most of my pocket money. "GTA Vice City" for the stamp-licking era.

      Wonder is there an email version?

      P.
      • Apparently not, amazingly enough. I played this game back in the '80s too, but it's hard to believe that there are still people today paying to play a game by snail mail. Looks like it's based in Britain now, instead of New York.

  • Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Friday November 19, 2004 @05:04PM (#10868654)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • 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!

    • *blink* *blink* Florida? Izzat you?

    • I was BRNG56D... I remember it well... (Score:4, Funny)

      by b00m3rang ( 682108 ) on Friday November 19, 2004 @11:50PM (#10872192)
      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.

  • Laser squad nemesis? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Zutroy Of Earth ( 114413 ) on Friday November 19, 2004 @05:05PM (#10868666)
    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% :)
  • 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!

  • YES! (Score:4, Insightful)

    by netfool ( 623800 ) on Friday November 19, 2004 @05:08PM (#10868700) Homepage
    Yes, people still do this. See the Combat Mission series on Battlefront [battlefront.com].

    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.

    • Agreed. Combat Mission rekindled my interest in historical war games. I keep a pretty regular PBEM game with a friend of mine. It's especially good for large games where you need a good deal of time to set up and execute a complex strategy. It uses a phased turn based style where both players give orders to their troops (like Laser Squad Nemesis) and then you watch game "run" for a minute as the troops for both sides try to execute their orders at the same time.
    • CMBO rules, man. I am so sad that it's not OS X native and that I have to reboot into OS 9 to play. I haven't bought CMBB (Barbarossa to Berlin) nor CMAK (Afrika Kore) because of this shortcoming, but I've been sorely tempted by the demos, which are excellent. (Curse you, Apple for droping RAVE support!)

      Any word on how the new product, that WILL play on OS X, is coming along?

  • You betcha (Score:5, Informative)

    by emiddlec ( 673376 ) on Friday November 19, 2004 @05:13PM (#10868768)
    You betcha. One place to play is itsyourturn.com [itsyourturn.com], which will send you an email when it's your turn to move, etc. They currently have the following games (and variations) available:

    • Backgammon, Pro Backgammon (BP), Anti-Backgammon (BA), Nackgammon (BN), and Backgammon Race (BR)
    • Battleboats, Battleboats Plus, Dark Battleboats Plus (TD)
    • Checkers: American (aka British Draughts (KX)), Pro Checkers (KP), Anti-Checkers (KA), Sparse Checkers (KS), and Crowded Checkers (KC).
    • Checkers: International (aka International Draughts), Italian Checkers (KT), Polish Checkers (KL), and Russian Checkers (KR).
    • Chess, King's Corner (CK), King's Fortress (CF), Horde (CH), Extinction (CE), Anti (CA), Dark (CD), Screen (CS), and Crazy Screen (CZ).
    • Chinese Chess (Xiangqi)
    • Go - 19x19 size board, 9x9 (G9) and 13x13 (G3)
    • Go-Moku and Pente, Keryo-Pente (MK), Pro Go-Moku (MM), and Pro-Pente (MQ).
    • Halma (Chinese Checkers) - 8x8 board, and 10x10
    • Jamble
    • Reversi, Reversi 10x10 (R1), Blackhole Reversi (RH), Anti-Reversi (RA), Blackhole Reversi 10x10 (RI), Anti-Reversi 10x10 (RB), Reversi 6x6 (R6), and Anti-Reversi 6x6 (RC)
    • Sabotage (aka Stratego(TM)), Mini Sabotage (SM), Sabotage Rush (SR), and Sabotage Open Rush (SO). (Stratego(TM) is a trademark of Hasbro, Inc.)
    • Stack4, Connectris (4C), Stack 4X4 (44), and Anti-Stack4 (4A)
    • Hear hear. I love itsyourturn. When I have paid off some of my most immediate debts, I'm going to subscribe. However, I've been playing there for well over a year without paying. It's a great site.
    • Agreed. I've been playing on Itsyourturn.com since October 2001. It's a quality site, good for burning a few minutes here and there when you have nothing else to do.

      As of this posting, I'm ranked #1 on the open 28-hour Battleboats ladder. :-)

      I'm not currently a paying member, but that may change in the future -- the ads that nonmembers have to put up with have been getting annoying lately.
    • I played at IYT for some time before getting tired of it. All I played was chess, and there's (imho) a couple of better alternatives for that.

      Now, I use redhotpawn.com [redhotpawn.com] - nicer board, nicer interface, better forums, and GAME RATINGS.

  • Yes. (Score:2)

    by bryanp ( 160522 )
    I've been in a PBEM Champions RPG for 6 years.

  • PBEM the only way to go for strategy games (Score:4, Interesting)

    by dtolman ( 688781 ) <dtolman@yahoo.com> on Friday November 19, 2004 @05:28PM (#10869034) Homepage
    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...

  • There is a new game, the whole world is playing... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Alpha27 ( 211269 ) on Friday November 19, 2004 @05:29PM (#10869040)
    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. ;=)
    • 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 D
  • 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 [flyingbuffalo.com] has been doing forever...

    A full list is here http://www.flyingbuffalo.com/pbm.htm [flyingbuffalo.com] (The junk filter won't let me quote the page with links...)
    • But the original post seems more along the lines of what Flying Buffalo has been doing forever...

      Indeed, I've been playing "Heroic Fantasy" from Flying Buffalo for a loooooong time (since the early 1980s). I played Illuminati through them as well for quite some time, but then they lost their license from SJ Games.

      Heck, I still have a number of board games and supplements I bought from Flying Buffalo eons ago (when they had their own retail store)...

  • Although not strictly by email, Robo Runner [eyeplaygames.com] has the same pace. It's highly addictive, so watch out!


    There's also still a lot of Diplomacy [amarriner.com] PBEM going around.

  • GameKnot [gameknot.com] is some kind of "play by mail" chess server... With a timer with a minimum of 3 days per move (and up to several weeks per move), it is ideal for people who want to play but can only afford a couple of minutes per day (for cause of being too busy reading /.)

    I play there regularly... currently doing 15 games simultaneously...

  • Half Life 2 (Score:5, Funny)

    by DavidLeblond ( 267211 ) <me&davidleblond,com> on Friday November 19, 2004 @05:48PM (#10869364) Homepage
    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...

    • i tried playing doom3, but my mailman wasn't powerful enough.
    • From: Halflife2
      To: David Leblond
      Subject: Game Time
      Message Contents:

      From: David Leblond
      To: Halflife2
      Subject: Game Time
      Message Contents:
      W

    • 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?
      • Have you tried visiting http://slashdot.org/metamod.pl [slashdot.org]? 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've been playing in deathmatch, and some #$%@ has been camping on my spawn point for weeks!

  • XCOM Email (Score:3, Informative)

    by ledow ( 319597 ) on Friday November 19, 2004 @05:56PM (#10869483) Homepage
    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.

  • not email based, but in a similar spirit... (Score:4, Informative)

    by bongoras ( 632709 ) * on Friday November 19, 2004 @06:01PM (#10869546) Homepage
    Is Battlemaster [battlemaster.org]. It's a turn based, reasonably slow paced MMRPG. To quote from the intro page:

    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?

  • Diplomacy (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    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.
    • Check out www.diplom.org. There are many Diplomacy servers indexed there. Some have web interfaces for entering orders and the create maps as gifs and pdfs.
  • pbembb.com [pbembb.com]

    Largely superceded by the Java client (home.austin.rr.com/javabbowl/ [rr.com]), but still a good user community.

  • PBM and PBEM alive and well (Score:4, Informative)

    by Greg Lindahl ( 37568 ) on Friday November 19, 2004 @06:28PM (#10869930) Homepage

    I track more than 2,000 play by mail and play by email games in my pbm list [pbm.com].
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • My wife and I, before we were married, used to play Age of Wonders [triumphstudios.com] 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.
  • I'm actually running a Rifts PBeM. It's a rather small group but things are going smoothly.
  • 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
  • I play in a poker tournament by email called the World Rec.Gambling Poker Tournament [quizkids.com]. 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 processe

  • Many people do this, even celebrities... (Score:5, Funny)

    by rubberbando ( 784342 ) on Friday November 19, 2004 @09:45PM (#10871539)
    Average Joe Somebody sends playfull letter to Hot Actress and she responds by playfully sending him a restraining order.
    It's plenty of fun, you should try it sometime. :-P
  • 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. :)

  • Chess Variants (Score:3, Informative)

    by pdboddy ( 620164 ) <pdboddy.gmail@com> on Saturday November 20, 2004 @12:08AM (#10872279) Journal
    ChessVariants.com [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.

  • IECG (Score:3, Informative)

    by thelenm ( 213782 ) <mthelen.gmail@com> on Saturday November 20, 2004 @12:54AM (#10872486) Homepage Journal
    Sure, check out the International Email Chess Group [iecg.org]. 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.
  • At this moment, as well as three play-by-email games of Stars! [crisium.com] right now. Trying to hook up a game of Alien Crossfire, too, but no such luck.
    • Stars is f'ing AWESOME! The closest thing to intergalactic Civilization i've seen yet. It's too bad that Stars! Supernova seems to be in publisher limbo.
      • No kidding... I remember hearing rumors about that years and years and years and years and years.... ago. Thats 5 years for those of you counting at home.

        If you wanna learn how to play this game, which will truly appeal to true Slashdot nerds who value substance over style (and even people who like Half-Life 2 will like it), hit Stars AutoHost [starsautohost.org], which is a site run by a super-fan of this great game. You can download the game most anywhere, and you can get serial codes from the forum on the above site.

  • Our last game lasted 8 months. I won :-)
  • I play Go on the Dragon Go Server [dragongoserver.net], it's the concept of PBeM adapted to an internet where web access is more common then email.
  • PBM for this game is just great, everytime we send our turns on our SMAC list, we feel the urge to add some roleplay.

  • Stars! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by mseeger ( 40923 ) on Saturday November 20, 2004 @05:09AM (#10873434)
    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 [anrokima.de] there. I think there must be a FAQ around and there is a freeware trial version out.

    Regards, Martin

  • Yep (Score:2)

    by arafel ( 15551 ) *
    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 [pbm.com]. 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 [flagshipmagazine.com]. There used
    • I played the Middle-Earth PBM game back when it was still run by GSI. It's a great game, especially the 4th age version where you get to design your own country--the 3rd age games have pre-defined setups with only a bit of variation, so it used to be too easy to knock people out in just a very few turns, before they had a chance to react if they didn't know exactly what they were doing. It's worth mentioning that it is very heavily based on ICE's Middle-Earth RPG--having the ICE supplements can be helpful i
  • 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 :)
  • 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 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 mo

  • 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 [illwinter.com]
  • Been doing a Play by Email campaign of classic Battletech since September of 2003
  • Dune [yahoo.com] 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.

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