New PBM Magazine

and its free go here for the down load...

http://playbymail.net/SuspendAndDecision/Issue%201.pdf

issue 2 is out now...  looks good  

http://playbymail.net/SuspenseAndDecision/Issue2.pdf

Issue 3

http://playbymail.net/SuspenseAndDecision/Issue-3.pdf

Issue 4

http://playbymail.net/SuspenseAndDecision/Issue4.pdf

Issue 5

http://playbymail.net/SuspenseAndDecision/Issue-5-Suspense&Decision.pdf

Issue 6

http://playbymail.net/mybb/showthread.php?tid=854

Interesting how 'we' are viewed...

We being what?

'We' being the Agema forum.

Yep, as Richard says the Forum

I must admit I rarely do Forums these days (so many, unlike this one, seem to be full of trolls) so no idea really if S&D's summary is accurate compared to others...but I like S&D as a publication and I like this forum so not complaining

yes managed to keep the trolls at bay so far...   

I think ppl get put off because the get flamed for having an opinion. it seems here we have a civilized bunch of posters   

BTW can you point me to where it says that must have missed it?

its was the advert for regime change in Suspense and Decision that brought me here, (to Agema games) and there article on the forum that brought me here (this forum)

well welcome then go and post a quick intro about your self. Hopefully there will be more ppl posting in the RC forum soon.

Kingmaker, p60, the Lunar Landing bit


And, as I've said elsewhere, welcome Joe

Jason wrote:Interesting how 'we' are viewed...

Richard D. Watts wrote:'We' being the Agema forum.

Well, how the Agema forum is viewed might vary, from person to person. But, when I write the Lunar Landing articles, the view is my own.

On the one hand, one of the reasons that I author that particular column for the magazine, Suspense & Decision, is to bring various forum or discussion group locations to the attention of readers. If there is something that I left out that warrants consideration, everyone is free to write in and make me aware of it. I am quite willing to provide space within the pages of the magazine for others to share their respective views about the Agema forum. I can't make anyone write in, though.

Additionally, Suspense & Decision magazine has been in publication for six issues, now. Thus far, most PBM moderators have not bothered to author articles highlighting their own respective views of their own forums or other discussion areas.

Beyond that, I often hold multiple opinions about a given game company, simultaneously. Take Alamaze, for example, which is a game run by Enlightened Age Entertainment, Inc.. The Alamaze forum tends to have lots of player activity. The Alamaze Facebook page, by comparison, is virtually a dead zone.

Where game company forum are concerned, I don't always have access to the exact, same date, and what data that I do have access to isn't always presented in the exact, same way. I try to take into consideration the data on numbers and players and such, as I find it, and as I compare it to what I see in the forum I am visiting for the Lunar Landing exploration, as well as what I have encountered elsewhere.

Furthermore, the Lunar Landing articles don't tend to be lengthy undertakings. Plus, I tend to write them in compressed time frames.

Readers are free to draw their own conclusions, both about the opinions that I render in that column, as well as the numbers that I point to that the sites, themselves, provide to me. If I get it wrong, by all means, write in and offer a correction for our readership's consideration.

Hi Grimfinger

Thanks for that. Hope you didn't feel I was being critical, I just found the view in your column (which I read and enjoy) an interesting view as I rarely take part in forums at all these days (reached that age when I deal with enough trolls in my working life...can't face them in my 'personal' life ) and it had never really occurred to me if this forum was busy or quiet compared to other PBM ones. The nearest comparison I've had any experience of are the WoW ones, and even that is 2nd hand (WoW is my other half's hobby and I'm happy to leave her to it)

Jason wrote:Hi Grimfinger  

Thanks for that.  Hope you didn't feel I was being critical, I just found the view in your column (which I read and enjoy) an interesting view as I rarely take part in forums at all these days (reached that age when I deal with enough trolls in my working life...can't face them in my 'personal' life ) and it had never really occurred to me if this forum was busy or quiet compared to other PBM ones.  The nearest comparison I've had any experience of are the WoW ones, and even that is 2nd hand (WoW is my other half's hobby and I'm happy to leave her to it)

The desire on my part would be for people to be critical, as it would tend to generate better feedback. That said, I was simply expounding, in order to provide clarification.

Everyone has their own perspective on things associated with play by mail gaming. It is a genre of gaming that has many facets to it. My perspective, as publisher of a magazine (albeit a fairly small one), is not going to be the same as a given player or a given game moderator. Regardless of whether you or anyone else is critical or not of a given article published in the magazine, when you do comment, whether in the magazine or elsewhere such as this forum, it increases the amount of dialogue about the genre - which is invariably a good thing.

I've visited the Agema forum for years on end, albeit infrequently. On the day that I visited it for the Lunar Landing article, it was actually busier, that day, than on most of the visits that I have made here over the years. But, the Lunar Landing is its own beast, of sorts. What I report for those visits are what I am seeing that particular day, how the site looks and feels.

Agema is an interesting case, because the core website for Agema was updated fairly recently. That part looks really nice, I think. But, the forum still looks the same, as before. Even compared just to the Agema website, the forum has more of a stale look to it. Any site that is alive tends to change a lot. Either that, or it will tend to display lots of activity.

Understand, though, that many PBM websites have a stale look about them. The Agema forum certainly is not unique, insofar as striking me as a bit stale, when I visit it. As to the activity level, there are certainly PBM forums and discussion groups that display a lot less activity than the Agema forum. The Lunar Landing series started with one of those sites, in fact, in Issue # 2.

In that issue, the Lunar Landing article reported: "The total number of topics was 105. The total number of postings on this forum site was 518. This covers a span of time that stretches from January 1st, 2006 through December 29th, 2013 - almost eight full years." That was on December 29th, 2013. Here we are, months later, and in visiting that site, again, just now, here's the current figures for it:

Forum Stats
Total Topics: 105      Total Posts: 518

Those particular numbers are exactly the same, today, as they were months previously.

Raw numbers do tend to make for dry reading, but they also help to make one's case. I don't know how many players a particular game or a particular company has, unless they share that info with me in some way, shape, or form. Some of the numbers that I have been provided, previously, by others aren't easily verifiable. Forum statistics are but one mechanism that I find to be useful in discerning game activity. Obviously, I can't track player activity that takes place via e-mail. So, I have to utilize data that I have access to, and forum statistics are typically viewable by the general public or to registered site users, and others can then check out those same numbers for themselves, in order to arrive at their own independent conclusions.

Actually Grimfinger has pointed out a very good point about the freshness of the site. I think it may be time for a makeover.

Regarding posts etc, I guess due to the number of ppl who actually play the games of Agema it can be quite limiting. Being more about the games they offer than about PBM in general.

I started this off as a place for ppl to meet and discuss and help each other with LGDR and other games. As you can see from that particular forum it is the most used and views.

I think it is also an issue of the game itself.

Information is power, and folks don't seem as inclined to share their lessons learned.

Add to that the game restriction that you can't do any diplomacy outside of the game, and it becomes an issue that players have to be extra careful not to cross that line.

Given those two factors, I think the engagement is actually pretty good.

I had always considered that, overall, the number of people who play the games isn't large so never imagined it would be an overbusy forum...but I think as Kingmaker suggests now would be a good time to look at the Forum format and see how it works and could change.

Issue 7

http://playbymail.net/SuspenseAndDecision/Issue-7-Suspense&Decision-PBM-Magazine.pdf

Issue 8

http://playbymail.net/SuspenseAndDecision/Issue-8-Suspense&Decision-PBM-Magazine.pdf

cheers Grim was busy etc thanks

yes, thanks Grim as ever an interesting read...the effort that goes into producing it is amazing!