There was a very interesting article posted to The Simming League website yesterday, about how that club coped with the death of their beloved founder and leader. What problems they were facing when suddenly left without a strong leader, and how they managed to pull through and stay together.
I think it should serve as an eye-opener to many role playing, simming or pbem organizations out there as it tells the story of how such a tragic event can transform a club into a self-governing, almost democratic, body where people work together for the good of the organization.
I have seen far too many examples of how a group is built around one person, some times a strong leader like in the article but too often also a power hungry, despotic ruler. We have to remember that we are all into this because of the fun we get out of it. It should not be about politics or power. It should be about having fun!
A visitor commented on my “Interesting game concepts” post a few days back, I only noticed it today since the comment had been caught in the spam filter - I’m sorry! The visitor provided two very interesting links to forum posts listing all such games “known to man” . Check them out and thank you for the comment!
Chas of simmingleague.com emailed me about a new section on their webpage: Essays! They have collected some articles about simming and pbem games. I have also given them permission to post some of my articles there, if they want.
At the time I write this, there are nine articles on that site, most of them well worth reading. They are mostly centered around setting up and running you own club, but there are also articles about posting and such.
I welcome all efforts to improve the PBEM community, even if it is a website with basicly the same purpose as pbemplayers. I just hope the readers will find them both!
I came across a very interesting game concept today. There was an ad for a “Congressional simulator” game in the rec.games.pbm discussion group. While I did not go on to look at the game itself since the ad lacked a link to it, I found the idea very interesting. It is just too bad I do not know enough about politics to actually join, even though I have slowly made my way through the first 4 seasons of “The West Wing” boxed dvd sets. And I am not sure if any political party I would have voted for would be represented in the congress in 2010, the year the game was set in.
In general, I am intrigued by games that are outside the common sci-fi or fantasy settings. Games that are unique, games that go out into uncharted territory. I really would like to see more of those around!
Today is the Worldwide Dungeons & Dragons Game Day! There are a lot of roleplaying events going on in stores and other locations all around the nation, even all around the world!