> It's likely that the computer game companies will overwhelm the PBM/PBEM
> companies, because they already understand the concepts of marketing,
> whereas many of the PBM/PBEM companies were founded by technicians or
> gamers.
>
I really can't see this. I can see the two forms of entertainment merging
more and more in the future (though I believe this will take longer than
people seem to think). However, if PBM companies are overwhelmed it will
only be through lack of money, not lack of expertise. Computer games
companies may understand marketing, but they certainly don't understand
game design. Pretty much every computer game I've ever played could have
been improved massively with the addition of a few simple extras that would
have taken no time at all to program, compared to the time and money it
takes to produce all the stunning graphics, sounds and intro sequences.
What I'm basically trying to say is this - if we see some sort of composite
computer game / PBM game in the near future, the ones produced by computer
games companies will be wonderfully presented (nice graphics etc.) and
well marketed, but the really _fun_ games will be those produced by the
PBM companies.
/----------------------------------------------------\
/ Finn Winter - DreamShadows - PBM & PBEM games \
\ EMail dreamshadows@chaldea.demon.co.uk /
\----------------------------------------------------/