BETA notice: Things can change and not everything work as expected, but the website is stable enoughThis article is not about PBEM games in its strictest form, it focuses on using journals/blogs to play. It is actually a very interesting concept that takes PBEM gaming one step further.
I think it raises the question of what a PBEM game actually is, where do we draw the line? There are already games out there using blogs as post archive, instead of a mailing list. The step from that to to journal gaming is rather small in my opinion. Do we need to start calling it "text-based asynchronous roleplaying" instead?
Ginger was very kind to let us post the article here, thank you very much!
The concept of Journal
The concept of Journal gaming described is great from what I can tell, (this being the first I've heard of it!) the main thing I like about it is the focus on dialogue. Having characters interact is brilliant fun and is sometimes skipped over in games where the emphasis is on hitpoints and picking up items.
The female/male divide is definitely evident, I have noticed that in role playing males have a tendency to want to fight and blow stuff up, whereas females like to write about social situations and dating.
This isn't always the case of course. I prefer a bit of both and like the drama.
What I don't like about the format of these Journal games are that the descriptions are boiled down to tiny actions within asterisks. It is very script like, simple and straight to the point. There is a lot of detailed description that is being left out, about the characters, about the scene they are in, about the world they are in. I think posts should be extremely descriptive to paint a detailed picture in your own mind about what's fully going on.