hongkongwargamer
Forum Guru
You proved yourself to be a teenager. Welcome aboard!!
PBEM Players
- Thread starter Stewart
- Start date
MatrimSaric
Member
i am not a fanof pbem. tbh its a weakness in my own personality but whereas a bad roll in vaslor ftf can be quickly moved on from a bad roll/turn in pbem can stick with you for days.
i have also noted much less requests for non-pbem but cant really complain as i have given up looking myself. i can find people who want to play vasl and at times i am available but cant find someone who can commit to a session a week with only (say) 1 week missed out of 4. lots who can do 1 week played out of 4 or 2 .
which ties in with some of the comments above.
i have also noted much less requests for non-pbem but cant really complain as i have given up looking myself. i can find people who want to play vasl and at times i am available but cant find someone who can commit to a session a week with only (say) 1 week missed out of 4. lots who can do 1 week played out of 4 or 2 .
which ties in with some of the comments above.
hongkongwargamer
Forum Guru
Well .. which means it now appears that there are at least a pair of you in this thread would like to commit to a long term VASL relationship!
If all's lost there's always these VASL leagues that everybody joins year after year. Great players and great games I'm told!
Last edited:
MatrimSaric
Member
lol. the comments saying 'i cant commit to a game regularly so thats why i just do pbem'
I'm pretty sure the idea is I can't do every Friday at 5:30 p.m.
because invariably due to our age we have other things happening on Friday that are not necessarily scheduled to us by our significant other and therefore canceling two or three of these times might leave a sour taste and some players mouth that don't have such commitments
Occasionally I'll get in face-to-face vasl games where I can't get back to it for like 2 weeks or 3 weeks and that's standard so some players like three sessions a week that's can be too much sometimes for some players
hongkongwargamer
Forum Guru
Is it that you don't have an hour or 2 to play a VASL game or is it just that you don't want to play FtF?
VASL is a great tool, but ASL is sooo agonizingly slow in PBEM...one of the worst games to play by Email.
I've done it... its exciting to get a log every 3rd day or have 3-5 games running....For whatever reason, about 80% of my games never get completed....
If someone can list what preference over PBEM over say one turn i.e. an hour.....PBEM log takes probably 30 min. to complete if a med to small scenario.
I have been doing a session a week with 3 or 4 regular opponents since 2013, with time slots like 0745-0945 on weekends and 2100-2300 on weekdays since 2013. Plus on top of it, 6 to 13 concurrent PBEMs.
I guess the idea is :
- If you yourself can commit to more sociable time slots : FtF
- If you can commit to regular time slots : live VASL
- If you want to fill in additional slots in random time and space : PBEM
Assuming you still want to play ASL, that is. I think all of these different ways to play works quite well in their own way.
Plus in my personal experience there has always been more opponents than I have time for (for various ways to play). I can't see that as being as issue either. I have always seen folks getting matching opponents within a day or two on GameSquad, Facebook, Discord, plus there are various global and regional VASL leagues.
Most of my FtF opponents and a good chunk of my PBEM opponents are buddies I have met at tournaments. The rest of my PBEMs are still folks that I have "off-ASL" relationships with in different degrees. Folks I don't know and on PBEM tend to fade away but heck, people have lives to live. ASL is a great game, but it's just a game.
Hence, there's no sense knocking one way of play vs another. As one of my best buddies always say (relay) : you get out of ASL what you put in.
MatrimSaric
Member
true. though for the first time in years i am looking at cdg+ action pack+aslok and thinking '230 pounds and i am not currently playing . maybe i should just stop where i am' . i know all the 'still buy core as you will regret it' ....
dreenstra
Member
My first response to this thread was, "why the diss on PBEM"? But I get it, it can be frustrating to be looking for an opponent for the way I want to play and only see posts looking to play in another mode.
Like others have said, PBEM, FtF, VASL Live, all modes are additive for me. I'll take my ASL about any way I can get it. Most of my games (or at least ASL time) is spent in PBEM. Mostly, it's the flexibility that does it for me. When I was learning, it was about being able to take the time to look up rules and play the game right without feeling like I was wasting the other guy's time.
But if I'm really being honest, VASL Live, at least against someone I've never played before, is my absolute least favorite way to play. I can sit down at a tournament across from a guy who I've never seen before and have a great game of ASL. But ask me to do that over a VOIP connection without being able to read facial expressions and it's like fingernails on a chalkboard. Making small talk, talking over each other, trying to understand each other's idiosyncrasies, I just can't hack it. Not that you all aren't great guys, I'm sure it's just me.
Dave
Like others have said, PBEM, FtF, VASL Live, all modes are additive for me. I'll take my ASL about any way I can get it. Most of my games (or at least ASL time) is spent in PBEM. Mostly, it's the flexibility that does it for me. When I was learning, it was about being able to take the time to look up rules and play the game right without feeling like I was wasting the other guy's time.
But if I'm really being honest, VASL Live, at least against someone I've never played before, is my absolute least favorite way to play. I can sit down at a tournament across from a guy who I've never seen before and have a great game of ASL. But ask me to do that over a VOIP connection without being able to read facial expressions and it's like fingernails on a chalkboard. Making small talk, talking over each other, trying to understand each other's idiosyncrasies, I just can't hack it. Not that you all aren't great guys, I'm sure it's just me.
Dave
Web cam on Skype or discord will solve that issue for you.My first response to this thread was, "why the diss on PBEM"? But I get it, it can be frustrating to be looking for an opponent for the way I want to play and only see posts looking to play in another mode.
Like others have said, PBEM, FtF, VASL Live, all modes are additive for me. I'll take my ASL about any way I can get it. Most of my games (or at least ASL time) is spent in PBEM. Mostly, it's the flexibility that does it for me. When I was learning, it was about being able to take the time to look up rules and play the game right without feeling like I was wasting the other guy's time.
But if I'm really being honest, VASL Live, at least against someone I've never played before, is my absolute least favorite way to play. I can sit down at a tournament across from a guy who I've never seen before and have a great game of ASL. But ask me to do that over a VOIP connection without being able to read facial expressions and it's like fingernails on a chalkboard. Making small talk, talking over each other, trying to understand each other's idiosyncrasies, I just can't hack it. Not that you all aren't great guys, I'm sure it's just me.
Dave
Odors.... You'll have to provide those yourself.