PANZER GENERAL (DOS) PBEM RESEARCH CENTRE
ARTICLE 004

THE PERILS OF PBEM WITH.......STRANGERS

Some of us do not have the stomach for playing Panzer General (PG) with...strangers and, hence, seek the comfort of locking horns over the silicon board just with Internet friends of ours. I suspect that some of you may identify with most, if not all, of what follows......

STRANGERS:

01) May not know where some of the PG buttons are or their function.

02) May not know how to save, move, rename or copy DOS files.

03) May not know the difference between the GAME.SV? and PBM.SV? file formats.

04) May not know how to effectively attach binary files to E-mail messages.

05) May not know how to compress PG save game files.

06) May not know that Hidden Units, Weather and Supply should "NORMALLY" be ON AT ALL TIMES.

07) May not know that reloading/replaying turns or segments thereof is "NORMALLY" interpreted as CHEATING.

08) May not have a clue about the thorny issue of Systematic Recon entailing (ab-)use of the "Undo Move" button.

09) May not have a clue about mirrored game arrangements.

10) May be conscious and deliberate cheaters.

11) May be uncommunicative or insufferable braggarts.

12) May be unreliable, especially if a game is not going well for them.

13) May be immature, unpleasant or downright nasty.

If one really thinks about it, it IS amazing that ANY Internet-enabled friendships with PBEM PG opponents EVER come to fruition ! Thank god that they, sometimes, DO !!

The author, Panos Stoucas, is a long time Panzer General (DOS) PBEM enthusiast and is currently the "Facilitator" of the PG (DOS) PBEM RESEARCH CENTRE. He can be reached at pstoucas@istar.ca