Play-by-mail game

Play-by-mail games, or play-by-post games, are games, of any type, played through postal mail or email.

Correspondence chess has been played by mail for centuries. The boardgame Diplomacy has been played by mail since the 1960s, starting with a printed newsletter (a fanzine) written by John Boardman. More complex games, moderated entirely or partially by computer programs, were pioneered by Rick Loomis of Flying Buffalo in 1970. The first such game offered via major e-mail services was WebWar II (based on Starweb and licensed from Flying Buffalo) from Neolithic Enterprises who accepted e-mail turns from all of the major e-mail services including CompuServe in 1983.

Play by mail games are often referred to as PBM games, and play by email is sometimes abbreviated PBeM—as opposed to face to face (FTF) or over the board (OTB) games which are played in person. Another variation on the name is Play-by-Internet (PBI) or Play-by-Web (PBW). In all of these examples, player instructions can be either executed by a human moderator, a computer program, or a combination of the two.