In today’s digital age, video games and online multiplayer experiences dominate the gaming world. However, long before the rise of instant connectivity, there existed a unique and immersive form of gaming—play-by-mail (PBM) games. These games, which involved sending physical letters or cards back and forth between players, created a slow-paced but highly strategic and engaging gaming experience. Though the popularity of PBM games has diminished with the rise of the internet, they...

Play by mail games (also known asPBM games,PBEM games or turn-based games) is a gameplayed via mail, e-mail address or otherdigital media. Correspondence chess and Go were among the first PBM games. Diplomacy hasbeen played by mail since 1963, making PBM games multiplayer. Flying Buffalo Inc. developed the first commercially available PBM game in 1970. A small number of PBM companies followed it in the 1970s, with the explosion of hundreds of start-up PBM companies in the 1980s at the peak of...