Why I'm creating the OngoingWorlds website

Ongoing Worlds is a project that’s born out of my love of PBeM games. I’ve been playing online text-based role-playing games since about 1998, when I first got the Internet at home. I loved the total freedom of using my character to inhabit this total virtual world that only existed in peoples imaginations.

I’ve already discussed in this article about how I’ve ran PbEM games before using Yahoo Groups, which does the job reasonably well, although is limited and to be honest starting to look a bit tired and oh so old fashioned.

Yahoo Groups is limited in that it’s trying to suit everyone, and therefore doesn’t provide tools that would really make life easier for the GM of a PbEM game. Of course I could bitch and moan about this all day, but it’s not their fault obviously because they can’t create all the functionality that everyone in the world wants. I chose to use what they created, so it’s my problem not theirs.

I know there are many other great solutions out there for online text-based role-playing games, many people use forums, blogs or wikis to run their game. Each of these solutions I’ve found interesting, but all have their own flaws because the problem is practically the same. They’re using software that wasn’t created for the specific task in hand.

Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a website tailored specifically to creating the perfect PBeM experience? Yes it would!

So that’s my plan with Ongoing Worlds. I work as a web designer, so thought I’d put my skill to some use here. Ongoing Worlds is going to be a website for people to come to, setup a text-based role-playing game, invite members, and post your ongoing story. Sounds simple enough, but what will make it extra special is that every part of it will be created with the purpose in mind.

The challenge though is incorporating everything that everyone wants into one system. People run their text-based role-playing games very differently, so I want to make sure that this website will fit how you play. Which is why I’ll be needing a lot of feedback! I’ll be posting articles about the progress and asking plenty of questions. If you don’t agree with something, tell me! If you think a feature would be useful, tell me!

I have no delusions of grandeur. I don’t think this website is going to be the next Facebook or Twitter, but what I do hope is that it will be a really useful site for GMs of PbEM games to run their games.