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The Panther said:
Since we both do love a good argument (I guess it is all that New Mexico sunshine on our heads), I have to disagree:
1. QH off means that the owner of the server has to keep on top of things to force host if someone goes AWOL, or have a fixed hosting schedule.
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Ah, and the host doesn't have to keep on top of things with pbem? I didn't realize all the status emails, reminders, running the turns and mailing them out were automatic.
Seriously - right now, you go to run the turn and realize you don't have a valid turn file for someone, meaning you have to contact them and ask for another. Not to mention checking to see if you have all the turns, nag people who are going to stale, etc.
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2. I have seen no less than 3 MP games on a server (2 with me and 1 that my son was in) go crazy such that the game ends. With PBEM, you can always go back to previous fatherland files and attempt to re-start at a point before the game goes Nagot.
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Set up the server to run a script / batch file before each turn runs and you can have it copy the fatherland and other files. Just as easy to recover from an error then. Oh, and even with PBEM, don't you have to do something to save off the fatherland file each turn, lest it go corrupt? I mean - way back when, I recall having to give up SP games because the fatherland went bad.
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3. People with servers rarely do the non-QH option, although I did manage to convince the hosts for my last 2 server games to go to a fixed schedule (which, as you know, solves a lot of the problems with QH).
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Back when mosehansen was a viable server, I often made games I owned fixed schedule once the early game rush was over.This one's just a matter of what the host is willing to do; if I should get a low-power machine I'm willing to leave up full time, I'd certainly be hosting some games that went fixed schedule no later than turn 20 or so.
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4. Many people forget to do their server turns if not reminded in an email. I know I do. The frequency of stales on a server is probably 5-10 times that of a PBEM.
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Heh. I expect the rate of stales on a PBEM would be about as high for a PBEM, if the host didn't send out reminders to people. And, of course, nothing keeps the host of a server based game from sending out emails, if they just get the email address for all the players. (Could even be done automatically via cron jobs on a linux box, possibly Windoze too.)
But admittedly, most people running server games don't go to the effort to setup anything fancy with backing up key files, notifying players, etc. IIRC, Esben did for mosehansen though, with a variety of options for being notified when a turn had run.