Written by a TribeNet player, Raven Zachary (Clan 108), on 8 August 2023
Entertainment, in most cases, costs money. Sometimes it's an upfront fee, such as buying a board game or watching a movie in a theater. Other times, it's a subscription, whether playing an online game such as Eve Online or World of Warcraft, or watching a streaming service such as Netflix or Disney+.
Play-by-mail games are supported by turn fees. This is a form of subscription. Every turn in the game has a cost for players. Sometimes this is a fixed fee per turn and sometimes this is a variable fee based on the size of your position each turn. One of the challenges with promoting play-by-mail games is that people unfamiliar with the hobby often don't understand why it costs money. Play-by-mail gaming is a form of entertainment and most entertainment costs money. If you're willing to pay to play World of Warcraft or Eve Online every month and if you're willing to buy a board game to host a group of friends to play it, wouldn't you be willing to pay to play a game over email?
In TribeNet, the cost is based on the size of your position. The more tribes and units you have in your clan, the more you pay per turn. Larger clans take more time not just for the player, but also for the gamemaster. Peter the GM has more to manually process each turn for larger clans and these larger clans need more customer support time ongoing. For TribeNet, a variable cost model makes the most sense. It takes a lot of time to run a game with 80+ people and time is money. TribeNet is too large of an effort for it to be a volunteer effort. And for TribeNet, you're paying one person – Peter the GM for his time, not a corporation.
In the same way that many subscription-based forms of entertainment offer a free trial, Peter the GM starts new clans with a $200 AUD credit in their account. Based on the exchange rate when this article was written, this is $130.41 USD. If the clan has a single tribe, a trade element, and an element, this is $7.00 AUD per turn (every two weeks), which is $4.57 USD. This would be 28 free turns over the course of just over one year (56 weeks of time). If a player chooses to grow their clan during the free trial, it will be less than 28 turns. This is a much longer free trial than most subscription-based forms of entertainment, which are generally a week or a month.
Why does Peter such a long free trial? Because it takes time for a player to learn whether TribeNet is a fun game for them to play. Peter the GM doesn't want the cost of the game to be the upfront barrier for a player to learn whether there's fun to be had. If a player finds the fun, the cost of that fun will be a worthwhile exchange. TribeNet is a deep game, and it takes time for a player to understand the game in a way to make this assessment for themselves. This process takes longer than a few turns.
A player can play a small clan, a big clan, or something in-between. There is no set way to play TribeNet. There are some players having a lot of fun with just one tribe and a couple of units. There are also many examples of players having many tribes and many units. The Level of effort to play and the cost to play are both factors when it comes to the size of a clan. This is also likely to change over time. A player may find that it's desirable to add a new unit or a new tribe over time to meet certain game objectives and plans.
Is TribeNet worth the cost to play? There are two aspects to this question – the subjective cost and the subjective value. Everyone has a different relationship to cost. What might seem like an insignificant cost to you might be not so insignificant to someone else. The same is true when it comes to value. Is the thing that you purchased worth it to you?
The best advice is to spend the time in your free trial of TribeNet to make this determination for yourself. Don't let the idea of game you play by email costing money stop you from finding the fun. Anyone currently playing past the free trial will emphatically tell you that TribeNet is well worth the cost to play. However, cost and value are both subjective. You need to go through this process on your own. No one will be able to answer this question for you, only for themselves.
Play the free trial of TribeNet and decide for yourself. It takes time, so don’t try to reach a conclusion in the first few turns of play. Hang in there and learn why so many people think TribeNet is one of the best gaming experiences out there in any format or genre. Games are about the fun, not the cost. Find the fun.