Hey, Ho, welcome to the Christmas season!  I have a few things on my 
mind this month and am making one last ditch effort with this magazine. The 
response has been good but minimal.  RoAnn tells me that she is constantly 
looking and asking SysOps for BBS articles but never seems to get much 
response.  The magazine has had enough time to get circulated around the 
globe.  And indeed we have had feedback from quite a few places.  
But even though I see grumbling from SysOps from time to time about the lack 
of support in the BBS world,  I never see them doing anything about it.

	I have read lot's of feedback recently about how Boardwatch magazine 
seems to have gone entirely over to the internet and like the editor of 
Boardwatch often comments, it seems the BBS world is indeed dying and 
being replaced by the Web.  I think that once a few big boards get going on 
the net with some of the new HTML BBS's that are being written, normal 
phone in BBS's will die away completely.  If I seem a little cold hearted 
about the whole thing I guess it's because I'm sad and a little bitter.  I 
have been BBSing for about ten years and just hate to see the thing die.  
But facts are facts.  When you measure the speed of newsgroups to the fidonet 
echos there is just no comparison.  E-mail is much cheaper than Netmail and 
just as fast.   When they make getting files from the internet as easy as 
downloading files from a BBS, thats when I believe you will see no more 
calls into the local BBS's.  Let's face it, most folks call BBS's for the 
files and the Doors.  The web will have a much larger selection of games in 
the very near future and like I said something a bit easier than FTP will 
spell doom for local BBSes.

	My internet connection is cheap and fast.  I pay $20.00 a month for 
28.8 speed and no time constraints.  I really only call my local BBS to check 
on new files and new doors.  How can you compare?  Most new computer users 
are getting their online teeth cut on AOL or something similar and let's be 
honest, calling most local boards after a few hours on AOL is just not a 
heart stopper.

	I remember the first time I connected with a BBS on my old Commodore 
Pet. I thought I had done something remarkable.  I found the number listed on 
a real bulletin board in my local computer store.  None of the sales clerks 
at the store had ever called a BBS even though they had the number.  I took 
a big chance and bought a 300 baud modem which in those days set me back a 
wallet full.  But it was great!  It was like I had discovered a secret 
underground organization.  None of my friends had a clue as to what I was 
talking about and always looked at me very strangely when I would mention it.  
Then later I discovered Tradewars and a small devoted group of folks who 
would call into the BBS, leave me challenging messages and kick my butt 
in the original cyber space world.

	Alas, those days are gone.  Now I am reading some controversy over 
some supposed rape scene in a new door game.  I haven't played it so I can't 
really comment on the game.  I can however comment on the comments.  I guess 
the rape scene isn't politically correct enough or some such bullshit.  From 
what I have read some teenie bopper programmer put a rather sick rape in his 
game and sysops were upset that they didn't know it was in there.  I can 
understand their feelings if they are running a family type board but they 
seem to have forgotten all the death and violence in the many games I have 
checked out on some boards in the past few years.  They seem to be saying 
that it is OK to kill and pillage as long as you don't rape, kill and 
pillage.  Now don't get me wrong,  I don't think that rape is an OK thing.  
It's just that I rate it a bit below killing as at least it gives the victim 
a fair chance at revenge.  I guess I shouldn't be joking around about it at 
all because it is a very serious subject and not something to be taken 
lightly.  I just get pissed at all these politically correct assholes.  
The author being a kid can be excused as that's what we do here in America 
that is, excuse the kids from whatever sick thing they are into at the time.  
We all should however, as authors put some kind of disclaimer or notice at 
the very start of our games regarding subject matter.  Apparently this would 
not have mattered to the young author who wrote this game as he saw nothing 
wrong with a rape scene.  I guess he watches to much television.

	Well I hope I struck a nerve out there somewhere and get some 
feedback.  If not, this will more than likely be my last article for Door 
World.  It's funny, but when RoAnn first broached this idea to me I thought 
she would never be able to keep up with the flow of articles that would 
come in from SysOps with something to say.  I guess most SysOps really have 
nothing to say. When the BBS's die from lack of interest, I'll be sitting 
here wondering where were you?

Dave Wendling
dwendlg.@bcn.net  or  wendling@terrafirma.win.net
1:332/107
BBS 413-684-0145


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