Twenty Years at the Blitz

[Steel God]

Congratulations on 20 years at the Blitz.  My start and stop dates would give me credit for 20+ but life took me away for about 9 years so that's hardly true. 

I will say this about "our hobby", back when the PzC Ladder was started here (yes by me,  ) I would have wagered money that hardly anyone would play these games "against the AI" beyond the first few dozen hours it takes to learn the system.  I'm pretty sure if you search back far enough in the forums you'll find posts by me where I joke about playing the AI being on par with masturbation.  But now that I frequent other places in addition to The Blitz (Face Book WDS pages and the WDS Forum) it has been impressed upon me (by WDS Staff directly) that a far larger number of people play these games exclusively against the AI and never branch out into PBEM.  The Blitz has NEVER been about AI play, so when we speak about "our hobby" and its future it is PBEM or H2H play in particular that must be catered to.  Towards that end players here at the Blitz should encourage others elsewhere to play PBEM and not against the AI, and if at all possible to join the Blitz as well.  It's the only way the Club will be here in the next 20 years.  For the current owners/operators of the Club I would encourage them to do what's within their limited means to boost membership, drive site traffic, and activity.