Simming Basics

E-Mail Simming: A history and explanation. If the dictionary has an entry for simming, it would probably look like this:

        Simming (v.) - The act of participating in a simulation.

That doesn't say much until you find out what a simulation is - basically pretending something is happening, or guessing on what something would be like if it actually existed.

Simulations originally started as management tools to test possible outcomes of the decision-making process. Since that time, "Fun" simulations have gained in popularity - first with Dungeons and Dragons (And the later advanced form of that game), then into re-enactments, role-playing games based in either real-time or space, and even play-by-mail simulations in which texts of reactions to situations were sent via what is now termed "snail-mail" by the populace of the Internet; simply another term for your local post office delivery.

Once the Internet became more publicly accessible and popular in the late 80's and early 90's, simulations spread rapidly and gained new form. Online services offering chat rooms became hosts to dozens of groups of people utilizing real time communication and the distance-eliminating properties of the Internet to simulate a wide variety of subjects.

The old play-by-mail sims (many of which still exist), long plagued with having to pay for postage or membership fees, made the move to the Internet as well, and Play-By-E-Mail, or PBeM, simming was born.

PBeM simming has several advantages and disadvantages over chat simming. E-Mail sims allow you to articulate in much better detail locations, actions, and your character, whereas chat sims are designed to run quickly and have action.

E-Mail sim missions or campaigns can take weeks, if not months to complete, and you only need to post at a frequent interval, with plenty of time to consider and write your next log. Chat sims are designed to sim a mission quickly and efficiently with no time wasted on the character you are portraying.

E-Mail simming is much more readily-accessible now via public e-mail providers and lower online service rates; chat sims generally require spending large amounts of time online and almost always require the use of an online service or Internet Service Provider.

There are countless arguments as to which form is better; everyone's opinions and situations differ, and it is hopeless to even consider attempting to say which form is better in this document.
 

E-Mail simming may seem a complicated process to anyone who is just seeing it for the first time; here, we attempt to go step by step through a typical signup and posting of the first log.

Each AES sim is required to have a website storing a list of common requirements, one of which is information on how to join the sim. Upon seeing this page, you may be surprised to see it asking for information about a character bio.

E-Mail simming, like most other forms of simming, involve using a character, or person, that you create. This person is essentially a living, breathing person in the sim.

It is often easier to portray a character than to play yourself in a sim; a character has the unique ability to act in ways you normally would not consider, to have a different personality, or to simply do things that you cannot or would like to do yourself.

Often, we find that our simmers tend to find that they almost "become" their character when they're writing their logs.

A character needs all of the information that can be used to describe you, but tailor-made to your character. Common information includes name, age, gender, and species. For more details on writing a biography or for other information used with characters, please see the E-Mail Academy's Biography classes.

Once a character has been made and accepted by the CO, the simming begins for you with the first log you write. First logs almost always detail the process of getting to your "new assignment" "fresh out of the Academy".

Logs are generally written in Third Person Past Narrative form. That means that you are writing your log from a non-existent person's point of view. For example:

James walked around the shuttle after it docked with the Chekhov; he could hardly believe after those years at the academy that he was THERE, he was finally on a Starship, and finally no longer a cadet.

You read the actions as having occurred already, you can hear his thoughts, see what he sees, hear what he hears, taste what he tastes, etc.

Logs written like this can also be used, but are generally considered annoying:

I walked off of the shuttlecraft carrying my duffle bag. *Cool, it's nice to finally be out here on a Starship than cooped up in that dorm room*

It's simply a matter of finesse. It's also nice when writing a log to check your spelling and grammar if possible. Nobody's perfect, but there's no need to see a log written like THIS:

i walked off the shutle and looked at the cool surroundings of the room, it's about time im here, he thought and holding his pad of ordres he went to go see the captian and make sure the Ops officer knew weather his room was ready or not

In the era of spell-checkers and even grammar-checkers, it's getting easier to correct these sort of problems. Yes, spell-checkers tend to pick up every bit of technobabble, names, and abbreviations as errors, but it is well worth your time to check over logs before you send them.
 

E-Mail Simming in AES: A Historical Overview

AES originally started out under the Federation Sim Group (FSG), circa 1994 (est). The sims, set aside in an E-Mail Division of FSG, were part of the cornerstone of e-mail simming on the web then, and a good number of simmers who participated in those early sims are now COs (Commanding Officers) in AES themselves, and a few of those sims are still with us.

Fleet Admiral Ronan eventually became the leader of this division, adding several more sims and with the aid of his assistant, Captain Price, succeeded in training several members to become COs of their own sims.

Unfortunately, conflicts between AES and his job forced him to retire from FSG in June of 1997 after faithfully serving FSG and the E-Mail Division for several years. As Captain Price was busy with his sim, Grand Admiral Picard, the then leader of FSG, asked Captain Farrell, the CO of the USS Enterprise-E Email Sim, to step in and take Fleet Admiral Ronan's place.

This marked the start of a record-breaking 2 months of active expansion of the division, with the Fleet Admiral adding 3 sims before he left, and the newly promoted Admiral Farrell adding a total of 10 more sims over the next 3 months, bringing the division to an amazing 19 sims with over 300 members. These sims alone comprised a full third of FSG's available sims.

Unfortunately, Grand Admiral Picard retired in mid-August of 1997, ending the "Age of Prosperity" for the division. Fallout from command changes in FSG led Admiral Farrell, acting in the best interest of the division COs, to secede the division from FSG and form its own independent group, AES.

In the month that has followed, most work in AES has been centered around restoring lost services from FSG and turning what was a sub-operation of a larger group into an group of its own, with the sims agreeing to keep the already-existing administration as is. Incorporating several key FSG policies and regulations, AES survived her first month with only the loss of one sim, which was quickly replaced with this one, the AES Academy.