play-by-email
Adjective
Meaning
play-by-email (not comparable)
(games) Describing a game that can be played in a turn-based fashion through email.
Synonyms
Examples
E-mail and traditional versions Since e-mail is faster than the standard postal service, the rise of the Internet saw a shift of people playing board wargames from play-by-mail (PBM) to play-by-email (PBEM) or play-by-web (PBW).
As with play-by-email games the players are notified by email when it becomes their turn, but they must then return to the game's website to continue playing what is essentially a browser-based game.
Some cards games like poker can also be played by email using cryptography (see for example a patent application from FXTOP. citation Play-by-web An increasingly popular format for play-by-email games is play-by-web.