Editing Play-by-mail game (section)

===Computer versus human moderated===
In the 1980s, PBM companies began using computers to moderate games. This was in part for economic reasons, as computers allowed the processing of more turns than humans, but with less of a human touch in the prose of a turn result. According to John Kevin Loth III, one hundred percent computer-moderated games would also kill a player's character or empire emotionlessly, regardless of the effort invested.<ref name=Loth42/> Alternatively, Loth noted that those preferring exquisite pages of prose would gravitate toward one hundred percent human moderation.<ref name=Loth42/> Loth provided ''Beyond the Quadra Zone'' and ''Earthwood'' as popular computer-moderated examples in 1986 and ''Silverdawn'' and ''Sword Lords'' as one hundred percent human-moderated examples of the period.<ref name=Loth42/> ''Borderlands of Khataj'' is an example of a game where the company transitioned from human- to computer-moderated to mitigate issues related to a growing player base.<ref>[[#Bro94|Browning 1994]]. p. 6.</ref>

In 1984, there was a shift toward mixed moderation—human moderated games with computer-moderated aspects such as combat.<ref>[[#Arm84|Armintrout 1984]]. p. 43.</ref> Examples included ''[[Delenda est Carthago]]'', ''[[Star Empires (play-by-mail game)|Star Empires]]'', and ''[[Starglobe]]''.<ref name=Mulholland89>[[#Mul89|Mulholland 1989]]. pp. 8–9.</ref> In 1990, the editors of ''Paper Mayhem'' noted that there were games with a mix of computer and hand moderation, where games "would have the numbers run by the computer and special actions in the game would receive attention from the game master".<ref name="ReferenceA"/>