companies and some small ones. The most popular games in 1980 were Starweb and Tribes of Crane. In 1981, some PBM players launched another company, Adventures by Mail, with the "immensely popular" Beyond the Stellar Empire. The proliferation of PBM companies in the 1980s supported the publication of a number of newsletters from individual play-by-mail companies as well as independent publications which focused solely on the play-by-mail gaming industry such as the relatively short-lived The Nuts & Bolts of PBM and Gaming Universal. The PBM genre's two preeminent magazines of the period were Flagship and Paper Mayhem. It was in this environment that Legends was developed and launched. Turn around time ranges for modern PBM games are wide enough that PBM magazine editors now use the term "turn-based games". In 2005, Flagship noted this shift in naming because most of the games are played online. Development Legends is a fantasy role-playing PBM game. It is closed-ended, with a conclusion for each game. The game is computer moderated, although in early versions certain special actions could be hand moderated. Jim Landes, owner of Midnight Games, created the game. It was previously run as Swords of Pelarn. It built on Midnight Game's existing Epic game system, leveraging its rulesets and previous playtesting. Landes began game development in 1984. The initial playtest began in March 1987 with a group of 46 players, expanded two months later to 53. Landes made significant changes from the playtest, and designed most of the game between March 1988 and May 1989, to include creating the first module, Crown of Avalon. The original game system, Legends I (LI), operated by paper copy and postal mail. It comprised a game system framework and the accompanying initial module. The game system had a sword and sorcery theme. The early years saw expansion and popularity. In 1990, Midnight Games licensed Legends for play in Europe through Rhann Postal Games and Australia through PBM Associates. Demand by 1991 was "incredible". Games can be lengthy. In 1990, games were estimated to take 3–10 years to complete. The first Crown of Avalon game lasted more than five years. In 2002, the average game lasted three years, although they could go longer. By 2003, game duration averaged two to three years, and by 2007 it was between one and three years. In 1993, Edi Birsan acquired Midnight Games. Two years later, the game was updated