"Diplomacy judges" used a semi-random country assignment:
- first, every player provided a list, sorting available countries in order of preference. For example, "FEGRTIA" meant that your preferred country was France, second-best was England, third-best was Germany etc., up to Austria as your least-liked choice (you could also use more complex syntax lile "F[EGRTI]A" meaning you'd really like to play France and avoid Austria, with everything else in between).
- second, the country-assignment algorithm would keep these choiches into account. It chose a player at random and give him his preferred choice; then, it chose another player, and give him the best available option (usually his 1st choice, except in the case it was taken by the first player); and so on.
Would anyone be interested in such a country assignment system? And would it be doable from the technical point of view?