Is there any way there can be an exception for my RR? I've been working my butt off (not really) to get my RR up and it takes FOREVER! It was at 58 not its at 63!

A piece of string walks into a bar and asks for a beer. The Bartender says, 'sorry we don't serve string here.' The piece of string goes outside, tousles its hair does some stretches and shakes itself up a bit. The sting goes back into the bar and the bartender says, 'hey, aren't you that peice of string that was in here before?' and the piece of string replies, 'nope, I'm a frayed knot'.

Well I have a friend when he had this many phases, he wasn't a rookie anymore... so I don't get it. Oh well.

I feel like this should be in an FAQ somewhere, but maybe it's not phases? I'm not sure exactly when I lost my Rookie tag, but it was very near (within days) to the completion of my 3rd game. Maybe you need to finish 3?

@YCHTT: I think that should be possible, although it still might take a week or so before we can start :)

I'll sign up as well.

Guess I'll throw my name in the ring. Given some of the personalities here, it should be interesting at least. I don't see the need for the anon factor though. I agree with YCHTT that the social factor is greatly improved by non-anon. I've found that anon games tend to be quite sparse with communication for most people. At the very least, it takes away the ability to bitch and moan about people, and really, isn't that why we all even bother reading global?

1. kaner406
2. mfarb
3. YouCan'tHandleTheTruth (pending points)
4. Darkarus
5. Alpha@Omega (RR - pending)
6. Utom
7. Halt
8. bluecthulhu
9. Hirnsaege
10. rexgarum
11. krellin
12. didigoose
13. DEFIANT
14. Leif_Syverson
15. Dr. Recommended
16. Geronimo
17. Trubbis
18. RUFFHAUS 8
19. GOD
20. bozo
21. DoubleCapitals
22. CubanJedi
23. Mapu
24. y2kjbk
25. Skylin (pending graduation from Rookie status)
26. Sendric
27. Drano019
28.
29.
30.

Agree with the "truth" and drano that an non-anonymous game is probably better here. Keeping in mind that this will be the first, or one of the first experiments with this map design concept, and that it might only be a start down that path, I think that we will get a better feel for the adaptations if this is a full press game. I suppose getting the blowhard that designed the base map to participate is unlikely since he hates the idea, and thinks that the oceans were fine the way they were.

I won't be playing if it's non-anon.

Why not Mapu? Do you really think people would gang up on you? If anyone has to worry about non-anon, it's Ruffhaus. Everyone knows he's a lightning rod.

It's not just about me -- it's about people basing their moves on the name next to the country rather than the board layout. If I'm not mistaken, Dr. Recommended also requested anon above.

I generally like to play non-anon, but then again I generally carefully select my fellow gamers, exactly because of Mapu’s concerns. Lot’s of people have a difficult time not playing the board when they have strong feelings towards a person and can’t keep games in context.

I will agree to Anon for this game. (And for those that know me, they always figure out who I am by my press anyway…but I’ll try not to call anyone a fucktard in PM’s just to make sure I’m not so obvious…lol)

I will add my name and vote for a non-anon game.

1. kaner406
2. mfarb
3. YouCan'tHandleTheTruth (pending points)
4. Darkarus
5. Alpha@Omega (RR - pending)
6. Utom
7. Halt
8. bluecthulhu
9. Hirnsaege
10. rexgarum
11. krellin
12. didigoose
13. DEFIANT
14. Leif_Syverson
15. Dr. Recommended
16. Geronimo
17. Trubbis
18. RUFFHAUS 8
19. GOD
20. bozo
21. DoubleCapitals
22. CubanJedi
23. Mapu
24. y2kjbk
25. Skylin (pending graduation from Rookie status)
26. Sendric
27. Drano019
28. rysk
29.
30.

Ruffhaus? lightening Rod? How about just a ROD. :)

It's RUFFHAUS, not Ruffhaus...pressing caps lock is important.

I would play it with non-anon, but I prefer anon

I add my name for an ANON game. I don't see any names on that list that would go after me just foe seeing my name next to a country, but who knows who I offended back in the day. :-)

1. kaner406
2. mfarb
3. YouCan'tHandleTheTruth (pending points)
4. Darkarus
5. Alpha@Omega (RR - pending)
6. Utom
7. Halt
8. bluecthulhu
9. Hirnsaege
10. rexgarum
11. krellin
12. didigoose
13. DEFIANT
14. Leif_Syverson
15. Dr. Recommended
16. Geronimo
17. Trubbis
18. RUFFHAUS 8
19. GOD
20. bozo
21. DoubleCapitals
22. CubanJedi
23. Mapu
24. y2kjbk
25. Skylin (pending graduation from Rookie status)
26. Sendric
27. Drano019
28. rysk
29. LoveDove
30.

Well I prefer non-anon so there. That's settled now. In truth, I don't know why you guys are pushing anon. You know you're just going to lose anyways right? This just means no one gets the fun of poking fun on global, so that just makes you guys party poopers.

In all seriousness, I wholeheartedly believe that every game of Dip should have known opponents. It's how the game was originally designed, and I see nothing wrong with it. Playing your opponent is *part* of Diplomacy. Getting to know your opponents and know their tendencies adds a whole new layer of delightful fun to the game, and exploiting that knowledge leads to some amazing play. Truthfully, playing the person instead of the board can be a completely valid style of gameplay. If I know I'm next to someone who likes strong alliances, then I should be able to play off that fact. Separating the players from the game takes away from the game IMO.

Now, obviously some people will do the wrong sort of meta-gaming and just ally with people they always ally with. However, I feel we need to take the positive approach to that, and assume innocent until proven guilty instead of assuming it's going to happen if we play non-anon. Are there some questionable players on here that would do that? Absolutely. But punishing the innocent to take away the ability of the few to do so seems like the wrong course of action in my mind.

^^ Very excellent points. Totally concur, actually, so I am good either way.

You can pontificate all you want. Kaner posted this: "the game will be semi-anon, we know who will be playing via the list, but anon once the game has been created."

And that's why I signed up. If the specs of the game change, it's well within my rights here to decide not to play.

Dude Mapu, chill. No one is "pontificating" here.No one is saying you don't have the "right" not to play. Get down off the high horse and realize that I'm just making an argument that non-anon is a superior choice. I'm trying to use "Diplomacy" to convince people of something. Sound like a skill that might be useful?

When Kaner posted what you said he did, no one had really made the argument for non-anon. It become anon by default because people jumped in early to vote for anon.

Seriously Mapu, you need to calm down immediately. You are completely out of line here.

I'm good either way, but perhaps we could play two games: Anon and non. Could be fun.

I will play either way. I was just looking at this game as a test of sorts, and thought that we might get better feedback in a full press game. The reality is that we will need several games of experimentation at a minimum to make any really valuable critique of the sea lanes concept. At this point, let's just get a game going. I know most of you assbags from your writing styles, and I seriously doubt that I can cloak myself in an anonymous game anyway.

<sigh> I should have known better than to expect consensus from diplomacy players... <sigh>

I initially wanted a non-anon game, but then people started wanting it to be anon, and though I prefer a non-anon game I just wanted to get enough interest to start a game. So how about we put our preference next to our name and we can go from there?

1. kaner406 - prefer non-anon, will play anon
2. mfarb
3. YouCan'tHandleTheTruth (pending points)
4. Darkarus
5. Alpha@Omega (RR - pending)
6. Utom
7. Halt
8. bluecthulhu
9. Hirnsaege
10. rexgarum
11. krellin
12. didigoose
13. DEFIANT
14. Leif_Syverson
15. Dr. Recommended
16. Geronimo
17. Trubbis
18. RUFFHAUS 8
19. GOD
20. bozo
21. DoubleCapitals
22. CubanJedi
23. Mapu
24. y2kjbk
25. Skylin (pending graduation from Rookie status)
26. Sendric
27. Drano019
28. rysk
29. LoveDove
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.

@ drano019 : +1

"Playing your opponent is *part* of Diplomacy. Getting to know your opponents and know their tendencies adds a whole new layer of delightful fun to the game, and exploiting that knowledge leads to some amazing play. Truthfully, playing the person instead of the board can be a completely valid style of gameplay."
...
"Separating the players from the game takes away from the game IMO."

Emmanuel Lasker, one of the strongest chess players of all time declared that he preferred to "play the opponent rather than the position". He was known to play moves that were possibly not the best ones but that were the ones who were the most annoying for his opponent. And that has allowed him to play fantastic games that are still considered today, after more than 100 years, as masterpieces.

Non-anon games also allow all the social aspect of the game.

Finally, like RUFFHAUS 8 just wrote it, most of us would recognize each other rather quickly in an "anon" game.

I'm not sure how I'm out of line for agreeing to a game with one sort of specification and then becoming hesitant when the spec changes, but whatever.

And Retillion, it is clear why you like pre-arranged non-anon games. I get it.

Wait...Retillion and Ruffhaus agreeing? What type of trap is this?

Anyways...

1. kaner406 - prefer non-anon, will play anon
2. mfarb
3. YouCan'tHandleTheTruth (pending points)
4. Darkarus
5. Alpha@Omega (RR - pending)
6. Utom
7. Halt
8. bluecthulhu
9. Hirnsaege
10. rexgarum
11. krellin
12. didigoose
13. DEFIANT
14. Leif_Syverson
15. Dr. Recommended
16. Geronimo
17. Trubbis
18. RUFFHAUS 8
19. GOD
20. bozo
21. DoubleCapitals
22. CubanJedi
23. Mapu
24. y2kjbk
25. Skylin (pending graduation from Rookie status)
26. Sendric
27. Drano019 - non-anon
28. rysk
29. LoveDove
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.

@ Mapu :


1° Please read again kaner406's first message giving the parameters of this game. It was saying :

"The parameters of the game will be as follows:
WTA, 2 day phases, RR80+, non-anon, 30pt buy-in"

So, actually, this game was first intended to be non-anon.

______________________________


2° You wrote :
"And Retillion, it is clear why you like pre-arranged non-anon games. I get it."

You wrote "pre-arranged" ?

What are you talking about ? Are you crazy or something ? You and I played together in 5 of the 14 games that I have finished. Did you ever noticed anything pre-arranged in any of those games ?

Mapu, you have made a public cheating accusation against me. Not only is that an absolutely unfair accusation, but also it is totally prohibited. I will write to the moderators teams right now about it.