I play Diplomacy because I enjoy the game. I don't always enjoy playing against the people I'm in a game with, and I sometimes get wound up by the people I come across within Dip communities. But the game is great - the King of Games indeed.
It is a game which comes with a certain amount of stress. It's a game, though, and in the end it should be something from which you can walk away. I don't mean quitting an on-going game - that's abhorrent unless it's the most difficult of circumstances. I mean it's something where you can close the message window, close the game, close the forum, and get on with every day life.
But it is also true that a game can get frustrating when players exhibit attributes that don't fit in with your personal ideas about how to play the game. So I want to end this series with some advice about how to deal with this situation.
What it boils down to is that players can, within the rules, do whatever they like. Some of it you may find distasteful, some of it honourable. It doesn't matter. They - and you - can play in any way.
Dealing with it means accepting this fact. It is - to a large extent - out of your control. You can try to persuade them that they're not playing as you think they should but that often has a negative impact. So don't do that unless you think they may waver and then try to be a little sensitive to how they're receiving your sage advice.
Often a better strategy is to accept what you can't control and focus on what you can control. That is your game, your relationships with other players. Focus on that, an perhaps you'll be able to get something out of the situation.
It's the same with everyday life. Things happen that are out of our control. Events take place that can throw us and it's easy to focus on the negative outcome rather than looking at that outcome and finding a way to deal with it. It's about accepting the situation and working with it or around it.
When the game's over, you should then look back at what happened and look at what you might have done differently - hopefully, not much! Hopefully you'll have won the game and that is usually a situation that doesn't need a lot of improvement on.
But if you reflect on what happened, finding ways to change the things that didn't go well (there's always something) and working out how to avoid that happening again, you're making progress. And, no matter why we're playing Dip, we all want to get better at it and enjoy it more.
It is a game which comes with a certain amount of stress. It's a game, though, and in the end it should be something from which you can walk away. I don't mean quitting an on-going game - that's abhorrent unless it's the most difficult of circumstances. I mean it's something where you can close the message window, close the game, close the forum, and get on with every day life.
What it boils down to is that players can, within the rules, do whatever they like. Some of it you may find distasteful, some of it honourable. It doesn't matter. They - and you - can play in any way.
Dealing with it means accepting this fact. It is - to a large extent - out of your control. You can try to persuade them that they're not playing as you think they should but that often has a negative impact. So don't do that unless you think they may waver and then try to be a little sensitive to how they're receiving your sage advice.
Often a better strategy is to accept what you can't control and focus on what you can control. That is your game, your relationships with other players. Focus on that, an perhaps you'll be able to get something out of the situation.
It's the same with everyday life. Things happen that are out of our control. Events take place that can throw us and it's easy to focus on the negative outcome rather than looking at that outcome and finding a way to deal with it. It's about accepting the situation and working with it or around it.
When the game's over, you should then look back at what happened and look at what you might have done differently - hopefully, not much! Hopefully you'll have won the game and that is usually a situation that doesn't need a lot of improvement on.
But if you reflect on what happened, finding ways to change the things that didn't go well (there's always something) and working out how to avoid that happening again, you're making progress. And, no matter why we're playing Dip, we all want to get better at it and enjoy it more.
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