On the Blog

I decided that it might be useful to have a list of blog series and stand alone posts here. I know there's the archive but that doesn't necessarily link series of posts.

Series

Links here will take you to the first post in the series.

Stand alone posts

Comments

The Ethics of Diplomacy - Part 9: Mind Games

I've separated this from gamesmanship because it is something different. However, mind games have the same impact on the Dip community as gamesmanship, for very similar reasons. Mind games are anything that you can do to get under the skin of another player. They can be irritants, impoliteness or meant to simply build paranoia. Silence Sending messages and getting no response is frustrating. I know - I send a lot of messages and find it annoying if I'm getting nothing back from someone with whom I'm supposed to be working. Now, what happens when that silence is deliberate ? When someone decides that they're not going to answer messages, or keep their answers to a minimum? Why would they do that ? Well, it is usually to cause some disruption in your thinking. If you're concerned that she isn't messaging back, you're going to be concerned about what your plans were going to be. I know at least one player who hates this,...

The Embassy Journal

You know, I have realised that I probably bang on too much. What can I say? I like the sound of my own writing (my voice, until laryngitis kicks in when I begin to sound like Barry White, is slightly too high pitched and squeaky). This led me to realise that I should probably be looking at different ways to put out what I want to put that's longer-winded than the long-winded stuff I publish here. And so The Embassy Journal was born. This is my zine, written to accompany the blog, but with articles and a smattering of other stuff. You can get it from the link above, which will lead you to the first issue (March 2020). Let me know what you think. All issues will be published on The Embassy Journal page on this blog, where you can also find subscription and contribution info.

The Ethics of Diplomacy - Part 8: Gamesmanship

This is a sticky one, frankly. If you want to win a game of Diplomacy what isn't allowed? Some of the stuff that isn't allowed should be obvious and I've discussed much of it in previous posts in this series. That leaves things that you can do to win that are questionable and, in the final analysis, come down to personal choice. How far are you prepared to go to win at Diplomacy ? That is probably what defines whether you think something is "gamesmanship" or not, and whether you think it is acceptable. Slow Play Some players in the online game are what I call Pussycats . They want to play as quickly as possible and they want to move the game on. Some will hassle through Public Press. "Has everyone finalised yet?" "Who hasn't finalised?" "Come on - FINALISE!!!" Now this, itself, is something that becomes annoying. If you join a game with certain deadlines, you need to expect to play to those deadlines. If you...

The Embassy

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