The Embassy

The online game is full of aliases.  If you join a website to play Diplomacy then you're asked to provide a username.  There's nothing wrong with that although it does, perhaps, take away something from the community of the Dip hobby. As in most things, there's a history of this in postal Diplomacy and this is usually seen as a way to be anonymous. With online play, however, it may be possible to change your username.  This might be simply because you realised the name you chose was not a good choice.  For instance, a number of players may use a version of their email address which may not be the best idea.  If you come across someone who is an idiot  who thinks it's acceptable to harass players off-site then using your email address could be a mistake. Sometimes it's realising that the name you chose really does you no favours.  I come across this every day at work.  I deal with younger people who don't necessarily think much about what ...

I suppose this could be placed withing the metagaming section because it often takes the form of bringing something from outside the game into the game, but it isn't necessarily restricted to that. Let's start with what bullying is when it comes to Diplomacy or any other game.  What we're not talking about is bullying as part of the game.  In other words, some players can be quite... forceful... in their negotiations.  This isn't what we're talking about. Cyber-bullying is about threatening people with things outside the game to get things done in the game or, in some cases I've seen simple threats of violence. The most likely threat is when a player will threaten another with persistent attacks when they come across each other in games.  This is metagaming , really: it's no different to planning to work together in future games. However I've seen threats of violence.  It's sometimes linked to people from the same school.  But I've see...

Metagaming is when anything from outside a game affects what happens in the game.  This can be difficult to isolate in Diplomacy because human nature is to learn from mistakes (for most of us, anyway).  So what qualifies as metagaming, and why is it wrong? Bribery In his book The Game of Diplomacy ,  Richard Sharp recounts a number of cases of bribery, some of them more jokey than anything else, but bribery (or blackmail) still.  In those days of a smaller, less anonymous Dip hobby, it was - perhaps - easier to use these shady tactics.  The underlying philosophy seems to have been that if " the rulebook doesn’t mention the subject " anything goes. Teamplay The online game can't really include teamplay.  If two or more players enter a game as a team, agreeing to help each other against all-comers, this isn't a fair game.  It is, of course, easy to work with someone you know, and as a one-off it is probably acceptable, assuming there has been ...

If a game's worth playing, it's worth playing to win.  And if a game's worth playing to win, it's going to involve cheats. I really don't get it in Diplomacy.  There are no prizes, other than honorary ones.  Yes, there are titles, maybe a cheap trophy or two, but nothing more.  So why cheat? Well, often, simply because it's possible.  There isn't really much of a challenge to cheating in online Diplomacy ... except the "getting away with it" aspect.  But, with sites using more sophisticated methods of detecting cheating, the chances of getting away with it are small. Multi-accounting This is when a player uses more than one online account in a game.  This might be at the start of the game, or it may be to get back into a game a player's been removed from.  It's usually not allowed. It's clear that having one player controlling multiple powers in a game isn't fair.  Those powers are never going to be competing against ea...

Lying and betrayal play an integral part in Diplomacy.  How, then, can there be any ethical or moral concept to the game?  Isn't this a game without ethics? It's certainly true that a game of Diplomacy will feature lies, half-lies, omissions and betrayal.  It's difficult to imagine a game that wouldn't involve these.  When the box the game came in used to feature the slogan " Destroying friendships since 1959" nobody should be surprised by this! But, in reality, experienced players understand that you get more success in Diplomacy by being honest most of the time.  It's a game about building trust.  There is always going to be a point where that trust is going to be broken if you are to win games, but dishonesty isn't going to be rewarded. There are some aspects of the game that do require a certain degree of morality and ethical appreciation, therefore.  There are players who will tell you that if you can get away with something, then it'...