Thos are all different philosophies of an ideal situation (my personal ideal would be to have vdip under variants.webdiplomacy.net). But in the end these long-term vistas correspond badly with short-term dev planning. We simply aren't yet in the luxurious position to think about this, there are tons of direct things to do.

Also. Fog of War. Mmmmmmm.
Crystal Ball. MMMMMMMMM!!!!

So many cool classic variants to play.

Just an observation, if PPSC is no longer available that puts new players sat a severe disadvantage. In the past you were able to get points for simply surviving you could ascend the ranks much faster. Now you have to be lucky enough to get a draw to gain points. I think this is unfair and PPSC should be re added.

DeepComa does make a valid point. Many if not most players here don't really think webDip points matter for much. However, you do get a Rank and Position which are based on them. That does provide some incentive to acquire them other than to afford higher buy-in games.

However PPSC still is an abomination and should stay off the site.

thats why unranked should divide up points

Having the only distinction between ranked and unranked be its effect on a rating probably 90% of players either don't know or don't care about, that isn't even on this site, would be more confusing than useful.

I don't see why you should get points for losing. A loss is a loss is a loss no matter how you skin it. Congratulations, you didn't die when Austria got a solo win. While I agree there is merit on various different ways of dividing points for a draw, losing should reward you with nothing, no matter what state you are in while you accomplish it.

It's only a disadvantage when they can't stop people from winning. It's not as hard as you think.

@DeepComa,

You're wasting your breath, my friend. These people are the sort of lost from which one does not recover.

The vehemence against PPSC has nothing to do with logic. It is condescending and exclusionary. Let's screw new players in order to try to suck up to a handful of F2F grognards and boardgame hipsters.

It is a self-defeating strategy, aggressively inward turning and unwelcoming.

"However PPSC still is an abomination and should stay off the site."

I have yet to hear a valid argument on how having PPSC available is any different then offering the unbalanced Ancient Med or World maps. They are both unbalanced and throw off points. But people have fun playing them so who gives a shit. Go whine about something that matters. Nothing on this site is an abomination.

Flint, Michigan has been poisoning it's population with lead in the water for a year resulting in deformed kids, now that's an abomination. I think you're a little confused on what that word actually means.

Ah yes the classic debate tactic of "here's a real world event that's way worse than the thing we're arguing about, how dare you use hyperbole because real bad things are happening". How mature.

That said, the real result will be when the data comes out. The vocal people, on both sides, are easily the minority. The only thing that can actually be trusted is the data, which we will have to wait and see on if they have the desired effects. Anecdotal data is not data either, I'm talking large data sets.

Come on, everyone. Let's not get in to this cycle again.

We're trialling the site change until the end of the month. After the analysis is complete, we'll work out what to do next.

here we go round the merry-go-round do-da do-da

Ultimately, the site owners will take the site in the direction they see fit or allow their proxies to do so. I'll live with that. But, whether or not PPSC is returned or becomes moot, I think the admins need to be thinking not just of the F2F scene, but also of the vast majority of webdip patrons and potential new patrons who will play primarily online and casually for entertainment.

Major site scoring announcement: "we will start doing a new scoring system called Ghost Ratings; We expect them to be out within the year."

Well, that would have been a functional way to approach it. I vote for brainbomb as mod of the year.

PPSC is an abomination. It perverts the actual scoring intention where a single player *WINS* the game or else all others *SHARE EQUALLY* in a Draw.

Sum of Squares is also an abomination by that measure, at least the Winner-Take-All aspect is preserved. Plus, more granular scoring systems are useful for multi-round tournaments, so I can see the point in SoS and others.

I'm speechless. The first piece of legislation I wish to put forward to my fellow mods is to get gunboat to be recognized as the official game of this website and have actual diplomacy kicked down to vdip.

Wow. Maybe it's time to lock the thread, lol.

Who wants to listen to a bunch of people driveling on about who is supporting who into Bulgaria. lets get down to the truth here, gunboat is just a better game.

Now, who wants a hot dog?

##VOTE brainbomb

##END

Thought I'd cross-post here to make A_Tin_Can happy:
"With neither GR nor the "Game stats:" section of your profile taking into account CD takeovers, it makes me sad that CD takeovers no longer require any bet. There is now no way to measure your Diplomacy skill if you like to join games in progress." – threadID=1334517