Normally my points would go for up to $20 a piece, but if you act NOW you can get them for the low low price of $15 each! What a steal! Call now, operators are standing by.

I don't think it is a terrible, idea, especially since GR seems to be viewed in higher regard than points... and giving kestas money over standard donation for the job he's done with the code is always a big plus in my mind. Unfortuntaely, though, having some form of pay over donations may draw the interest of the owners of Diplomacy (Hasboro?), which could mean shutting down the site, which I do not believe anyone wants.

Second problem. I enjoy playing high pot games because you don't get as many inexperienced people in them because they don't have enough points. Giving them the option to buy into my high pot games would displease me a great deal.

As for hasbro reacting poorly, how does playdiplomacy do it, because on the other paw I would love to have people giving Kestas money for all his hard work.

Thatwasawkward- not very intelligent input.

Do hasbro have a monopoly over all diplomacy games?? That's like saying coca cola have a monopoly on all cola flavored drinks, is it not?

I think it's worth investigating however

You are correct, my input was not incredibly helpful. My attempted point was that people buying points on the site takes away what little meaning there currently is to winning them through play. I agree with damian, high pot games would no longer guarantee decent opponents.

Damian-

Just cos someone is new here does not mean they are "inexperienced". Especially since I'm in the top 200 of another site that's got several thousand players.

And say... Limit the amount you can buy to an extra 100... So that way really High pots aren't affected?

hasboro doesn't have a monopoly... they own the rights to the game. The coke analogy doesn't work, because it is software vs hardware. It would be closer to coding monopoly, using the same rules, same board, same everything, then selling it online. Parker Brothers would sick their entire lawyer staff on you in a heartbeat for copyright infringement.

Damian, I don't think your argument is that valid. If someone is willing to sink money into diplomacy, I'd assume they are knowledgeable in the game and willing to put for serious effort to play each high pot game... it goes from a game to an investment...

Do hasbro have a monopoly over all diplomacy games??

Hasbro owns the rights to the board game so yes. We are merely replicating their game in an online environment. Playdiplomacy is a monetized diplomacy site and hasbro doesn't really clamp down on diplomacy hard, as zines, which cost money to subscribe too are a large part of the culture. However it is one of those things that it would be wise to see the legal implications first.

I'm not in favour of for my afore mentioned reason. As much as I want to see Kestas rewarded I also want to play quality games.

Fortknox- re analogy: it's irrelevant if it's software or hardware. It's simply the "ownership" issue I'm referring to... I doubt that with all the variants here, they'd have much to argue.

On your second point, I agree totally

Erm, just going to go back to my point as it was Ninja'd. Okay yes. Most people who would be willing to sink money into this would already be fairly experienced however, that doesn't mean everyone would.

The comment isn't meant to be a reflection on your skill sydney not that I know if your any good. But instead a comment on how I would prefer that people played more games to earn the points so as to ensure they were a player of some quality.

Damian, simple solution to your issue-
Play passworded games

To expand, it is a general thought that Hasboro doesn't mind that diplomacy is online because no one is profiting on it in their stead. It isn't a high selling game, anymore, so it isn't like they are missing a piece of the pie... now if someone DID start raking in money, then it would draw there interest. I don't know how playdip gets away with it, but if they are charging, they could be playing with fire...

Now, a good analogy may be "words with friends" (or wordfeud) vs scrabble on mobile phones. WwF actually changed the rules enough so they can avoid prosecution, and, honestly, I think that the board game companies see it as people getting interested in scrabble and will more likely buy the boardgame... they also put out their own version that is of a high quality that people ended up enjoying as well. So I guess board game companies view it in a light that everyone can work together to enjoy the game, but it isn't something to expect or bank on (if you'll excuse the pun).

I should qualify this by saying I'm not a lawyer, and my views aren't that of a mod, but someone who loves this game and don't want to see it take risks unless Kestas is strapped for cash (and if so, he just needs to let everyone know, and I'm sure he'll get a big donation drive setup that will take care of the site for him).

Play me on dipbounced and see;)

Oh, and Sydney is right. Really high pot games (500+ to join) are almost always organized in the forum and created with a password, so the best way to play with quality opponents is to organize a game (or join an organized game), not randomly picking a high pot open game.

If the money goes into the site development and software and not profit, how would that stand?

At any rate... I think the mods/kestas should look into it at least

The second highest pot game going right now, 1000 buy-in, was nto password protected.

I would be really unhappy if anyone with some real-life dollars to spend could have bought into that game. The buy-in, as it was, protected the interests of those of us who set it up.

As much as GR is the main ranking system on this site, or the one with the highest bragging right value, the point system still does serve an important purpose. People have to put in their time, prove their dedication and tehir competence level (or get lucky) to have the priviledge of playing in high pot games.

Furthermore, when buying into a high pot game you can usually also be pretty safely assured that the GR of opponents will be reasonably high. If people could buy points you could play a game for 3500 or whatever against people with GRs still around or below 100. This would also somewhat defeat the purpose of points, I think.

As I said- limit point buying to 100 .. Eliminates your concern lando

but the good players want to be able to have more then everyone else

The real question is, who has a monopoly on Monopoly?

I think the risks of a C&D are fairly small. As has been mentioned, Hasboro isn't actually making money on the game and there are other sites that are more noticeable and charge fees.

Plus, of all the groups of people you don't want pissed off at your company, I would say Diplomacy players rank near the top : )

However, there are logistical problems (we would need to code an interface or do it manually (ugh) through donations).

Frankly, as long as I can play the games I want to play, I don't care how many points I have, nor do I care how many my competitors have.

Agreed abgemacht

and we could invest this points-money in building predator drones to hunt multis...

that sounds like an excellent idea! :p

What if you could buy extras for this site like shiny little icons or badges to go next to your name or something?

think like the xbox live marketplace where you can enhance your avatar and such...I'm sure there are other, not-quite-diplomacy-related things that you can offer up for sale?

The reason this would not work is that no-one other than Sydney City would want to buy points. Its pretty easy to earn them or to play good quality games without a lot of them. I can't imagine there would be any demand to buy points. Sydney City, you've only been here a week and you've joined a bunch of games. Once you are done this round of games, you will probably never find yourself constrained by lack of points again -- especially because you can never slip below 100. If you really want to join more games, just head over to the sister site vdiplomacy.net and play there.

Also, though I'm sure you are an accomplished and reliable player, it makes sense to have a limit on the number of games you can join initially. I imagine the rate of CDs is much higher among brand new players, especially those who immediately join 6 or 7 games. Do you guys remember charlesf? he came in with twenty plus years of diplomacy experience and lots of suggestions to improve the site but he almost immediately went CD in every game.

I think this is just another ploy by the mods to make more money off this site. Everyone knows that they're already making bank on their Plura checks.

And quite rightly so! With all the effort they put in, I condone some fraud here and there. (JK)

On topic: Bad idea. If you want a high quality game, you can advertise on the forum. I know firsthand what kind of cool games you can get this way. And 100 is quite enough to attract some able opposition.

@abgemacht

Hasbro is pretty notorious for aggressive C&D. You can bet that if this site started making money on one of their titles, they'd jump all over it. PlayDip gets away with it because Diplomacy - as marketed by Hasbro - is completely free. PD only gets money from premium memberships, which allow variants that are unique enough to get away with it. I actually assume that Hasbro hasn't shut down PD yet because "PLAYdiplomacy.com is intended to be a useful supplement to the published game." I'm sure it doesn't hurt that they have several links to purchase the board game. In that situation, Hasbro may do themselves more harm than good by ordering C&D.