i would like to be part of the league of 'extraordinary' dip players... (hey, i liked your original label...)

please sign me up ;)


as for inflation, i believe it could be an issue when the stakes are lower and the overall quality-of-play diminishes... i.e. we can expect more and more wta games to end in wins rather than draws

overall, the effect could be negligible...
and marek is right, it would be useful to look at some data before drawing these conclusions

babak - can you create a blog so we can start trying-out the SoW idea?

I can be a commentator.

Well, to be honest, I could go for a WTA game. 36 hours is my minimum allotment.

5000 wta. 48 hrs. respond in that thread if interested.

@rratclif - will put you on the list. also - I like the separate site idea, but part of the idea of SoW is for newbies to learn... so if it is on this forum, then other newbies can follow along and learn from the commentators.

@ Noirin - more than welcome to comment. you cant have 'too many' in the sense that the more vets do comment, the more pespectives newbies can see and learn. as for the ppsc-centric idea... I dont know how that might affect the comment... because if the game is wta, any analysis of the game would have to put it within that context.

@Marek - I agree... the point inflation theory is misguided I think. as is this idea that all WTA games end with 6 people getting zero points.

@ lazy - would be glad to have you... though I dont think you'd qualify as a newbie.

@ wooooo - your analysis would be great to have.

SoW interest list so far -

vets: Marek, Chris, Babak, dj, Jacob(*), rratclif
?: lazy, Onar
newbs: OM, Alderian, Cpt. Platypus

play-by-play: rratclif, Ghostie(summer), Chris(?), me, Marek(?), wooooo


so here is what I think the line-up for the first game should be:

OMGNSO
Alderian
Captain Platypus
lazysummer8484
Onar
MarekP
Chrispminis

play-by-play analysis: rratclif, Babak, wooooo

we have plenty of 'vet' back-ups... but I put in the first 2 'vets' that responded. and I guess lazy and onar (based on their records) qualify as 'mid' so this might be a good fit.

but first... can I get confirmations from these 7... then we'll create a game.

also - if there are any other New players to the site who are interested in participating, do post here as we may need replacements (if the above do not respond) and we have enough vets for a second game if you guys want.

the 3 commentators can be the 'official' commentators for the first game (at least two posts per game year good?) while all others are always welcome to comment as well.

the one promise all players must make - is that they will NOT NMR. which means - always put in prelim orders. also - since it is meant to be a diplomacy-heavy game, we'll set the deadline at 40hrs.

but again - before any game is created, can I get confirmations from the above 10 individuals ;)

i like rratcliff's idea of the offsite spot, but also babak's point of having something on here for newer folks (and others) to catch. perhaps you could model off the illustrious ghostmaker - put stuff on the forum regularly enough so that newer folks can join in, but have another site with more info (like pointers on the difference, etc)? and a link on your page as well as regular updates on the forum? plus you'll have the commentary (which you could easily copy over to the blog or whatever) that will be sure to bring people in (i know i love reading public press games, for example).

and lol at me being called a vet. hardly!! but i am flattered. =D

Sign me up Babak

Babak, confirming that I'd love to play in SoW, but if you want to get it started sooner than a week from now at the earliest, find someone who isn't fresh out of points for the first round. I won't be offended.

I'm in for the play-by-play

Alright, how's this for an insanely awesome idea: Someone suggest a good blog site or something like that where I can set up a free webpage (like Ghostmaker's), I'm fairly good with comps but don't want to do HTML or anything crazy, so keep that in mind when recommending sites.

With that I can:
1) Keep records of all games. That includes posting the map after every turn, the commentary that goes with every turn, and if people would be so kind a synopsis of what each player was thinking.
2) Possibly an FAQ section for new members.
3) A member-list.
4) Links to articles both about dip and specifically WTA strategy.
5+) Anything else people want

We could keep a forum thread with the commentary for the current games, so there will be some record for newbies to see, but if they wanted to see more than what was available we'd have the website to link to with all games on it.

Also, are we assuming that on the honor system people in the game won't read the commentary thread?

I'm in

http://ghost-diplomacy.blogspot.com/

I have invited those of you who are due to be commentating to become authors of the blog.

Wow Ghostie, way to hijack my idea :'(

You will be able to post on it etc.

If you really want me too, I'll rename it to "rratcliff's Diplomacy".

Haha, thanks, but no biggie. I was actually tooling around with a "Google Sites" thing, I can post a link for that too if we want. I just couldn't figure out how to separate a blog into different pages like 1 for each game, etc. I assume you're just better at Blogger than I am though :-p

(I certainly had no intention to "hijack" anything- from reading the thread it seemed as though everyone was slightly waiting for me to do something)

rratclif, we can use the tags and the titles to differentiate between the games.

Tag all posts about the game: "SoW Game 1", and then, by clicking that tag wherever it appears, you get all of the "SoW Game 1" posts without any of the rest.

I'm certainly not upset if it came across that way, I was more waiting for someone to recommend a site to do it on. If people like yours and you want to do it I have no problem with you taking the reins.

This is what I had thrown together: http://sites.google.com/site/phpdipschoolofwar

Again, I'm indifferent, seeing how we'll both be able to comment on either site, just whatever people prefer in terms of organization. Mine is all unpolished, but I can have that fixed tomorrow (after my last final wooooooooo!)

Gotcha GM. I'm really just unfamiliar with the specifics of how blogs work, so I don't know their limitations/benefits. Everything I've seen is of the poor-quality amateur type, or the insanely professional.

I'm not familiar with Googlesites, although my googlepages page is going to be moved there soon :(

It doesn't appear to be a dedicated blog server, which will probably make things more difficult. Posting on blogspot behaves like posting on a forum etc. so is very easy for the most computer illiterate.

My only concern was formatting it in a way that was easy to navigate. If you're saying it can be done I'm fine with the way yours looks. Certainly has a bit more polish than mine :-p

Blogspots puts all the polish on for you :)

rratclif, why don't you see if you can get a post up there, You should have had some sort of email from me/blogspot I think, because I have put you on the author list.

Yup, looks like I posted. Is it possible to make posted pictures larger? So that someone could see the map while reading commentary instead of having to open it in a new window?

Well, either way, we can look at this more tomorrow, I have a final in 5 hours so I'm off to study.

Ok, best of luck.