i cant think when germany makes irrational decisions like he has done

at the beginning of the game i tried countless times to get germany to talk to me. at first i thought that maybe he didnt speak english or maybe his computer only came with a mouse and a screen(which wouldnt make sense considering he signed up on this website and his name as far as i can tell is in english).

and then all of a sudden after both his attacks on me and france fail and england starts attacking him, he finally says something.

this is my onesided conversation with germany...

Me: Fri 07 Nov Autumn 1901: may i ask what your plans are bc you just made an agressive move towards two nations and you tempted england with a foothold onto the mainland

Me: Mon 10 Nov Spring 1902: listen you need to stop being so reckless
dont give england the oppotunity to get a foothold like that

Me: Tue 03 AM Autumn 1902: so would you like to work together now against england?

Him: Tue 12 PM Autumn 1902: ok, lets be allies

Me: Tue 03 PM Autumn 1902: why wouldnt you talk to me earlier in the game?
thats not very smart
or curtious for that matter

Him: Tue 05 PM Autumn 1902: Its just that I thought you would attack me

Me: Tue 07 PM Autumn 1902: but why would you attack both me and france?

Him: Tue 10 PM Autumn 1902: I thought it was a good idea
-_-

Me: Wed 02 AM Autumn 1902: not unless you want england to take advantage of you is it a good idea


thats the last i have heard from him and his moves do not reflect any urgency towards me or france or england. i just dont even know why germany is playing in this game if he might as well be CD.

You do find that sometimes people just don't care about a game.
If you're after advice, anything that comes through here on a current game is tainted, as a good opponent will also read it!
So, the standard advice: think about who your allies are and why, then work with them! If a nation won't assist you, think why, and what you can do about it.

mrfixij says...

I like to call that the "Wine In Front Of Me" game. Two glasses of wine are on a table, one is poisoned. As per the scene from The Princess Bride, it ends up being a confusing mind game where you'll never break 50/50 odds. The best you can do is try to break the WIFOM game and get an extra unit in there pronto.

i say...

O.o
WTF?!
50/50 percent chance of what? someone poisoning me?
i dont get the application of that analogy but i do understand the reference

@figle

my alligences should be fairly cut and dry in this game due to movement and obvious evidence.

and germany isnt helping anyone
thats the part that has me comfuzzled

Haha WIFOM. That was a common occurrence in Mafia. I remember the term being very much used.

WhiteSammy, WIFOM denotes a game-theory sort of situation in which you have to outsmart another person. To choose the most irrelevant example, say you are a fugitive and you need to get across a river to escape, but the river is to fast to swim across so there are only two ways to get across. One is a safe bridge the other is a bunch of perilously slippery stones of which you have a 10% chance of slipping and dying. The catch is that there is a police officer on the other side of the river with time enough to wait at one of these crossings and catch you.

The thought process is that, oh the police man will think I'd take the safe bridge because it's safer so I'll take my chances with the stones and get away to safety. But wait, maybe he knows I'm thinking that and will wait at the stones, in which case I should take the bridge. The circular inductive logic brings you to absolutely no conclusion at all, and the police officer may be confounded with the very same WIFOM.

All in all it's a very common phenomenon in Diplomacy. Will they go for the SC's or the tactical gain?

I think mrfixij was talking about your conundrum in StP and Swe, where there's no technically right move for either you or England.

I certainly wouldn't go to a forum asking for advice. To my mind that is cheating.

I think that WIFOM is a very good analogy for this one, because anyone who has seen the film will know the outcome of the incident (and why), which I think that reflects Sammy's moves now that he's spoken to us...
Anyway, Diplomacy - talk to people and persuade them!

i wasnt asking for advice im just showing you a situation that i have never come accross before and i find it exceedingly hard to respond to due to the nature of another one of the participants