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Has anyone been bullied into drawing a game when they were winning? This recently happened to me, and although the men I was playing with claim this is not the case, I really feel it was. One player decided to gang up on me and the rest joined in until I caved. I know its fair to vote in favour of the majority, but the only person it seemed to hurt was me.
hey ghostmaker i was just checking the leagues at http://phpdiplomacy.tournaments.googlepages.com/thephpleague is there any way to participate in any of them? i'm really interested in this.
Exactly what is it? Is it always unacceptable? Are some forms acceptable? Or just unavoidable? Is it possible to make rules to stop the most pernicious forms of metagaming?
The term has not yet made the Oxford English Dictionary. Instead I'll quote the Wikipedia definition: "Metagaming is a broad term usually used to define any strategy, action or method used in a game which transcends a prescribed ruleset, uses external factors to affect the game, or goes beyond the supposed limits or environment set by the game. In simple terms, using out-of-game information, or resources, to affect one's in-game decisions."
I'll also suggest a few ways that it manifests itself on metagaming that we see here on webdiplomacy. (some of these may not sit perfectly with the above definition) Multi-accounting Pre-game collusion Threatening a stronger player in a weak game with a country in a different game where the tables are turned. Players ganging up on another player because he is perceived to be a strong player. Refusing to unpause a game unless certain conditions are met (such as agreeing to a draw).
In my mind, multi-accounting is a different issue. That is out and out cheating.
On the other hand, we all have memories. I am not sure it would be possible to remove all forms of meta-gaming, nor do I think we should. We all have memories. If Bob313233 was an erratic player, and you got stung by trying to be his ally in a game, you will be leery to do so again. That is meta-gaming, but it is also not bad in my mind. I have seen some players do poorly tactically, and others do well. I will remember some of those.
The ones you listed are all serious, in my mind, other than the "Players ganging up on another player...". The stronger player has to work hard to defeat that, but I am not sure using that as a reason to join together would be bad.
The key phrase for me in the above definition is "uses external factors to affect the game". The ability to create multiple accounts is an "external factor". I think Metagaming is a umbrella term which covers a range of strategies, some worse than others. I agree that multiaccounting is "plain cheating". I would also argue that pre-game collusion (which is what on this site seems to be most often referred to as metagaming) is also cheating.
"Players ganging up on another player because he is perceived to be a strong player."
this is an entirely valid tactic, how you are able to convince others players who is the stronger one is the only question as to whether this would be meta-gaming.
As we can look up histories of the players we are facing in webdiplomacy, there is information available which is outside of the game, but is also entirely relevant to the game.
This may make the game harder for top players, but most good players will be able to work around it, if indeed they are as good as they appear.
The external factor in "ganging up on another player [because he is known to be a strong player]"is the other players knowledge of the player. This knowledge is external to the game and thus metagaming. But this is not necessarily a bad form of metagaming. Another example would be "ganging up on anther player because he is a dick in the forum"
yes, but ganging up on people for eing a dick in the forum could also be considered a good thing.
It means that people have an incentive to not be a dick in the forum... i mean it's good for the community, which is definitely meta- (external to the game)
whereas in the previous case the result is good for the game because it makes it more competitive as no single really good player is going to roll over the rest with ease.
I might argue that what you think of another player is relevant to the game, and as a player you are in the game and so is your knowledge. Diplomacy doesn't have out of game knowledge as such - in some role-playing games if you know the story is fairly linear you can take advantage of this fact in various ways, by knowing the story in advance this is out-of-game knowledge - there is no equivalent in diplomacy; except perhaps knowing a person will be sick or without internet and taking advantage of that knowledge (instead of organising a pause)
I like to look at the message counter when choosing opponents. I prefer playing the chattier players. I was over 800 the las time I checked and now I am back to 0. Did I break my counter??? No I know better, but will that be back up?
It's that time of year again- when America straps on the helmets, teams start towards the Superbowl, and the rest of the world asks: 1. Why are Americans so crude? 2. They call THAT violence? Should see a England-Germany match! ;) My Picks inside...
Hi everyone, I'd love to start a game with the above specs... But as I don't have enough points due to the silly rules, if anyone would like to start it, I promise to be the first to join!! Cheers.
I'll join if I get the password! (I'm relatively new, and I don't know any other way of getting the password - apologies if I'm breaching a protocol; if there's another way of getting passwords, please let me know.)
I've been getting 0.9x ready for release now that the bug count is starting to decrease, with comments and optimizations, see inside for details and to post bugs.
Does the computer automatically help a leaver's armies and fleets retreat? i.e. if I take a leaver's territory which has an army in it, will it automatically retreat to the nearest territory?
2 players in one of my games (giapeep, mathesond) can't log in to the site - they get an 'invalid username' error. They've deleted their cookies, and still no luck. Can one of the mods take a look at this?
Views on Goerge Orwell Great Politicain and Writer, or Pessimistic Pundant
Well it is interesting his great peice Animal farm was written when admiration for Stalin and USSR was at its height in Britain and US. We can all see today that the Totalitarian nightmare that was predicted never came about does this mean that all that pessimism was rubish and that that glim future was not possible?
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