Yeah, its really the message per game that sets you apart

I have 25050 for 312 games, not removing gunboat. I'm pretty sure I average out over the course of my career to 100 msg/gm.

That said, I recently had over 500 messages in a game, and I'm moving into the 300-400 range, I think (assuming of course I survive to the endgame).

I have 12382 messages over 73 games, including 4 ongoing and a few gunboat. So that's 170 messages/game for me.

500 a game is quite a feat Eden. I'm moving into 200 a game - though I probably have far more in my recent games which have gone into the 1930s

I am around 200 messages per game.

4415 over 125 games, which is a little over 35 messages a game, which is pretty horrible. If you remove the 30 gunboat games I've been in thats 4415 messages over 95 games, for a somewhat better average of ~46.5 messages per game. Which is still pretty low. That number still includes a handful of public messaging only games, but I don't think that accounts for it.

I think it's partly because I play a lot of live games more than longer phase games. Games with 5 minute phases really don't allow for the same kind of chattiness.
Also I tend to talk less if I'm clearly going to be eliminated, which is a bad idea, because it eliminates the possibility of negotiating a survival, or a turnaround of fortunes.
I also tend to talk less towards the endgame if I'm doing well because more moves to enter makes less time to talk (again talking about live games here), and also because people I'm beating don't often have much to say to me.
Also obviously I stop talking in games in which I've been eliminated and I have a very high rate of defeats (that's a bit of a chicken or the egg thing though, do I get defeated cause I don't talk enough or do I talk less than average because of how often I'm defeated?).
I definitely need to up my messages per game though. I think that would definitely improve my record. Interesting topic here.

boo, 1750 messages over 22 games = 80 msg per game. pretty low that :(
here i was thinking i'm pretty chatty. although, that stat doesn't include gunboats. then again, i haven't played all that many gunboats...mmmm
on another note, i've liked 3 forum posts and been liked *8* times :)
thumbs up for me.

10 messages per game -.-

No wonder I lost so many games ._.

8782 messages in 64 games = 137 messages per game.

323.9 messages/game here. Never played a gunboat, either.
Non-gunboat messages/game is a stat I'd love to see calculated for us and put on our profiles.

19880 in 132 games = 150 per game.

Forum posts: 22916 (not counting this one of course)
Likes: 111 / Liked: 191

Draug, get a life ;)

lol

1770 for 20 total games

I average a little over 100 per game but in our SoW game going on right now I'm at 990 messages so far...

Keep in mind that you don't want to win this competition. Talking a lot doesn't mean you are the best diplomer... it just means you talk a lot. And I actually think people who talk too much tend to do poorly (but not as poorly as the silent).

This thread could also explain why gunboat is a terrible variant :P

Anyways:
17258 in 127 games (10 still going) =~ 136 messages a game

I just like chatting with players. It's really one of the better aspects of this game. I probably do chat too much about what I'm thinking but it's still going to be my MO in games.

12653msg/85games=129msg/game

@fk: Tru Ninja's statistical report seemed to indicate that to a degree, more talking = more success... naturally you started seeing diminishing returns (why wouldn't you?) and it leveled off somewhere after 130-140 or so, but there's definitely a correlation to some extent between more messages and a better record.

I know it was debated in the a stats thread he posted but there's very obvious correlation between more messages and lasting longer in the game (and lasting longer in the game and having a higher GR). I'm still not convinced as to how the correlation would look if you somehow compensated for that.

I think the stat was win/draw%... but both work.

Well, there are a few factors affecting why you send messages:

(a) Time alive and relevant in the game
(b) Number of people you message on a regular basis
(c) Number of things you have to discuss

In (a), the correlation is obvious; the longer you're alive and relevant, the better your odds of gaining more GR from a game and the better your odds of winning or surviving to the final draw. It's not very common for people who are on the verge of death to get a lot of press back from other players, meaning their message rates are likely to drop off a bit; but even still, the only way a 1-piece power is going to get into the final draw is if the player negotiates his/her ass off to get in.

In (b), the correlation is still relatively clear. If you're talking to more people, your messages are going to increase, and by more than a mere linear amount (your conversation with Russia as France, for instance, often leads you to write more messages to Turkey than you normally would, which might reveal something to tell Austria, etc.). And clearly talking to another power you otherwise wouldn't throughout the game is unequivocally a good thing, as it gives you more potential units to manipulate, and if the relationship is well-fostered then it gives you another voice supporting your bid for the final draw.

(c) is vague, but when explained the correlation again fits. If you're simply going "alliance?" to your neighbors, "yeah/nope" to any question from a distant power, "alliance against <ally>?" to those distant powers and "vote draw vote draw! vote draw!! VOTE DRAW YOU ASSHOLE" to the guy about to solo over your imminent corpse, you're probably not going as well as the guy who messaged everyone to figure out alliance structures, made a point to talk to everyone once a turn until he or the other power(s) were defeated, and just generally outworked you on the diplomatic front. The game is host to myriad opportunities; one just has to be able to take advantage of them, which can only be done in context of talking to everyone early and often.

Just a touch more than 5000 message in 29 games, so just a touch more than 170/game. I'd say my ratio is going up though.

Cachimbo, I don't think messages from current games are tallied so, once our SoW game is over, that ratio should go through the roof.

Lol! We did chat a lot in that game, didn't we? I wonder if I've made it passed 1000 yet...

Why yes! Yes I did: 1004 ! lol

this game needs to end.

I have more messages in that game than all my other games combined. Actually, over 100 more.

You have over a *thousand* messages in one game.

Well, I guess that's foreseeable given the level of global fighting

You mean, in the SoW game?

I think the high number of messages was due, at least in my case, to 2 huge and early fuck ups that only a long diplomatic blitz (yes, I'm aware of the paradoxical nature of a "long blitz") could help me overcome.

Not willing to count my gunboat games, so my stat of 84 messages per game is WAY off. A better statistic would be average number of words per message.

2502 total messages with 40 total games. about 60 per. no wonder im so good. but same case with Geofram. my words per message would be one of the best

This makes me want to get another "talkative" public press game going. Aside from everyone outdoing themselves in the first few years and having to stop from exhaustion, it was one of the best games I've ever played. Plus I got to pretend to be King George.

Sometime mid-December? Who's still around from the first game?

You know I'm down for that game Geo, but not before January.

Also, I'd make the suggestion that we limit the number of messages one can post per phase. Our game was ridiculous! Spring 1901 wasn't over yet and we had pages upon pages of text on the global chat!

Quick note on the Tru findings:
"Correlation does not necessarily imply causation"

1. Another relevant question is how long are the turns in your games?

2. What's the secret to getting into a game with that much communication? I am sick of playing games with half of the players sending a message or none the entire game.....

I only play 48hr games. I don't like a phase to go by without proper discourse.

I find it a crap shoot whether or not a game is going to have fairly talkative people. Recently, I just joined a game with some people who I had played with before. We all enjoyed the first game and thought it would be great to get another one in.

I also think playing non-anon promotes people being more talkative. The games are more personal and I really care how people perceive my discussions with them.

@tj218: Good point with the turn length. I know PE likes live games, I prefer 36+.

As far as getting into a game with lots of comm, get with a couple vets in the forum and make an invite game. People that talk a bunch here tend to talk a lot in the games.
Normally, I'd say just get into a good vet game, but comm seems to have slowed in some of those now-a-days.

@ FK: though some talk a touch less lately, it's true, some games still require much press.

1901 is not finished yet that I have 100 messages sent already in one game, and as many received!

I've always found amount of messages (combined with length) as a fantastic indicator of success. Maybe when I'm not busy I will look at some data regarding GR and # of messages per (non-gunboat) game.

I've also found that being the first one to send press in the opening year can be very important, but I think that is another topic.

ON a note of this conversation, communication is obviously important in diplomacy.

Thanks for that crispy. I guess I was just surprised at how much of a role it plays. I wonder if there is some sort of # of messages where things start to level off in terms of success.

That would be a good thing to study, look for relationships of all the players and see if there is a relationship with messages...bu there is also another aspect of the content of messages, are they threatening, do they convey a willingness or need for the other to grow before yourself kind of thing. hmmm...interesting proposition.

Meh, I hit my 150-200 message average with 5-min turns usually anyway, so I doubt it makes a big difference for me. That is, of course, unless I really am the stereotypical Southerner who rambles on about everything and talks way too much and crams too many things into one sentence and

No PE... You just soooo special !

Cach, I completely agree. We had 40,000 words by 1904. Perhaps a word limit per message and no double posting?

I must be rather silent then...

Just over 8000 worlds in over 130 games. I ought to be ashamed of myself.

*i meant 8000 messages, not 8000 worlds.

I'm at 3119 in 20 games, or 156/game. I'm actually somewhat surprised, I'd have thought this would be lower than average. I feel like I'm not one of the more active diplomers.

Phew Gobbledydook. I was just about to email a mod to ask whether using more than one world in a game didn't count as some kind of multi-ing.