This site if full of fellows who fancy themselves to be pretty smart. We are also, by definition, competitively oriented and argumentative. So it is not sufficient to prove our mastery on the Diplomacy board, we must also form factions on the forum and argue about which point system is superior, to differentiate from the *true* believers and the heretics. It's all very reminiscent of a fracturing religious denomination.

A draw is better than a survive, so why would he not be fighting to be included in one?

http://i.imgur.com/Y5pLmOe.gif

Solo is a win
Survive or defeat is a loss
A draw is neither. But a draw is always better than a survive or defeat (unless the defeat was with honor helping to stop the solo and a draw was still had).

@orathaic, perhaps he believed that once the solo had been stopped he would be eliminated to "improve the draw" as often happens. A consequence of it often happening is that players, such as myself, will rather throw the game than risk being eliminated after stopping the solo.

@Fasces349, this is why I would prefer a hardcore WTA mode where a draw is split between all non-CD players, whether eliminated or not, both for stats and points.

Simsilar to the proposition I presented in another thread, Alderian. Although I don't think defeated players deserve a part of the losers' points, but all survivors should split evenly so that nobody has a reason to try for strong second unless they are in a race to 18 and they think they have a shot at it.

@FlemGem

I disagree. Isn't he new? I think he's legitimately trying to understand why other people play differently. People who, for example are ostensibly better players than he is.

In this case Fasces will be disappointed - his reasoning is indeed sound. PPSC games end up being more competitive than WTA, a result which is counter-intuitive. WTA games end up getting lazy pretty quickly. Players have little incentive to conquer the board, as they can pretty much count on a powerful faction of mediocre players moving to block them.

I play the opposite tact when someone drags me into a WTA game - if a player blocks my ability to solo, I begin collaboration with a third party and attempt to help them solo. There are more on this board like me. We otherwise appear normal.

We walk amongst you.

@Al,

I disagree, I think that if you play with a good group WTA makes the games a lot more fun. You get some of the most bizarre and interesting moves in really high quality WTA games and they are more focused on actual diplomacy then PPSC where the diplomacy becomes tainted by people trying to get the most points.

Al - I think I'll stand by my evaluation of our loveable but eccentric little sub-culture, but I agree that I failed to respond meanginfully to the OP. I here make amends.

When I played a lot of FTF in high school we didn't know about draws, except that after 8 hours and no one had won you drew with anyone who was still in the game and staggered home to bed feeling good about surviving and wishing you knew more nerds so that you could play more often.

When I first started playing here, I wanted to get lots of points, so I preferred PPSC games because I could get plenty of points for second place. I had quite a few wins in those early games, but also quite a few defeats.

Eventually I found out about Ghost Ratings, and realized my defeats and survives were killing my GR. Suddenly I became much more interested in drawing. My percentage of draws shot up, and my number of wins and defeat/survives went down.

I really haven't noticed a big difference between how I and others play in PPSC or WTA games, except maybe that people are a little more cautious in WTA. I also don't play in the leagues or in many password protected games, so maybe I'm playing a lower caliber player. I don't really care. When I played FTF there were plenty of lousy players and occasional cd's - it was part of life.

Also, most of my other competitive outlet in life is running/coaching track and field and cross country. They aren't "winner take all" sports. If you or your kid gets eighth out of a hundred and twenty runners, you're pretty happy. If your team goes to state and gets third out of fifteen, you're pretty happy. Even in the Olympics the bronze medal winner gets to stand on the podium with the silver and gold medal winners. I think I bring some of that attitude to Diplomacy.

http://xkcd.com/1095/

@FlemGem

Thank you for responding. This has clarified a lot for me. I think I now actually understand why the big shots prefer WTA games - when they play PPSC they have a suspicion (perhaps correctly) that these sort of games pack with junior player who eschew serious game play in favor of point-grubbing. Perhaps WTA is the more serious way to play after all?

Maybe you can help me with my particular problem - when I play WTA games I find myself with the frequent problem of having no clear goal. Once winning becomes impossible (as it usually is), I reach the mid game and then find no incentive to block a solo, etc. Without the incentive of points, I lack a concrete target to shoot at. Thoughts?

@Al - Play passworded games for 5 per player wiht the top cadre of players. All of a sudden you find motive that takes points oit of the equation. For instance, just having fun, getting revenge for a stab, or trying new gambits. I also, personally, am trying to get my win/draw ration above 50% (and my win ration above 10%).