Actually in all my FTF no one has ever been eliminated. I think we're softies. We always go for joint victories.

Face to face definitely produces more draws but that is very much due to time constraints.

The idea of having to eye-ball someone you have just stabbed though is so delicious that I look forward to it very much in face-to-face. A marvelous experience. It is what makes the game so addictive.

I once had someone (a girl) flounce off after being stabbed by her best friend in f-t-f - it was the first time they had played the game. I don't think she understood...

F-t-f is much better than online dip. You have to learn to control emotions and have a poker face, otherwise you will lose out. You also have to be more subtle. Play something wrong, and you can be outed as the one suggesting that everyone stabs each other...

A LOT more drinking in the face-to-face version.

i have played more face to face than online....it is easier to stab online, but the game moves better when you play face to face

@mapleleaf you mean you dont go through a bottle of jack playing online :p

I have had lots (*decades) of experience with both Face to Face (FtF), postal/ email (PBM) and FtF tournament play.
The game is very different when played FtF and even more different when played FtF in tournament events (which is my favorite for intensity).
The hobby population and the game culture is very different between email and FtF and FtF/tournament players. This is reflected in the manner (more crude and rude in PBM) and style of communication (much poorer quality in PBM).
Quality of play is a different scale, there is nothing like playing in a FtF World Class tournament top board/top seed. On the average those that play in FtF events are better players if you were to look at the median skill level.
Skills have very different priorities in FtF and tournament and PBM.

One of the more interesting features in comparison is that the quantity of communication is actually lower in PBM in the current mode *(email) than in FtF games. For example, game after game that I have taken over from
dropped positions in 1902, I have found WITHOUT exception, that the player had not received any communication from two or more players.
That is almost unheard of in a FtF game, you nearly always talk to every player once in Spring 01 and nearly always talk to them in Fall 01. It is almost unheard of to go to a person's house or an event and not talk to the people in the same room, but in game after game here and in other sites that have a lot of new people, you see this over and over again.

anyway, enough for now....

@trim101, Mrs. mapleleaf would not approve...

The strength of countries is also different in FtF. Austria is stronger in FtF than in PBM. This has to do with secret communication in PBM. In FtF you know who is talking with whom. This is in favor especially for Austria, because he counteract at time.