denis has yet to win a game....

He's won a game.

I aspire to join the few, proud, masters. It's going to take a while though. By the end of 2010 I think I can push my way into the top 150 maybe the top 100 even. I study a lot of strategy, both in diplomacy essays, and on old games from this site. I learn the ways of top ranked players, and work on honing my skills as a negotiator as well. I only have five wins so far, but my goal is 15 by end of next year. If I can drop my defeat percentage (a shameful reminder of how aweful I was when I plunged into this game with very limited knowlege way too fast) I stand a chance. I don't care if I sounds arrogant, I'm working my way up slowly to the top.

*sound

Not to brag also, but, I amaze myself how naturally the game is coming to me. I've seen that more often than not, I'm getting what I want, when I want it. I'm getting better every day. Maybe I'm just accustomed to easier wins in live games.

Not me but i think i'm getting betterand i am having more and more chances to play witht the masters so i like to read back and see how they convinced me or otherwise I think the key to some of my recent sucess have been that I was open to alliances with players I had stabbed and then used them against a growing foe and if possible stab them agian. My problem has been staying in a good ofensive position while still staying in a good defensive one. And ottovanbis i think i have the same problem as you i jump right in and didn't take my time and now have 23 defeats but that number has stopped growing ( until today when i lost two live games).
These are my top next to be in no particular order

ZaZa
ottovanbis
Crazyter
Thucydides
Invictus
Geofram
spyman
Le_Roi
Centurian
StevenC.

Notable mention to
Acomist
tilmletokill
tailborder (if he evercomes back)
and not to brag me (if i really really work on it)

I think you should substitute my name for Sicarius. Everybody needs that experience.

I want to see what my new GR will be?

I'm trying to get up there. I've been playing fewer games lately, but have done so with better players and longer phases, and have in the process learned much much more. My number of defeats, like yours denis, has for the most part stopped growing.

Denis, i don't know WHO YOU THINK you are, but you've won ONE game out of countless, and yet you think you are a great player?
ROFL

That's a bit harsh masterninja. Denis didn't say that he was one of the great players - but that he could be one day if he works on it. That sounds like a fair call to me.
Thanks for mentioning me Denis. My record isn't the great actually. Its a mixed bag of some okay games and some truly dreadful ones. I haven't actually played that many games (even though I have been here a while). I usually play long games (two to three days), and only a couple at a time.
I would say that at least one of the players on your list probably already qualifies as a master - that would be Centurian.

Spyman, my bad.. perhaps. But if someone here can play around 40 games and win one, then everyone on here has that potential.
If that was the true meaning of that comment of his, then he's right...

i mentioned m,yself because I was mentioned beforehand

and i never siad i was good read the paragraph about how i'm not before commenting

The future of Diplomacy belongs to me...
Denis: from your list I would only consider tilmletokill and Geofram above average players.
Of course, I haven't played with all of them.

I suck at this game.

@ tilMletokill: Your weakness is your stubbornness. When I'm in a game with you, I make sure someone is fighting you, because I know that you'll fight them forever. And if I convince someone to stab you, I might as well consider your centres my own.

I've learned not to differentiate between allies and enemies, because at any given moment, someone can jump to either side. Holding grudges is a sign of inexperience, and I've learned first hand that any good player will take advantage of your grudges no matter what side they are on.

And in gunboat, don't ever think allies last more than a year. If I support you somewhere, it's because I want you to fight someone else, and if you aren't fighting them well enough, I'll take your centres and do it myself.

That said, I'm flattered that anyone would consider me great, but all of these live games has diluted my competition. "You only get better by playing a better opponent." And ~2 Civil Disorders per live game hardly constitutes a worthy adversary.

No I am not stubborn what are you talking about.

Yes I am but people need to learn not to be idiots.....half the time they stab me and when I tell them I am not going to help them they get pissed and angry and try to attack me over and over again........so I have no reason but to attack them.

lol @ the fool who mentioned me... i doubt i'll ever be GREAT, probably just always on the fringes, forever sentenced to be mentioned as an "up-and coming" without ever actually coming up ;)

not that i think you're a fool denis lol fool is a just something i say a lot :)

Fool is as fool does.

i also think Steven C

Haha, Im not sure where Ill be in a few months, but I think I'm a decently good player that is getting better. I have a ton of defeats, but those are mostly from 2 time periods, when I first joined the site and was in too many games, and this past summer when I joined something like 8 games and then stopped checking on them. Since rejoining the site I think I have played/am playing 5 normalish phase games, 1 of which I won, one Im about to win (although I took over it from a CD) one I am going to come in second in (I know its not a win!) one that it is too early to tell, but I think I may be in danger, but have some plans for getting out of) and one I just started. I have also played I think 5 live games. One I resigned due to it being 3 in the morning, One I was defeated in, 2 I survived and one we drew because it was 2 in the morning (Same night). Also I played a FtF game last Saturday and was in a position to go to either a solo win, or a draw with England, and will be playing another FtF this Friday. I also feel like the game is coming naturally to me, and whilst I haven't read any strategy yet, I am looking forward to when I get some more time. I hope to have 10 wins By the end of this school year, and at most only 5 more defeats, while playing around 4 games at a time. (Though with different phases and at different stages so I don't get overwhelmed. Tell me if I'm being cocky.

you're being cocky

i'm ranked 9568 in those ghost rating things so you'd all better be very afraid!

bishop you're right. you suck

I on the other hand have gained two wins in the last week, and could have had others much earlier if it wasn't for my computer breaking down and me having to leave two live games (school the next day).
So I expect to break through into the top 5 of this site within the next month or so.
But yeah, Puddle, you are cocky

@masterninja
Anyone can become a great player with enough effort. Denis is playing games like the site is going down next year. It takes some people longer to hit that level of great prelation.

I noticed a trend of prelation in myself. I will find a hobby and work on it. The first few weeks are learning the basics. You discover what the hobby is and learn an effective method. Once you've learned the basics you practice. Practice, practice, practice. You get better, better, better. Then you observe others. You learn certain tactics that improves your own. You get better until, pretty soon, you've become exceptional at that certain hobby. All of a sudden you're learning on yourself. You discover new techniques and become a master in a matter of less than a month. Then you gradually get better with more practice but you never actually do have a spurt of great betterment.

With more practice, the faster the process will go. Denis is on his way to mastery!

When I first started I would get really pissed at stabs (keep in mind I only fairly recently played WTA) and I would hold grudges that killed me. I was a rather petty player, not to mention I had not yet studied tactics in depth. My current GR is... 194.7 and I'm at 198 currently overall. Geofram, don't be modest you are a good player at worst. You too, Thucy!

Hey, I'm here too!