About 10 days from now I head off for a holiday and won't be back home until the end of September.  I don't know if any else plans to do End of Game Statements, but I have one that I actually wrote almost three months ago.  It assumed that I would be eliminated, and at that time I had no real sense of who the winner (or winners) might be.



Below is what I wrote.  I have not altered it since then.

Best Wishes to All,
Harvey


END OF GAME STATEMENT - ENGLAND

Harvey - "It feels really great to
have won this game!"

Observer - "Hey, wait a minute. You
didn't win this game. In fact you were eliminated before the game
ended."

H - "Yes, I was eliminated but I
still won.

O - "What the heck are you saying?
--------- won the game.

H - "Oh, I see. They got their
scores improved. But, what does that have to do with winning?"

O - "It's pretty straightforward.
Haven't you even read the Diplomacy rules?"

H - "I understand your confusion.
You assume that all people play the game to beat the other players,
and that determines who wins and who loses. And you're right -
according to view, I didn't win. But that's not the metric I use."

O - "The metric you use? Oh come on!
Is this going to be a 'sour grapes' story?"

H - "I'll let you judge the 'grapes'
part of it. From my perspective, however, the scores on a web site
aren't very important to me. Far more important are the interactions
that I have with the other players. That's what determines whether
or not I've won a particular game. And, in this game I was a real
winner."

O - "By interactions do you mean you
look at your success in stabbing, misleading and outsmarting the
others?"

H - "Nope, not even close. Don't get
me wrong; I'm no saint, and I've done my share of devious stuff.
And, like everyone else I have no objection to eliminating others and
coming out ahead. But that's not winning for me. Instead I measure
my success or failure by the pleasure I gained from getting to know
my fellow players. And in this game I did pretty well. I got to
have a bunch of "off-line" email conversations with Dirk, along
with a couple of extended 'non-game" phone calls in an effort to
help him make some business connections. I got to have two meals
with Jorge in southern California, while there. I even got to
exchange thoughts about U.S. Immigrations issues and the new Arizona
law with Charles. Who would have thought that a German guy would
have such a keen understanding of U.S. politics and social policies?
On top of that, I got a bunch of supportive emails from all the
players when I went through my medical challenges. All that was far
more important to me than counting how many centers I had at any
given moment in the game."

O - "Fair enough, but what about the
game itself? Surely you gave it some thought as it progressed?"

H - "Jeez, do you really expect me to
remember that stuff? Well, I'll give it a try. Being England, and
starting with just two centers ..."

O - "How did you end up playing
England?"

H - "Oh, when the game started, I
told Charles that I didn't really care which power I got. When I got
England I realized that I needed to do some fancy footwork if I was
going to avoid being eliminated right away. (See, I do care about
the 'game proper' at some level.) My thought was to do what I could
to get Denmark and Sweden to attack each other, in order to give me
some breathing space. Even though I failed (they seemed determined
to be allies) I was able to pick up Ire and Sco. In large part that
was because I trusted France when he offered to make ENG a DMZ. In
many ways that set the stage for the rest of the game. I proclaimed
to the world that England was neutral, while all the while doing what
I could to aide the covert(?) FSE alliance. As things progressed,
France and Spain were very active in trying to coordinate their
forces in the battle for central and southern Europe. I did my best
to stay out of trouble, and continue the charade of my neutrality."

O - "Do you really think you were
able to fool people on that one?"

H - "For a while I think it worked.
Eventually it must have become clear to Jorge that my 'northern
advancement' was aimed at flanking PTA. In any case I'm sure that he
became increasingly frustrated with me as the game advanced. He kept
urging me to attack France, warning that if I did not France would
eventually attack me. Although I wasn't certain that I would
eventually face a French stab, it did seem likely. However, I chose
to not stab France. I thought that to do so would only benefit
Poland, and that I would be caught in a vise, attacked by both France
and Poland. I wasn't sure whether Nigs would honor our alliance, but
I felt that however slight the possibility, it was a better outcome
than the otherwise certainty of being sandwiched between Poland and
France."

O - "And once the stab did come, did
you have regrets about not stabbing first?"

H - "Not for a moment. My only
regret was that I was going to have to eventually deal with Jorge's
'told you so' comments. By the way, to his real credit he said not a
word about it at our dinner in Los Angeles. As a side note, the
highlight of the meal came almost at the end when a brief discussion
of Diplomacy did come up. Catie, Jorge's most impressive girlfriend,
suddenly realized the Diplomacy connection and said, 'Oh, you're that
Harvey!'. I'm still not sure whether I should have been ashamed or
proud to have been identified."

O - "You can't really tell me that
you have no negative feelings about Nigs' stab?"

H - "I really don't. First, I was
expecting it and was surprised that it didn't come a bit sooner.
More importantly, however, was the offer that Nigs had made before I
went into the hospital for my cardiac procedure. There was a vote
for a DIAS on the table, and both Nigs and Dirk offered to vote for
it in order to end the game and 'spare me' from having to think about
the situation while dealing with medical issues. I thanked them, but
asked them to not vote for the DIAS, and I voted against it."

O - "So, no regrets at all?"

H - "A few. First, that I didn't
really establish relationships with the other players. More
importantly, there were several points in the last three or four
months when I found myself (very uncharacteristically) depressed due
to my medical situation. The impact was that I lost virtually all
interest in the game, and lacked the energy to even force myself to
be an active participant in the game. That was unfair to the rest of
the players. I'm most grateful, however, for the support that got
from everyone, Charles included."

O - "And now?"

H - "If truth be told, I'm going to
'hang up my rock and roll shoes' for a while and take a hiatus from
playing Diplomacy. I don't know if it will be weeks or months. It's
happened before - after a year or two playing multiple games
simultaneously I get burned out. But sooner or later the itch comes
back. I'm sure it will again. In the meantime, many thanks to all -
for the challenge, for the support, for the encouragement and for the
friendship!"