Diplomaticcorp Newsletter – October 2008

For those of you paying attention, I am going to name this newsletter VIII (which could or could not be right since I’ve never really paid attention to the number system)

What is this newsletter I hear you say?

Well it’s where I tell you about all the exciting things happening in DC (after I waffle on a bit about the other mods and me and just general stuff)

Fantastic I hear you say (where can I complain?)
Any comments, complaints or even sub-writing for this fabulous newsletter can be sent to me at stevelytton(at)hotmail.com or to feedback(at)diplomaticcorp.com

Who are you, I hear you say?

I, (drum roll please)… am the great and mighty Deathblade_penguin, diplomacy master and solo editor of this newsletter. My girth is wide and I live in a castle..// what?.... too much.. really…. Okay,.. too much… (note I’m in a strange mood tonight)… Starting again…. Okay my name is Steve Lytton (handle on diplomaticcorp is deathblade_penguin also known as Penguin). I’m 36, happily attached to my wonderful girlfriend and I live in Melbourne, Australia. I’ve been playing online diplomacy for around 8 years and been a moderator of www.Diplomaticcorp.com for at least 6 years now. I tend to favour playing variants of diplomacy and I am sucker for a draw with a good ally. I’ve been told I stabbed one season too late. I’ve recently started playing some face to face diplomacy with my fellow Australians and I do enjoy the change of pace but I still come back to online diplomacy. My fellow moderators are Mike Sims(poobaloo) and El Trouto. Mike hails from Chicago I believe and lives there with his wonderful wife and 3 children. Mike is the brainchild of our website and although I don’t know how he does it and where he finds the time but he seems to keep the site running. Mike has the most ‘solos’ recorded on our site and seems to be the master of diplomacy. He’s known to hate gunboat games though. Trout, is a Canadian and he definately pretends to work for a living (hehehe). He’s fairly new to DC (only a year and a bit under his belt) but he does the work of 3 men for the site. Trout seems to follow me from game to game and already has 2 soloes under his belt. A man to watch! Someone else who deserves a mention is Jason K. Whilst not a moderator of DC, Jason as a ‘junior’ mod is taking up some of the tasks that Mike, Trout and I just can’t handle with the growing site. Jason works on the dipwiki and is currently working on improving the message board system. If you have time to help put in these areas, please drop us a line at feedback(at)diplomaticcorp.com

Okay – down to Basics. What’s new, what’s going on, what’s coming up?

OPEN GAMES
Sam Buck is running the next opening game, cleverly called the ‘flying hellfish’. There’s only 3 spots left, but don’t stress as we have another GM lined up after him. However we are always desperate for new GMs, so if you think you are ready to step up and help out GMing, please please drop us a line. Even if you are interested in knowing how to GM – email us! At feedback(at)diplomaticcorp.com

We have 3 variants on the table at the moment. Trout is running a HUGE game of the Haven map that Mike created for his fog of war games Check out the Haven information in the dipwiki. Brand new game on a used only once map – who can resist that, I’ve already signed up! Check it out in open games or game Dc158 for some history. Speaking of games with MORE PLAYERS, Matt is planning on running a chaos game – 34 players on one standard map. That can be found in open games as well. And last but not least – Jason K is looking for players for the second trial of his wheel of time map. From a fan of Robert Jordan’s series, I enjoyed playing in the first one and thoroughly recommend it.

Speaking of Variants, some games you might want to keep an eye on that are running in DC are :-

Jerry’s star trek variant. Diplomacy in the Alpha and other Quadrants!
www.diplomaticcorp.com?game_id=dc204

Paolo’s 50th anniversary Commemorative game. 7 players are battling it
out on the original map before they fixed it to what it is now. Very daunting. Changed Map, Multiple units in home bases… will be a great one to follow.
www.diplomaticcorp.com?game_id=dc210

Trout’s Imperial Diplomacy game, now the longest running game in DC. The big question is will it end in a solo or a draw?
www.diplomaticcorp.com?game_id=dc110

Mike’s huge 35 player world game. Domination of the world has begun and power alliances are forming all over the place.
www.diplomaticcorp.com?game_id=dc195

And that isust to name a few. I could have easily mentioned Steve’s mandate of heaven game (dc207), Vegas’s south east asia game (dc209) and Adam’s seismic (dc211) are all examples of the great variants being run in our club – and of course we are happy to have Vegas (Mike) back in the diplomaticcorp, Vegas was a player back in the day of Dc002.. Yes – game 2 and he was a master back then when I was a beginner. All of these games and more can be found on the ACTIVE GAMES tab.

YET we always need more GMs to run standards as well as these variants. Sometimes you can’t just past up a good standard now.

TOURNAMENTS

The Diplomaticcorp Invitational has finished round 1 (dc189) and is about to start round 2 (dc213 would be my guess!). Most of the players in this game were pretty happy with the outcome (a 6 way draw but tiered scoring going into round 2) and amazed at the level of competition. Our 10 players for this year’s DCI were Mike Sims (Winner DCI 2007), Dan Dzikowicz (best newcomer), Nigel Phillips (Winner Winter Blitz 200, Lee Taylor, Mikael Johannson, Garry Bledsoe (moderator’s community choice), Clark Landry, Derek Eyler, Jorge Saralegui and Brian Lam. More information in the DCI can be found in the dipwiki entry! In fact nearly everything you want to know can be found somewhere in our dipwiki or variant bank.

The Winter Blitz 2nd annual tournament has already become it’s planning stage. This great tournament run at blitz pace will be coming to your diplomaticcorp website in January. Keep an eye on the home page for more information. In fact by now there should be a great banner somewhere waiting for you to click on it (Thanks to Paolo for this)

RATINGS SYTEM
Mike has finally attempted to explain the ratings system to us layman and all the information on your rating can be found here at

http://www.diplomaticcorp.com/info.php?type=ratings




I will confess that I don’t still understand all of it, but I am sure it makes sense to those more mathematically than me.

COMMUNITY
Finally (yes I know it is sad to see this newsletter end, I could just write all night), I would like to touch on the subject of community. We at DC don’t just want the site to be a gaming site where you play but don’t get involved. We want a community. And whilst our numbers continue to grow at an alarming and yet pleasing rate, we are all still trying to get along as a community. I know as a GM, I try to get to know my players but it is hard. The reluctance to give out too much personal information versus the general chat is something we are all aware of us in this modern world – but I have to say I have met some wonderful friends and enemies on DC. There are people that I email and keep in contact with, even though we aren’t in a game. In our modern, busy world… it is not a surprise to have a connection with some who you play and plot with. And of course you can’t help but be attached to friends who you’ve played against over 8 years or so. For all you new players out there – get to know the diplomaticcorp community (add me on facebook…hmm..maybe we should start a diplomaticcorp facebook group – NOTE to Mike, Trout… we should discuss this). I’ve met some fabulous people from Georgia this year (Hello to Rachael and Andy) and from Ireland (Hey Joe) and Italy (Signor Paolo) as well as keeping some old friends in contact (welcome back Jason B and Vegas) – and to everyone I have forgotten too mention.. I really do count some of these people as excellent friends of mine. But that community feel is very important to all of us, not just me. I remember last year I was so excited to get a letter from a diplomacy friend and a few years ago a Christmas card from Kevin in Canada. I love all these little touches that make us more than a game site but a gaming community.

Did you know that Jason K (dc202) has just finished running a diplomacy game in his office? They played seasons throughout the week and if someone was away – they just delayed. Now I don’t know what Jason does for a living but for a while there, 7 people were distracted enough from their job to play our fine hobby. AND what’s more they all want to play again. That’s fantastic. There’s talk of the Australian Diplomacy players who play face to face struggling with the hobby, so if you are in Australia and you want to play face to face diplomacy (as well as online with us!!) drop me a line and I can get you in contact with someone (that email again stevelytton(at)hotmail.com). In fact creating these small communities to play the occasional face to face game is great. Use the commonspace on the messageboard to get to know your fellow diplomaticorpites….

However with this community, comes a little bit of ownership. WE think it’s great that you join our site and then bring in a friend or 2, or a brother, cousin, wife etc… but we do ask that if you know someone in a real life situation or face to face – you should tell the GM if you are in the same game. That way – everyone in the game then knows that you know someone. I mean it doesn’t always help.. some of my closest friends stab the hardest and one of my friends in dc206 (Greg).. I actually find I talk to him more now that we’re in a game together so there was no benefit to us knowing each other in the first place – but it’s courtesy that we told the GM before the game started. After all, whilst you might want to stab your dear friend, or brother in the back in a diplomacy game, occassionaly there are people out there who don’t want to play against that – and they should have that choice.

So please invite your work colleagues, friends, family and wives to join our community – but remember to let us know and definitely let your GM know so that we can all enjoy the game.

Signing off now.

Steve Lytton, Knight of the Rose

And remember – if you have any questions or anything
stevelytton(at)hotmail.com or feedback(at)diplomaticcorp.com