@Draugnar, perhaps he drew to reward rowlandsmjr for sticking it out.

Seems VBob and I thought of the same analogy at the same time.

...you guys can read the global press that's written after the game ends right? You should be able to, can someone who's not a mod please confirm that for me?

Had to click on messages to see it. Didn't know we could do that in gunboats.

Oh okay, it just shows up like a normal chat for me, but as long as you can see it though messages that's fine.

Yeah, we don't see the chat box, but do have the messages link.

@ Skittles: "...they are all forced to sit there submitting blank moves every 5 minutes until the victor gets bored and decides to finally end the game. Whether that be 5 minutes or 5 hours depends on one person alone."

This was not a live game. The phases were 1.5 days, not 5 minutes.

BRB, going to join a game and then bitch and moan because someone is at 17 centers and can break the stalemate line by playing the game out for 7-8 years and "they're making me play the game out bawwww!!!" then get replaced so I don't get a defeat on my record

'Perhaps a resign feature would be useful. It could be a vote button just like Draw and Cancel. In this case, when all but one remaining player has pressed the button, it awards a solo to the person who hasn't pressed it. '

Agreed - infact, there have been options on other dip websites which included alliance victory (so once everyone agreed to a draw, only those named in the winning alliance got points for the draw) or solo victory/resign.

Ha ha ha: threadID=667076.

"This was not a live game. The phases were 1.5 days, not 5 minutes."

Oh, it's not as big of a deal in this case, as it only causes you 10 seconds of your time every day in a half, but the same principle does apply. It's worse in live games where you have to sit there the whole time in one sitting.

I like this responce: (Italy to Russia in Global, after the game)' You did not have to CD though, you could just keep entering holds and pretty soon there wouldn't be any units left to give orders to.'

I didn't know you could use global messaging in gunboat, is that only for mods to use and post-game messaging?

@Draugnar The "bottom of the ninth win, game over" analogy fails because in that case the game is over because the risk of losing has been eliminated.

If the team at-bat in the bottom of the ninth decides they want to go out on a grand-slam only, and defer the win until they get the bases loaded, and then stand still unless it's a home run, and the batter just hits fouls until he sees the perfect home run pitch, that's a better analogy. And in that case the game would *not* be over, and in fact the team doing that would be at risk of losing.

That's what anlari did - he wanted to go out on a grand slam, and took the risk of not winning (in fact he did not win), in order to try it. In baseball, that's within the rules too.

Let's swing this pendulum back in Anlari's favor for a while, then go back to sympathizing with VirtualBob.

@tendmote- No the analogy is perfect. If you look at that game, he had two units in the south ready to tale 18 and 19 already and there was no slipping past his line in the north. He had the game won. He *couldn't* lose and chose to draw for "honor" I guess.

The real surprise here is just how much VirtualBob hated this. The only practical impact was 5 seconds every 36 hours to avoid getting a "resign" on the record. From a psychological warfare perspective, though, VirtualBob was under Anlari's spell.

It's reminiscent of Kasparov being weirded out by his computerized "alien opponent" in 1997:

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/default.aspx?pageid=438&n=kasparov-in-awe-of-the-chess-playing-computer-1997-05-08

Interestingly:

"Subsequent analysis showed that Kasparov could have played a series of moves to force what is known in chess as 'perpetual check' "

Emotion is a factor in these battles, and Lord knows Anlari flipped VirtualBob's shit in this contest.

It's great play, but completely dishonorable, nothing you want to ever face, but would hope to either do yourself or completely defeat in opposition, a magnificent and horrible endless deathmatch competition where the only real outcome is that everybody wins, and loses.

Players can do as they please, including (but not excluding) the following: Be a dick while standing on ones head. Jerk-off while talking to your neighbor, Have muffins as you crush Austria beneath your mighty feet, drink tea with the president of Cambodia, fart as you press the refresh button, etc.

orathaic - "I didn't know you could use global messaging in gunboat, is that only for mods to use and post-game messaging? "

Yes. That is part of the changes I made to add the Notes tab and make mod messages in gunboat visible. The problem with using it for post game messages is that you don't get the message notification since it is post game.

Hi guys, I just saw this thread, so here is my explanation.

It was a personal goal to reach 34 SCs. I have done it once in a full press game, so I wanted to do it in a gunboat where communication makes it impossible to trick another player into grabbing SCs for you so you can keep getting more and more.

I don't know how I could have announced my intent to go for 34 SCs without breaking gunboat rules.

believe VB's complaint was that he did not wish to play anymore, and he did not want to have a CD marked on him either, so he was stuck. In my defense, I had no idea about this until the moderators contacted me, and once they did I proposed to finish the game immediately if both him and France wanted to stop - it comes out France wanted to play on, and we found a way for VB to step out.

Moreover, he could just enter holds if he wanted to avoid a CD, and with me actively trying to destroy his units, soon he wouldn't have any orders left to put in. Supposing it takes him 2 seconds to enter holds, and that he could miss one of every two turns without going into CD, the whole debacle would take less than a minute of his life - much less than the time he has spent writing on the forum and in PMs to me.

In any case, I have already apologized to him several times and I don't understand why he keeps dragging this on. I gather from our private conversation that he is more upset by an abstract concept of 'being toyed with' than any actual time he had to spend..

Regarding why it ended up being a draw: If you look at the board carefully, you can see that France came up with a rather ingenious way to prevent me from reaching 34 SCs despite being heavily outnumbered in units. so I made it a draw as a reward for him & a compensation for his time.

okay just realized there were 2 more pages of messages (yeah I'm not big on the forum)

whoever posted the link to the crete/sardinia forum post: I forgot about posting that, it's hilarious. you can see I have a thing for 34 SCs.

tendmote: hurriyetdailynews? selamlar :)

Further in my defence, I dont mind being labelled a dick since I only play anon games, but I seriously did not realize I was causing anyone a discomfort until the mod intervention. I enjoy playing whether I lose or not, and from the ferocious defence Russia & France put up I thought they were trying to swing it back (in fact things did almost get out of control with the Russian armies roaming in the Balkans and me down to 15 units, and I could not risk taking back many SCs at once in case I accidentally hit 18). I mean, you would think someone who doesn't want to play on would enter holds rather than elaborate moves, no?

Well, that seems reasonable :).

What seems far less so is your unfortunate habit of wasting your time with gunboats when you're one of the best players out there. Methinks this is an ideal time for a new year's resolution on the subject!

thing is, I am quite short of time due to my studies at the moment, and gunboat takes much less time (I only have to check in once a day to enter moves, rather than several times a day to communicate).

My tactical side is also stronger than my diplomatic/communication side, so it plays to my strength.