sometimes it is played... and its just like full press, only everyone knows the plan, Its just organizing the stop... its fun...

I've never played public press myself, though I have looked at a few's archives just out of interest. I'd like to try.

In my opinion, public press is only fun when people play a character and make a farce out of it.

IMO, the fundamental reason PP is usually no fun is that everyone knows the first person to lie will get teamed up on. Ergo, the game usually naturally falls into an alliance of each sphere (EFG vs RAT) with Italy deciding who to side with and ergo who wins.

@Tiumvir. Public press is *not* how the game isusually played. In face to face games people disappear to corners of rooms or even other rooms entirely to negotiate in private. Full press is the closest to face to face play fromthe original boardgame.

IMO I love public press games. I'm in three of them right now, and finished up another one a while back. It adds a whole news characteristic to the game and, as mister smiley face says, its best when someone plays a character. World map public press can get intense.

I played one on here and it was a good experience... people did play in character, which added to it. And it did not end in a 6 way draw... I won ;)
So my one and only experience has been a good one.

I'm currently playing an anonymous public press world game amongst a group of friends: people's identity's become pretty clear rather quickly by their diplomacy style and way with words, and it all becomes quite funny. Also makes stabbing tricky, as anything you say to your ally you also say to your enemy. Good fun.

@ Draugnar - Sorry for the confusion. When I said "If that's not how it's typically done..." I mean, "If that's not how public press is typically handled on this site..." I understand that face-to-face Diplomacy is closest to Full Press, which is why that's what I always play.

@Everyone else. Thanks for the input. Public press as you all have described it sounds like a good time. Would any of you be interested in a 1day Classic Public Press if I started one? I'd probably go low-bet, just to see if I liked it before committing a lot of points to a game.

The most popular public press games are ones with themes. For example, metagaming, different characters, rage is therapy or speaking in Haiku. Other than that they aren't very popular.