It would be nice to showcase some really spectacular play by putting games in a 'hall of fame'... maybe even allowing us to see the communication between parties...

^

I've always wished I could read the mail between other players in some games just to see other styles of blarney and joint planning.

search finished games, or ongoing games and then choose list in order of points and the highest point games appear first, in other words yes you can search for them

clever.

That would be a great idea fortknox. But how would you decide which games go into the hall of fame? Would only solos go in? Only draws? What size draws?

A voting system could be implemented, with much more weight given to players with higher GR/win percentages/points.

> maybe even allowing us to see the communication between parties...
> I've always wished I could read the mail between other players in some games just to see other styles of blarney and joint planning.
This is something I also would like to be able to make open, in one case I approached someone specifically about the possibility for a particular game.
The problem is people don't like their correspondence to be open, and we would need to get sign-off for it.

You don't need sign off to make move / map data public though, and it would be nice for someone to generate some detailed stats about what strategies win most often

Are there databases you have open for easily running those stats?

I also believe I found a link to something Tru Ninja wrote about statistics that might be interesting, don't know where to find it though.

A database could be set up easy enough for it. How to have it automatically update, though, is another thing entirely

That's why it would be nice if it were integrated into the site somehow so it could be updated as games ended.

I have always wanted to set up a game where all the chat is to be made public afterwards. Of course, the players would know this in advance.

For the players, this has the advantage of
- Knowing how others perceive your play during a game.
- Get lots of "advice" from the community.

It's easy to learn moves, openings, etc. But diplomacy is a lot more difficult to get serious feedback upon.

As the proverb goes: "you walk the walk, but do you talk the talk?"

we could do a little bit of journalism, basically having a group of commentators on games, and then 'featuring' them somewhere.

Assuming this was after the fact (to avoid biasing the play) what would be a good format?

would you like to do a youtube video with two (or more) commentators offering opinions, perhaps with interviews with the players??

would a written blog style be better?

As far as making the chat public, i think it's an interesting setup, could easily be done off-site on a separate server (giving the players anonymity if they wanted) or we could simply have the players copy&paste their conversations from the log.

whatcha think?

How would you enforce the person opening up their chat? I mean two players could decide to have a truly private chat and edit their chat logs identically to remove somde vital information after the fact.

you would have to make a case for the benefits of having featured games (to the community) being greater than the personal benefit of having your privacy.

I'd like to see something along these lines. Is there anyone here who would like to volunteer?

And what format do people think would bring the greatest value?

I would be willing to play

that's one.

Are you saying you are just looking for volunteers to allow their press to be made public after a game? Because I would be willing.

also some discussion as to how we can make a really interesting game.

i'm not sure that a youtube-style conversation about what's going on would actually be that interesting.

unless we have someone who is really good themselves.

I think the problem with diplomacy as a spectacle is that there is no single focus to look at. There is too much going on to form a single narrative. But i also think that a good narrator could weave something (based on the press, rather than just idle speculation) which would be far more interesting and entertaining....

so yeah, volunteers and ideas. And i would assume that the volunteers are also willing to be interviewed and have their performance analysed or something like that...

Ok. Yeah. I would be interested in doing something like this. It would be very difficult, like you say, to be able to paint a full picture even when all the press if made available since there will be so much of it. Getting someone who could weave it all together would be hard, but possible I think. I'd play in such a game and would be willing to have my press public, to be interviewed and my performance analyzed.