Gunboat take less time and I'm pretty sure that lots of people are like me. Play 1 or 2 games with press and several gunboat games at a time.

Even though I enjoy press more than I enjoy gunboat, I still enjoy gunboat and I can play 4-5 games of gunboat and still have them take less time than 1 game with press.

I have stopped playing press (messaging) games because (1) as others have said, it takes too much time (I tend to become obsessed with checking and sending messages) and (2) I don't enjoy lying to other players, or telling half-truths to deceive them.

(The actual reason gunboat games are popular is because they're less time-consuming. You can just put your orders in and not have to worry about talking to people. It's less fun, but it's still more fun than not playing Diplomacy at all.)

What's with these Chat-GPT-esque replies? Rather strange.

I’ve noticed many public games skip messaging, probably because players want to focus on military strategy without extra complexity. Messaging can slow the game down, especially with strangers, but it adds depth when used well.

It’s interesting that so many public games lack messaging—probably because many players prefer focusing on the military strategy without the extra diplomatic complexity. Some might find messaging too time-consuming or risky, especially with anonymous players, which could explain the trend. Personally, I enjoy both aspects of the game, but I get the hesitation if people are mainly after straightforward military tactics. As for joining, I totally understand your hesitation about reliability; no one likes to have to count on an unpredictable player. :-D

Many people prefer the military strategy part of the game, and dislike the diplomatic part. I enjoy both parts. However, I won’t join unless you NEED more players, as I am partially unreliable :cry:

Have a new low stakes American Empire 4 game started! Anonymous players, and messaging, called American Politics are Wack. I would be curious to hear in the comments why so many games have no messaging, from what I can tell many public games have no messaging.