Because Diplomacy is fun to play, it engages your mind, and it is all in good fun - unlike real war.

In addition I think it is fair to say that most Christians are not pacifists.

Do you mean to imply that people who enjoy playing diplomacy must therefore enjoy lying, deceit, greed and war in their daily life?
At least a small part of the pleasure of games like diplomacy is the license they give to engage in behavior that would not be acceptable in other contexts.

Yeah, it's a fun game, and when the rules specifically say that these things are allowable and everyone agrees up front to them. Well then they really aren't deceitful. There is a great deal of the power of forgiveness in the game as well.

I'd also state that atheists and non religious people are probably no more deceitful or warlike than anyone else. So even if we did think that this was a place filled with lying, deceiful, war mongerers, there's no reason to think that it would be filled exclusively with nonreligious people.

For every Stalin, a Nasser.

cause it's fun, cause i want to. and you don't have to lie in this game to win, if you're a good enough diplomat you can win. I'm not one of those :)

@Crazy- well put

This thread´s question is ridiculous...

The game of diplomacy is an allegory for the believer's view of the world. In the beginning there is nothing. No fleets, no armies, no alliances, nothing. On the first day the Lord created the Russians. He placed armies in Moscow and Warsaw and fleets in Sevastapol and St Petersburg (sc) and He looked and saw that it was good. On the second day He created the Austrians and so on until the seventh day when he rested (the Italians were created in the Lord's own image in the second half of the sixth day). All was peaceful and the Italians lived obediently in the garden of Europe until one season the French came to them with forked tongue and asked if they were allowed to take centres from any source in the garden and the Italians said that the Lord had said that they may take centres from anywhere except that they may not take Trieste for that was forbidden by treaty. The French spoke wickedly in the ears of the Italians and persuaded them that they should take Trieste for it is good and they took. Seeing how wrong they were they hid from the wrath of the Lord (and the Austrians) but he saw them and spaketh unto them "Now ye shall leave the garden of Europe and the French and the Austrians shall take thy centres (except for Naples which shall be Turkish)" and they fled into the world (and played a variant until a new game started). And the Lord spaketh to the French and said "This curse shall be upon you, that you shall not walk but shall crawl on thy belly and the other nations shall see you and know that you are full of deceit and ye shall not win." Amd the game was thrown into chaos and nation fought against nation and brother against brother until a nation was raised up in Germany and was mighty in the Lord and brought deliverance to the nations for Lo they had 18 centres.
There's a whole lot more about the unwanted convoy and its theological significance but frankly it gets a bit wierd.
Anyway that's the reason so many religious folks play.

Ahhhhh, I just think it's fun. Parallelopiped, that was way more serious than I take the game. One, the game is masterful. There are no dice or cards to draw. It is straight up strategy and diplomacy. Secondly, there are great people on here. Many (particularly those from different countries than mine) are very unique and I get to associate with people who are not part of my normal life. I find it educational and rewarding. Thirdly, I play diplomacy because I am good at it :-)

Sometimes I slip variated Bible verses into my press without referencing it. I try to emulate the apostle Paul as much as I can. I preach death and destruction like Jeremiah did. I'm David (Austria) and Russia is Goliath. When playing as Italy I am in continual contact with the Pope, receiving his commands to satisfy both the people and the nations.

I pray to God for mercy for allying with the Amalekites instead of the Ammorites when I was supposed to kill king Agag.

@parallelopiped

ROFL "stop.....can't breathe...**guffaw**"

*bow*

One of my seminary classmates was a hard-core socialist anti-imperialist anti-capitalist...who always wore a Yankees cap even though he born and raised in Chicago. One day I asked him, "how can you be a Yankees fan?" He replied, "we all have the urge to dominate others...it's a harmless way to get it out of my system."

Sure, I don't lie when I'm playing, but Jesus said pretty clearly that hair-splitting counted so I don't think I'm playing in a more "Christian" way. But I'll make an analogy between Diplomacy and football. Knocking someone to the ground is not normally acceptable or ethical...but within the context of football, it's fine because everyone understands it's part of the game.