Thanks for dropping by and sharing the link Edi. If you do check back a few questions.

1. who are Eric mead and Nathan Barnes?

2. Are you considering playing on webdip ever again? even as a tourist? because I'd like to invite you to a game if you are willing.

3. A number of folks from this site are putting together an FtF tournament in Boston for June 10-12. We are still short a few players if you want to join us =)

ps. I can't believe no one commented on this thread for 11 hours!! weird

Must admit I hadn't seen it, so thanks for the nudge. Might have to leave it a few months to listen, but will save the link!

If any new player has issues playing with italy - start at minute 20 and you'll improve your game 100% the next time you play

Wow, this is coo. I'll check it out.

And, I believe Edi was already invited by MM, but just in case: Edi, we'd love to see you in Boston!

Yeah, Edi is playing in a different tournament that weekend, if I remember correctly, though for sure I know he was busy and it wouldn't work for him to come out to Boston with us.

What I'd love to do is set up an "Edi Invitational"... that would be quite the game :-) I think we can get 6 top-20 players to join if he'd be willing to play. (top-20 Rated not points)

Nathan Barnes was one of the hosts of DipCon in Seattle this past January. He is a law student, I believe, and can't really be trusted.

I wonder how long it will be before I get an email from Nathan, we had quite the back-and-forth after my DipCon EOG thread, I think there is a DipMafia somewhere hidden in the Pacific Northwest... For the record, Nathan, I'm just kidding!!

Here's a joke (or a close relative) I learned at DipCon:

Q: How do you know if a person is in law school?

A: He/she will tell you.

lol @ MM. sounds like a dip-joke alright.

honestly, sometimes I'm just proud to be a dip-nerd.

just FYI - if all you want to hear is Edi Birson, its starts at the 1:26:00 mark

The Edi Birson mantra (1:30:00 mark):

rule #4:
"If you have to achieve victory by taking 18 centers, then your Diplomacy has failed!"

I still have not reached the zen state that Birson describes here... if you have and can guide me to the path of dip-nirvana, please explain!

Some answers:
1, Nathan Barnes is the head of the North American Diplomacy Federation which is mostly focused on Face to Face and tournament play.
Eric Mead is an excellent FtF player as is Nathan, and the software guru behind the pod cast.

2. Not really up for another Demo game here at the moment. Been trying to get back to the FtF rebuilding side here in the San Francisco Bay Area and unfortunately money and time issues are the classic problems with going to tournaments- when you have the money, you do not have the time, and when you have the time you do not have the money.,

3. There are plenty of articles written on Dip as well as a few player guides that I know I did. If you are interested in some articles you can alway write to me at
EdiBirsan AT astound DOT net

4. The full mantra that I like to preach is this:
First and Foremost: We play games to have fun and make it Fun for Others.
Second The object of play is to achieve recognition of achievement from your fellow players
Third in the rule book of Diplomacy you force a win by having 18 supply centers,
Fourth If you have to win by taking 18 supply centers then your diplomacy has failed.

Too many people forget the first and foremost aspect in favor of a blind pursuit of the third.

Edi
(*PS I may not be checking back here that often so use my email address)

Thumbs up to the podcast. Very enjoyable and interesting. Thanks for sharing.

entertaining thread.

edi, i think i emailed you but you neer got back to me :(

(cause your profile invites people to contact you, and i had some questions, not that i'm totally sad.)

really enjoying the podcast. about 10 minutes into edi.

its a 2 hour podcast... and it was definitely fun to listen to. I'd say the first half was less educational for me, but would be VERY useful for newer players... though the guys did not seem like they had a mastery of the board that I expected - although, in their defense, they were probably just nervous.

I was actually VERY impressed with Edi's own analysis and his 'reading the players'. Reminded me a lot of the difference between a good poker player vs a master poker player. his analysis of which way italy should go, not based on tactical considerations, but on diplomatic and psychological analysis of the interactions between players is just such a high level of strategic thinking that I was far more impressed than I was expecting to be.

I learned quite a bit from Edi's interview.

the first half recommended for newbies. the Edi interview recommended for the more experienced players...

...

actually come to think of it - I'd much prefer you experienced players did not listen to this podcast. competition here is hard enough as it is =P

Edi, feel free to come to the midwest if san fran doesn't build up a good FtF group ;)

Also, how do we know this podcast just isn't setting us up to be beat by those three, eh?!?!? ;)

I've played in a game with Edi on here. I was amazed at how well he spoke and how it never bothered him when he lost centers... always positive... something I've strived for, but haven't achieved...

Interesting concept, a Diplomacy podcast. I'll be sure to check it out. I have a podcast of my own (not about Diplomacy, obviously), so I'm supportive of the whole idea. Thanks for posting this here.

Oh man...2 hours and 87MB. I don't know what will take longer; dling it or listening to it!

I really hope it's good; I've been looking for another podcast to listen to when I take long drives.

abge... its ok... but the fact that its about diplomacy makes it 'good' ;) lol

I made it through half an hour of the 1st episode, but have to get back to work, so the rest will have to wait. I like it, especially since all of my knowledge of diplomacy is from me haphazardly trying things in games. So, it's nice to listen to a more formal take on the game. I also think the two hosts have good chemistry, which is very important for something like this. Hopefully, they'll continue to get better and it should be a lot of fun to listen to.

abge agreed... they have good chemistry and is fun to listen to them banter. but I do think they mess up on a few things here and there which bothers me a bit =P in pod-cast two they made some mistakes with describing the SeaLion for example... (though they corrected themselves like 10 min later).

but overall, its much better that they are doing this than if it did not exist.

we should get them to interview kestas or Ghost or MadMarx about webdip at some poitn in the future... i'm sure if we rounded up 20-30 people to send them (nice) emails they'd do it

@orathac
I am terribly sorry if I missed your email, I will try to contact your direct on your email
but you can get me at
EdiBirsan AT astound DOT net

Hi everybody! Eric from DiplomacyCast here. Just wanted to drop in and say that I'm loving all this discussion!

A couple of things, in no particular order:

1. Please, when you hear us screw things up, by all means send us an email about it! [email protected], if we don't say it enough in every episode. ;) We're by no means the definitive authorities on the game. We leave that, of course, to Edi, the greatest Diplomacy player who ever lived - just ask him! ;). We want to be challenged, and we want the community involved.

2. More importantly, if you've got questions of any sort to spark new sorts of conversation, please please PLEASE send us an email. Frankly, so far we have just been guessing who our audience would be, and what sort of skill level they would have, and what they would want to hear about. We need you to help us shape the show.

3. It's true that for now (as we work through the first 7 countries worth of Power Plays), we're not breaking a ton of new ground in terms of strategy, and we are focused a bit on just getting the basics established. Part of it is that we are, for the time being, concentrating on being a useful resource for players who might want to attend (or better yet, start their own) tournaments! This podcast is part strategy, part outreach.

But that's not to say we're not willing to tackle more advanced topics later. In fast, I have a list as long as my arm of them, but they might have to wait a bit as we work through these first 7.

4. Episode 4, where we talk Germany, is nearly done! Check it out around Saturday. It's pretty darn good, we think. =)

Thanks, folks. Looking forward to hearing more.

-Eric
http://diplomacycast.com
[email protected]

Eric - thank you sooo much for dropping by. I think you guys are doing a great thing. I'm certainly enjoying going back and listening to episodes 1 and 2.

a few quick suggestions off the top of my head (if you are checking back)

1. since it's a two hour podcast, maybe add a 'agenda' or 'table of contents' at the start and point out different parts (eg. today we discuss Italy. at minute 2:20 strategy discussion, at the 29 minute mark opening moves, and the 1 hour 10 minute mark our inverview with xxx starts) or even if its text as part of the explanation of the episode. this might help people jump to specific parts of the podcast or to share it with others to point out specific elements of the ground you cover.

2. I appreciate you posting here. This is one of the most active forums for any diplomacy platform anywhere, and as you'll see at the bottom we have over 35,000 registered players (over 6,000 active). Please do come to the forum to introduce each episode and please do drop back by to answer questions etc as I'm sure people would be willing to engage.

3. thanks for sharing the email, and I do hope that you did not view my comments above as derisive but rather constructive. I do feel sheepish as you guys are out there doing a great thing and I certainly would not want to impugn the 99% of great commentary for a few slips.

4. As you go forward, certainly lots of topics which I'm sure you've thought of already as well. spotlighting communities, or local groups. I'm sure you'll do a road-show or two from tournaments. maybe even a round-up of tournament scoring methods or ranking systems out there.

5. We also hope you are willing to stick around and play here a bit as well. As a former FtFer and PBEMer, I can tell you that there are a lot of elements of this community and platform that are tremendous improvements on preceding platforms/methods of playing the game (though admittedly, there are some drawbacks, like the PPSC game which I'm positive you will hate =P)

anyways... thanks for posting here Eric and looking forward to stabbing you sometime.

Listening to episode 2 now.

Thanks for the kind words, and the welcome, Babak!

To respond to your stuff:

1. Really good idea. Will try to do this from now on. I know these are awfully long (the Germany one that's coming out on Saturday is the longest yet :-P ). We're waiting for somebody to say TOO long and nobody has yet. For my part, I always like it when podcasts are long, as long as I'm interested in the subject matter, so for now we've decided not to care. This may change.

2. I had heard that this site had really come together, but I had no idea it was THAT big. I will definitely start lurking in the forums some more.

3. Haha, you diplomat you. Believe me, it's totally fine! We were actually ready to be shredded a lot more thoroughly by now by some combination of online players who are better at the game than us on one side, and cranky tournament oldsters who think they can explain the game better on the other. We can take a little constructive feedback to the chops. ;) This podcast belongs to YOU guys. Help us make it better.

4. Yup, yup, and yup!

5. I used to play PBEM on the judges a LOT. I burnt out on it on it badly enough that I haven't really had the urge to come back to any sort of online play yet. =) But if I do, I'll sure try out this spot. We're definitely going to try to cover more about online play in future episodes of the show.

Thanks!

Yeah, thanks a ton, Eric and Nathan. I listened to all 3 in 2 evenings now... definitely not too long :) Awesome you are doing this. Hope I will draw one of the countries you will have done by then in our FtF tourney next month! (also becasue I/G/R are some of the more interesting ones :) )