I started here, first game of diplomacy ever. I got Austria :)

Me too. I had france and was a stab victim my first game. A very ugly one it was. But i suffered through and im still here.

Started 1980 w friends at age 13, played very regularly for many years ... play fell off for a few years until I found this site

One of my friends messaged me through facebook to quickly create a webdip account to join a live game that was about to start so it didn't get cancelled.

My high school global history teacher in high school had a bulletin board outside his room with three or four games of standard, colonial, and Machiavelli going at once. The best part was that he had a system of DipPoints that he kept track of and assigned levels that kids could achieve, starting with Squire (50 pts), Knight (100pts), all the way up to The Most Exalted Grand Master of Diplomacy (the teacher himself) who accumulated an ungodly number of thousands of points.

Both myself and Dan-i-am88 are both on that board somewhere...I'm pretty sure he has more points than me...

I bought the game for my irl gaming group, after the guy in the local game shop recommended it - we played two games, one 4player and one 5player according to the rules for fewer than 7 players, and we didnt finish any of the games - my friends didnt like the game, but I was hooked, and via BBG I found this site and the daughter-app on facebook - didnt take many games before I chose this site over the facebook version.

First play was at gencon with tru ninja and a couple of my brothers. Also had some random people there. Ninja won on a technicality as Italy (time expired and no one realized the deadline was even close). He had terrible position though :P

Would you like to expound on that "technical loss" you suffered? I believe that it had something to do with an 's'...not entirely sure :)

GenCon Diplomacy was awesome. I allied with Turkey early on and told them that Jacob and his brother were brothers and that they'd naturally ally with one another (didn't tell him that I was their friend) and he was immediately ticked off saying "THATS NOT FAIR! and he was in my pocket from that moment on. I stabbed him taking Smyrna early on, fed him a crappy lie that he totally bought which allowed me to stab him a second time.

I'd love to do it again, given the opportunity.

Whos going to gencon this year, im fortunate enough to live 15 miles from thecity where it is every year, and will likely play some diplomacy there. Hope to see some of you.

Tru... I think I have a man crush on you!!!

Ok... was it me you were refering to or truninja?

Played a F2F in 2005. Played another F2F in 2007. Played 4 more F2F in 2007 in the schools Strategy Board Games club.

Created a facebook account in 2008 for the sole purpose of playing FB diplomacy. Talking for peers online was an added bonus.

Found webdiplomacy in 2010 and joined strictly to play Anc Med games. Started playing live games (FB diplo didn't have a live game option) here the following month.

2 months later I found myself without internet for 2 weeks and cause I couldn't get pauses I cded in all my games looses 500 . Haven't played on FB ever since.

Since then I have been an active member here.

No diplomacy experience, webdiplomacy was my first diplomacy game

How did you become a mod on vDip them? where does it come in? if you have only played since 2010 how could you become a mod? do you know oli personally or something?

SHUT UP YOU ARE NEVER GOING TO BE A FUCKING MOD, JUST DROP IT!

Has Dip33 been talking??? I love that I can't hear him anymore!

@Diplomat: Fasces became a mod on vdip simply because he was organizing the 1v1 tournament and that required making sure that both players played each power. So, he was given mod powers so that he could swap them rather than just making 4 or 5 games and discarding the unnecessary ones.

I know JMO, im actually asking an honest question this time.

AH.

(I've unmuted Dip-shit33 for a sec, just to see if things had changed... nope! they haven't! And the guy has tried a number of times to send me PM in order to assess whether or not I really did mute him!
A very high opinion of yourself, you have, mister Dip-Shit! Why in the world would I lose my time making you "special" by announcing I didn't care what you had to say anymore but still secretly went about reading your boring and mind-numbing posts?)

@2ndWhiteLine, I'm curious as to who has more points. I know I was the top player in my grade, but after "winning" my first ever game played as Austria, everyone's strategy was to eliminate me first. Talk about metagaming! lol

How does the site view metagaming in a game organized similar to what you are talking about, a school game played by people who all know one another. Im pretty sure we all have metagamed but since its a private game like that what would the site think.

"How does the site view metagaming in a game organized similar to what you are talking about, a school game played by people who all know one another. Im pretty sure we all have metagamed but since its a private game like that what would the site think."-the new dipfool

Dude...really? Are you trying to get yourself banned?

I think he really just doesn't get the whole "honour code" that most of the decent players on this site have concerning Metagaming of the sort.

But then again, that he wouldn't get anything related to "honour" cannot strike one who knows a little of his history on this site as a surprise!

Thanks for quoting him, JMO. I really don't want to have to unmute him again, not even for a second.

Its not metagaming if everyone in the game knows eachother...

It is if 2 people ally due to out of game reasons.

If one of the mods would like to go ahead and cancel the game I'm in with Diplomat, that'd be great, I'm just going to assume metagaming from now on.

@Dan-i-am, I'm pretty sure I'm pretty close to knight, but still a squire. I only soloed once as Germany. Even when I played as a teacher I still got beat up by seniors lol

Its not that bad, its a school game we all agreed on.

@2nd, I have no clue which I was, I had good finishes in colonial games and stuff, I feel like I was a knight.

@Diplomat, to clear everything up, what exactly do you define metagaming to be?

@Dan-i, you must have easily gotten knight, next time I'm home I'll stop by the school and check. It would be interesting to see how our teacher would fare on here playing with some really good players instead of high school kids though.

I started playing F2F Diplomacy with friends in the early 90s. I dropped off in the late 90s, then discovered the judges. I played Diplomacy on the judges in the early 2000s, then dropped off again. Then I joined Facebook and started playing Diplomacy there. Eventually, I made it here.

If everyone in the game knows one another, more or less, or you have a similar circle of people you know, then it's not really meta-gaming, especially if you try to keep things as neutral as possible between you all.

I invited my brother, his roommate and his roommate's family to play on this site and we had a game going. The only person I knew was my bro but I had no problem stabbing him for the win.

@ Cachimbo, lol, man-crush, eh? What's it stem from?

I invented the game, and then the Internet so more people could play - I'm working on time travel so I can go back and pre-stab people who stabbed/will stab me.

None, I still have never played FTF :(

I played a couple games in high school and then tried to organize FTF games with no luck for like 20 years til I found this site. Actually we tried playdip first, but a combination of some dumb requirements and a three day downtime had us move here, and I'm super happy we did.

When I was in HS, I found my father's copy in the basement. I read the rules and thought it was stupid. My first game was on this site, after a friend told me he found a game he thought I'd like.

"When I was in HS, I found my father's copy in the basement..." makes me think of something else.

@ 2ndWhiteLine - I'd love to get in touch with this teacher of yours and see what systems he uses... sounds like an AWESOME idea ;)

My first game was in my college dorms as a freshman in 1997. some guy was rounding up players on our hall, and he said "dude you want to play?" I said "what?" he said: "this game that JFK and Kissinger used to play when they were in college"... and I was all in.
(I now think that story about JFK and Kissinger cant be true)

I played a few FTF games with dorm-mates, but most got pissy after a friend or girl-friend stabbed (we had one break up as a result of one of the games) then found out there was a local group that played once a month and I did some games with them. I then found PBEM (play by email) on a listserve called "Cat-23" and made my mark there with solo in a Chaos game among other achievements.

in 2002 I gave up dip for about 4 years then came back to PBEM for a while at diplomaticcorp.com... then found FB and played 17 games there before finding this site. I think this has been the best experience by far among all that I've tried.

I know that Diplomacy was Kissinger's favorite game, so I don't doubt that story. I'm not sure how exactly my teacher calculated his DipPoints, there was some kind of bonus for a solo but I don't know how it was determined. I'll try and find out, but the best part of the system was the "levels," it started at Squire at 50 , Knight at 100, something at 150 and 200, above 500 were the "elite" levels, so he gave them various cool titles, like "Knight of the Victoria Cross," etc.

It was all FTF play, but the best part was hanging out at the Dip boards before class and talking smack, strategizing, and theorizing about all the games that were going on.

@2nd, there were so many classes I was late for because of that. I never made it to homeroom on time. Once a day a bathroom break would consist of melee at the dip boards, and I would just leave Mr. Katy's math class to check it out.
I feel like it was 1 point per supply center and differing bonuses for solo, 2-way, 3-way, etc.

In 1986 got 1st Job in game shop cutting boxes and doing rubbish. Owner played only Diplomacy despite all other things on offer at time. D&D Risk Table top War games etc. Played a game with staff & some of his friends ..got hooked. Then through uni @ Mac Uni Sydney. got involved with Macquarie con & Can Con ACT. played a few years at convention with top 10 placements a few solo's and 2 ways. Then nothing 15 years till I found this place about a month ago... (+ play dip as it went down for 3 days)

Great job guys....
hearing a lot re meta gaming can that be going into a game no pre alliance but see someone in game who just ticks you off no end and going for them ?

I started in an after school club, a friend of mine kept asking me to come down there, so I finally went to it. Think my first meeting there was actually on my 16th birthday. We didn't play diplomacy that day, though. I remember there was a rule that the noobs would always be assigned austria, but since I wasn't the only noob playing that day, I got england. Can't remember how that went, though.
We usually only played to 12 centres, and like that, I managed to get the first win in the club's history, in my senior year. (I was austria)

I played for the first time in the mid-to-late 70s, pulled some all-nighters, but the games tended not to ever finish. The pieces were wooden and nicely painted. The Keyword aol in the mid-90s--some great games there! You had to keep track on your own board or on printed maps, and if I was in more than one game it was a hassle. I put velcro on the pieces and the board so that I could hang it on a wall, where it lived. :-)

Correction -- "Then" Keyword 'Diplomacy' on AOL...."

My teacher in AP Euro introduced it to me and I was hooked ever since.

i played in my senior year in high school, had never heard of it before that. Then played through the Judges on the Pouch, then didn't play for years, discovered FB, was told about webdip (they were organising a series of games between the two sites, i think) and here i am. Still play there as well, and on Playdip. In fact i like to have a game going on all three sites :)
i think i have a problem: totally addicted to live games here

I played one VERY memorable game of it in my sophomore year if High School for World History...

Me leading England vs. the Map as a sort of Anglo-Napoleon...

I crushed this Arab kid as France who poked fun at Jews--he and I were always ahving at it, sometimes we kidded, sometimes not...still, kidding about the Holocaust as a non-Jew isn't the smartest thing to do and we being teens weren't the most mature about it, I'm sure--and was rolling...

10 centers!
12!
14!

We're taking over Eruope!

France is holed up in Portugal...if Italy jsut lets me get him, I can end this thing at 15, him dead and gone, and drawing with Turkey, Italy, and Germany in a GREAT draw where England's clearly ahead...

BUT NO! :O
Italy won't let me take him out!
She's a preppy-girl, self-righteous, and INSISTS that's unfair!
I point out she just sort of allowed AUSTRIA to die between herself and Turkey...
No dice!
I point out this is me drawing at 15 on a stalemate line rather than going for a win...
No dice!
I point out this guy made a pizza joke about the Holocaust...
No dice!

I spend THREE YEARS, 6 TURNS trying to take Portugal...she holds it EACH TIME!

:O

By now, NOTHING is working!

We started 1910--to get it closer to 1914, as this was for WWI study--and NOW it's 1917...

And this has been going on now for TWO WEEKS worth of classes, and has led to some pretty heated in-class fights between friends--one or two I and Turkey and others may have, erm, "helped along" for political reasons--and by this point, our rookie, first-year teacher has figured out MAYBE allowing teens in the middle of their High School years to essentially have free reign to air every last wrong and grievance for two weeks in a game that WAS FOR CREDIT GAIN and ZERO-SUM--ie, the fewer teams/countries in, the more points the REST of us would get towards our grade--wasn't the best idea.

So, "the US is entering the war now!" ie, "I am taking control of the other nations...surrender now or it's your nation (now whittled to about 8 units) vs. the Map!"

I, being a stubborn ass to the last and embodying the "don't quit while you're ahead" figure of Napoleon...say no.

:p

And so yeah...this leads to my having to play him at my LUNCH, with folks coming hoping to see me get my ass handed to me...

I'm just hoping he forgets about Portugal and comes after me so I can wipe out that kid's last unit and sue for peace...nope.

So at 6 I sue for peace and that was the end of it...

I had a Napoleonic end, beaten in a Waterloo--though they never COULD touch England itself, THAT was so well defended with fleets it'd take years just to crack...

Italy got to go on to a better college than me and remain self-righteous and pompous...

France got as much credit as my team, where he almost died off and we had 14 at one point and were a successful-Russian-invasion (see, I WAS Napoleon, short, pompous, not knowing better than to stretch myself across Russia!) and Portugal away from total victory...which angered me...

Turkey, who was laid back the whole time, goes to an amazing school now, was and is sensationally smart and popular, got a great SAT score, and will likely make more money than the rest of us in that class put together...

Germany moved to Arizona shortly thereafter, first saying "You should've told me! I would've totally helped you!" causing me to facepalm once more, as she was a darkhorse who no one trusted...she's probably at a good school now too, she was sharp enough for one...

And Russia and Austria WERE friends before the game, had a huge argument in-game as Turkey and I got them to slit their throats...and I have no idea what happened to them other than they were far less happy in the aftermath that I know of than before that game, and neither really were too happy when I saw them before graduation a few years ago, either, so yeah...this game did not bode well for them, all-around.



RIGHT after that game, literally, that night, when it ended, I think I joined up here.

And the rest is long-winded, Shakespearean-soliloquy-length history! :D

I played a game F2F at GenCon in the '80s and then signed up for a series of PBM games (Play By (Snail) Mail that is). Turns lasted a fortnight to allow a brief exchange of letters and order could included conditional retreats and builds. The conditional orders could get complex:-

IF I lose Yor and Par THEN
IF Pic was uncontested THEN
Retreat Par to Pic and Disband Yor
ELSE
IF Gas was uncontested THEN
Retreat Par to Gas and Disband Yor
ELSE
Disband Par and Retreat Yor to Wal.
ELSE
IF I lose Par THEN
Disband Par.
ELSE
IF I lose Yor THEN
Retreat Yor to Wal.

If you had a possiblity of builds too the potential complexity increased markedly.

If the GM couldn't follow/understand your orders or they ambiguous, he did his best but there was no appeal - you lived (or died) with the result.

It dumped the leading spaces so the indentaion of the orders is scewed up. Damn!

IF I lose Yor and Par THEN
...IF Pic was uncontested THEN
......Retreat Par to Pic and Disband Yor
...ELSE
......IF Gas was uncontested THEN
.........Retreat Par to Gas and Disband Yor
......ELSE
.........Disband Par and Retreat Yor to Wal.
ELSE
...IF I lose Par THEN
......Disband Par.
...ELSE
......IF I lose Yor THEN
.........Retreat Yor to Wal.

"playing with some really good players instead of high school kids though"

You say that as though they are mutually exclusive. I like to see myself as a really good player...