Stop playing as I and A.

Like a stretch of games where you aren't doing well and/or not happy with your level of play. Often Dip slumps are accompanied with excessive frustration.

hard drugs upped my game 1000%

Find a country that looks exactly like the one that screwed you over in that other game, then stab the hell out of them.

Do creative messages (or change your style) or take a little break. Plain simple.

I'm coming off of a month long break... Doing poorly in a couple of games has made it hard for me to keep my level up in my other games. I feel like its just a cycle where I allow one game outcome to negatively affect my play in other games.

Also, as a side note, I don't think I'm breaking any rules here as I am in ongoing games, but if I am someone please let me know.

This might not work for you, but a quality public press game with long phases does it for me. If you find six quality writers that can get really into it, the game instantly becomes your favourite. Just play the one game and no others, so you can focus on reading everyone's responses and writing your own.

It works because the focus on improving your writing directly improves the focus on your Diplomacy without realising it.

Hmmm. I like that suggestion Geo. I've never played a public press either, so maybe once my games wrap up, I'll give it a go. Sounds like a good change of pace. Thanks for the suggestion.

True Tom. When you become frustrated by one game, you usually lose interest in others. I feel the worst quality play I've done in games was when I wasn't as excited to go check moves results as usual. If that's the case, then that might be the reason why you live that slump?

Actually what I suggest is that you write yourself some guidelines or like a playstyle/general strategic approach and attempt to stick with it.

Basically give yourself some kind of structure, a playbook, instead of just going by the seat of your pants.

I'm going to be trying this in my next non World Cup game

Go play some 1v1 at VDip and get your mojo back.

Join Playdip and spend a few hours copy and pasting right wing economic theory all over their forum to let off steam. Wait a day, and then repeat. Again... and again... and again.

I think what Thucy said is a good thought. The last time I was in a slump, I played a couple of games int the "chainsaw" style, and it made the games stop blurring together, and made me better when I switched back to my usual style.

I thought I was in a slump a while back. It turns out I just don't like anon games. Not exactly sure why; I think it's because I feel like I'm not playing with real people.

Anyway, if you typically only play with one setting, try mixing it up a bit; you may just be bored of those parameters.

yeah same here abge i really dont like anon at all, i never have but didnt pin it down until a few months ago.

Have you tried denial? I find it helpful to blame F2Fers, gunboaters, old people, young people, zultar, the mods, asshats, metagamers, multis, people that talk too much, people that don't talk enough, people with a life, students, Barack Obama, the weather, being color blind, work, people that hold grudges, people that just play for fun, PPSC, the internet, etc., etc. When denial no longer works, I take a few months off. In case I didn't tell you, I'm taking a few months off.

mostly zultar's fault in most cases actually. that's actually a clause in the rulebook

@MM I like how a 60% win/draw rate over 10 games is a slump for you.

ghug, that's one way to look at it... another way is that I've lost 270 rating pts in my last seven games, which is pretty significant when the #70 ranked player doesn't even have that much GR to lose... Does anyone have a spare tissue?

That was because you had inflated yourself with good play, you were going to lose rating with anything but WTA solos.

I'm not sure if I'm in a slump or just shit at playing Diplomacy !!
What to do if you play loads and are still rubbish?

I do appreciate the good ideas on this thread, and I'm grateful Tom asked the question since I sometimes feel I'm in a bit of a rut and am too addicted to follow through with my breaks more often than not... Maybe when I get back this time I'll jump into a single public press game to mix things up a bit...

ahahaa Nigee I think I'm with you lol

I started playing Memoir '44 Online...what a great game. Games versus online players take 15-30 minutes. A very different pace than webDiplomacy.

Hey, why am I being blamed for random things again? :(
It's such a catch 22 for me.
You win and you lose.
You lose and you lose.

Wanna shake things up? Try playing all gunboats, or get drunk Friday nights with Thucy and his lackeys, or come up with fun and friendly threads such as a self-referencing thread.

I guess it's hard to be in a slump when you are flatlining. The only way is up.

You win or you die.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I do think I will try some of these, and I do think it will help. Maybe I will take another break even, at least from normal games for a while. Or maybe hopping in one of the webcam games soon will get me back into it!

I just play until I get a good streak. I've been in quite a long slump recently.

Go for the Web Cam games Tom. They're more about having fun then winning. So it's just a good time.

Whoa - picking up on the only important thing here, who you calling Thucy's lackeys??? ;-)

We're obviously his multi's....

Public press! with good players these can be a ton of fun, and you can really laugh out loud. makes you remember why you play games

Question to those that like public press, but not to those that prefer non-anon to anon standard games:

Is public press more fun anon or non-anon?

This thread is self-referencing, right?

public press anon, i almost take that for granted, why even tempt someone to PM someone else?