The anonymity here has almost nothing to do with Diplomacy and everything to do with the internet. I suspect that most people here use pseudonyms simply because that is the standard. Online gaming practically requires players to invent nicknames for themselves. I know that I've used the moniker Dangermouse for over a decade now. It simply moves with me from site to site.

I gather you are of an older generation than most here. Perhaps that is the difference. People my age (29) and younger grew up with the web and find nothing unusual about having an alias. You ask, "Who are you?" There's nothing dishonest in my answering "Dangermouse". I could just as easily answer "Tim"; but on the net they're really pretty synonymous.

On the flip side, using your real name online is practically begging someone to intrude on your privacy. Given 20 minutes, someone you don't know in the least could potentially have your full name, home address, school and/or work location, etc.

To answer your original question, no, I don't think that using real names would make any difference in the number of civil disorders.

ditto...

Except that I have a different monicker.

I do not hide my real name from those I get to play decent games with but I rather like having a tag to put a character behind.

I think aliases are a necessity of the internet, I guard my privacy very closely, but photo profiles would be a nice touch for those who like the in-person feel.

Agreed with everyones comments and alas it is a sign of the times in which we live. I appreciate that it does to a certain extent detract from the spirit of the game... but the benefits of being able to play with people from all over the world with such regularity in my opinion far outweighs the disadvantages of online play.

Plus I have definitely got to know quite a few people on this site reasonable well as time goes by... we even managed to organise a face to face game recently in HK, directly as a result of this site.

And another one soon I hope...

yes i have to agree, i dont think people hide their names deliberately . Its just natural...the site asks for a log on name...younger people use handles. i might not know peoples true name but whats a name? danger mouse is dangermouse, knowing his parents choose the name...tom? a set period of time before he choose the net name dangermouse changes nothing.

btw edi, i had a look at stabberfou(?) site you mentioned. i havent played a game on that site but i prefer the layout/map of phpdip. whats your view? i see you are playing 2 low point games, fun?
i hope you can play a game with some of our senior level players soon, some of our younger lower point players don't quite gasp the "diplomatic" nature of diplomacy im afraid.

Oh, I am totally against using real names :)

I've always used my first name, but I don't think I would if it was a more common one. I used to try and hide my surname online because, as dangermouse said, it's generally the done thing, but eventually the inconvenience outweighed the warm snuggly feeling of privacy (which is always a bit of an illusion)

On the Facebook phpDip port everyone's username was their first name, but there were dozens of Marks and Johns etc, and everyone wanted to change to an alias simply for that reason, I think.

I met my wife in an online chat room over a decade ago. She knew me by my screen name, and for many years after that, she would still on occasion call me by the shortened form of my screen name. Its not that a screen name provides us with anonymity, its part of our identity.

So, it's Mr and Mrs Tree then?

Mr. Kestas,
Your personal website has your name, surname, as well as names of family members.
For example, I can easily find out what name your father was called.

Well Edi racism is still a problem in our societies and with players from about anywhere playing Diplomacy online a degree of annoymity is necessary to avoid abuse but I digress that's only a tiny aspect of internet Diplomacy. Richard Sharp prefered postal Diplomacy stating the results give a more accurate picture of the strength of countries which in my opinion is extremely important. The main advantage of the "faceless" version is availability- the face to face aspect would have been a put off for ugly people and shy people for the obvious reason. Still, we can debate politely or argue viciously all day long but at the end of the day the choice all comes down to what sort of person the player facing the choice is.

I think most, if not all, of phpdip's users are above letting ethnic backgrounds alter the way they play a game.

Well, I've made no attempts to hide anything about my identity so far. I'd answer most any question asked of me, except perhaps my exact address...

My pseudonym is practically my name, and hardly acts as a mask. It's just rather my unique online alias that I can be very sure will not be taken by anyone else.

There is still a sizable difference between online and face to face play, especially one played with friends or familiar acquaintances. More so than the anonymity is the lack of non-verbal cues, and other mediums of communication which bring at the same time other mediums of deception.

it's odd that i used this particular username for phpdip,
if you google it i'm sure you'll be able to find my full name, if you google that you can find my family tree, and if you did a little you will likely be able to find where i'm from, and possibly pictures of my family.

I really like it because it's fairly unique. (ok some of the hits google returns aren't me, but the majority are.)

I really like playing Dip in person, but i'd say the major reason for larger drop rates here than other places is how simple it is to start up a game and play. Some people aren't too interested, but there are no barriers in place to stop them playing. any... i'm going to go rid the net of personal information about me...

Face-to-face is very different from on-line play and presents aspects completely missing from here, namely:

speed: there is a whole level of panic as the clock runs down and people are pestering you to talk;

gamesmanship as you pester someone who you know is running out of time to talk/think;

errors as orders are written wrongly (fog of war, very realistic);

subterfuge as orders are deliberately written wrongly to leave treachery hidden...

and a lot more. Names/identities are small in comparison.

I think that anyone choose what he wants. Several times is interesting play with an different name as Superman, Obi-Wan, etc.

I myself use the nickname Fidel since 1989, when I was at the University and my mates started calling me that. When internet came, it was natural to use it, because all my friends called me that way.

Regarding the matter of age and the use of nicks, I am from a generation that grew up playing role-playing games (face-2-face D&D, in those times when the clock went soooooo slooooowly... *sigh*), and so, having several "personalities" is just commonplace. What internet brings to that is the immediacy and availability to everyone, but no more (well, the problem of security is important! Anyone around the world can attempt to enter your computer, at least... So, it is wise to disguise oneself).
But I share some information via email, if anyone asks (I have myself asked to some people here).

aye,i agree,i like getting to know the people that i will conquer. the name that you see is my name. Jann. hell,look me up on facebook if you all want. i play diplomacy on there too.

Thank you for your comments. As many of you guessed I am from the older generation of Diplomacy players (I started in 1965) at that time I was the youngest player in the hobby.

The odds of me playing in the higher rated games is probably zero since to get there you have to wade through a lot of games where people just keep dropping out. The drop out rate is why I gave up on play by email over 15 years ago. I have played in a few invitational games.
I got involved with helping stabbeurfou develop because the designer asked me to help and I believe that a lot of the structure there is vastly superior to the judges which I really disliked. I personally like the email notifications on Stabbeurfou and the order checking aspect. I also like that they have the ability to make games of short game years and they have run some very enjoyable events like the 7x Gunboat event.
I disagree strongly with the idea that misorders somehow improve the game. There are plenty of ways to disguise mis moves in the game without doing a misorder. Misorders ruin the games most of the time. For example in one of the games I took over as a stand by every misorder and there has been nearly one every turn, has seriously hurt the player who made them and of course anyone who is allied with that player to a lesser extent. In face to face games there are misorders, but most of those should be in a social structure that allows for a reasonable approach for new players (in the Bay Area Dip we read the new players orders first and allow them to make one of each type of error and get it corrected before going on with reading orders). Tournament Face to Face is a whole different world.
I am familiar with D&D and even ran campaigns. Hell, Gary Gygax was a Diplomacy player I played with before he and Arnenson turned the Chainmail miniature rules into the first version of D&D.

El Perro Artero; I know that but there's always a few racists around. Anyway, that's not a significant issue in Diplomacy so let's ignore it.Moving on, a major advantage of postal/internet is you don't get beaten up. I'm serious. Sharp has known or did know games in which stabbed players got annoyed and opened up a can of violence on the stabber. In one game a petite man attacked a man twice his size! The big man was deeply upset for a while after.

I get what you mean about anonymity and all, but honestly, I don't see any difference here between you knowing my real name and my screen name (which I use all over the place so it's practically synonymous with me anyway). Assuming you don't know me in real life, then it's pretty meaningless anyway. Whether you know me as Frank or George or Bill or DrOct, it's still me, and it has about equal meaning to you. You can still follow me on the site and see how I play and play in games with me or avoid me in the future on this site.

As to your not being able to make it to the "big leagues" on this site because people keep dropping out of games... well that should help you rise pretty quickly. If everyone drops out, you can win very easily, and make it up to the ranks of people who don't go into CD quite quickly, at which point you will be playing with more competent and experienced players.

As long as the game isn't face to face I don't really think it matters whether anyone uses their real name or an alias, if you don't know me in real life, knowing me by another name is pretty much the same as knowing me by my real name!

so I looked you up Edi because the people who know you seem really impressed. Now I see why, you have your own page on diplom.org. I do see that you have a nickname though, BirSauron. So you clearly get the nickname concept. I understand though what you're saying about knowing who people are. Everybody would know you from your nick.

Here's the link for people who don't want to google. Pretty impressive and indeed an honour to have on the site. Welcome

http://diplom.org/NADF/edi.htm

Sicarius: okay, got it. and what about your PIN?

Hi Edi. It was great to meet you at the con in Santa Clara. You got me back into Diplomacy after a 22 year hiatus. The nice thing about using your own name is that people might actually know you from offline games.

-Ming

I have had a number of pseudonyms on the internet. "Anteater" being the first, followed by the scientific name for the anteater family "Myrmecophaga", it would have been "Myrmecophaga_Tridactyla" but for the fact that it is too long for most username boxes. TheGhostmaker was relevant to a war-game, and hence.

As for covering up my name, my email is fairly obvious, and flashman has taken the step of calling me by my real name in the forums.

@Edi, if you are interested in high standard non-CD games, then try out the league system :D

As a little info, I fully understand the nickname business. However in the 1960's most the nicknames came from the press release (in the postal days with your moves you wrote stories, press releases in the true sense) in those stories you created characters which sometimes got associated with you.
For example I had BirSauron, Nasrib of Ide, and others. There was also a Middle Earth/Midgard variant that was popular at one of the early conventions and played a particular nasty and very effective Mordor so the nickname of BirSauron came into play.

Anyway, that's the brief hobby history...I now return you to your regular scheduled phpwhatever dot com program...

Edi, join the leagues! These are a magnet (we hope) for the more communicative and committed players. The pot is only 25 each per game, so anyone can afford to play.

I agree the dropout rate is hideous around here, but don't judge everyone by that. I am a traditionalist myself. I write to every player ever turn, I only play one game at a time, and I never drop out.

I'll play with my real name or not.
However, I believe that since most of us here do not know each other there would be no difference between identifying them with an alias or their real name.