As most of you are well aware, the game of Diplomacy pre-dates webdiplomacy.net by many decades... and even the game's online life began well before many of those in this community were born. One of the pillars of the pre-php online dipping world was Cat23 (quick history here: http://olegrumpy.net/ACD/ACD_history.html) and its prestigious offshoot, "The Academy"

The Academy's roots lie in the phenomenon that haunts today's webdip games almost to the degree that it haunted the earliest postal dip games - the dreaded NMR and CD. you see, in the early 90s as the PBEM (play by email) version of the game exploded in popularity along with the Cat23 community, there was a deep desire on the part of many veteran players to find not only like-minded lovers of the game, but also competent, fun, and committed players who would stand by their nation to the last dot while being both a joy and a challange to play with.

So the Academy was formed as a bastion for the best players among the 1000s that, at the time, thrived in the Cat23 orbit. To this day, membership in this elite institution is by invitation only, and each nominee for membership must be seconded by two current members before being put to a vote by the entire group for admission, and criteria for inclusion include not only the demonstrated commitment to finish games, but also exemplary skills in the diplomatic, tactical, and strategic arts that make one a expert Dip player.

I share this with you all mainly for two overlapping reasons.

First - because I am inviting my fellow ACD'ers to join this site and to play this beautiful game on a what is, to them, a new platform. In order to show them a rockin' good time, i'd like to invite them into games with some of our top players, mainly as a way of introducing them not only to the mechanics of the game here, but also the 'culture' of webdiplomacy.

Second - because I believe there are many on this site who heartily deserve the distinction of being invited into this elite group (I for one, wear my ACD badge with honor, and I know there are others here who the Academy would be proud to call its own), and I hope some of these games might serve as opportunities for current ACD members to get to know webdip's best and brightest and thus decide to second their respective nominations when the time comes.


There are a few ulterior motives I have for attempting to engineer this cross pollination: 1) I think this attempt can serve as a bridge between the PBEM world and the phpdip world 2) I fear (with some reason) that some of the PBEM folks are heading towards playdiplomacy instead of here without our active outreach - and we would benefit from their experience and inclusion here 3) ACD activity has slowed in the past few years and I'd like to help revive it with ACD-only games played on this platform and 4) I always enjoy introducing old friends to new friends =)


also - it should be said that though in the past, most ACD-only games were played via the PBEM platform, the password protections and upcoming variants allow for this site to host ACD games as well as any GM would in the past.



so with all that said - the main reason I'm posting this is to inform this community of ACD's existence (and to ferret out any former Cat23 players already hear or current ACD members lurking in our midst). But also to recruit some of you top players who would be interested in being included in any games with some of the ACD folks that decide to join this site.