The reason is they want the phase due date to slightly rotate throughout the course of the game.

Does it really affect game play?

Yes. It needs to be 25 - evens out time zone differences

Yes please for us folks in a non-US hemisphere. You yanks think you own the internet. Oh wait, you do.

FYI, I'm Asian.

On the phase length option, you'll find "1 day, 1 hour" near the very bottom.

Often the phase end will change drastically when there is a retreat or build phase and the few involved in those phases "ready" and the phase progresses.

But sometimes that doesn't happen and on a 24 hour phase the phase would end at the same time every day. And sometimes that is at a good time for someone, when they can check in for last minute messages and adjustments. And other times it is in the early morning when they'll miss such messages and not be able to adjust. So having the phase end move around helps even things out.

25 hours seems a blunt tool to "rotate" the end timesd. +1 a turn would get wiped out just about every retreat, if not during other phases... I'm a fan of 24 hours for GB games, but 36 hours makes better sense for press -- especially given MOW's point that people are in different time zones. That or the solution is just GB games for those on limited time (i.e. my own GB only diet this past 6 months, mostly).

Crosspost, Alderian... well said... however, a phase length of 30 or 36 <GRIN> would serve the rotate purpose better... (as you point out, too...)

It has been a tradition in the leagues to have a 25 hour phase length. Why you wanna go and fuck with tradition, josunice???

The league is on the metric clock. 10 hour days, 10 days a week, 100 weeks a year.

Drag, seriously? Tradition calls for meeting and playing in person... I'm glad we have added new ways to get your Diplomacy on... If the intention is to be sensitive to multiple time zones, than I submit 25 hours is a weak address to that. Am I wrong? I have covered our Japan portfolio from NY for years, and 24 hours is not enough time for dialogue around the world for work, let alone everyone's favorite past time (Dip, not Baseball).

For what it's worth, I'd think that 18 or 36-hour phases would be more friendly to multiple time zones than 25.

!8 hours? Are you fucked in the skull? 36 maybe, but 18? That means you gotta get on twice a day in some places. This isn't gunboat where you can enter your orders as soon as the turn runs. There is negotiation to be done!

@jos - I was just trying to lighten things up a bit. For me any thing between 24 and 36 is fine. I don't like 48 because they inevitably take the full two days, but something like 30 would work.

@Draug,
What... you mean not everyone spends all day and night on this site like me?

@Draug - jabbing at people, like "Are you fucked in the skull?" is hard to take as an attempt at lightening the mood... it's the equivalent of email, and sure looks crazy and angry, no? Try hecks approach at humor... now that worked (I'm on a lot, too, especially when there is a lot of work to be done here <GRIN>)...

25 hours (rather than 36) are a good way to make sure games rotate AND a season is completed in less than 6 months (the alternative could be extending to 9 months, 36 hours.) This 'tradition' is for practical reasons which have not changed since Alderain ran the leagues.

I know 25 hours/phase is difficult if you are more used to full press games which are considerably longer (or unable to check your games at least twice a day) but this has worked well in the past for those who can, and while you may be disadvantaged, I hope you can see this as a challenge and do your best to enjoy the competition!

@josunice
He knows. He just doesn't care. If you take Draugnar seriously, the terrorists win.

@hecks -- I see... and to be honest, I guess everyone likes a good skull f*k... <Bleep>

@jos - that was *after* I posted about the tradition. Please reread for clarity that I did *not* jab at you beyond saying essentially "Tradition!" like Tevia in Fiddler on the Roof. Tradition!

I knew hecks would take it the right way too.

If I ever want to piss him off, I just call him Draughnar. He hates being misspelled.

The difference between 25 hours and 36 hours is probably considerably less than 1.5x as long. Can someone see the data on game lengths for different phase lengths?

@Ora - its not a good sell for 25 hour lengths to say "while you may be at a disadvantage..." -- kinda' kills the argument...

(That "gh" is pronounced like an "f"... Dro-fnar. He hates that.)

@Draughnar - you mean you not only want me to read your post, but also re-read them? I'm just reads Hecks, Draughnar....

Just don't call me Fagnaur. That is the one pisses me off. It's insulting to the gay community to equate them to the disgusting perversion that is me. :-)

I called him Dregnar once when I first joined. Like dreg of society. He yelled at me on my 2nd day over something silly.

No Josu, I am not trying to sell it to you. If you don't want to play 25 hour games then don't sign up for them.

If you signed up for the leagues without first reading the rules, that is not my fault.

And if you wish to setup a 36 hour league then feel free to, there is nothing stopping you.

I am open to changes to the league setup, and have made a few major ones in my time as TD. (with serious input from the players, and you can look these up if you wish)

I'm glad my name on her amuses you all so much. :-D

And what are you doing "on her" Draug-nuts?

@Ora - I take no exception to the rules and greatly appreciate you herding all us katz (meow)... angling for this to be one of the things that you changes over time, is all... definitely not this season as we are already underway!

Way back when, phase times used to be any number of hours from 1 to some maximum number. When TGM started the league he chose 25 as being not too long while still having some rotation. Or so I remember at least.

And a key reason was that to get two seasons in per year, with some break time in-between, it had to be decently fast. 36 hours would be too long to do 2 seasons a year. But then we haven't done 2 seasons a year for awhile now.

Personally I prefer 36 because 24 or 25 just doesn't allow as much time to converse.

By the way, the other thing to consider about 25 versus 36 is the staggering of the game starts. With 25 if you start the next round every 2 weeks, you are a decent way into each game before the next starts and not too many people are likely to have all four running at once. If you bump the phase length to 36, then you need to switch to starting every 3 weeks to keep the same or similar timing. Instead of 6 weeks from the start of round 1 to the start of round 4, it is 9 weeks. So 3 extra weeks plus the extra time for the round 4 games taking longer.

Also keeping in mind that the games in 3 and 4 are likely to be more intense and take longer to resolve as people are going for the league win. Round 1 and 2 games are more likely to end in quick draws while people are just trying to get some points on the board.

'Round 1 and 2 games are more likely to end in quick draws while people are just trying to get some points on the board.'

- I would question whether this is true, is there evidence for this?

Hmm, I've got another question. Orthaic, how do you decide how to rank players who've never played in league before? For ex. I'm genuinely curious how you came to the conclusion I was a B-rank player.

I'm guessing that you look at our win/draw/loss ratio and compute a rough GR for us? Is my guess close?

I just based it entirely on GR.

Sorry, i did actually do some things to simplify the previous algorithm.
Players are seeded based on previous performance, and those who did not play in the last season are seeded below this on the basis of their GR.

No, orathaic, no evidence, just what I believed was my experience. Of course my observation of my games is tainted by my presence in those games so isn't fair to extrapolate on everyone else.

Leagues Fall/Autumn 2012:
A*: 1912, 1913, 1911, 1915, 1914, 1915, 1911
A: 1908, 1912, 1909, 1912, 1912, 1906
B1: 1909, 1918, 1912
B2: 1913, 1912, 1909, 1912
B3: 1912, 1908, 1910, 1908
C1: 1913, 1907

Leagues Winter 2011:
P: 1911, 1911, 1919, 1918
A: 1911, 1915, 1918, 1911
B1: 1910, 1911, 1912, 1912
B2: 1910, 1915, 1910, 1908
C1: 1918, 1911, 1913, 1921
C2: 1908, 1915, 1907, 1909
C3: 1915, 1914, 1915, 1909
D1: 1909, 1908, 1908, 1907
D2: 1913, 1912, 1915, 1913
D3: 1909, 1909, 1917, 1916

I'm not a statistics knowledgeable person so don't know how to evaluate that.

But, looking back over my own games for the previous season, it appears I'm just full of shit with regard to my theory on the later games lasting longer.

That was supposed to say previous seasons, not previous season.

It's not really fair, i think you can talk about what 'normally' happens in the first two games of a pool where the players all know what they are doing, but D leagues (at least when i was in them) tended to have players who didn't know exactly what they were doing, and P/A* leagues have had issues with players not playing the last few games seriously when they didn't need to solo or maximise their points...

it's complicated, and i didn't want to share my thoughts publicly...

I would be curious the relationship between phase length and game length. Is there data we can assemble by variant?