NMR , surrender and other

[ColonelApricot]

* How common is it for players to just surrender? In the game I'm currently involved in we've had four Italys, three Austrias, two Russias, and two Turkeys. The lack of continuity is a challenge, which I'm not familiar with from f2f play, that clearly will take getting used to.

Very common in games that have no restrictions on entry. Restrictions that can be used are:
1. Ambassador class only.
2. Classicist members (can be restricted at any of four levels)
3. Password protection
4. For premium game types the only players that can join are premium members or those with premium credits.

* I understand that the site "penalizes" players for surrendering. Currently we have a power who appears to have "resigned", by which I mean the power has not surrendered but is just issuing hold orders for all units. Presumably this is to avoid the surrender/nmr penalty. How common is this?

Not common in my experience. Most players do not care if they blot their record by surrendering.

[WHSeward]

One more suggestion for improving player dedication to your game is to advertise the game on the forum. Players who read the forum are more engaged and dedicated to Diplomacy than average users.

Joining the Classicists and using the Ambassador filter are both very effective and getting quality games.

Bottom line: for a quality game, avoid open, pick up games. Taking players "off the street" is going to (on average) include a few that aren't going to finish out a game.

[lsfinn]

If a player chooses to continully submit Hold orders, he has that right. It is pretty rare though - sometimes someone will do it once to try to convince other players that they have gone away before suddenly moving again. However, what you MIGHT be seeing is someone who has indeed walked away but has not yet been autosurrendered. A player is autosurrendered if they do not submit orders at all for two consecutive orders phases.

I certainly understand it is their right to play it out as they wish - and, that includes surrenders.The game is protected; so, if they didn't submit orders they'd have been auto-surrendered. Thus I know that - at least of the last season - they were active to the point of issuing hold orders.

It did occur to me that the power might be "playing possum". That would be a kind of tactical move that a power could work to their advantage in on-line play, but not f2f play. Tactical differences between f2f and online play might be an interesting topic of discussion . . . in another thread.