anonymity

[NJLonghorn]

Suggestion: Standings should not be published until the end. To prevent players from compiling standings on their own, players' identity should be anonymous for all games, communications, and AARs.

Justification: At the end of the season, meta-strategy will be rampant. Rather than (or in addition to) winning, players will often have an incentive to make sure a particular opponent does not win. This will distort and potentially ruin the ebb and flow of the game.

[mjparrett]

Again thanks for the question. I'm leaning towards disregarding.

1. Part of the attraction for me is the league effect and players factoring in the table. No different from the PDET that has been run recently. I agree there is a meta-gaming danger here because there is every chance you will be directly playing someone you are next to in the league. But I think this is part and parcel of it to be honest.
2. More importantly though is the admin. If nothing else, I would know who had how many points. I would know who was in each game. Once a game is finished the results are visible (games don't stay anon) so it would be REALLY hard to do. And open to so much fixing by me that my integrity would get called into question. And to re-iterate now, I WILL be playing in this league and not merely organising.

This one might have more feedback though so I will await any other posts with interest.

Mike

[Don Juan of Austria]

Again thanks for the question. I'm leaning towards disregarding.

1. Part of the attraction for me is the league effect and players factoring in the table. No different from the PDET that has been run recently. I agree there is a meta-gaming danger here because there is every chance you will be directly playing someone you are next to in the league. But I think this is part and parcel of it to be honest.
2. More importantly though is the admin. If nothing else, I would know who had how many points. I would know who was in each game. Once a game is finished the results are visible (games don't stay anon) so it would be REALLY hard to do. And open to so much fixing by me that my integrity would get called into question. And to re-iterate now, I WILL be playing in this league and not merely organising.

This one might have more feedback though so I will await any other posts with interest.

Mike

I'd agree with you, Parrart. Leaning towards disagreeing. Anon is bearable while you're playing, but as soon as its over, I really want to know who I stabbed!

[Eleusinian]

I'd agree with you, Parrart. Leaning towards disagreeing. Anon is bearable while you're playing, but as soon as its over, I really want to know who I stabbed!

Okay, Hamlet.

( )

[rd45]

Yeh IMO it's part of the whole point of a league that you might be desperate for a point from the last game of the season to save yourself from relegation, or that you know you're playing against someone else who is. Or you only need a draw for the title, but the rest of the board knows that too & so denies you. That's a meta game, but in a good way.

[V]

I seriously lean in favour of apparent consensus here. Anonymous countries is a good idea for the games (not anonymous players) & all post game activities done in name. The original suggestion by mjparrett has many merits & I would disagree with changes.

Best Regards

V

[lb1785]

For what it's worth, I don't really see where the meta-gaming issue is, as long as we have anonymous countries. Some players may know each other well enough from past games to guess the identity of part of their opponents and start meta-gaming from there, but that could happen with anonymous players too since we'll only have 20 possible opponents in total... Or am I missing something?

[mjparrett]

No you are not. And if people want to be clever and try and disguise their identity then of course that is fine!

[Cover Drive]

something small, more of a sub-section issue that was touched on in the first post here but one that can be important to create a rule around - in-game communication and players staying in character and not revealing who they are, nor asking an opposing nation about such things.

Some players could include their name our alias out of habit at the bottom of communications, and i think this should be frowned upon. equally a player could use someone elses alias for a game once they see who worked favourably with certain nations in previous games. some may say its fair play but i think it is more poor form and some kind of rule here may help (for example cricketers who display 'poor form' often lose half of their match fee). a rule such as this would eliminate this tactic from the comp and ensure all players really get into and stay into the nation they are playing.

just a thought.

[V]

Diplomacy is a game of machinations. To pretend a false identity, conceal identity, or reveal identity, should all be available ruses. All could be falsehoods & that is up to the message recipient to discern. To try & implement rules concerning truth in a game that includes large amounts of deceit is probably unwise.