Diplomatic Go 🗡 The Second Game

You’re not letting anybody down :slight_smile:

Being betrayed and/or teamed up on can be very painful, even if it’s “only a game”. Some people may be better than others at separating fiction from reality, but this might be more of an intrinsic trait than a learned skill, so taking a “fictional” betrayal personally shouldn’t be considered a failure of character.

I think this is a serious problem for the game, and something important to consider for the future. I’ve never played diplomacy and I’m not familiar with the customs of that community, but someone (don’t remember who it was right now, possibly yebellz?) linked some notes on diplomacy strategy before the first game, which I read with great interest. This particular quote stuck with me:

[This strategy] lost me a friend and got me some accusations of cheating, but this is par for the course for a good Diplomacy game

This is quite an extreme notion, that losing a friend over a game can be seen as a normal part of the game. There’s not anything wrong with people choosing to play a game like this (as that post demonstrates, there’s many lessons to be learned which can also be applied outside the confines of the game), but as a conflict-averse person I would prefer my games to be as safe from “real” conflict as possible.

Of course one can’t guarantee this completely. People can become angry over any game, regardless of the number of players, the amount of luck, etc. But some games are more likely to breed conflict than others. Players might be upset when they lose in regular go, but feeling betrayed, or that the opponent used an unfair strategy, is less common since it’s easier to define what is and isn’t allowed (and the game is adversarial by nature, you’re fighting against each other throughout the game, so there is no moment of betrayal).

It might be possible to modify the rules of diplomatic go slightly, to make it more “friendly”. For instance, if we imagine a variant without the SAS-element, where players move one at a time, two eyes would be enough to guarantee life. Cooperation and betrayal would still be important aspects of the game, but there would be less death on the board. I’m not saying I would prefer this variant, it’s just an example on how a small change to the mechanics could affect the diplomatic feel of the game a lot.

As a more practical suggestion, I think it would be a good idea to lean into the “role-play” aspect of the game even more, to clarify the boundaries between game and reality. If we consistently talk about “The Sky nation” rather than the player yebellz, that might reduce the risk of conflating the two. In a particular game, we might stop trusting a nation after a betrayal, but we should try to keep that separated from the trust of the real person that is playing.

After yebellz great initiative at the beginning of the game, most players decided on a nation name, and we used some formal language while introducing ourselves. But naturally many of us have slipped back into referring to the other players directly during the game. Since I have renewed belief in the importance of this separation, I will try my best from now on to clearly indicate in my posts when I am talking as a real person, and when I am talking as a fictional nation.

(This whole post falls in the former category. I’m not seeking to affect the outcome of the game in any way with what I’ve written here, I only wish to improve the playing experience for myself and others.)

6 Likes

End of Round 18

Every player managed to play their first move, which is a pass in case of image orange.

image@Haze_with_a_Z’s stones at B12, M2, as well as image@Sanonius’s stones at M3 and N3 are all “old” stones without liberties, and thus removed from the board.

Any player with 5 stones or less on the board is eliminated at the start of Round 19.
All players enter Round 19 with at least 6 stones, therefore nobody is eliminated.

Player 1st
move
2nd
move
3rd
move
image@le_4TC K13
image@PiggyStardust B8
image@martin3141 Pass Pass Pass
image@Sanonius M1
image@Haze_with_a_Z J2
image@yebellz A12
image@Leira N2

Round 19

In order not to be eliminated at the start of next round, a player needs 7 or more stones on the board.

Round 19 starts with the following position.

Editable demo board

Please submit your next moves before 2020-11-08T21:00:00Z

Current number of stones per player:

5 Likes

@Leira asked for an extension, thus this round is extended to 2020-11-09T21:00:00Z.

4 Likes

Glad to see Leira continuing my legacy of taking our time :stuck_out_tongue:

5 Likes

@Maharani preferred :butterfly: and @Leira preferred :deer:, but maybe…

:snail:

:stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

2 Likes

End of Round 19

Every player managed to play their first move, which is a pass in case of image orange.

The image orange stone at D1 is the only “old” stone without liberties and thus is removed from the board. This gives the “new” stones at E1 and F1 a new liberty, and thus these are not removed.

Any player with 6 stones or less on the board is eliminated at the start of Round 20.
All players enter Round 20 with at least 7 stones, therefore nobody is eliminated.

Player 1st
move
2nd
move
3rd
move
image@le_4TC J13
image@PiggyStardust B6
image Orange Pass Pass Pass
image@Sanonius E1
image@Haze_with_a_Z M2
image@yebellz B12
image@Leira N12

Round 20

In order not to be eliminated at the start of next round, a player needs 7 or more stones on the board.

Round 20 starts with the following position.

Editable demo board

Please submit your next moves before 2020-11-10T21:00:00Z

Current number of stones per player:

Player #stones
image@le_4TC 17
image@PiggyStardust 18
image Orange 10
image@Sanonius 7
image@Haze_with_a_Z 15
image@yebellz 19
image@Leira 18
4 Likes

Double negatives are not unambiguous. :wink:

3 Likes

Oh my, how long has that been there… Must be since Gia was eliminated!

2 Likes

End of Round 20

Every player managed to play their first move, which is a pass in case of image orange.

Several stones are captured. First of all the stone at C8 is captured. Second, both image@Sanonius’s group of stones around L1 and image@Haze_with_a_Z’s stone at M2 are “old” groups without liberties, and thus are removed. This gives the “new” group at N1 a new liberty, thus this stone remains on the board.

Any player with 6 stones or less on the board is eliminated at the start of Round 20.
image@Sanonius is eliminated this round, since they start with only 5 stones remaining on the board after the capture.
All other players enter Round 20 with at least 7 stones, and therefore are not eliminated.

Player 1st
move
2nd
move
3rd
move
image@le_4TC J9
image@PiggyStardust D8
image Orange Pass Pass Pass
image@Sanonius M3
image@Haze_with_a_Z N1
image@yebellz C11
image@Leira H13

Round 21

In order not to be eliminated at the start of next round, a player needs 8 or more stones on the board.

Round 21 starts with the following position.

Editable demo board

Please submit your next moves before 2020-11-11T21:00:00Z

Current number of stones per player:

Player #stones
image@le_4TC 18
image@PiggyStardust 19
image Orange 10
image@Haze_with_a_Z 15
image@yebellz 20
image@Leira 19
6 Likes

GG @Sanonius, thank you for playing!

4 Likes

So long, everybody! That was fun, I’m excited for the next game of backstabbing.

6 Likes

@Sanonius, thank you playing. Well played, especially for taking over a difficult position!

3 Likes

Thanks for playing, Sanonius! See you in the next game.

3 Likes

Gg Sanonius!!! :D:D:D

Sorry I had to be the one to kill you

4 Likes

GG @Sanonius. See you in future games.

4 Likes

End of Round 21

Every player managed to play their first move, which is a pass in case of image orange.

All stones on the board have liberties, thus no stones are removed from the board.

Any player with 7 stones or less on the board is eliminated at the start of Round 22.
All players enter Round 22 with at least 8 stones, therefore nobody is eliminated.

Player 1st
move
2nd
move
3rd
move
image@le_4TC K8
image@PiggyStardust D9
image Orange Pass Pass Pass
image@Haze_with_a_Z L7
image@yebellz B10
image@Leira H10

Round 22

In order not to be eliminated at the start of next round, a player needs 8 or more stones on the board.

Round 22 starts with the following position.

Editable demo board

Please submit your next moves before 2020-11-12T21:00:00Z

Current number of stones per player:

Player #stones
image@le_4TC 19
image@PiggyStardust 20
image Orange 10
image@Haze_with_a_Z 16
image@yebellz 21
image@Leira 20
6 Likes

End of Round 22

image@le_4TC and image@Leira collided with their first choice, but both managed to place their second choice. Every other player managed to play their first move, which is a pass in case of image orange.

All stones on the board have liberties, thus no stones are removed from the board.

Any player with 7 stones or less on the board is eliminated at the start of Round 23.
All players enter Round 23 with at least 8 stones, therefore nobody is eliminated.

Player 1st
move
2nd
move
3rd
move
image@le_4TC J12 H12
image@PiggyStardust E5
image Orange Pass Pass Pass
image@Haze_with_a_Z M2
image@yebellz A10
image@Leira J12 F13

Round 23

In order not to be eliminated at the start of next round, a player needs 9 or more stones on the board.

Round 23 starts with the following position.

Editable demo board

Please submit your next moves before 2020-11-13T21:00:00Z

Current number of stones per player:

Player #stones
image@le_4TC 20
image@PiggyStardust 21
image Orange 10
image@Haze_with_a_Z 17
image@yebellz 22
image@Leira 21
5 Likes

In the absence of a move submission from @PiggyStardust, Round 23 will be extended 24 hours.

The new deadline is 2020-11-14T21:00:00Z.

End of Round 23

image@le_4TC and image@PiggyStardust collided on their first move at J12, but both managed to place a stone at their second choice. Meanwhile, image@Haze_with_a_Z collided for their first choice with a preexisting stone, but managed to place their second choice at J12.

image@yebellz and image@Leira both placed their first choice.

Of the stones on the board without liberties, image@le_4TC’s stone at H12 is “old” and thus is removed. This gives a new liberty to image@Haze_with_a_Z’s stone at J12, which remains on the board.

Any player with 8 stones or less on the board is eliminated at the start of Round 24.
All players enter Round 24 with at least 9 stones, therefore nobody is eliminated.

Board after placing first choices:

Board after placing second choices:

Player 1st
move
2nd
move
3rd
move
image@le_4TC J12 L1
image@PiggyStardust J12 D3
image Orange Pass Pass Pass
image@Haze_with_a_Z K13 J12
image@yebellz D13
image@Leira G13

Round 24

In order not to be eliminated at the start of next round, a player needs 9 or more stones on the board.

Round 24 starts with the following position.

Editable demo board

Please submit your next moves before 2020-11-15T21:00:00Z

Current number of stones per player:

Player #stones
image@le_4TC 20
image@PiggyStardust 22
image Orange 10
image@Haze_with_a_Z 18
image@yebellz 23
image@Leira 22
5 Likes

Sorry to be late…

In the absence of a move submission from @Leira, Round 24 will be extended 24 hours.

The new deadline is 2020-11-16T21:00:00Z.