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A Weekly Threat Assessment of the Diplomacy Community

Podcast #59 - Diplomacy and Christian Faith
In this episode, Kaner and Amby interview Ira Hall, a Christian pastor and Diplomacy player. The guys delve into how Christians manage the Bible’s strong stance on lying, deceit and deception while still playing competitive Diplomacy. Listen Here.
Eternal Sunshine Rises
Tired of having Skynet for your gm?  Prefer a more human touch?  Douglas Kent is restarting his zine Eternal Sunshine and has game openings for Diplomacy and the Balkan Wars VI variant.  Sign up for the zine or connect through Facebook.
Infinity Stones of Manipulation
In comic book lore, the infinity stones represent ultimate power. If one person possesses them, then his every desire will be realized with a snap of his fingers. Does such a power exist in diplomacy? Learning how to weaponize other people’s emotions is a powerful tool that might even seem godlike to some. This is a series for people that want to win and be in control of the levers of power. Just as there are six infinity stone, there are six emotions we will look at in this series.   
Harnessing Empathy
People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.  This old cliché may seem ineffective in a game that encourages selfish play and if we’re being honest, it usually is. Yet, empathy is an emotion that has a very powerful effect on some players.    
In the Season 2 Nexus finals, I found out how important it was when my Turkish position was collapsed.  It was Spring 1908, and I had carefully nurtured my relationship with England.  I had done all the things that I thought would earn his trust.  While he was being attacked by France and Russia, I had attacked Russia to free him up.  This was admittedly for selfish reasons because I was afraid France would break out.  I had also the turn before supported him into Moscow.  He had promised all kinds of things how we would work together, and he would help me the following turn.

I was facing an A/F attack now and knew that I needed to take Ukraine to help solidify my gains.  I asked for support from Moscow in return for all the help I’d been.  In the meantime, A/F were pressuring England hard that he’d be giving me the game if he did so.  England was a player who was not overly confident in his ability and was feeling the pressure in his personal life by this indecision.  When the moves resolved this happened
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I was furious.  I had been the only one who had actually helped him in the game.  What made him betray me?  Was it a tactical decision?  No.  He said what finally made him change his moves last minute was when Austria told him he shouldn’t let this take time away from his family and to go spend time with them.  That was all it took for him.

Of course, I’d argue that this was stupid decision on his part because Austria went on to win the game (he should have supported neither of us).  But in retrospect, I had neglected to see how much empathy affected him.  

Empathy is an emotion that most diplomacy players fail to use.  While it is easy to come across as fake if used frequently, a carefully sprinkling of such discourse never hurts and can actually yield great results.  For instance, you should be the first one to commiserate with someone who has just been stabbed.  Let them know you understand how that feels and that you’ve had that happen in the same circumstances.  Commiserate with them in their anger towards other players.  If someone says someone is upset at them, tell them the same person is upset at you.  If their called a liar, create events where he has lied to you also.  

Of course, always pay attention when personal information is revealed.  Is someone going through a difficult time with a relationship, a death, or just general stress?  We all know the stress that diplomacy can bring to a person so empathy and understanding should come easy.  By the way, you should genuinely be concerned in the wellbeing of other players but for the many sociopaths out there at least pretend to be.  Who knows?  Empathy might just win you a tournament.

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  • 14th-15th - Melbourne Open (Australia) - Email

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