I am in the midst of a play-by-mail Diplomacy game; in fact I just got my current update today. Diplomacy is an old board game; it’s been around since 1953. It’s a recreation of pre-World War I Europe. Each player leads one of seven different countries competing for control of most of the continent — England, France, Russia, Austria-Hungary, Italy, Turkey, and Germany. Everyone starts out in their home country and tries to expand and acquire other stuff. This is a very difficult game to play, because you have to continually negotiate with your neighbors for peace while attempting to stab somebody in the back to gain your footholds elsewhere. Every month of play time corresponds to a three-month
season in which a move takes place. There’s often a lot of telephone conversations and negotiations with other players
