| Pouch Deposits
The Editor and the Readership
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Have At It....
Once again, the issue is so late this time that we'll just dump out the
mail and let you at it. I'm going to trim it a little more than usual,
though. Well, a lot more than usual. Reason being that about 90% of
the mail had to do with the PBEM Rating System that was up for a while
(and will return as soon as I get some free time). I have decided not
to publish any of those letters, but hope that all the correspondents
and all the readers know that all the constructive comments that were
sent (even those that I initially didn't take that way, since I was
nigh buried under an avalanche of ratings-related mail there for a
while) had input into what is to come. Elsewhere in this issue,
you will find Tony Nichols' description of what is to come.
So, a representative sample of what remains in the mailbag appears
below. Before we get to it, I'll just mention that we received
complete solutions for Graeme Ackland's last Sherlock Holmes mystery,
"The Great Disarmament Conundrum," from Rick Desper and Andres
Egneus (and, I believe, from one or two others whose names I can't
seem to find). We also found that a group of players established a
game on an Internet judge (the game name was pointles) for
the sole purpose of living the solution to that puzzle. No word on
how that turned out.
Now, let's see what else we have in here....
First, Some Welcome News From the Former World Champion
I answer a little bit late, but I just returned to work after many weeks
recovery from the coma.
As for the accident, everything seems okay now, and I will not be left with
any problems, neither mental nor physical, and fortunately, no one was
involved in the crash but me, so all seems fine now.
I believe that Danny Loeb (France) intended to buy a lot of pounds once
England was on the brink of elimination, and then orchestrate a resurgence
of England. Such orchestration would require help from at least one other
power. I assumed both France and Russia were involved, but apparently that
is not the case.
And Russia (Pitt?) gave me enough hints that I was quite sure that the
changes in fortune of the powers were being orchestrated by the leaders; I
didn't know whether there was an explicit six-way conspiracy to do so.
Randy Hudson, replacement leader of England in dippouch
[So... it seems that the schemers were scheming! --Simon]
I agree with the stupidity of emailing 2 or 3 sets of orders to a judge by a single player pretending to be 3 separate individuals. but what do you think about using free email accounts to email game players individually to spread rumour, gossip, lies, or heaven forbid!!! -- the truth!!!!
I saw your plea for volunteers to help you edit the late issue of The Pouch,
and would love to help you, but I use all my sparetime
trying to solve a puzzle a certain someone asked me about. It looks like
a mad man has devoleped a variant involving Payola and Royale, where
the goal seems to be to commit suicide as fast as possible. Where is
the Austrian army dislodged??? I have now spent more time trying to
solve this puzzle than I used to win a Payola Sail_Ho. I demand you
tell me before I go insane.
I disagree with one aspect of the Lepanto:
A Rome-Naples puts too much of the trust burden
on Austria.
A Rome-Apulia is much more versatile. It can protect
Venice if things go wrong, it can be convoyed to Greece
or Tunis, and it doesn't cover a center you may want to
build on.
The Lepanto is primarily anti-Turkey, and doesn't
necessarily involve hostility to Russia. If Russia
suspects a Lepanto is being planned he has to consider
whether it is better to prop Turkey up or take the
opportunity of Turkey's weakness to go for Scandinavia.
The reason Lepanto is so anti-Turkey is that an Austrian
fleet in Greece and/or an Italian fleet in the Aegean is
possible at the end of Fall 1901. If Austria and Italy
split Serbia and Greece, their combined three fleets can
force any Turkish defense in time.
I missed the two days in which your new logo design was tried, but just saw
the article about it in the Diplomatic Pouch. I wanted to let you know
that I think it is quite clever, and I "got it" right away. It would be a
shame to let this go completely to waste, so perhaps it could be included
from time to time in some section of the Pouch? Anyhow, I just wanted to
pass on my positive response to the logo since it sounded like it was met
primarily with criticism.
First, I missed the logo when it was up.
Second, thanks for giving me an opportunity to see what all the fuss was
about.
Third, I recognised that the logo was a license plate, and recognised the
diplomatic plate thing, without having to read your explanation - maybe
I'm just gifted - I've never seen the plates concerned.
Fourth, having said all that, I would have agreed with those who
voiced their strong preference for the original logo. The original
one is slicker and the license plate seems offensively US-centric to me.
It's mildly clever, and a good idea, but at the end of the day it's no good.
My flatmate doesn't know squat about Dip. I showed him the old one
and the new one and he said "Ewwww!!"
Didn't see the new logo the first time around, but, as a resident of NYC
and Washington DC before that, immediately recognized the logo for what
it was, said to myself "What was the problem?" and then read on. Alas,
another clever Idea, shot down by people who weren't interested in
anything different.
See you at WDC8, I'm with Tim Richardsons crew from "The Old Republic",
a 25-ish All-American with brown hair and eyes -- looking forward to
meeting you!
[Well, there, preserved for all time, is the last time
Chris Martin has to describe himself to a Diplomacy player. The new
World Champion, who was good enough to contribute not one but two articles
to this issue of the Zine, shouldn't have the anonymity problem anymore.
--Ed.]
General Feedback on The Pouch
One day I was just surfing the Pouch, and I came upon
the About the Zine page
in which you stated, "Without Avalon Hill, there would be no Diplomacy. Well,
okay, that's not at all true..." It reminded me of when, just a few
months ago, I started playing Diplomacy. I was looking over a map I had
downloaded, when my Mom said, "Diplomacy? We have that upstairs you
know." I ran upstairs, and sure enough, there was the big, brown box,
collecting dust. All these years I had lived in this house and never
known the treasure just sitting in the closet. I opened it up and was
struck by the beauty of the wooden pieces and the small booklet
containing the simple but complex rules. And not only that, but the
copyright was 1961 Games Research, in Boston Mass. Not only was it a
treasure, but it was also a relic of BAH (Before Avalon Hill) Times.
So, however much we owe to Avalon Hill, we must also remember the others
that kept the game of international intrigue alive all those years.
Editor's response: Indeed so! And let me be the first
to envy you your find! Readers might be interested in something else in this
issue written by someone who is slightly familiar with the BAH game,
one Allan Calhamer.....
You've been a really big help to everyone in the Diplomacy
world. I want to tell you that Payola actually was the "kickoff" for
my real interest in Diplomacy. You've really made my life more fun.
Thanks a million!
[Editor's response: Thanks for the kind words about the Payola variant.
It rivals The Pouch in my own mind in the list of my humble accomplishments
for the hobby.]
Having just spent the past several days reading
about 75% of all the DipPouch Zine offerings,
I must say you and your contributors have done
a fine job. It was very helpful to me in getting
back up to speed after a few years of being
away from the PBEM part of the game. Thanks for
creating one of the best Dip sites on the Web.
May you have a forced solo win in 1904.
I really appreciate what you do to let people all over the world play the game.
By the way, your trademark phrase, "stab you soon," would be
Te apuñalare pronto in Spanish....
Well, there you have it. Another Deposits column. Yep, it sure is.