Arena Diplomacy is any competitive game of Diplomacy played as part of a tournament or a league.
I don’t know about you but, for me, any game of Diplomacy should be competitive. Well, with the exception of a learning or demo game, I guess. And certainly I get that a HOUSE GAME should be played for fun, too. But competitiveness shouldn’t really be found only in tournaments or leagues.
If you play Diplomacy online you’ll probably be playing a game that is scored in some way. This in itself might not be a good thing. Many players will argue that scoring a stand alone game of Diplomacy, making it part of a SERIES of games, introduces the METAGAME.
However, whether the game is scored or not, it should be played competitively. Of course, if the game is not scored, there’s more chance to try things out, experiment, etc but, still, you’re playing a game, shouldn’t you be trying to get the best result possible?
When it comes to a tournament or a league, however, the games tend to be highly competitive simply because they’re part of an event.
Why ‘Arena Diplomacy’?
That’s my fault, I’m afraid. I invented the term (or, at least, I hadn’t seen or heard it in the Hobby before).
I’d been trying to think of a catch-all term for tournaments and leagues that wasn’t simply ‘Competitive Diplomacy’ – as I said above, for me almost all Dip games should be competitive in some way or another! And, well, I was struggling (which probably should have led me to think that, perhaps, a single term wasn’t needed).
Eventually, I got to thinking about the ‘games’ usually associated with the Roman Empire. You know what I mean, you’ve seen the movies: chariot races, gladiator fights, Christians being thrown to lions, etc. Nothing quite as competitive as having your life put at risk!
And then it dropped. These games were often held in what Romans called ‘arena’. This actually comes from harena, which means ‘sand’ in Latin; arena came to be known as a sand-strewn place of combat. Good for soaking up the blood, you see.
While I’d like to think that the stresses of a Diplomacy tournament doesn’t lead to any sand being required to soak up blood (although they can get pretty heated), it seemed to be a good term to use to describe the extra competitiveness that can be introduced in a tournament or league game.
Tournaments
Tournaments tend to be shorter than leagues, whether they’re IN-PERSON (or, if you prefer, REAL TIME) or REMOTE. In-person play may be FTF or vFTF. Remote play is usually some form of XD game.
If the tournament is FTF it will often be played over a long weekend. There are many of these, although most tend to be in North America these days. Hopefully, they’ll make a comeback in Europe (the EDC has just finished as I’m writing this). I’m not sure what the situation is in Australasia – let me know.
Tournaments feature a small number of games, even when played Remotely. After all, you don’t want them going on for a long period of time, do you? Get them finished and someone crowned!
Leagues
Leagues tend to be played over a longer period of time than tournaments. A typical league will be played over a year if FTF or vFTF; if played Remotely the idea is that they’re played over a year, too, if roughly: Remote tournaments might well run on longer, and therefore the period of time they’re played over is often referred to as a ‘SEASON‘.
Leagues therefore tend to feature more games. If played FTF they’ll often involve multiple MEETS and be played by members of a local DIPLOMACY CLUB. If played vFTF, the number of rounds in a league could well be fewer, as the players have to be able to come together in-person and may need to be playing through the night (depending on their time zone). The VIRTUAL DIPLOMACY LEAGUE is probably the best example of one such.
Remotely, Leagues are much more prevalent than tournaments, which is a shame. You can usually have a tournament finish in a year if you organise it right. A Remote league could run on for some time.
If you’re interested in playing in the Virtual Diplomacy League, take a look here: https://diplobn.com/vdl/
THE DIPTIONARY 