Diplomacy as an ultimate Christmas game

On Sat, 27 Dec 2008 04:15:48 -0800 (PST)
millis.RemoveThis@megamail.pt wrote:

> Seems like it may get some more players now!
>
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7798226.stm

This is great - "possibly the king of games."

I'm really interested in the educational applications of Diplomacy:
http://www.asciiking.com/diplomacy/zaed/

The things that I've been working on are making my judge installations
more tolerant of modern email and figuring out how to comply with
privacy laws for minors:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COPPA

The typical operation of a hobby server like the Diplomacy judge
probably wouldn't qualify for the non-commercial exemption because,
even if incorporated as a nonprofit, the resulting organization would
be a hobby or social organization (benefits accrue to the members)
rather than a charitable organization. The legal structure to protect
the operator from personal liability starts at $200 to incorporate.
From that point, there's the cost of compliance to comply with COPPA
and/or qualify for the exemption as an educational organization
organized separately from the hobby group.

In general, I think that the re-release of Diplomacy with Calhammer
being at the WDC this coming year and all the new servers available is
a great thing for the hobby. I'm hoping that we see hobby associations
evolve to create mentoring relationships and sustainable playing
opportunities for people in the hobby.

Chris