As you may have found already, the Diplomacy hobby is a large and thriving worldwide entity, and we're proud to count you among us. Here at The Pouch -- the Internet home of the hobby -- we will be only too happy to put our motto into practice with you: "Stab you soon!"
From a personal standpoint, I was flattered that Hasbro involved me in the production of the CD-ROM game. Everyone make sure you pick up a copy so that you can see my name in lights on-screen, and you can read my insights in the game manual. Thanks again, Hasbro (Bill Levay in particular), especially for devoting the inside back cover of the manual to promoting the hobby by directing the reader here to The Pouch.
In fact, in the game manual, I had myself listed as the "Weblisher" of The Pouch. You might recall that I coined the word "Weblish" when writing the last issue's About column, and I wondered if it would catch on.... Well, since the word is now printed and packaged in thousands and thousands of boxes on shelves all over the world, I can flatter myself (who, me?) as a certified neologist! Someone call Webster's!
The Diplomatic Pouch T-Shirts and Mousepads continue to fly out of my house to yours. Great merchandise, great prices. Outfit yourself to promote The Game and the hobby!
With the release of Hasbro's computer game, the hobby is likely to experience an influx of new players. Since the game is, apparently, still most enjoyable with seven human players, the new E-Mail section will hopefully help bring them together with like-minded dippers around the world.
In addition to looking nicer, the new summaries for each showcase include a link to an archive file containing all the files within that showcase. This feature has been requested by a number of people -- though I can't for the life of me figure out why.
Let me know what you would like to see in the Showcase, and as always, feel free to point me at games that deserve to be put into the fishbowl.
We're considering a rather major rework that would put all zines (postal and electronic) into a single section. (The current Postal Section would become the Zines section.) What would you think of that? Should "zines" in a particular medium be kept together (of course, some 'zines now operate in more than one medium). or should things be categorised by content rather than by the means of distribution? Please let me know so that my section of The Pouch can be as useful as possible to you. Personally, I think that what Pouch surfers are looking for is content. Detaching postal zines from the rest just makes it less likely people will consider their unique selling points (and they do still have some!).
Tim has faithfully maintained the Upcoming conventions page, a fact which makes Matt eternally grateful! For Matt's part, he's been woking on an ambitious process of taking The Pouch's tradition of collecting FTF results to the next level.
Matt's contributions, in turn, make Tim grateful. Matt has done all of the reoganization, reformatting of the results section -- especially the ADR work. It's everything Time wanted to do, but never had the time or technical ability to pull off. With Matt around, the FTF Hobby has a new ally at the Pouch!
We continue to keep the Clubs and Organizations list updated. Please let us know if the information there changes or if new groups spring up!
Over the last few months, results from about fifty new convention announcements have been added to the Pouch, with more coming in every day. As we type this, Tim has a stack of 20 or 30 more conventions sitting on his piano that he hopes to have up soon!
We're also proud that the Pouch is displaying results from the ADR Grand Prix. This is Buz Eddy's North American answer to the very popular Swedish Diplomacy Rally.
Expect a slow and steady of Diplomacy records to collect on the Pouch over the coming months. Results, stories, and announcements are all welcomed. If it's information about FTF Dip, it has a home at The Pouch!
The local and regional tournament scene in North America continues to grow, with support coming from Hasbro and their affiliates. One regional organization recently held its first-ever tournament (reported by Tim Richardson elsewhere in this issue) and another (my own pet project, the ARMADA) has also scheduled its first tournament. (If you're in the Rocky Mountains, join the ARMADA and make sure to show up at the February tournament!)
The European and Australasian hobbies continue to keep the hobby strong. This is exemplified by a couple of articles in this issue: Larry Peery's report from the 1999 World Championships held in Belgium and Brandon Clarke's essay on how to run a successful tournament, based on his experience running the New Zealand Diplomacy Championships. (In fact, at the time of this writing, the Don Diplomacy Challenge is going on in Australia. Wish I could be there! Honest I do. I really, really do.)
The next issue (Winter Adjustment) is theoretically the largest issue of the year. Without your help, though (I need articles, and I need them quickly!) there is no chance of the next issue even coming close to this one. So please, help out by contributing an article. I know I say this every issue (and it's worked so far, I suppose, so there's no reason to stop) but this one is particularly urgent. All I have for the next issue is a couple of promises.
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