Edi Birsan 先生， 美国人。 拥有40年的外交游戏经验，致力于外交游戏在全世界的推广，是外交界的权威人物之一，现为美国2队队长。 他表示愿意帮助中国队在本次世界杯比赛中做我们中国队的参谋，答疑解惑－－战略战术上的，规则上的，交流技巧上的任何大家关心的问题都可以向他提问。
我已经接受了他的好意，他现在已经是我们的重量级幕僚了。

Edi Birsan 

Email:  edibirsan@astound.net

个人建议： 不要一有问题就问他，毕竟他时间有限，我们可以先在队内解决，解决不了的问题或者大家都比较关心的问题可以咨询他。

我问了他一个大家都比较关心的问题，是关于交流方面的：

如果我发了邮件给另一个玩家，而他看了却没有给我回， 这意味着什么？

下面是 Edi Birsan 的回答。

OK here is some advice...


1. It is very good practice to always write to every player every turn.  Even if you are fighting you can always make some social talk and ask about how his team is doing and that sort of things if you do not want to talk directly about the game.


2. If you write to someone this early in the game and get no response it is not a reason for paranoia, it may be that there is a problem with the player's email or as is common in the start of these things some people are too busy or something happens that distracts.  That is why I always go after my team mates to make sure that they have heard from everyone.  In those cases where they have written and not gotten a response I ask my team mate if it is ok for me to write to the Captain of the other team.


I have just done it for two cases in my team.  In one case it turns out that the player has dropped and the team captain is looking for a replacement that should be done today.  In the other case the team captain did not know that there was a problem and said he would jump on the player right away in case there was a serious problem.


So my advice in the beginning of the game is that any silence needs to be immediately looked at and even taken a step up to the Captain level to get resolved.  Later on as the game develops and if your players have maintained regular contact with all players they should be able to tell if a sudden silence is a tip off of an attack or if the player is losing interest and thus should be attacked.


Writing negotiation letters is a common aspect that people ignore.
My advice is to have several parts of each letter.  Discus the game turn coming, touch on ideas of what you expect and maybe what to come next.
Also have a social part of the letter where you can develop a better idea of the player themselves and what they are like.
Always include a question towards the end so that there is a compulsion on the other player to write back to you.


Finally a little bit of advice on Tone/  there will be times when things will be rough in the game and you may be writing to someone who you are fighting or talking about a fight in the game.  Here I always suggest as follows:
      When writing about something negative always use the name of the Country.  When writing something positive always use the name of the player.
This way you can build bonds with the players and divide the countries.  Also helps to keep in mind the basic social side of the game.


Edi Birsan
EdiBirsan at astound.net

另外在七杀开了一个 Diplomacy World，已经邀请他过来了。感兴趣的可以随便发帖子交流交流。
http://dp.7kill.com/thread-html-fid-133.html

游戏第一回合什么时候出来呢？

1. 每个回合都给每个玩家写信是一个很好的习惯。就算你们在打仗，而你又不想和他们直接交谈关于游戏的事情。也可以发一些客套话，问一下他们队伍玩得怎么样，之类的事情。

2.如果你是在现在游戏的早期发信，却没有得到回复，你不需要想太多。可能是因为玩家的email方面有问题。在游戏初期的时候，总是会有些玩家因为太忙，或者发生了一些事情，所以无法回信。

这就是为什么我总是会提醒我的队员，确定有没有收到其他玩家的回应。如果他们写了信，却没有得到回应，我会征求我队友的意见，看要不要给他们的队长写一封信。

我已经为了我的队伍，这样做了2次了。一次是因为有个队员退出了队伍，而队长正在找替补，应该今天就能找好。而另外一次，队长表明不知道这个问题，并且表示会马上和队员联络，以防发生什么严重的问题。

所以我在这个游戏初期的建议是，如果有玩家没有回复，需要你马上去跟进，甚至去找他们的队长来解决问题。而在后面的游戏时间，如果你的队友们已经和场上玩家建立起日常信件的习惯。在这个时候如果他们突然不回复或者沉默了，你们应该能马上感觉到是不是因为攻击方案被泄露了，或者是他们对你失去了兴趣（然后你可能会受到攻击）。

外交书信是一个人们忽略了的方面。我的意见是，一封外交信件分为几个部分。

讨论这个回合的事情，略微谈一下你的想法以及你认为之后会发生什么事情。

然后是客套的部分，所以你可以了解一下他们是什么性格的人。

记得在信件后面，永远记得留下一个问题，这样他们就必须给你回信了。

最后一点建议，关于语气的。在游戏里面，你总会要写信给一个和你打仗的的玩家，或者是和玩家讨论一场战役的。以下是我的建议：

当你写一些负面的东西的时候，使用国家的名字。当写一些比较正面的东西的时候，请使用玩家的名字。

（最后一句就懒得翻译了，没啥重要的。我是把大意翻译了一下，并不是一个子一个字翻译的~表挑我错撒~~~~）