“Stabbeurfou” bid for Diplomacy National World Cup
The “stabbeurfou” bid for the DWC consists mainly of this document and all the rules and regulations on the web page on the “stabbeurfou” site : http://www.stabbeurfou.org/Regles.php. (Please ignore the supplementary rules, not relevant and not translated from French). It is important to note that, before reading these documents on the site, one must go to the site home page and select the English language, since the only available version of the documents is in English.
This document itself is available on the http://www.stabbeurfou.org/Articles.php page.
The core regulations consist of several levels of documents, starting basically from the rules, the game, the tournament round and the tournament itself. Several more have been inserted for specificities to a web interface system, they may not apply for a tournament not using this interface system but are still part of the bid.
There are three specific tournament rules : the “Interzines” (which happened between September 2005 and May 2006), the “World Masters” (a proposal) and “World Diplomacy Cup” (this bid).
“Stabbeurfou” is a web interface with program adjudication, but triggered by a human game master.
The “stabbeurfou” expression means “Mad Stabber”, the “stabbeur” word being a French (neologism) transcription of the English word.
Readers of this document are advised to peruse the http://www.stabbeurfou.org/ site to have a more precise idea of things.
“Stabbeurfou” is a web site written in PHP that uses several core programs themselves written in C language (basically adjudicator, map maker, and ranking calculator).
Here are the advantages of a automaton adjudicator :
The time consuming effort of adjudication is saved,
Game masters do not have to be provided by the teams
Adjudications – and games themselves - are more homogeneous,
There can not be any adjudication error (or much fewer),
There can not be any mis-orders, since orders are validated on the spot - this is unhappy for experts in the field of false mis-orders, though,
All information is available to anyone in real time, and always up to date,
The human touch is not lost since there is still a human being to care about the game and postpone the dead line on players request,
Anonymous press is possible (but not to the administrator of the site.) Upon complain the site administrator may remove messages (anonymous or not) that violate tournament or game requirements.
“Stabbeurfou” also has the advantage to be designed with tournament play in mind, several aspects of traditional play are also automatic, such as (at least) :
vote for ending of game,
vote for secondary trophies,
recall of late orders,
detailed information about players,
tournament ranking calculation.
automatic email notification when orders are altered, new mail in internal mailbox, deadline is approaching
Very flexible, “stabbeurfou” lets players communicate either via e-mail or with s simple internal communication mailbox system.
“Stabbeurfou” has already hosted a very similar tournament : the French speaking “Interzines” (10 teams), and much improved from the experience. The aim of “Interzines” was to make various French communities to meet one another. More information about the “Interzines” may be found (in French) on the “Interzines” specific site : http://membres.lycos.fr/interzines/
“Stabbeurfou” is the only known web based system with automatic adjudication offering an interface in several languages (French and English at the present time, [SOON] more languages to come)
Lastly, “stabbeurfou” will [SOON] provide the possibility to write a diplomatic message in a language the user dos not speak at all (with the internal mailbox).
What is expected from people from the WCC (World Cup Council) is :
Testing : a mock tournament of two games, two teams (therefore two captains), will be played (with a turn over in terms of tournament director and captains). That will (i) help understanding the system and (ii) improve the system by producing problem reports on (ii-a) bugs and (ii-b) languages mistakes.
Correcting : the whole set of rules and regulations should be checked out by an English native to be turned into perfectly correct and understandable English
Translating : some German, Spanish, Italian or Portuguese native (preferably well French speaking) should be found to translate the language dependant set of files from French to their language in order to have this language also available on the web site (about 40 short text files). Additionally translating the whole sets of rules and regulations…
(3.1) Inclusivity and Eligibility to enter: Who will be eligible to play? How will the host ensure that all are welcome to participate, and none are excluded?
The
tournament will be run on a web based adjudication system. At least
the French and English (perhaps German, Spanish, Italian and
Portuguese) languages will be available in the interface, and players
will only have to perform a quick registration on the site to be
allowed to play (and require an access to web and an email
address).
(3.2) Nationality:
How will the tournament ensure that the focus of the tournament is on
the contest between nation and nation?
There
will be an IP control (if necessary) to check that players are in the
area they pretend to be. See reply to 3.4.1 question for more
information.
(3.3) The
Scoring System: What type of play will be rewarded?
C –Diplo with Namur bonuses will be used, so getting on the top of the board will be strongly awarded, and the survival encouraged. There will also be a punishment in points for victims of solo so letting other players solo will also be strongly discouraged.
(3.4) The Rules for the tournament: What rules
will be used governing issues such as:
(3.4.1) How will teams
be selected? How many teams will be allowed
from each country?
Will composite teams or regional teams be allowed?
For big countries, subdivisions or grouping will be allowed based on geographical, language or political partition. Selection of team members will be left to team captains. Selection of team captains will be voted by people from an area forming something as similar as possible as a country. This selection may be performed on official face to face records of results. The procedure (to be validated) of constitution of teams is that registration is made on an individual basis, and that the organizer may merge or split teams in order to reach 14 teams (or more) for the first round.
(3.4.2) How many rounds will be played?
Two
rounds for the first edition of this tournament (or one if only seven
teams register).
(3.4.3) What criteria, if any, will be used to
determine progression
through the tournament? Is there a cut? Is
there a Top Board?
There will be a team qualifying round to select the best seven teams. Then a second round of seven boards to determine the world champion team. Since this is a team based event, the concept of top board in not conceivable.
(3.4.4)
What Interface will be used? Judges, Hand adjudication,
Other? How
will the interface be mediated to ensure inclusiveness?
Web
based interface – with a software inside the site validating
orders and carrying out adjudications. Players will select their
game, their country, enter a password and submit their orders.
Validation will be done instantly. No mis - orders will be possible.
(3.4.5) How will consistency of adjudication be
ensured?
Any one may, at any time, to enter any set of orders within a checker on the site to verify the consistency of adjudication of the engine on the site.
(3.4.6) What appeal panel will be available
to settle disputes?
The “Word Diplomacy Cup”
council will serve a committee to settle disputes. The working
process of the committee will be very precisely defined in tournament
regulations.