The problem is that there are so few games that are possible to join with friends. they all say no friends. I like to play games with friends and I treat them the same way as any other player. But now if I want to play a game with them I have to make it because everyone puts no friends in the game options.

I agree and that is why I don't let it control the way I play. Plus if you are good friends with the person wouldn't you want to beat them or am I the only person who likes to play competitively with my friends which is why I join so many with them. So I may beat them and rub it in. I just don't like the option. I am on the fence about the announcing it to everybody at the beginning of the match thing, but I don't like the idea of banning friends from games. I think it will draw less people to the site if it is hard for them to find games they can play with friends.

we are on the internet, we have no friends

I guess Oli can throw that feature out then if this is true.

Simple solution:
Make friend playability the default when starting games. People are lazy, and therefore only sticklers about the rule who obviously don't understand what it's like to want to beat one of your friends online will change it. And we don't want to join no sticklers' games, do we?

Apart from that, you could also limit the 'no friends' option to only people who have friends on this site and understand how not to cheat with them. The others will either not ever even find out about this feature, or simply ignore it. The true intention of this feature was to protect RL friends from meta-gaming situations, not to prevent them from playing to their heart's content (although there are plenty of other features on this site that prevent such).

I will tell all right now: anytime I have a game, it will never be RL friends prohibited, so you will always be free to join my games :D

I guess that's all that really matters...

It seems to be more a hindrance than any form of protection. I don't mind telling the mods who my friends are. In fact one was shocked that we were friends seeing how we act in game. It just sucks now that I look through the new games list and every 2 out of 3 say no friends.

I love how it changed all anonymous games to no friends. One of my games now says no friends when it was a friend invite haha.

I was away for the weekend and came back to see all my games say "No Friends". For a moment I thought that was a new way of describing a Gunboat.

The default setting is to allow friends to join, however if it is an anon game, then no friends automatically applies, you can't change that.

So just don't create/try to join anon games if you want to play with friends.

Yeah, my friends and I love to beat the crap out of each other, whether it's at the poker or Diplomacy table. Nothing is better. I think the only problem with having a lot of friends playing together, is too many enemies who want your head at all costs! But then again, I've never had an incident with any of my friends meta-gaming. The one game I've played here where that happened was with people I've never played with before.

It´s quite obvious... If someone wants to joina anon game with a RL friend, he´s a cheater and will not be missed in this site... The rule is perfect...

I joined an anon game with my friend once I liked it because I never knew if I was actually attacking him or not. We never told each other what country we were. I didn't join it with him to cheat I joined it so I would not know who he was

You are a cheater, and you should be banned, tortured and killed by impalation....
And your body should be fed to the crows, your house demolished and salt should be put to the ground where you lived so nothing alive would grow there!!!!!!!!!!! ;)

@Nemesis: Your an exception to the rule though. What if you found out? When it gets to irl, its impossible for us mods to determine if you allied with your friend in anon because you knew who he was, or if it was just a coincidence.

Yeah, it seems to imply that no one could resist breaking anonymity with their friends. I dunno. I see both sides. I don't tell my friends who I am in an anon game, but they can often guess. However, I could with 99% accuracy point out who, say, gopher was in an anon game, and I've only interacted with him here (and oftentimes in a non-positive way). I go into every game expecting the people in it to make every effort not to be douchey about things like this, and I have to say it's been very very rare that I've ended up in a situation where I even suspected something untoward was going on. Maybe I'm naive or easygoing or something.

What SD says^^

No, HC.
Actually, I was wandering the opposite: should I ever join any games that say no RL restrictions anymore?

But as I saw this thread I also wondered: "Why HC is caring about this meaningless thing?"
Then I checked your profile and in 26 games you completed there was Nemesis17 in 20 of them (77%).

HC, trust me, Diplomacy is a funny game even if you don't play with your friends.
(This doesn't mean you must not. Only, you should play without friends more often than you do now, I believe)

@Guaroz- there is nothing wrong with him playing with Nemesis17 77% of the time, or even 100% of the time. as long as they don't ally up in an unbreakable alliance the entire time. and it's not just like that with RL friends, It can be like that with Site friends too. look at me and Shep, we share something like 65-75% of our games together, and I don't even know him in RL. so you think I should play more games without him? why? he's a fun kid to play with, whether I am on his side, or an enemy of his. I do agree that it is still fun to play without your friends. but the joy of getting to share a game with a close pal of yours, makes it even more amazing.

You can change the default setting during gamecreation.

NoFriends is default for Anon games, as we can't reveal who knows who at the start and this are usually the games we need to investigate most.

Many friends like to play here (anon games too) and this is 100% acceptable. It's still possible, it's just not the default for anon.

As always this default-setting might change later on...

@Butter: Did I say there's something wrong?

I concur with Butterhead and Sacred Digits. E.g., I met both in one of my first games here and have sent them invites to follow-up games, which they've accepted and played in. We've had a lot of fun and no one has played any favorites. Now that we know each other a little through the site, should I not invite them to future games or sign up in games they're in? That seems to defeat some of the fun of playing (and beating up on those you know).

@Butter It's not the first time you comment my posts without reading it.

@Guaroz I don't like the mistrust people put on RL friends that is why I refuse to join a game that says no friends. It doesn't have anything to do with the fact I want to join games with friends it has more to do with the lack of trust. I play games without friends that is how I have made some friends on this site. Another problem I see is if I want to play a bunch of games and 3/4 of games are made password protected or no friends. If my friends want to a bunch of games. The new games list will be very small and we will be restricted to a few games.

Also I believe that site friends can have even closer bonds then RL friends. @Butterhead honestly Shep is a RL friend of mine and sometimes it seems you two are closer than us. haha

@HC- I know Shep is a RL friend of yours, he's told me, lol. and yea we get along pretty well, probably because of our adventures on FB Diplomacy together XD
@Guaroz- I actually did read your post thank you. you said:
"But as I saw this thread I also wondered: "Why HC is caring about this meaningless thing?"
Then I checked your profile and in 26 games you completed there was Nemesis17 in 20 of them (77%).

HC, trust me, Diplomacy is a funny game even if you don't play with your friends.
(This doesn't mean you must not. Only, you should play without friends more often than you do now, I believe) "
which I took as saying(and perhaps it isn't what you meant, but it's how it came across) that there is something wrong with the fact that Nemesis and HC play together most of the time, and that they shouldn't play together so much.

Shep was a fellow fber? I knew Guaroz and you were, didn't know shep was...

Yep, so was Imp C I believe, or was it Ancient Memories? I can't remember now which one it was.