Media Wars

“Media Wars” was the name of an exhibition match of online Diplomacy played by 7 Diplomacy content producers. We agreed to play this match with an understanding that we would each publish content with our perspective on the match. Your Bored Brother was one of those 7 players.

As far as I know, the Media Wars game is the most-commentated-upon match of Diplomacy there has ever been. I believe the video content alone totals upwards of 30 hours! This project took place during the COVID-19 pandemic, and so I guess we had a lot of time on our hands. I wonder if people in the future will ever feel inclined to start another Diplomacy project like this?

What were the rules of the match?

We played our game on the Backstabbr website, which is a great site for arranged Diplomacy matches. Backstabbr allows a game master (which we had), has a user-friendly interface, and sends reminder emails when you get an in-game message.

The timer was set to 48 hours for the main turns (Spring, Fall) and 24 hours for other turns (Winter, Retreats). We also agreed to pause the game for a bit at one point (COVID-19 problems!), so the match lasted for several months.

We joined the match with our identities anonymized…but some players didn’t realize this (or didn’t care), so that didn’t last too long.

We were asked to keep all our messaging within the website app (for the sake of being able to easily publish commentary later), but some of us had a hard time respecting this rule.

Interestingly, we never stipulated as to the meaning of any outcome besides a solo win. The ambiguity there might have affected how the players played!

What kind of content did you make, BrotherBored?

I created a vlog, also called a video journal. My Media Wars vlog was actually the first video content I ever recorded for this website!^[1]I managed to publish some videos on YouTube before publishing my Media Wars vlog, but that’s because I waited until the match was over to publish anything related to Media Wars..

If you’re a fan of my Gunboat Journal for the Biggest Game of All Time, or my Press Journal for the Online Diplomacy Championship 2019, then you might enjoy this vlog! I created the vlog using a similar method to those journals: each turn, before finalizing my orders and putting the game away, I recorded my thoughts. What makes this vlog different is that:

1. I’m addressing you, the viewer in video format. I hope viewers find it fun and interesting to hear my emotions and personality in a way that may not come across in written word. And;
2. I summarize the turn and discuss my thoughts holistically, rather than going through every message and idea I had. I knew I had to summarize, or else the project would be impossible to complete (or watch!).

I couldn’t make up my mind on the best way to present the videos on this website, so there’s two!

First, here are links to posts that correspond to each video:

Media Wars 1901	Media Wars 1902	Media Wars 1903	Media Wars 1904
Media Wars 1905	Media Wars 1906	Media Wars 1907	Media Wars 1908
Media Wars 1909	Media Wars 1910	Media Wars 1911	Media Wars Wrap Up

Second, I created a playlist on YouTube, which you can find embedded here on this page!

By the way, if you tried watching this at the beginning of October 2020 (when there were just 6 videos up) and had problems with the audio mixing, please be aware that I remixed the audio and re-uploaded all those videos. The audio mixing here is much improved, I promise!

How the heck did you make all this?

I bought equipment and software with the money that my Patreon Patrons paid me, just as I said I would! If you enjoy this project—or any of my content for that matter—please go to my Patreon page and pledge $1 (or more!!). I am making a sincere effort to be a professional “internet content producer” and produce even more of the content that you enjoy…but I will need a lot more of my fans to pledge at least $1.

Can you help me find the other Media Wars content?

Yes! Here is an index to the content that I am aware of.^[2]I will update this list if I learn that the other creators have made more content.

—Participants—

Austria—Legendary Tactics, for Legendary Tactics (YouTube channel)
8 Diplomacy Archetypes
Poetics of Diplomacy
War Diary (main video)
How to WIN at Diplomacy

England—edwardzachary, for Diplomacy Broadcast Network (YouTube channel)
Video Journal (playlist)

France—gohornsgo, for The Diplomats (YouTube Channel)
Written Journal

Germany—Your Bored Brother, for BrotherBored (this blog)
Video Journal (playlist)

Italy—Dusty (later, VillageIdiot), for The Briefing (Newsletter)
After-Action Report

Russia—CaptainMeme, for DiploStrats (YouTube channel)
Video Journal (one big video)

Turkey—Amby, for Diplomacy Games (Podcast)
Ep. 74 at 18:45
Ep. 75 at 1:12:50
Ep. 76 at 12:00
Ep. 78 at 1:11:20
Ep. 79 at 3:30 (interviews!)