diplomacy_boxThe longest-running recorded game of Diplomacy has just ticked over to the year 2001. Diplomacy, a seven-player war game based around negotiation with other players, has two player turns per “year”, starting in Spring 1901. Face-to-face tournaments with fifteen minutes per round of play are played through 1908 (16 turns) in a four-hour period. This game, conducted through the webDiplomacy website, has turns set at every two days. The ongoing 2012 World Cup Final, begun on July 2, 2012, is the equivalent of playing face-to-face for over two days, non-stop.

webDiplomacy is one of several website implementations of the tabletop boardgame, allowing players from around the world to compete. The 2012 webDiplomacy World Cup is an event that is similar to face-to-face World Diplomacy Championship (to held in Chicago this year on June 25th), with participants playing several games in a multi-round tournament to end up at the final table.

Due to the nature of the game, the contestants in the ongoing final game are anonymous and all messages in the game are public to all.

Reddit user CaptainMeme has posted an extensive analysis of the game at Reddit’s boardgame sub-reddit.