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