Diplomacy ethics

[vfb]

Where, "Care bears"? What's a "care bear"?

[chrispedersen]

In the long term, having a reputation for never breaking your word will attract you as an ally, and mark you for people that will take advantage of it.

Still, generally said, the people that will never break words will tend to know who each other are. Watch each others backs.

[Squirrelloid]

Originally Posted by vfb

Where, "Care bears"? What's a "care bear"?

Someone who whines about getting stabbed.

More generally, someone who fails to grasp that there are no rules to diplomacy, diplomacy is merely a vehicle for manipulating the actions of other players. Care Bears want everyone to always keep their word, and for people to play nicely. Needless to say, Diplomacy is a boring game when played that way.

Which isn't to say everyone will always lie, it means rational players will lie when it suits their purposes and outweighs the penalty for lying.