I felt like a complete idiot!

I played my first game of Diplomacy years ago. I was with some friends in Northridge who had a set, so we played and had a good time. Although I enjoyed it, I didn't play again for almost 20 years. Then, one day, I stumbled across an online Diplomacy forum and thought I'd start playing again.

Yet I found it extremely difficult. It wasn't that entering my moves was hard or even seeing the board. I just had no idea what to say to the other players. Here I was, playing Germany, and I wanted England to help me against France. My opening salvo was less than inspiring. I wrote a one-line message to England something like, "Do you think you could help me against France?" He never answered, so I wrote to France something like "Do ya wanna kill England with me?" "Okay," he replied, so I figured I had a deal.

But when the opening moves came out France was across the border into German territory, England was off doing something else, and I was in trouble. I knew that my previous message to England hadn't been particularly inspiring so I wrote him a long-winded piece about how I desperately needed him to aid me. He wrote me back saying that he was fighting Russia at the moment. I guess I should be happy that replied, but I still felt like my communication hadn't been the best. I wracked my brains for a better way to convince England to come bail me out, but I didn't know how to do it. I felt like a complete idiot.

France and I battled across the border without either of us making any progress until Austria came in from behind and wiped me out. He had already polished off Turkey with Russia's help, and I was just next on the list. I had never written to him the entire game. I don't think I persuaded anyone to do anything all game. I had failed completely.

It was then that I decided that I needed to learn how to persuade people in writing. I started looking online for negotiation strategies, and later sales letters, until I stumbled across the word to describe what I needed: copywriting. I needed to write copy that would convince these fellow gamers to help me in my goal of world domination. That's how I started reading all the articles entitled "7 ways to write better copy" and "copywriting 101."

Some of it was useful advice. I started to imagine ways I could show the other country that it was in its best interest to help me. Other advice wasn't that helpful. How was I supposed to offer convincing testimonials to another player in a game? How can you test your copy before sending it to your fellow players? How would my fellow players react to a letter entitled, "Reach 8 armies by 1904 or I'll let you have Holland!" "P.S. Limited time offer. You must respond now!" Would that be sufficiently diplomatic, or would it sound too much like a high-pressure sales letter?

How can you persuade someone to do what you want? How can you build trust in a game? How can you find out what your opponent's true motivations are?