The Diplomacy hobby has a few different fan-supported publications that make the rounds: "The Diplomatic Pouch" and "Diplomacy World" are two examples in the online newsletter space, and Chris Martin's Youtube channel covers a good chunk of the face-to-face happenings in the hobby.
What's not quite as well-covered, and what Kaner & Amby provide here, is a window into Diplomacy as it is most frequently played, via web-based interfaces. Though their expertise is primarily from webDiplomacy and vDiplomacy, they've been branching out to other sites as well like PlayDiplomacy.
Where I find the most benefit from "Diplomacy Games" is the focus on variants. Many Diplomacy players (like the aforementioned Chris Martin) are purists; they only really like the original game, and they don't spend a lot of time with variants.
However, there are quite a few of us that see Diplomacy as a sort of family of rules (or platform) with which you can play multiple scenarios. For us, we're always looking for new variants with interesting rules and subject matters. Kaner & Amby cover those in decent detail, and it's fun to hear the gears turning as they discuss a new and interesting map or ruleset.
I have a couple criticisms of the cast, but nothing serious.
1) It's can be a little disorganized.
- Though Amby & Kaner always have a rough outline of what they want to discuss in an episode, the coverage can be a bit more stream-of-consciousness than I care for.
- However, the Full Description of each episode gives useful timestamps on a topic-by-topic breakdown, so it's easy to skip long sections for topics less to my interest.
2) The background noise can be distracting.
- They record their shows inside their favorite Australian bars, so you'll get periodic crowd noise and road noise.
- It definitely gives the cast a bit of charm, so it's not a huge negative.
