Reflection on Risk

Soooo Risk.. I never thought it could possibly get this intense. For one, my team members, head of state and diplomat, didn’t tell us what was exactly on the paper and they led us to assume for the first rounds that we were only after Ukraine, and not the surrounding territories. It kind of worries me that they assume that they could create the best method of reaching that objective without the feedback from the rest of the team. I’m guessing that’s why a large part of our group meetings never made sense.

Then there was the “government crisis” and both of the representatives died. It honestly would have been incredibly beneficial if PTJ would have announced this way earlier. Once the new government took over, the previous allies did a 180 and declared war on the red team. Oh, and our old government had only left us with 3 territories, no resources or cities, and their secret weapon had already been used. In all, once I actually got into the game, I was heading toward disaster and the game wasn’t as fun as I hoped it would have been.

Then again, you begin to wonder whether or not World Politics is actually like this. You have a select group that you assign - oh hello Congress! - who decides what to do. I mean, you put them there. They should have your interests. Same thing happened with our group. We thought Gabe and Jesse would guide our team to victory.. but that didn't work out accordingly. It makes you think whether or not countries are really in it for their lust of power and glory rather than the well being of those they represent.  Then when those select are impeached or them term ends or they somehow mysteriously die, you have those who have to pick up after them and try to guide the group/country back on track. How many times hasn't this happened in history?

Overall, Diplomatic Risk got a five star rating on my behalf, despite "my" ultimate failure in the last day of the class session.