Activity Levels

In my current game I find myself wondering how many active players there are. Part of me is curious, and part of me feels like I shouldn't really want to know. Is it legitimate to ask for a "hands up" (which could only be voluntary of course)? How do folks feel about this?

My sense is that if you watch the paper, you can tell who is active.

I don't think Richard does much with the inactive positions, so while they may sometimes show up in the paper, mostly they don't.

Agree the paper is an excellent medium for monitoring literally how "active" players are (ship and ambassador movements especially) - but I always have (or in my current game at least) a nagging feeling that there are others who don't engage with the press (and maybe don't have much of a navy, or send out many ambassadors), who play their cards close to their chest. It could be just a figment of my imagination, of course; or proof of the spell that Richard weaves. (I also know that on occasion my own ambassadorial missions, and ship-movements have gone un-noted.)

In game 8, france is apparently played, but no diplomacy, and almost no paper activity, so you do have a point that the paper isn't perfect.

I must admit whilst I tend to assess who is active and who isn't by looking at the paper though like Jim I often suspect there are a few 'hidden' players at work.

Going off at a slight tangent, at one stage when a new player joined a game it used to be made a lot clearer in the game paper (news article ending with the line X has a new player). I liked it because it was an easy way of introducing a new player to the rest of the game and as most established players then sent a 'welcome' letter I think it helped make new players feel part of the game.