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Comment on Ask HN: how can I practice negotiation?

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Might be a bit off the wall, but playing strategy games has helped my negotiation skills fairly substantially. Anything where you sit down and hammer out alliances/agreements with other players, so Diplomacy (both face-to-face and online), Settlers (face-to-face; online tends to be a bit boring) and other more hard core ones like Olympia and Atlantis.

Alternatively, head down to your local markets around closing time :)

I don't think that's an off the wall idea but I haven't felt my negotiation skills improved from that. With games, there is less on the line so I'm more inclined to push back as well as have far less hesitation to walk away from a deal.

Depends on the game, how seriously you take it and how seriously the other players take it. Some of the play by email games that I've played in run for more than 12 months (with weekly turns), and the negotiations over borders, terms and conditions put the Cold War to shame.

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