Although I appreciate that subterfuge and diplomacy are two of the main facets of standard game play, I do find at times that working through all the communications can be a bit more involved than i have time for.

It is also difficult for me to coordinate at times as I cannot use my phone during work, or overnight.

I would be very interested to be able to set up games with normal rules, except they would have the whole of chat turned off completely. (Or perhaps everything except for the public chat)

They would be anonymous.

I.e. Stripping the game back to the mechanics and removing the diplomatic element almost entirely.

Although this would not be a primary game mode, it would make for a nice distraction when wishing to practice game strategy in a simpler environment.

Perhaps these games might not be able to be rated, as they may be strategically different from standard games and may therefore be viewed as an inferior experience overall.

Just a thought

I actually would quite like this...

Before anonymous mode was implemented, we did two "experiment" games where all players in a game simply agreed to only talk through public chat. (Put it in the name of the game.)

There was one game with only regular forum visitors. Check:
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1410
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1356
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1416
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1417
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1418
for the opinions of the people involved.

There's also this topic:
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1415&p=9271
where in the end I give a short account of a game with only 2 forum regulars and 6 people who didn't know each other.

I know this is not the official implementation that you're looking for, but you could try it this way already.

I may put this up as an experiment for the ESG series, but feel free to organize your own game

Thanks for your replies, really helpful.
I will finish the games I am in and see if I can get enough interest to start a game up

I like this idea too.

I like it. I also like the idea of minimal communication. Like 1 message per day or something.

I'd just like to say that I played in the Public Chat only game, and it was horribly tedious. Diplomacy was almost nonexistent, and while strategy is a very important part of this game, it isn't chess. While others will feel differently, I think that communication is much to important to this game to be removed, as half of the strategy is in diplomacy. Without it, the game seems quite dry.