You really should give play by email a chance. It can be great fun. Games usually take a few months, with turns generally once a week, sometimes every two weeks. While you could invest more, it certainly doesn't need to take up more than an hour or so a week of your time. In fact... I may have to see if I can find a game now. It's been a few years!
I dunno I'm kind of hesitant to do that because I'm much better face to face and appealing to emotion than I am writing out convincing speeches to get people to support me but you and the above commentor convinced me so I'll have a look around when I get my holidays soon
I used to play at DipWorld, but it looks like it's a lot less active lately. It appears that the most active community now is at the Diplomatic Pouch. The site design leaves something to be desired, but after some clicking around, this appears to be a decent place for a new player to start: http://www.diplom.org/Email/
