Major improvement about quitting players

[sourisdudesert]

Everyone of you, has played at least once against an opponent that finally left the game before the end.

This is very frustrating, and this is why Board Game Arena introduced a long time ago many tools to avoid this (ex: leave penalties). Thanks to this system, more than 98% of games started on BGA come to a normal end, and we are very proud of that.

However, the current system has some major flaws.

At first, when you have a temporary Internet issue, your opponent expels you from the game and you have no way to get back if your Internet problem is fixed.

Then, some (very bad) players are quitting games when they are losing, because they prefer to get a penalty instead of loosing some precious ELO points.

Finally, the whole system is based on 2 time limits (your time to think, plus a time limit per move) and complex expelling rules that a lot of you find confusing.

Few month ago, we post a message on BGA Facebook account to propose you a new way to handle these players, and you were very excited about it. We are proud today to introduce it.

The new rules are very simple:
* There is now a unique time limit for each player of a game.
* As soon as a player is out of time (ex: because he left the game), you can make him skip his turn.
* If this player get back in the game, he can continue to play normally.
* In any case, the game continue to the end, and ELO points are scored.
* You can also choose to abandon the game: a player out of time automatically accept to abandon the game.

This way, this is really unuseful to quit a game to avoid a defeat, and if you are disconnected during few minutes you can try to join again the game.

We hope that you'll find this new system clear and useful. Don't hesitate to post a comment if anything is unclear.

Enjoy!

[Fishwick]

Nice to see something being done even if most players are good and considerate here. Will obviously be great for games with long turns in cases of disconnection.

A lot of games (especially 2 player) I can't really see how it will work.

Just wondering how it will work, for example in hearts?

If their turn is skipped do they take the trick? Do you have to wait for them every trick (EDIT: Actually I guess it will be just every time they get into the negative)?

Another thing, I got a slow player marker based on an individual first time play of Thermopyles. Can these be removed for solo plays? Doesn't make much sense, I'm not making anyone wait.

[Snepsnep]

That's a very welcome change.
One thing that bugs me though. If a player leaves, keeps you waiting long, prevents elogains etc etc. and is removed from the game.
Afterwards you can't "dislike" them because "you didn't play a game with that player"

[Irreversible]

That seems very fair! This way the winner earns ELo and quitter loses ELO and also respect.
But, think also abt times when you lose internet and are not able to connect in few minutes?
Laptop is down, or anything else...there must be something like 1,2,3 quits per month that are not influencing ELO or negative evaluation.

[sourisdudesert]

Just wondering how it will work, for example in hearts?

The mechanism is specific to each game and correspond exactly to the old "zombie" feature that was activated when someone was expelled from a game.

I got a slow player marker based on an individual first time play of Thermopyles. Can these be removed for solo plays? Doesn't make much sense, I'm not making anyone wait.

You are right, this is going to be fixed.

Afterwards you can't "dislike" them because "you didn't play a game with that player"

This should be fine now, as the game goes until the end.

But, think also abt times when you lose internet and are not able to connect in few minutes?

In this case you get a penalty and deserve it: there is no way we can distinguish between these case and a "rage quit".

[Babyrhinorainbows]

I have no interest in playing a game when the other player isn't there, so I will probably just mutual abandon all the games my opponent times out in. This means that there is no punishment in disconnecting from my opponents perspective. A little weird.

[sourisdudesert]

This means that there is no punishment in disconnecting from my opponents perspective. A little weird.

There is: your opponent will get a "red clock" penalty. Before that he would have received a "red leave" penalty. This is quite the same.

[Babyrhinorainbows]

This means that there is no punishment in disconnecting from my opponents perspective. A little weird.

There is: your opponent will get a "red clock" penalty. Before that he would have received a "red leave" penalty. This is quite the same.

That is true. But before their ELO rating would have gone down too, which is a much better detractor for disconnecting in my opinion.

[sourisdudesert]

which is a much better detractor for disconnecting in my opinion.

True. So this is your choice now: continue the game until the end and penalize them with ELO, or just abandon and penalize them only with clock penalty.

[EllieK]

Major Improvement? What needed improving?

I see no improvement at all with this system and in many ways it detracts from your site. I am currently in a Targi game (Table n°12152196 Move n°81 Progression: 34%) and my opponent claims his boss has arrived. He rudely left the game, allowing the timer to expire and now I can do nothing.

I get the error "This Action (Zombie Pass) Is impossible at this state (10)". He gets to play his little game and I'm left take the hit in reputation, not funny. I'm sure if I choose to abandon the game I'll be the penalized player.

What was wrong with the previous system? Who cried about it and caused you to thoughtlessly implement a new, untestested system whereby rude players can now "game" the whole site.

This is the second time the system has been gamed by unscrupulous players and I'm left TO TAKE THE REPUTATION HIT. Please fix this.