About war in Ukraine

[Polegge]

I cancelled my Premium membership: it will not be renewed this time.
I don't want to give money to a place where Putin's fans can play, with their Russian flag, as if nothing horrible was happening.
Moreover, my question about Ukrainian premium members who gave up playing because of the war, but had no time to cancel their subscription, is still without answer. Someone proposed, in this forum, to give free premium account to all Ukrainian players, but BGA prefers earning money from automatically renewed Ukrainian premium memberships.
Peace

[voriki]

Moreover, my question about Ukrainian premium members who gave up playing because of the war, but had no time to cancel their subscription, is still without answer. Someone proposed, in this forum, to give free premium account to all Ukrainian players, but BGA prefers earning money from automatically renewed Ukrainian premium memberships.

They could still amend it, and give a refund to all payments that came from a Ukrainian payment source, as this is the only valid way how to identify a Ukranian member. Many have changed their nationalities on their profiles to Ukranian as support, so that is now a whole grey area.
I do hoppe they do this somehow, if feasable.

[Anoburp]

I'm disappointed in BGA. It's time for solidarity with Ukraine.
I was off-line for the last two months, but when I came back to play on BGA and found Ruzzian players it felt morally wrong. Here we are, playing a game and Ruzzia is bombing and committing atrocities and threatening WWIII. I'm not saying that the USA, Britain or other countries have not done this. I'm just saying, that just because other countries have committed atrocities, does not mean that it is therefore right to do so.
And as far as I know, USA or the West have never publicly threatened using nukes against other countries, like Putler has.
BGA, stop acting as if nothing is happening and act.

[DomitienAW]

Why are global BGA players being penalised if they don't want to play games with Russian soldiers using BGA in their downtime?

I understand that BGA has taken a decision to continue to allow Russian players to use the site.

For those us us playing a live game, you can choose whether to go ahead once you see the players who have accepted, so if you don't want to play with Russians you don't have to. But in a turn based game if you create the game, a Russian can join and you have no choice but to play, unless they agree to terminate the game - this means that you are then forced to play the game or take a penalty if they choose not to terminate.

Even FIFA, which doesn't have the best track record has banned Russia - and for good reason - if you look at Russia's horrendous actions, it seems immoral to push them to one side and say "hey, how about a game of football, wouldn't that be fun?"

I feel the same way about BGA - it is true that there are those within Russia who may disapprove of Russia's current actions who use BGA, but it is just as true that Russian soldiers may be using it in their downtime in-between murdering civilians.

Unless BGA can do target these two groups, a blanket ban should be put in place. And if for some reason BGA thinks it has a better approach to sanctions than many governments that are resourced to think about these things, at the very least, non-Russian players should not be penalised for not wanting to play with Russian players at turn based games.

+1, soft power is a form of action

[antyshmara]

Thanks BGA for adequacy. As a person with friends from Ukraine i can tell that the are too many fakes that makes people hate each other. The true peacelovers never hates anybody especially when people have not done anything to have this.

*Moderator removed part of this post for Insults. Please remember to keep the discussion polite, insults will be penalized.

[Pushkiin]

Thanks BGA for adequacy. As a person with friends from Ukraine i can tell that the are too many fakes that makes people hate each other. The true peacelovers never hates anybody especially when people have not done anything to have this.
Why do you russian haters type all of this? What have you done to stop genocide? With hate? You rly think it will change something? Nope. You're just silly people who can't control emotions behave worse than animals. You're not people. You don't want peace. You're disgusting.

This post is a good example of a typical Russian response to the war. First, they try to provoke you by calling you names, express no signs of accountability, mention Ukrainian "friends" to gain credibility and then they claim that they are for peace while saying everything in a hateful language.

What amazes me the most so far in this thread is that I have not seen a single Russian who was in favour for any action on BGA even a very minimal one with very little consequences. They don't come with alternative suggestions and are critical of anything that is being suggested.

Again, Russians, your country is committing genocide against Ukrainian people, your soldiers have raped and killed Ukrainian women and children, your solders robbed and stolen in the name of saving Ukrainians, your president currently supported by 83% of Russians threatened Ukraine and the world with nuclear annihilation. You should be at least embarrassed of your flag and your country, even of your patriotism while while these atrocities and actions are going on and if you are serious about your anti-genocide position, start suggesting the type of actions you would be okay on BGA.

[Anoburp]

Antyshmara from Russia, I think you are confused or have been led to believe that Russia is "saving" Ukraine.

This is incorrect, just like there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq when the United States attacked them, Ukraine did not deserve to be invaded by Russia. Americans were duped into agreeing to attack Iraq just like Russians are being duped now. What is different, is that American soldiers did not enter Iraq to kill all Iraqis as Russia is doing now with all Ukrainians. Russia is committing genocide, raping, killing, stealing in Ukraine. It is shameful and deplorable.
If you have friends that ARE Ukrainian IN Ukraine you should talk to them. I'm sure you will get very different news than what you are getting from your television or controlled internet.

What will it take for BGA to stop allowing Russians from playing on this site? A nuclear bomb, total out war with the West?
Raping, pillaging, torturing, leveling cities is not enough?
Shooting down passenger planes (MH17), supporting Al Asad in Syria, jailing protesters and political dissidents(Aleksei Navalny), interfering in the democratic process(US/Canada/Brexit), the list goes on and on...

Please let us know what your "red" line is BGA?

[Pelleban]

Ban the Russian flag but let players play as long as they can be humble about the fact that their dictator is invading a democracy and comitting genocide aginst civilians. The propaganda in Russia is strong and efficient and many actually believe Russia is saving Ukraine. But for the love of god don't let the innocent Ukrainians trying to play be faced with their oppressors flag in game.

[Silene]

I think the flag is merely the information of where somebody is from. People shouldn't be forced to lie about where they come from. Putting in your correct home-nation does not equal "proudly waving your nation's flag".

Maybe the best solution is to stop showing flags on the player-panel during games. Show spoken languages instead: just a simple text-line like "en fr de" or something like that. Because that's what matters for communication on the table.

[Pushkiin]

Another option is to replace Russian flag with the white blue white Russian peace flag : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White-blue-white_flag

Or at least add the flag to to the BGA list of flags - there would need to be a statement explaining the reason, encouraging Russian players to switch the flags in their profile if they are against the genocide in Ukraine.

Folks who have the original Russian flag in their profile should be banned from participating in any tournaments on BGA.