No Time Limit shouldn't mean Training Mode

[sourisdudesert]

Following today's update (and as announced before in this thread), this text should answer your questions

About "No time limit" and "Training mode"


If you play a game without time limit, you cannot expel players. It also mean that you are "trapped" in the game if the others players cannot play. This is why "no time limit" should be only played in game with "no penalties" and "no ELO": this way, you can leave the game anytime without any damage to your reputation or rankings. And this is exactly what "training mode" provides: a safe way to play with "no time limit".

We let the possibility, in "old" lobby, to play without time limit and without the ELO, and it was probably a mistake for the reason explained just before. This possibility has been removed today.

If you want to want to play with "no time limit", we now encourage you to play using "Training mode" ("infinite sign" in the new lobby), which is the safest way to play this way.

If you really want to play have a ELO gain/loss after your game, we now encourage you to create a Turn based game with the slowest speed (1 move every 2 days). If you were used to use "Normal mode + no time limit", it makes practically no difference: even if some of your opponents goes over their time limit (which is pretty high), you are absolutely not forced to expel them. However, the improvement compared to the previous situation is that you still have the possibility to expel a non-playing player in case it is needed.

[somukeru]

Was any research actually done on whether more people want to play in an unlimited time game that counts for ELO purposes than fear getting trapped in an unlimited time game?

I quite often use the unlimited mode, because I play against several regular opponents (all of us premium payers, for what that's worth) who are sometimes unavailable for days at a time. I only use that mode with people I trust, and have literally never been trapped.

Sometimes it feels as if BGA is going for the lowest common denominator: because a few people were apparently incapable of reading the game settings and thus ended up in endless games with people they didn't know, the rest of us who want to make an informed decision about this option will soon no longer be able to.

Completely agree. We play as a group of friends all the time with no time limit and I am peeved to see that option go. BGA can say "oh, you can just play this and that way at it is almost the same", but I cannot help feeling that a useful and reasonable option has just been removed without due consideration.

[truehobbit]

I dislike the change a lot and don't understand the reasoning for it.

We always play with actual, real life friends in a different country in real time and enjoy the "ELO" you get or lose. We do, however, sometimes take our time for chatting or just planning a move and don't like to feel rushed to make a move, so we always play without time limit. It's because we don't play competitively that we dislike the clock ticking away in the background - but we still enjoy the ELO-rewards a lot.

If you play in Real Time mode and with friends only, it seems to me impossible that you should get "trapped" - "friends" means it's people you know and trust and 'real time' means you are all playing while all players are actually there - so, if someone abandons a game without explanations, they are obviously not a friend.
So this change is just taking a fun element away from honest players in order to stop a few dishonest ones, which is very sad.

[Jellby]

We always play with actual, real life friends in a different country in real time and enjoy the "ELO" you get or lose.

You can still play real time, even if the game is formally turn-based, just don't leave the game page and keep playing.

If you play in Real Time mode and with friends only, it seems to me impossible that you should get "trapped"

Actually, it's in real time games that you get trapped, because you can't just forget and play another game (in turn-based games you can). And friends, real or not, can also have emergencies, blackouts, network issues, computer crashes, etc.

[Claire TJ]

I echo what truehobbit and others have said above - THIS *. In my house, we don’t just use BGA to *play* games, but to catch up with friends and have a chat while playing - just like we would in real life. So that inevitably means that some turns take a really long time.

I don’t want to have to learn a new way of setting games up just because BGA has decided it doesn’t work for a few people. It worked fine as it was for me and many others. Change it back to how it was, please!

*Moderator edit: please refrain from swearing on BGA, this is a family-friendly platform.

[Meeplelowda]

As noted in the latest BGA release note:

If you really want to play have a ELO gain/loss after your game, we now encourage you to create a Turn based game with the slowest speed (1 move every 2 days). If you were used to use "Normal mode + no time limit", it makes practically no difference: even if some of your opponents goes over their time limit (which is pretty high), you are absolutely not forced to expel them. However, the improvement compared to the previous situation is that you still have the possibility to expel a non-playing player in case it is needed.

[Peter D Switzerland]

Like many commenting here, I always play with friends (almost all are premium members) and we play with "no time limit" because we like to chat as we play and are happy for people to stop and think, or go and deal with a problem around the house etc. We always finish games in one evening, so the "turn based" settings will probably work for us, but this is just really irritating - we didn't and don't like having the clock ticking away, but are very competitive about ELOs and so forth. Please reconsider this change.

[Miftis]

I don't like this change. 1 move every 2 days is still not a long time limit for some of my friends. Even though the clock is meaningless if we choose not to expel, it's still there and causes some people anxiety that we should not have to deal with. Turn based games always timed out after 30 days of inactivity anyway, how is that not good enough. This change make it feel like we have to choose between having the clock hanging over our heads or having the games not feel as meaningful with no ratings. Please change it back or create a much longer time limit, like 1 move every 30 days.

[marta_night]

I don’t like it at all! I play a lot with my RL friend and whenever I learn a new game, I set up a no time limit game. When he has free time he learns it too and jumps in. It’s super comfortable and it * that you want to remove it. I think you warn players about it enough and we are all doing it at our own risk.

*Moderator edit: please refrain from swearing on BGA, this is a family-friendly platform.

[Annalynn]

I agree with others this is a very frustrating change. I have a friend that is very ill and often cannot play often. We also typically have several different games going at one. The slowest turned based option would still result in them going over the time. Though it doesn't show them kicked it does show they were late on their turns. And I don't like not allowing us to gain/lose ELO on our games either, as they are legitimate competitive games amongst friends and that is really the only type of game I play. It made sense restricting it to friends only. Then it is on you and your friends if you get stuck in a game but I only do that with people I know and who I can bug to play irl.