No Time Limit shouldn't mean Training Mode

[marta_night]

After several posts and 10 pages of a thread, I still really don’t understand the reasoning behind the change. BGA devs say it’s because the mods have to manually expel players from NTL games 10 times a day. Why do they do that?! Games expire after 40 days, and those who started NTL game should face the consequence as they’ve been warned before! Waiting a bit over a month doesn’t seem that catastrophic. On top of this, I have found the messages from BGA in this thread a bit weird, as if we couldn’t understand the basic implications and available alternatives. We do, they just don’t work for us! I know changes are being made to make users’ lives easier, but this time it’s just not a good one. We praise you when praise is due, please accept the criticism and discontent as well and reconsider.

[Praline]

Following along the thread but I have a general question for how things are operating now.

I typically only play games against my friends, with no time limit. It looks like they must now be created as "training mode" games. That's fine. However my friends live in different time zones, so I'll often create a game after a previous one ends, invite my friends, and then I log out they can accept throughout the day. It seems since this change was implemented that players can no longer accept the games if once I've logged off. Is this true and if so, how are the friends-only players handling this change?

[fargocyclone]

I've never posted before, but this topic has gotten me into the forum.

I do not like this change. I primarily only play no time limit games and only with RL friends. I'd like to play games with my friends which gain ELO, don't put count downs on my friends' turns, and don't give negative connotations to "running out of time" by showing red clocks or marking it in their profiles. People live busy lives and some just want to take a few moments some days to play some turns in their games to relax.

It seems this change is missing input from a demographic of users. Although it may solve some people's perceived issues, it throws the baby out with the bathwater and is not a great final solution. Please reinstate the option and consider other options to allow players to quit no time limit games if they're stuck. Maybe after a certain time period, a player could initiate a long countdown (several days) on an opponent's turn and if they don't acknowledge, the game is cancelled. Repeated acknowledges could result in disciplinary action and/or start to trigger losses in ELO.

P.S. I love BGA to the point of addiction, and have been a premium member for several years.

[Windrisen]

I've never posted before, but this topic has gotten me into the forum.

<SNIP>

P.S. I love BGA to the point of addiction, and have been a premium member for several years.

I am with you - I love BGA and the chance it gives me to play with friends whenever they have a moment.

You made some suggestions about how this can be resolved, but I just wanted to point out that the fix is already in.

Let's say you started a NTL game only with friends, and something happened to one of the friends so that they could never ever ever come back. What would happen? After 5 weeks (or so), the game would automatically be terminated. There is no "trap". There is no new code or interface that needs to be designed.

If this really was costing time and money for users who whine that they decided to join an NTL game and can't get out now, first of all, that isn't true. They will be automatically released after a while. And if the admins need to put any time into manually ending those games, I think the admins should simply ignore those requests. The warnings are clear. The are unambiguous, even if the "locked in forever" bit isn't actually true. And the consequences for people who do insist that they get their way - letting them out of a game they shouldn't have joined - is far outweighed by the majority of voices here asking to put this feature back for those of us who care.

At this point, I suspect most of the people who are vocally unhappy about this change are premium members (totally guessing here, of course), and that we already know that a NTL game might take weeks to go away, and we really just want this feature put back for the vast majority of posters here who prefer that option.

I hope the site admins are listening. This is such a minor change to reverse, it feels so unjustified to those of us who would never abuse it, and we've made our preferences and desires clear. So I hope they will listen to this community, and the users who really do care about this.

[Janabis]

Petite question : Pourquoi laisser la fonction "sans limite de temps" seulement en mode "entraînement" ? Est-ce que le problème décrit pour justifier sa suppression en mode normal n'est pas le même sous ce mode ?

[shrouded figure]

As an average, 10 issues each day, and considering this represent a really small number of games (the vast majority of no time limit are played in training mode), this is a lot.

If you want to have a look, here is the exact list of the 12 tables that have issues the day before we stop this feature: 326045720, 326015675, 326009099,
325961184, 325945673, 325920427, 325851822, 325831954, 325801249, 325793197, 325793330, 325776954.

So yeah, 10 times a day, players were losing ELO and got penalties because they were "trapped" into a game without time limit, despite they are playing with friends.

11 out of 12 of those tables were real-time tables.
The reason players were "trapped" was because they cannot start another real-time game when the no time limit RT table is still ongoing.

There is no such limitation for turn-based tables. Even if someone is maliciously refusing to make a move on a turn-based table, it doesn't affect other tables. Besides, no time limit turn-based tables will be automatically closed after a certain period of inactivity.

For this reason, I do agree with the rationale for removing this option for real-time tables, however,
I would like to ask that you consider keeping "No Time Limit - Friends Only" option for turn-based tables.

[nik592]

11 out of 12 of those tables were real-time tables.
The reason players were "trapped" was because they cannot start another real-time game when the no time limit RT table is still ongoing.

How can you tell they were real-time? As the no time limit setting appears below all the turn-based time settings, I always assumed it was turn-based only. I'm not sure why anyone would start a real-time game with no time limit... In any case, as you suggest, reinstating no time limit for turn-based only would solve the issues presented here.

[shrouded figure]

How can you tell they were real-time? As the no time limit setting appears below all the turn-based time settings, I always assumed it was turn-based only. I'm not sure why anyone would start a real-time game with no time limit... In any case, as you suggest, reinstating no time limit for turn-based only would solve the issues presented here.

I looked at the tables and many of the listed game duration were below 10min. That would only make sense if it was real-time. No one would rationally quit a turn-based game just because someone didn't move for 3min, and even if they did it would be their own fault.

It is possible to create real-time game with no time limit. Played one before.

[fmiskolc]

Premium User and first time poster here adding my voice requesting the reversal of this change.

As all the points seem to have already been made I don't think I'll be able to add anything else, but this change seems to make most users almost universally unhappy. So what's the point of the change? It is simply annoying and the benefits are minimal. I would rather BGA you focus your efforts in updating the maddeningly confusing game start menus (especially not letting us set up the parameters of a game before people can join - nothing more annoying then a friend accepting a game before I set up the board!)

Anyhow, I think the community has spoken and it would be much appreciated by all of us I think if we got some constructive comments and feedback from the admins addressing our concerns instead of repeating the same points over and over again.

ps. BGA - we do LOVE YOU. That's why we're so upset! You do amazing work and it truly is what's keeping my diverse group of friends all over the world in touch. And the reason we provide this feedback is to help grow this amazing thing we have together!

[cleopatra]

As already listed by many before me, I also oppose this change. I can't say it more eloquently than has already been done, just want to voice my opinion as a customer. Thanks for all you do.