Bring back Turn Based "No Time Limit + Friends Only"

[Jellby]

A question/suggestion from someone who has never played a NTL game: Can't you, once the game has started, switch it to turn-based mode? You know, in the "hamburger" menu, where you can propose abandonment and so on...

[nik592]

I believe you can propose to switch to turn-based, but this implies that the players understand that their training mode game is in real-time, not turn-based mode, which most don't realise until it boots everyone after 4 hours with no moves (or even after that point, many are still confused, understandably).

[msclark]

Just want to throw another data point out here. Not that I expect it to achieve a lot coming on page 18, but I don't think I've seen it mentioned.

My friends and I play real-time games fairly regularly but we used to select no time limit because a) we might spend 20 minutes at the start teaching the rules, b) we might need to go and get a beer during a longer game, or c) maybe we just want to pause the game and have a chat. We don't really care if people play slowly, so forcing a timer on them seems unnecessary. And I don't think we're particularly unusual in this respect.

Now there are of course solutions to this, as have been pointed out many times. We could start a training mode game to teach the rules and then abandon it to start the real game - a little fiddly and annoying. We could play the whole game in training mode, even though we kinda like the Elo and are a fairly competitive group. Or we could play it as a turn-based game. This last option is what we've been doing, except I inevitably forget, create a real-time game and then the lobby doesn't let you switch it to turn-based for some reason, so you have to start the game and then switch it to turn-based, let everyone vote on it, have the page reload and then you're in - a very simple elegant system. And this is a minor thing, but you then also get an email when you finish the game, even though you're logged in and can see it finished.

So my question to the admins is: is this really what you intended? Your recommended method for people to play real-time games here is for them to select the option to create a turn-based game? Do you think that is good UX design?

[Tan Coul]

Just to add, I am in the exact same boat as msclark, the change is more of an annoyance to me than a killer, but it's still an annoyance that didn't need to be added (as are the constant notifications that pop up telling me it's my turn, though if it was just that I wouldn't be complaining that muxh)

[Windrisen]

OMG I now understand all the complaints much better. It blows my mind that admins have not addressed that point specifically but rather just wrote, "Change to training mode." Of course people are getting confused.

Thank you SO much for explaining that! I've been confused about your stance and wondered where you were coming from.

I know several people, including myself, have said they are not going to renew their premium membership when they expire. And I know we've had two forums with 17 pages (this one will go over, I expect, and maybe they will lock it, too), with people saying exactly what we want. Which is exactly what we had before:

-> Friends Only
-> No Time Limit
-> Normal (not Training)
-> Turn Based Games

We've all said that we are cool with the admins no longer unlocking games where people abandoned (to address the "trapped" problem, which doesn't seem real, anyway. We were warned when we asked for NTL). Once any game hits 40 days, it is removed (and I believe that is true for Training and Normal games, but I don't know for sure, since that has rarely happened to me) so nobody really gets "trapped".

One consequence of Training versus Normal is that you no longer get Gift Points, and I have to wonder if this is the *sole* reason why the site admins want this to go away. It hardly seems worth disrupting your user base for this sort of thing, however. But it does cost them money.

I have to wonder how much money they will lose if their premium members stop supporting the site? And does it matter? Asmodee has a giant pile of cash, so maybe this site (and salaries and such) doesn't depend on a vibrant and supportive user community? I doubt that, but maybe that's the problem?

For some users, this may never be an issue. For those of us who very vocally care about this, just imagine the good will the admins will generate by listening to our polite requests that we have this functionality returned? Don't we all want happy and supportive users?

[LoudLibrarian]

Bring this back! What is the hold up? We have explained how we all want it back! We email! We post! We express our hatred for this new way and yet you do nothing! Do you want players on BGA?

[T72on1]

The least that can be done by BGA is a response here, with a reaction to the general gist of the posts here.

[LoudLibrarian]

Why is it so hard to bring back no time limit???
HOW HARD IS THIS???? We are mad about the change, and we want no time limit (NOT TRAINING MODE) back! Look at how many people want it back....a few complained about being locked into a game...why did they pick no time limit in the first place? FIX THIS!!!!!

[Meeplelowda]

The least that can be done by BGA is a response here, with a reaction to the general gist of the posts here.

Is anyone aware of a way to receive notifications from a forum thread only when certain people reply? I keep popping back in whenever this gets bumped thinking maybe this will be the time when a response is posted. Nope.

[T72on1]

No clue. I don't immediately see it in the options.