You’re losing, they’re lagging.. so just expel them to avoid a loss????!!!!

[nik592]

Years ago BGA used to include this information alongside the speed settings and you could see it when setting up or joining a game table. I wish it was still there, because I found it useful. But it's not, so I found this roundabout way to get the info. I use it to estimate if I'm likely to be able to keep up in a slow or normal speed real time game without just trying one out (and potentially giving myself a very stressful time, as well as annoying other people). Perhaps it may help you as well.

You can still see this, you just need to create your games via the old lobby ("Play Now") rather than the game pages.

I always use the old lobby, I just looked again and can't see it anywhere. Where is it? Or is it not visible to me because I'm using a mobile browser to access BGA?

If you create a table from there, you can see the times, or if you use the "View" button for a table created by someone else. It's basically on the table detail, not on the lobby page itself, if that makes sense.

[jesslc]

I looked in the table details - made a real time table but didn't open it to other players, just to check. Looked everywhere. Perhaps it's a mobile browser issue. I hardly ever use BGA on my PC but I'll try to remember to check if the exact time info is visible there.

[nik592]

I looked in the table details - made a real time table but didn't open it to other players, just to check. Looked everywhere. Perhaps it's a mobile browser issue. I hardly ever use BGA on my PC but I'll try to remember to check if the exact time info is visible there.

OK, I pulled out my mobile and you're right, it doesn't show there (I do play there regularly, but almost never create/join my games there). OK, that's irritating. It does show on desktop for sure - I didn't expect there'd be a difference as it's literally one line of text (so hardly going to cause much drama with the screen layout).

[sesc]

I find the comparison the chess difficult.

In chess, the clock is part of the official rules.

You find it difficult because you don't understand it. The clock is not part of the official rules of Chess, it is part of the rules of specific contexts in which Chess is played (tournaments or clubs) like the timer is part of the rules of this specific context (BGA), the two are exactly equivalent.

That is not correct. The official rules of chess contain rules about the chess clock. See here: https://www.fide.com/FIDE/handbook/LawsOfChess.pdf
Article 6 is the one.

[yaya17]

What were the time settings ?

[detlefchef11]

I find the comparison the chess difficult.

In chess, the clock is part of the official rules.

You find it difficult because you don't understand it. The clock is not part of the official rules of Chess, it is part of the rules of specific contexts in which Chess is played (tournaments or clubs) like the timer is part of the rules of this specific context (BGA), the two are exactly equivalent.

That is not correct. The official rules of chess contain rules about the chess clock. See here: https://www.fide.com/FIDE/handbook/LawsOfChess.pdf
Article 6 is the one.

Your link basically makes their point as the part about the clock is not included in the part about the primary rules, but rather in a part under "competition". It even uses language like "when using a chess clock" which implies it's a device that is not always used. Which, of course, is true as I have played tons of untimed games in my life.

[sesc]

You find it difficult because you don't understand it. The clock is not part of the official rules of Chess, it is part of the rules of specific contexts in which Chess is played (tournaments or clubs) like the timer is part of the rules of this specific context (BGA), the two are exactly equivalent.

That is not correct. The official rules of chess contain rules about the chess clock. See here: https://www.fide.com/FIDE/handbook/LawsOfChess.pdf
Article 6 is the one.

Your link basically makes their point as the part about the clock is not included in the part about the primary rules, but rather in a part under "competition". It even uses language like "when using a chess clock" which implies it's a device that is not always used. Which, of course, is true as I have played tons of untimed games in my life.

The rules allow play without a clock, but rules about the clock are part of the official rules. In other games, the rule books usually do not mention any clocks.
Maybe that is a bit nitpicky, but to me that still makes a difference.

[detlefchef11]

That is not correct. The official rules of chess contain rules about the chess clock. See here: https://www.fide.com/FIDE/handbook/LawsOfChess.pdf
Article 6 is the one.

Your link basically makes their point as the part about the clock is not included in the part about the primary rules, but rather in a part under "competition". It even uses language like "when using a chess clock" which implies it's a device that is not always used. Which, of course, is true as I have played tons of untimed games in my life.

The rules allow play without a clock, but rules about the clock are part of the official rules. In other games, the rule books usually do not mention any clocks.
Maybe that is a bit nitpicky, but to me that still makes a difference.

Fair enough.

But, back to the topic at hand. If the OP finds themselves in this situation often enough that it's worth complaining about, perhaps they should reconsider playing RT games. Problem solved. I don't often play them because I don't want to find myself in that position.

[Kayvon]

That horrible human

At the risk of sounding like an after-school special, have you considered that respect needs to go both ways?

Calling someone "horrible" for following the site guidelines is an awful quick judgement, especially for someone whose recent history includes 11 different games where you've gone overtime and three more games where you just abandoned the game entirely. It's not exactly a consideration approach.

[Kruszer]

That horrible human

At the risk of sounding like an after-school special, have you considered that respect needs to go both ways?

Calling someone "horrible" for following the site guidelines is an awful quick judgement, especially for someone whose recent history includes 11 different games where you've gone overtime and three more games where you just abandoned the game entirely. It's not exactly a consideration approach.

For the record, I've never even once in my entire BGA life abandoned a game. If you've been on BGA for any length of time, you should already know that you get penalized the exact same for games in the arena that never actually start.

If you're trying to play a less popular game with few players and you launch a game search in the arena, you often will end up waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting... you can end up waiting up to an hour or more sometimes. If during that time you happen to have forgotten you'd launched a search and walked away from your computer to use the bathroom, or if you're on another tab and the notification didn't chime for whatever reason... unless the person who arrived 50 minutes after you launched the game search switches it to turn-based, they can expel you after a few minutes of your absence and "win" that way. It's commonly done in the arena and it really stinks! Look for yourself at the games you claim I "abandoned". They never got started. I was never there or even aware that they had launched.

The only other exception is the most recent one, where I was actively playing and the aforementioned person kept hitting expel as soon as the additional ten seconds were up once I'd timed out. I never left the game, I was just playing slow enough that after a while the game timed out. They attempted to expel me again and again and again even as I was actively trying to play my turns in ten seconds each time - and I'm still mad about it. I do think it's horrible to do that to people who are still very much present and trying to play. I don't care that BGA says you techinically can. It's not nice and doesn't meet the BGA standard of "creating a pleasant and enjoyable environment for everyone".

In either case... that's definitely not me "abandoning the game entirely" so please spare me the judgment!

As to the time-outs, I make no apologies for those. I socialize with people in the chat and I often time-out as we talk. I play for fun and socializing. 90% of the time it's when I'm playing with friends I know IRL, and as soon as that happens to one of us we'll switch to turn-based just to lose that obnoxious tick tocking timer.

Things aren't always what you think they are.