Community consensus / unwritten rules about blocking?

[ManonIronteeth]

We must agree to disagree because it can be done in a malicious manner when your are purposefully blocking multiple routes.

I find that two player is where people maliciously block the most anyways. So it’s a good thing that’s Arena.

It's not "malicious" to play by the rules and play to win.

Arena games are only available in two-player at the moment; suggesting all serious play take place in Arena is silly.

[dhnyny]

We must agree to disagree because it can be done in a malicious manner when your are purposefully blocking multiple routes.

I find that two player is where people maliciously block the most anyways. So it’s a good thing that’s Arena.

It's not "malicious" to play by the rules and play to win.

Arena games are only available in two-player at the moment; suggesting all serious play take place in Arena is silly.

The word "malicious" has come up a lot in these discussions. I think part of the reason we're arguing is that we aren't being careful about our word choice. One person describes something as "malicious" and others say it's not "malicious" and nobody is actually defining their terms. So we're speaking past each other rather than having a dialog.

Let's agree on terms.

"Malicious" means intending to do harm. It also means spiteful. I hope we can agree that it's not possible to do harm while playing this game. But perhaps it's possible to be spiteful. "Spite" is the desire to hurt or humiliate another person. I don't exactly see how you could humiliate another player by blocking but I guess if you're trying to make the other player miserable and you're not trying to win, you could be said to be trying to hurt that person, meaning that you're being "spiteful" or "malicious." But if you're trying to frustrate another player's strategy and ruin everything they are trying to do in order to win the game rather than simply in order to make your opponent miserable, I'd say you're not being "malicious."

"Malice" and "spite" are all about intent. You can't assume someone's intent from their behavior. You need communication in order to understand intent.

[thg0724]

We must agree to disagree because it can be done in a malicious manner when your are purposefully blocking multiple routes.

I find that two player is where people maliciously block the most anyways. So it’s a good thing that’s Arena.

I believe that blocking is a part of the game. I will readily admit that in a game with three or more players being blocked can feel like being picked on. But, in a two player game there is no "king making" possible. If someone blocks you in a two player game and you lose, it was incontrovertibly a good game strategy, ie not malicious. Perhaps, as dhnyny says, it's a problem of semantics.

[thg0724]

I hope we can agree that it's not possible to do harm while playing this game.

I think it is possible to do harm in the context of a game. I don't think "game harm", when done as part of a strategy allowed by the rules, should be considered "malicious".

[dhnyny]

Agree with you that using strategies that the rules clearly permit should not be considered malicious. I question whether the concept of "game harm" is useful.

[cigdem]

1 and 5. i think its really annoying when others block just cuz my route is now visible(well yeah i have to put routes eventually). and i feel very bad if i block someome on purpose too. (yes i did it a few times but for just 1 road mostly, not like when they change routes i keep blocking them too)

[Ceaseless]

Blocking is a part of the game. Use it. At worst I see an issue with kingmaking, but that's just the problem with playing games with more than 2 people in them and has more to do with the issue if kingmaking than anything actually wrong with the blocking mechanic itself. If someone doesn't want to block, that's something they have to deal with. I feel bad for them, but I don't have a problem with someone who has that affliction, it mostly just lowers the quality of their games and will have a lesser impact on everyone else.

On the other hand, people who try to say their opponents aren't allowed to block in regular Ticket to Ride Games are nothing more than cheaters. That's what we call people who try to avoid playing by the rules in games, it's no different in Ticket to Ride than it is anywhere else. Fortunately, they can't actually prevent you from making legal moves on BGA and if they try to stop playing you can kick them out. If someone can't play by the rules, they don't belong here.

[Ceaseless]

1 and 5. i think its really annoying when others block just cuz my route is now visible(well yeah i have to put routes eventually). and i feel very bad if i block someome on purpose too. (yes i did it a few times but for just 1 road mostly, not like when they change routes i keep blocking them too)

I'd like to point out there are games where you cannot allow a given ticket(s) to be completed. Sometimes a player is going to have a potential line so relatively absurd that if they get it together the game is all but over and nothing you can do with your own routes will matter. https://boardgamearena.com/archive/repl ... s=93357955; Don't let the point gap fool you, the game was very close. In fact, I was only 1 turn away from being destroyed.

Basically, I have a good 20-point ticket and a terrible 7-point ticket and I see my opponent coming from the east and the west with 2, then 4 tickets (they drew 2 more, which means they wanted them both) for what looks to be one big super play. I realize at that point if it comes together, I am going to get blown off the map, so I let loose every block I can to keep it from coming together. I am certain that their tickets were worth much more than mine, and I was right, though I had no idea just how insane their hand actually was. I just barely have enough to successfully block them off and use my last turn to get my last unit to fill out my 20 pointer. Turns out they had a 22, 21, and 2 17s all about to be met by connecting that one line, 77 total ticket points. That's 154 points between making them all vs not making any, not counting the better routes they could have made if they just got the line together.

Now you might not be in a game with that kind of point power floating around, but you will be in games where one player clearly has the far stronger hand, looking to connect 20 pointers while their opponent has a couple of scrappy single digit tickets with worse routes. If both players just play their own games, there won't be much of a game at all, the player with the better hand just laughs off the other player's routes. What the real game will be centered around will be if and how they can make those routes, because their hand has that much of a warping effect on this specific game.

[detlefchef11]

The notion that blocking should be frowned upon is silly, especially in a 2 player game. As others have said, it's part of the game.

[ZenVee]

Yes, blocking makes the game more strategically rich, this thread is silly.