Game manipulation and collusion

[craig]

Is it possible to avoid players from certain countries?

I was in a game where a clear game manipulation was done for the benefit of another from the same country. Pax Renaissance is a game where it is understood, if you are not new at the game and have say ELO over 100, that if a clear victory presents itself, and you can stop it on your turn, you do so.

In my game Player A could have won an easy campaign against player B, to prevent the game ending. Instead they took an absolute meaningless turn of gathering cards - even though through diplomatic chat, it was pointed out. They are from the same country and it felt very much that A gave B the win for the sake of B. This felt no different from 1 player playing from 2 accounts on the same computer. It has soured me on the experience, and I think I'll just finish up and play the game on * solely with friends.

It's certainly not BGA's fault - and it is a wonderful site to be sure. I have been on here from the earliest start - my real name is my account without numbers behind it. I enjoy the site and simply want to know if I can avoid a certain country when hosting public games. Apparently winning at all costs and boosting another's ELO is all that matters.

Thank you

*Moderator edit: please do not specifically name other gaming platforms

[Jellby]

Is it possible to avoid players from certain countries?

Yes, assuming you mean players who have selected some country in their profile, which does need need to have any relation at all with their real country. In manual mode, when you see there are players from the country you want to avoid at the table, don't join the table, or decline to start the game.

But your issue is not with countries, but with specific players. Report the players if you think they're cheating (with reasonably strong evidence), or red-thumb them if you just don't want to play with them again.

[euklid314]

Is it possible to avoid players from certain countries?

I was in a game where a clear game manipulation was done for the benefit of another from the same country. Pax Renaissance is a game where it is understood, if you are not new at the game and have say ELO over 100, that if a clear victory presents itself, and you can stop it on your turn, you do so.

In my game Player A could have won an easy campaign against player B, to prevent the game ending. Instead they took an absolute meaningless turn of gathering cards - even though through diplomatic chat, it was pointed out. They are from the same country and it felt very much that A gave B the win for the sake of B. This felt no different from 1 player playing from 2 accounts on the same computer. It has soured me on the experience, and I think I'll just finish up and play the game on TTS solely with friends.

It's certainly not BGA's fault - and it is a wonderful site to be sure. I have been on here from the earliest start - my real name is my account without numbers behind it. I enjoy the site and simply want to know if I can avoid a certain country when hosting public games. Apparently winning at all costs and boosting another's ELO is all that matters.

Thank you

I fear that your post is not justified and you are doing your cause a very bad favor. You seem to have written your post with only 1 game (your game) in mind! For me that is a serious mistake that should never happen here in the forum!

If you are talking about your most previous game, the winner has high ELO in a lot of games and he seems to deserve it. Seems to be a strong, experienced player. He played PaxR 38 times and in only 3 of these games the other player was present.

[Silene]

[...] - even though through diplomatic chat, it was pointed out. [...]

Someone pointing out in chat what I am supposed to do might make me do the exact opposite just to discourage their manipulative behaviour. Doesn't matter which country the chat-cheating player nor where the benefitting player is from.
Although I would *try* to do what I would've done without any intervention. But if I find myself unable to judge what my unbiased move would've been, I'd rather harm the player who compromised my thoughts.

[RicardoRix]

You can restrict your game tables to play with just your friends.

[Meeplelowda]

I think I'll just finish up and play the game on * solely with friends.

You can do that on BGA as well. As with any platform when you're dealing with strangers, if you care enough about the possibility of collusion and don't trust them you eliminate collusion by only playing with friends (assuming your friends don't collude) or by only playing the two-player variant of that game if it exists.

I think it is overreaching to say the problem is with a certain country given that anyone on here can claim to be from any country (as mentioned above). When people get caught with multiple accounts they are using for ELO boosting, in some cases those accounts are all from the same country and some cases they have multiple countries, and in no cases does anyone really know for sure where the user actually is.