Opponent out of time but I take the penalty...

[NikyBreakdown]

Hi, I was playing Altered against an opponent. At a certain point during the match, my opponent ran out of time. A message appeared saying I could skip their turns because they were out of time, but I didn’t click it. After 2 minutes of them being out of time, they came back, made their move, and I ended up losing. I received a penalty for running out of time, with the message saying I had no time left.

This doesn’t seem fair because I was there waiting, so I wasn’t the one who ran out of time.

What can I do? I’ve never had penalties before, and it bothers me to get penalized for something I didn’t do.

Any suggestions?

[Jellby]

According to the log (and the time graph at the bottom), you're the only one who ran out of time: https://boardgamearena.com/gamereview?table=620931948

Maybe you lost connection and you thought the other player was inactive, but in reality, as far as the game server is concerned, it was your turn and it was your time running out. In those cases it's wise to refresh the page.

[NikyBreakdown]

Ok, but is not my fault. I think was a server problem, and not my connection.

[ufm]

This is a longstanding BGA issue.
When you load the game and your opponent just before you ends their turn while you're loading, you actually don't get that notification.
This may happen under other rarer conditions as well, but this loading issue is the most common.

As Jellby said above, I always refresh and double-check if the opponent does nothing for a while.

[JoysJoy]

This website has been having terrible issues for everybody for weeks now. Twice in a row yesterday I started a real time game and my system froze while everybody else was at the game waiting for me to play. Mine kept telling me we were waiting for one of the other players to join and the game was already going on for everybody else.

It is frustrating but nothing we can do. BGA has millions of games being played every day and they don't have time to nitpick for each one.

There's no place to report when we are having issues with the service. It is very frustrating and it seems to be getting worse overtime.

[Wordfault]

I had this exact problem in a HEAT game. I believed an opponent, who had been acting slowly previously was taking time choosing cards. Everyone was waiting for me and I got a penalty and was ejected from the game. A day later I was genuinely distracted by a doorbel and that penalty go compounded. It is hard to work your way back from that.

[Meeplelowda]

It is hard to work your way back from that.

It's not hard at all. It's just tedious. Your karma is already back to 87% so there's no filter that excludes you from anything. But if it matters that much to you, just play lots of really short games. People have suggested Can't Stop or Lucky Numbers. You don't have to like the game. You're just farming karma like farming resources in some video games. It's a grind just like farming in a video game, but it's not hard.

[danielvictor]

I know that most of the people who work on the site are volunteers,and money only helps a bit,but a link for voluntary contributions or premium membership extensions might help ?

[yodamus]

Same thing has happen to me many times lately. Waiting for them. When I am the one disconnected. Which happens often lately in the middle of games. I have learned now. That after 20 seconds of waiting. Refresh and see if you are the one disconnected. Hoping one day we can play again without disconnections. Hopefully this test they are doing works and they fix some connection and banner issues. Good luck bga