What Does "This player left the game" Mean?

[Meeplelowda]

Obviously, I know what the words mean. But the effect on the game doesn't seem to match. I wasn't sure if this is a quirk that only happens in tournaments, but I'm posting here just in case.

In this tournament there is one game where a player never made a single move at all in the game in 13 days. If you go to that table there is message saying "This player left the game," but the game hasn't ended and if you try to view the table by clicking the "Go to game" button it gets stuck at "Loading game art (10%)." You used to be able to view it (I've been monitoring it since around 7 days passed). To clarify, this is a two-player game, so if a player has truly left the game it should be over. Unless the remaining player has not left the table for whatever reason (it makes absolutely no sense to play on in Onitama like some people say they want to do in other games). But then why wouldn't the table be viewable?

This is the only table that hasn't finished the first round and it's holding things up.

Ideas?

[nik592]

Contact support? It does genuinely look like a stuck table - I get the same result as you with loading stuck at 10%. It is possible the other player didn't leave the game, but it's also possible it didn't switch to the other player's turn correctly (I THINK I've seen that before).

Theoretically it will end in 2 days anyway due to maximum time, unless it's really bugged, in which case we're back to contact support. Not sure there's much else you can do.

[menettm]

Yesterday, the following bug was opened for a TTR game : https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=153775

The table was not finished and when I tried to see the running game (as bug reviewer), I got the same result as you with "loading stuck at 10%" !

This morning, I see that the player that submit the bug has quit the game.....

[Meeplelowda]

Theoretically it will end in 2 days anyway due to maximum time, unless it's really bugged, in which case we're back to contact support.

I'll just let it ride. I don't know if support is around on the weekend, and the round will end on Monday anyway, likely before anyone gets around to looking into this.

[Mathew5000]

The table was not finished and when I tried to see the running game (as bug reviewer), I got the same result as you with "loading stuck at 10%" !

That bug — where a game does not load into the browser but freezes at Loading game art (10%) — has been seen in Catan quite a bit recently (viewtopic.php?t=39570) and historically has been seen in other games as well:

https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=13943 (Dragon Castle, 2019)
https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=104959 (99 addition card game, 2023)
https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=142764 (Catan, 2024)

The common factor reported is the "Loading game art" freezing at exactly 10%.

[Meeplelowda]

The table was not finished and when I tried to see the running game (as bug reviewer), I got the same result as you with "loading stuck at 10%" !

That bug — where a game does not load into the browser but freezes at Loading game art (10%) — has been seen in Catan quite a bit recently (viewtopic.php?t=39570) and historically has been seen in other games as well:

https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=13943 (Dragon Castle, 2019)
https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=104959 (99 addition card game, 2023)
https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=142764 (Catan, 2024)

The common factor reported is the "Loading game art" freezing at exactly 10%.

It looks like all of those previous reports were in non-tournament games. I'm worried that this bug will prevent the tournament framework from resolving the result. But I guess we'll see in about 50 minutes.

[Mathew5000]

It looks like all of those previous reports were in non-tournament games. I'm worried that this bug will prevent the tournament framework from resolving the result. But I guess we'll see in about 50 minutes.

The Catan bug did affect some tournament games. Here's one Catan tournament game I was in that was affected by the bug: https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=601558919 The game ran fine for about 11 days (up to move 216, apparently) and then the player whose turn it was sent me (and I assume the other players) a private message, saying that he could not access the game because it was stuck at 10%. I tried, and also could not see the game table, it was stuck loading at 10%. The game sat idle from that point until 30 days after it had begun. Since nobody's turn was skipped (it wouldn't have been possible to skip anyone's turn, because none of us, I assume, could even view the game board), we were ranked based on most time remaining.

[Meeplelowda]

we were ranked based on most time remaining.

At least that will be a fair result in this instance because the player out of time also never made a move in this game and seems to have left the platform and timed out of multiple other tournament games. I hope they are OK.

Ed.: The round ended and the player with more time was awarded the win. Unfortunately, this is a Swiss tournament so this same absent player is participating in the next round.

[FSKFSK]

If one player runs out of time, the other players will have an option to "skip" them. It shows as "the player left the game", but they actually were booted. You can see it in the replay log.

Once this happens, the game will be scored as a tie between all players who weren't booted. The actual score and position of the game is irrelevant. While the site lets you continue playing, at this point nothing you do matters.

Tournaments will forcibly end the game after the maximum number of days have passed (30, 15, 10, etc.). This is one way out if the game gets stuck. Some games don't have skip logic implemented correctly and get stuck if someone is gone. For example, in 7 Wonders, the game gets stuck on "The Hanging Gardens May Play Their Last Card" if the Babylon player is gone. It also gets stuck on Halicarnassus playing a card from the discards, if that player is gone. Once that happens, the only way the game ends is if (a) all remaining players quit, or (b) wait until the tournament ends the game due to it taking too long.

[Meeplelowda]

If one player runs out of time, the other players will have an option to "skip" them. It shows as "the player left the game", but they actually were booted. You can see it in the replay log.

Once this happens, the game will be scored as a tie between all players who weren't booted. The actual score and position of the game is irrelevant. While the site lets you continue playing, at this point nothing you do matters.

Tournaments will forcibly end the game after the maximum number of days have passed (30, 15, 10, etc.). This is one way out if the game gets stuck. Some games don't have skip logic implemented correctly and get stuck if someone is gone. For example, in 7 Wonders, the game gets stuck on "The Hanging Gardens May Play Their Last Card" if the Babylon player is gone. It also gets stuck on Halicarnassus playing a card from the discards, if that player is gone. Once that happens, the only way the game ends is if (a) all remaining players quit, or (b) wait until the tournament ends the game due to it taking too long.

The main issue is that it seems whatever bug was causing viewing the game to be stuck at "Loading game art (10%)" was also keeping the game from terminating and the tournament from proceeding. You can see it in the replay log now, but when this was originally posted you couldn't even view the log because of the aforementioned bug.

Luckily this didn't happen the next two rounds, and hopefully it won't happen this round where I'm facing the same player who hasn't been here for 39 days.