Time zone for table restriction settings

[Lady_Jane]

How create fast turn based games without users from far away countries/time zones ?

You can't. All these calls to restrict by country and/or time zone are based on a bias about what is "normal," whereas a person in a different time zone may have a completely different work/school/sleep schedule from what you think is normal that allows them to play during "normal" hours in your time zone even if they are half a world away. Similarly, someone in your time zone could have a work/school/sleep schedule that is incompatible with the "normal" playing hours in your time zone. You are relying on the people joining the game to respect their commitment to play in a timely manner based on the game's playing hours.

I think bias may be a bit harsh... that typically implies some sort of partiality one way or the other. My guess is that more often people just haven't thought about alternative schedules, rather than thinking of them as not normal. It is an excellent point, though.

Question - when you set up a table with a timeframe (i.e., 800 - 2000), can players not see that when they join? or are they just joining anyway, knowing (or not realizing) that aren't going to be able to play during those times?

On tables like that... what does the time actually limit? In other words, you can't play outside of those hours? or your time doesn't run down outside of those hours? or...?

[nik592]

How create fast turn based games without users from far away countries/time zones ?

You can't. All these calls to restrict by country and/or time zone are based on a bias about what is "normal," whereas a person in a different time zone may have a completely different work/school/sleep schedule from what you think is normal that allows them to play during "normal" hours in your time zone even if they are half a world away. Similarly, someone in your time zone could have a work/school/sleep schedule that is incompatible with the "normal" playing hours in your time zone. You are relying on the people joining the game to respect their commitment to play in a timely manner based on the game's playing hours.

I think bias may be a bit harsh... that typically implies some sort of partiality one way or the other. My guess is that more often people just haven't thought about alternative schedules, rather than thinking of them as not normal. It is an excellent point, though.

Question - when you set up a table with a timeframe (i.e., 800 - 2000), can players not see that when they join? or are they just joining anyway, knowing (or not realizing) that aren't going to be able to play during those times?

On tables like that... what does the time actually limit? In other words, you can't play outside of those hours? or your time doesn't run down outside of those hours? or...?

You can join whatever tables you like - someone setting playing hours does not make the table care about what country you set yourself as being from (and given that it's user set, it's easy enough to change I believe). You can definitely see the playing hours when you join, so yes, they are joining anyway, whether ignorantly or knowingly. The time limit doesn't prevent you from playing in the off hours, just your clock is paused during those times (so if it's your turn, your time doesn't tick down until the playing hours time is reached again).

[Mathew5000]

In last few days I created few fast turn based games, 12 moves per day, play time 8-20.
Using Fast Turn option didn't changed anything. There are games with players with 10-12h time difference.
In 1 game there are players: PL - CANADA -NL - NL. Moves 1-2 per day, so terrible latency. After 20% of game player from CANADA lost all time and can be removed.
I can break game, but there no guaranties that next created will be better. We don't finish game before weekend, so I lose all time during weekend and players will can remove me too.

You are raising a legitimate issue, but the solution of restricting games by players' time zone settings would not work, because people have different schedules even within the same time zone. Some people sleep from 21:00 to 05:00, other people sleep from 03:00 to 09:00. And for some people, their "BGA time" is dictated more by their working hours than by their sleeping hours.

The best solution, in my opinion, would be this: every time you join a table or a tournament that has playing hours set, there should be a pop-up dialogue you have to acknowledge, stating what the playing hours are. And it should be worded so that there is no ambiguity about what time zone the playing hours refer to.

A few relevant suggestions, with current number of votes:

https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=59394 "More options to specify playing hours" (4)
https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=57379 "Hide fast turn-based games with incompatible playing hours or warn before joining" (6)
https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=45514 "Suggested Edit to FAQ" (1)
https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=32070 "Turnbased Arena: sort players by timezone" (3)
https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=29609 "Warn if turn based tournament has playing hours" (8)
https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=13703 "Turn Based: ability to restrict players by timezone/region" (marked as implemented)

[Jellby]

Joining a table with playing hours should be forbidden outside of those playing hours (I'm not talking about playing, just joining). At least you'd make sure that anyone joining has been active during the playing hours.

[Shivaware]

I'd like the option to specify a 6 hour playing time window instead of 12 hours. I think many people would find that more useful, and it could make it more likely that the players are all online at the same time.

I also wish the automatching system made it less likely to put players into games with inappropriate playing hours.

I've created a suggestion for it here: https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=130167

[BryleCuff]

I agree this is still a big problem on the website

[FrankJones]

Joining a table with playing hours should be forbidden outside of those playing hours (I'm not talking about playing, just joining). At least you'd make sure that anyone joining has been active during the playing hours.

I agree with this. When I create a game with fast turn based 8 moves a day, I set the 12 hour playing window to whatever the current time is. If it is 13:00 my time, I select 13:00-1:00.