Pls add restriction by country feature

[makmanager]

Hello,

I don't want players from certain countries to join my tables in all games i play due to ethical and political reasons.

There is an option in settings to play with people who speaks certain language, but i am okay to play with most players. *[.....]*

So i am always forced to kick them from the table or not accepting the game start.

*Moderator edit: We do not condone racism, sexism, ageism, xenophobia, homophobia, transphobia, ableism and other forms of discrimination. You are free to choose who to play games with or not for any reason; however, when communicating we expect players to be respectful in all circumstances.

[nik592]

This has been asked before and flatly refused. BGA admin (of which I am NOT a part) don't take kindly to discrimination for any reason, including country of origin. While a country may express particular attitudes, it does not follow that ALL citizens of that country have the same attitudes. Moreover, if your opponents are not bringing their politics to the table (by discussing it), then why are you by wanting to exclude them without knowing where they truly stand?

[makmanager]

But if i don't want to play with these people because seeing their country flag is offensive to me?

The same works for *

But the way, it not a politics - it is about killing people. And i don't care if the particular citizen supports it or not, they do it and they chose to do it that is the point.

* Yet, i am not talking about restriction of these people from the platform itself, i am talking about giving the users an opportunity to control more with whom they want to play. If i don't want to play with these users, when i create a table i am forced to kick them out manually (i am leaving the table which i join as well when i see a person from this country), but it doesn't add comfort to me since when i am paying for the subscription i want more control over the people i would like to enjoy the game with.

*Moderator edit: We do not condone racism, sexism, ageism, xenophobia, homophobia, transphobia, ableism and other forms of discrimination. You are free to choose who to play games with or not for any reason; however, when communicating we expect players to be respectful in all circumstances.

[Meeplelowda]

they do it and they chose to do it that is the point.

Who is "they"? Their political leaders, yes. Their military, yes. But not every single person from their country. I say this as someone who has donated to Nova Ukraine.

[nik592]

But if i don't want to play with these people because seeing their country flag is offensive to me?

Then I suggest you stick to people you know, and don't play with strangers. After all, they could have all sorts of "offensive" traits.

As per the fact that your original post has already been moderated, you are much more likely to find yourself in trouble by pursuing this. In fact, I'm surprised the thread hasn't been locked by this point.

[Kayvon]

I don't want players from certain countries to join my tables in all games i play due to ethical and political reasons.

There are political reasons, but not ethical reasons for discriminating against an entire country of people. There are certainly ethical reasons for avoiding individuals, but not for avoiding all individuals who happened to be born with a particular gender, race, or nationality.

If you find a picture of a flag offensive, it's a good opportunity to take a step back and reevaluate your bias. We all need to do that from time to time. It's a healthy part of growing as an individual.

[Jellby]

... and a picture of a flag is all you would be effectively blocking.

You'd block people who live in X not by choice, and who select the flag in their profile because it helps finding people who live close or have similar timezones. You'd block people who were born in X but have been living abroad for decades, and who select the flag because they still feel they culturally belong to their country and wish they can safely return some day. You'd block people who have no connection with X, but who select the flag randomly, or to show support to other people living in X.

You would NOT block people living in X who support the genocidal/fascist/dictatorial leadership, and choose a different flag just to be "cool" or to avoid being blocked by others because of their flag. You would NOT block people living in other democratic countries applaud such genocidal/fascist/dictatorial leaderships, and select their own flags.

[tbhp]

The same question got asked in real life when people wondered if certain artists or athletes should be canceled because of the war.

At the end of the day, some people don't feel that fighting war with systemic discrimination is the right solution. This is probably the stance BGA takes on the issue.

[Exotic Dreams]

I would support BGA having this feature. While I personally do not have any countries to avoid, I could or would try to have empathy for those who did for the reasons I suspect this is being suggested. As for those suggesting the flag in the profile is for finding other players in the same time zones, selecting by country would help with this criteria.
Also not sure why this is in the discussion section and not the suggestion section.

[MarkSteere]

I understand and agree with the anti-discrimination policy - generally. But in this case, it doesn't seem to be ACTIVE discrimination. If a player's country has been prohibited from joining a game, I'm assuming that a player from that country would never see the game, and would have no chance of being offended. If a country is at war with another country, an individual from one of the countries would probably not be a combatant, but they might be. Maybe someone doesn't want to take that chance. It doesn't seem unreasonable to exclude a country if there's no chance of someone from the excluded country knowing about the exclusion.

The alternative of kicking someone out of a game because of their country COULD be taken as active discrimination. Or if they were allowed to join, unpleasantries could be exchanged in the game chat. So you'd be preventing those scenarios by having the option of country exclusion.