Switch to turn-based in middle of game

[Biochemk8]

I’m playing a longer, new-to-me, game. In the middle of the game, score is really close, Several people have asked to go turn-based in the middle of the game. So I politely said in chat no, because I want to play real-time and finish. Does this happen to people? Is saying no the worst?

[stillframe]

You are always within your right to finish the game under the conditions that everyone agreed to up front.

[Paddles]

You're not obliged to accept, but under some circumstances it might still be the better option.

Occasionally you or I might be playing a game when something that is urgent, important and unexpected - could be a household member or someone else having a medical issue or other crisis, a surprise visitor to the house, something like that. Under the circumstances there are four obvious options:

• Switch from real-time to time-based, so the game can be played to completion
• Stop playing - eventually run out of time, booted from the game, everyone else "wins" but the game isn't finished properly
• Ignore the real-life circumstances, continue the game whatever the consequences - which might be merely impolite, or something much worse
• Try to keep playing on a mobile device while attending to the other issue - which might be just as bad as the previous option. (If someone is bleeding or having a crisis, can I really deal with it effectively while spending half my time playing a game on my phone?)

(Yes I know there's "mutually abandon". But if one of the other players is unwilling to switch to turn-based, then I can't see any real possibility that they'd happily contemplate a mutual abandon.)

For me, I'd much rather the first option - letting real life issues take priority, but still letting the game finish properly (this goes both ways - I'd rather finish the game properly eventually than sit around waiting for their timer to run out and getting an empty "win".) If it's me having to attend to something, and the other players don't agree to the switch (which is your right), then I'd rather take the hit on my BGA ELO and karma than hurt or damage the real-life situation that has come up. If the circumstances are urgent enough, I might simply request time-based and walk away, hoping that the other players agree. But if they don't, I'm no longer there to concede or quit or keep playing, so they'll be stuck waiting for my timer to run out rather than start another game, which isn't fun.

[Exotic Dreams]

I'd assume something came up, someone needed to leave the game or something has interferred with gameplay and agree to switch. For instance, I had a *phone call that was so distracting from a game before that I decided to ask the other player in a two player game to switch to turn based mode. I had already gotten a late turn penalty before I did this unfortunately.


*For those who will say, don't answer the phone during a game:
1. It could be important or an emergency
2. if it's my parents, they will drive here and knock on the door saying they got worried because I didn't answer the phone so then I will be pulled away from my game much more if that happens anyhow.

[Jellby]

Yes I know there's "mutually abandon". But if one of the other players is unwilling to switch to turn-based, then I can't see any real possibility that they'd happily contemplate a mutual abandon.

I'm much more likely to accept an abandonment than a switch to turn-based, especially early in the game. Also think of someone who can, for instance, only play on weekends (even turn-based games), I don't think they would accept a switch to turn-based on Sunday evening, but they may agree to abandon.

[nik592]

So isn't the solution to that to decline the turn-based request, but then propose to mutually abandon? As far as I understand, once your opponent is out of time, the abandon will automatically go through.

So in short, yes, you can decline the request to switch, but you can also choose to abandon the game if you opponent does not continue playing, rather than boot and award a penalty. It's not impolite to make any of these choices, though some might argue that booting your opponent rather than abandoning might be (since I feel like this is not too far removed from telling your opponent that something is distracting you and apologising for possible delay in your play).