Players sitting out in Arena to preserve ranking

[sourisdudesert]

Other than this how about my suggestion to limit creating games until certain time of season?

It does not fix the issue of choosing the order of wins/losses to get an higher league/rank.

[Calmon70]

Other than this how about my suggestion to limit creating games until certain time of season?

It does not fix the issue of choosing the order of wins/losses to get an higher league/rank.

I agree this solution isn't solving this problem but this order problem is way less prevalent than the prevent-to-end-a-losing-game problem. I don't think it has much influence on the end of season because most turn based games ended way earlier (with the create time restriction).

Of course its not perfect. It either needs some forced order of turns you do in your games (similar to yucata) or a whole new system for turnbased players but at least it give us something to play with until a new solution is out (and I'm not even sure a new solution with a parted community is good for rare played games).

[Earl Spool]

Stopping turn-based in Arena is very disappointing for me. I can't play real time very often, and some of the games I enjoy have too few players for this to be practical. I've just won the second season at Metromania, which I'm really happy about, but I can't imagine there'll be very many Arena games at all in the third season.

I don't understand why a combination of total time, plus no new starts for say a fortnight before the end, would not have solved this problem in a way which did not simply take the game away from us altogether!

I enjoy Arena more than Tournaments because of the fun of seeing yourself going up and down the ladder. I'd rather let a few cheats mess things up a little bit than have it all closed down.

I never came across deliberate delay in any of the games I played in Metromania - and I played everyone in the top 10 I reckon. How about only shutting off turn-based in games where there's evidence fo a problem?

[sourisdudesert]

I don't understand why a combination of total time, plus no new starts for say a fortnight before the end, would not have solved this problem in a way which did not simply take the game away from us altogether!

Please find the answer earlier in the thread.

[Incentive]

How is this a solution?

Please take the time to read all the contributions, and feel free to post here a solution if you find one, but no one found a good solution and there are probably none.

Sourisdudesert, can you please comment on why you think my solution above of forcing moves in older games first won't work (or can't be implemented)? I know at least one other gaming website that has implemented a similar measure to combat the issues raised here.

[sourisdudesert]

Sourisdudesert, can you please comment on why you think my solution above of forcing moves in older games first won't work (or can't be implemented)?

Because it does not solve the problem, and only limit it (ex1: you keep a turn based game 1 move to win while playing realtime so that you can "trigger the win" to go to the upper league) while it blocks legitimate play. It is explained well here:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=17652&start=30#p69073

[paramesis]

How is this a solution?

Please take the time to read all the contributions, and feel free to post here a solution if you find one, but no one found a good solution and there are probably none.

Sourisdudesert, can you please comment on why you think my solution above of forcing moves in older games first won't work (or can't be implemented)? I know at least one other gaming website that has implemented a similar measure to combat the issues raised here.

I can say as someone who regularly tests Alpha and Beta games that this would be a terrible policy for general turn-based games. If a game has a blocking bug that makes it impossible to make any move (Troyes for example), I could end up going overtime on other tables where it’s my turn (or lose rep by quitting a game rather than waiting for everyone to agree to abandon).

[Incentive]

Sourisdudesert, can you please comment on why you think my solution above of forcing moves in older games first won't work (or can't be implemented)?

Because it does not solve the problem, and only limit it (ex1: you keep a turn based game 1 move to win while playing realtime so that you can "trigger the win" to go to the upper league) while it blocks legitimate play. It is explained well here:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=17652&start=30#p69073

The link to the post in your message agrees with me noting that it is a "potential solution". You are right, thought, that it may be possible to game the system by mixing realtime and turn-based games. However, I think this is unlikely to happen if players are forced to play the longest waiting turn-based game. Perhaps you have 3 turn-based games waiting and you are winning 1 and losing the two longest waiting games. Now you have to move on (lose) the turn-based games first before triggering the win. You can never stop all potential "cheating" and some of this will need to be handled by moderation, just like in realtime games. I think this is a better solution than just scrapping turn-based games and potentially alienating paying members.

[sourisdudesert]

some of this will need to be handled by moderation

This has also been answered before.

[Incentive]

Sourisdudesert, can you please comment on why you think my solution above of forcing moves in older games first won't work (or can't be implemented)? I know at least one other gaming website that has implemented a similar measure to combat the issues raised here.

I can say as someone who regularly tests Alpha and Beta games that this would be a terrible policy for general turn-based games. If a game has a blocking bug that makes it impossible to make any move (Troyes for example), I could end up going overtime on other tables where it’s my turn (or lose rep by quitting a game rather than waiting for everyone to agree to abandon).

I don't believe there is an Arena mode for Alpha and Beta games. There shouldn't be a blocking bug in released games, and if there is, then it is a bigger problem than just in Arena mode.