Conceding: is it bad?

[Grizzly Bear]

I think there have been some good comments in this thread about why conceding can be a good thing, but I think conceding when playing online has to be handled more carefully.

Consider two possible scenarios in real-life board gaming:
Scenario 1: A player can see that they are guaranteed to lose so they congratulate the other player for their playing and concede the game.
Scenario 2: A player can see that they are guaranteed to lose so they get up and walk off.

Scenario 1 is respectful, whereas scenario 2 is extremely disrespectful and petulant. I think conceding in an online game can easily come across as scenario 2, rather than scenario 1, even if that is not the intention. I've had a number of cases where I am on course to win and the other player simply concedes without making any comment in the chat. This seems very rude to me.

I would suggest that if people are going to concede a game then they should first post a message congratulating the other player, to make it clear that they have not just walked off in a huff.

[nmego]

I don't think that's how it works necessarily.

Let's give a chess example. In chess it is almost always respectful to concede in a lost position. And if you're playing many blitz games for practice. You dont necessarily want to say hi and gg to every opponent you face. I have the chat disabled actually when I play chess for practice. I feel like the best act of respect I can do to my opponent is play the best as I can in this scenario.

Furthermore, chatting with your opponent could be difficult in circumstances where you won't share a common language. And some opponents get offended by small stuff. Like, there are some examples where I said gg. And my opponent was like "nothing good about it" or "lucky bastard" or "you suck" or whatever. It is not ideal for me to make verbal contact with everyone I play with/concede against. Especially against random people on a million users website which could red thumb me for the smallest thing.

Some people mostly play for the board game. This is actually the default behavior as most of the time there is no.chat in a game. Not even the safe gl hf. Some others don't really want to talk to random people after being offended by them on this/other sites.
I think that conceding is an important aspect of 2p games. And one shouldn't put a social price on it.

Leaving after conceding is rude in real life? That's not always the case. It is not rude in chess for example, If you're playing in a tourney vs someone you don't know. Which is extremely similar to playing online. Playing board games in real life is usually vs people you know or as a social activity. But it is not really the case online. That's why I don't think you can use real life board games to imply that should be the case online too

[varietyCH]

I only found out about the conceding options trough this thread and there seem really to be some points for each opinion and you can only do it wrong it seems.

A solution could be to have predefined text in the Chat which could be translated, accompanied with a link to a FAQ what conceding is. That it's not the same as abandon a game for example.

Or maybe an Option like to agree for a draw, to agree that one player conceeds. If there is no mutual agreement the player could still decide to quit on her own, but without avoiding the penalty for leaving early.

[cincodenada]

I came to this thread because I've noticed a few times in RFTG I've had players concede on me on the turn or two before the end of the game, sometimes seconds before the game ends, and I'm mystified as to why, it seems in poor sport. The only effect as far as I can tell is that I don't get to see what my final point total is, which while it doesn't affect the outcome of the game, is still annoying, and robs some of the satisfaction of a game well-played.

That said, I think there's good reason to concede earlier in the game - for something like RFTG it's rare that I truly know that I'm sunk unless I'm really towards the end. The example from today that brought me to the thread, in looking back at it, was sort of in between. There was one, maybe two turns left in the game and my opponent was clearly not going to pull ahead. And in, say, Backgammon, it's quite reasonable to concede quite a while before the actual end of the game, because you can be hopelessly behind but still have a lot of playing out of the game to do.

So, I think conceding is great in certain games, if you're saving everyone the trouble of playing out a game whose outcome is pretty well pre-determined at that point. But I think conceding just before the end of the game is poor form, and seems petty to me.