Board Game Arena

This table has the same problem: https://boardgamearena.com/9/ninetynine ... =183318923
A newbie joined the turn based game and was never seen again.

Please, any suggestions what to do, instead of kicking the player out. I don’t want to wait forty days.

Countess-Aleksey wrote: ↑30 June 2021, 11:19 It's time BGA did away with the extra time feature. It causes nothing but problems.

Once a players is out of time the game should end.

No. Very bad idea

For those who can't understand why someone would expel another player who is out of time in TB mode: I deliberately set my TB games to be fast except with friends, because I lose concentration if i have to wait days between moves in a strategy game. Leaving myself notes only helps to an extent: mostly when a game drags, I find myself spending a lot of time reappraising myself of the game state after each of my opponent's moves. So now, I am pretty ruthless: if someone goes over by an hour or so, I wait, but if someone just disappears without warning for a long period, I expel them.

On the rare occasions when I am likely to run out of time, I warn the other players and apologise. This seems very unusual behaviour though.

I think getting rid of the extra time feature is an excellent idea.

If a player has not got time then they should not select Turn-Based Games.

The number of players who now play when the clock is in the red is unbelievable.

I am curious what these players would do if this feature no longer existed.

A useful discussion - thanks to all who responded.

It's made me realise that these are games I have joined rather than created, and as some have pointed out, if I create the game, I can set the timings.

I don't want to penalise newbies (after all, I was one myself back in November last year), but perhaps allowing players creating games to specify a minimum Karma rating? I have had 4 time penalties myself, but all of them came from going to bed when it wasn't my turn, and waking up to discover the time had ticked by against me! We play games with people all around the world in different time zones, and we all need our sleep. I take the point that there is an expectation if you join a turn-based game - and particularly a tournament with a fixed time - but I'd still give people the benefit of the doubt if it can keep the game alive (especially if I'm in a winning position!).

Great_Martini wrote: ↑01 July 2021, 23:39allowing players creating games to specify a minimum Karma rating?

This can be done - it's not immediately obvious, but if you look at the Players At This Table box when you create a table, on the tile bar in fairly small letters is "Restrict Table Access". This lets you limit who can join a table by language, having to be a member of a certain group, by karma levels, and/or by skill level at the game.

There are some wider debates about whether some karma penalties are working out (specifically that it's too easy for some people to regain lost karma), but that is how you can control who can join your table

Great_Martini wrote: ↑01 July 2021, 23:39 A useful discussion - thanks to all who responded.

It's made me realise that these are games I have joined rather than created, and as some have pointed out, if I create the game, I can set the timings.

I don't want to penalise newbies (after all, I was one myself back in November last year), but perhaps allowing players creating games to specify a minimum Karma rating? I have had 4 time penalties myself, but all of them came from going to bed when it wasn't my turn, and waking up to discover the time had ticked by against me! We play games with people all around the world in different time zones, and we all need our sleep. I take the point that there is an expectation if you join a turn-based game - and particularly a tournament with a fixed time - but I'd still give people the benefit of the doubt if it can keep the game alive (especially if I'm in a winning position!).

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want to blame newbies per se. But I often see the phenomenon, that a player new to the site joins a turn based table and then leaves to never return. I think, they don’t even know they joined a table. I’d prefer the possibility to notify them, that there are people waiting for them. I can imagine many of them are disappointed: they wanted to play and the game did not start (while they were online).

Maybe a better explanation at automated table joining for turn based games could help.

katicilli wrote: ↑02 July 2021, 06:34 I’d prefer the possibility to notify them, that ...

I believe the system emails the player when it is their turn, and that a player has to opt-out of these emails. Additionally, if you message a player (by bringing up their profile, and selecting "message") then an email is sent to them.

I have created and played in tournaments where Reputation and Level has been restricted and there are specific Playing Hours and still this makes no difference.

Nobody should be penalized or have fingers pointed for playing under the site and table rules. Rules which include expelling a player for being more than 20 seconds out of time in real-time tables or whatever it is in turn-based.
There are several reasons for doing so but none are actually needed. The player hitting the red button needs to provide no justification.

This works fine for 2 player games but not so much for multiplayer games because the expelled player is not always the only one punished for this. What to do?
Create a table and click the [Modify] button. Next to that button it usually says (no presentation yet). Type : "Expelling only by majority vote of those present." Or some other house rule you prefer. It needs to be very short since the site does not allow a long message. But you can just type a longer explanation and copy&paste it each time someone joins the table, make sure to do so before the game starts. No new house rules should be allowed after the game starts, of course. Probably might need to add that expelling is fine after some time, say 15 minutes for real-time or whatever for turn-based, even without majority.
The site won't automatically enforce such house rule. But most people would respect it if they join. Surely more than your current case of no house rules. And if someone infringes you can report them and I assume action will be taken by the site administrator, which would not happen without house rules.

If such house rule becomes popular among your peers you will see other people starting tables like that.
If it becomes REALLY popular BGA might even implement it. Surely being proactive yourself and getting a following is the best way to show BGA that this is a needed feature.