Board Game Arena

Jellby wrote: ↑01 August 2026, 07:37Right, but with the right (or wrong) alignment, if everyone else plays instantly, you might be required to make 8 moves per day.

Expect 8 total moves per day, but be ready to make 8 moves yourself per day.

Right. Exactly what I don't want.

As I said, I check in several times a day. Usually, after waking up and after work. I will usually check several additional times in the evening, so I am committed to at least 2 moves a day for any game. If others were similarly committed that's every game moving forward every day except where time zones interfere -- but that's unavoidable.

That's the pace I prefer. Not fast, nothing like real time, but daily progress. Many of my games on BGA are slogs. I have a game I've been playing for over a month because my next turn is sometimes several days out. I could handle that here and there, but when it's the norm it's brutal. I would never have signed up for such a table and, despite table settings, it still happens somehow. On the site having no clocks and no expulsions, my tables tend to move more swiftly. The feet-dragging problem is much less pronounced.

Meeplelowda wrote: ↑01 August 2026, 01:48You may be misunderstanding what 8 moves per day means. It doesn't mean YOU have to make 8 moves per day. It means the TABLE collectively makes 8 moves per day, assuming everyone uses the maximum increment on the clock. So at a 4-player table you'd only be expected to make 2 moves per day on average, unless your opponents are particularly speedy, then it may be 3 or 4.

I see that and, yes, I may have. I will have to investigate those settings. I guess I avoided them because of the potential punitive ding for failing to meet quotas. As I said, I once signed up for an Arena bout and had to get up at 3am several times due to player time zones and my sleep and work schedule, not for lack of checking in. The whole punitive system is too fretful to risk and, I'm sure I'm not the only person uncertain of what might happen when agreeing to certain schedules.

Signing the contract up front doesn't make a lot of sense. Rate the players per their cadence and show some grace for when they occasionally miss pace (trusting it is sleep or work).

The point I'm making about work and sleep is you have no control over that. Most of us need work and sleep. I don't want a clock working against me for being a responsible person.

capnemo-1734 wrote: ↑03 August 2026, 17:00 The point I'm making about work and sleep is you have no control over that. Most of us need work and sleep. I don't want a clock working against me for being a responsible person.

You can set filters on your search to avoid 12 hours of the day that don't work for you. You seem to have just ignored that part written above. If you don't know how to do it, ask.

You can choose a setting as slow as 1 move every 2 days. So unless you're sleeping 48 hours you can keep up with that.

There are many people who both sleep and work and yet can still keep up with their games.

Meeplelowda wrote: ↑04 August 2026, 04:40You seem to have just ignored that part written above.

I didn't ignore that part. I was minding this response.

Jellby wrote: ↑01 August 2026, 07:37Right, but with the right (or wrong) alignment, if everyone else plays instantly, you might be required to make 8 moves per day.

Expect 8 total moves per day, but be ready to make 8 moves yourself per day.

Now that I understand the clocks a bit better I'm thinking the Fast Turn-based mode works, but as suggested it'd be nicer if it supported a slower place. I guess another solution I can think of is for the levers to be set independently. Choose your turns per day. Choose whether or not the clock runs always or during a particular window.

I like your suggestion !

It happened to me also to have been kicked out of games in tournaments with long time per players despite the fact that I play several times a days and during a long time. And just like you, I check regularly those tables but the recurrent things in those cases was that the player before me used to play his turn systematically when I was disconnected to sleep. and the other players played few hours between each other when I was discounted at least 8/10 hours for the game. And every day I play all my tables at first even before breakfast/coffee and it is also my last action before sleeping and I come back to check and play also real time games at different times during the day especially if I'm in a tournament. So I feel it really unfair...

I like the idea you suggest to personnalise your playing time I think it could be very useful for people who aren't active in their common country's time schedule and for people who's job doesn't follow regular timeline everyday. (as example shifting morning / afternoon / night)

On another hand, what I absolutely dislike is to be forced to play a game before another one if I'm running out of time in it nor to be prevented from starting another turn-based game if I don't play my turn. It happened for me in a specific situation when I couldn't play my turn due to a bug which I reported. I waited for a response to this bug and a good issue but the I discovered that this game isn't popular enough to be prioritized so it will probably take long before it's fixed even if this bug happens every time at the last move of the game (so frustrating) on turn-based arena...

I think there should be a possibility to specify why you skip a game from a list for now...

capnemo-1734 wrote: ↑06 August 2026, 00:32

Meeplelowda wrote: ↑04 August 2026, 04:40You seem to have just ignored that part written above.

I didn't ignore that part. I was minding this response.

Jellby wrote: ↑01 August 2026, 07:37Right, but with the right (or wrong) alignment, if everyone else plays instantly, you might be required to make 8 moves per day.

Expect 8 total moves per day, but be ready to make 8 moves yourself per day.

That is frankly a hypothetical edge case, because it requires the unrealistic assumption that everyone else is acting instantaneously, immediately making it your turn again as soon as you move. I challenge anyone to link to even one game in the history of BGA where single person was forced to make 8 moves per day in an 8-move per day turn-based game to avoid running out of time, as opposed to choosing to do it.

A more realistic scenario is that you may have to make between 3 to 5 moves per day if you have a quick table, and that would only be in the playing hours window.

You are right. I hadn't understood much about how the clock works in different situations. I now wonder if it may be a communication issue. I read the FAQ when I signed on (not all but I thought the parts about the clock) and I didn't absorb that things were as you described. Maybe it was communicated more clearly elsewhere...

capnemo-1734 wrote: ↑17 August 2026, 16:41 You are right. I hadn't understood much about how the clock works in different situations. I now wonder if it may be a communication issue. I read the FAQ when I signed on (not all but I thought the parts about the clock) and I didn't absorb that things were as you described. Maybe it was communicated more clearly elsewhere...

It's not your fault. The FAQ is poorly and vaguely written in many aspects. At least you tried reading it. Many people don't even bother as if it hasn't been a common feature on websites for decades.

A FAQ hasn't been a common feature for decades? I would say the opposite, that's why FAQ is such a common word, or were you being sarcastic?

On the other hand, I believe "not reading instructions" has been a common human feature for millennia

Jellby wrote: ↑18 August 2026, 12:38 A FAQ hasn't been a common feature for decades? I would say the opposite, that's why FAQ is such a common word, or were you being sarcastic?

On the other hand, I believe "not reading instructions" has been a common human feature for millennia

Re-read what I wrote. I didn't say it wasn't a common feature. I said people behave as if it wasn't a common feature. It isn't sarcasm. "As if" is frequently used to introduce a counterfactual. For example, "you're acting as if money grows on trees."