No Time Limit shouldn't mean Training Mode

[Windrisen]

I know lots has been said and no I didn’t read all 15 pages of comments but I wanted to add my thoughts.

<snip>

If BGA wants to add this back I think a 30, 45, 60 expiration time would work after no activity.

I know you may not have read this, and you raise a good point, but...

There is already a 40 day auto-terminate in place for turn based no time limit games, and that's been in place for a long time.

The admins are chasing another problem with real-time games, and when they changed this policy, it also impacted NTL, Friends Only, Turn-based games.

It may take losing users to get this to change, as 15 pages of comments seem to indicate a broad displeasure with this decision.

[vacekrae]

I, like many others, am not happy with this change. I am a premium member -- have been for years -- and play almost exclusively with friends and co-workers IRL. I'm often teaching games to groups where some have played before (and want to collect on their ELO) and others who haven't played, and the new time limit is SUCH a huge drawback. Plus, sometimes you just want to take a bio break and it's easy to do when there's no time limit. I really with BGA would reconsider this, and find an alternative for the abusers and not punish the many people (from a 15 page-thread) who clearly don't want to play in training mode AND don't want a time limit. Thanks.

[Jellby]

And several of my friends have recently said they will NOT be renewing their premium membership because of this decision.

If playing without ELO makes them not wish to keep premium, maybe they were not enjoying playing anyway, and in this just makes them realize they could use their money and time for something else.

[Alextress]

I'm a premium player. I use this mode for the vast majority of my games. Please restore it.

[znajder]

And several of my friends have recently said they will NOT be renewing their premium membership because of this decision.

If playing without ELO makes them not wish to keep premium, maybe they were not enjoying playing anyway, and in this just makes them realize they could use their money and time for something else.

What I don’t understand is why you defenders of this change are so hung up on the ELO point that only some players have mentioned, when there are SO many other concerns raised by people in this thread.

Windrisen’s comment was in response to a post about the time penalty markers you may get now that you are forced to play time constrained games, and how this new enforced way of playing does not work well for them and is close to a deal breaker for that user.

There was NO mention whatsoever of ELO in Windrisen’s post, nor in the post Windrisen replied to. If you’re soooo keen on defending this change despite it clearly having a real negative impact for many BGA users, how about actually reading their arguments and trying to understand where they are coming from, before trying to counter argue about something complete irrelevant to what they are saying or the point they are making?

[fluffbutter]

You stated:
"If you want to want to play with "no time limit", we now encourage you to play using "Training mode" ("infinite sign" in the new lobby), which is the safest way to play this way."

My friend and I just tried this solution. We started a game, but got interrupted. When we came back (just over 4 hours later), the game had been automatically abandoned. It appears that Training Mode games are considered Real-Time and get automatically abandoned after 4 hours of inactivity. That is NOT a "no time limit" game. Your solution is not a viable alternative. Please bring back "no time limit" for turn-based games or at least let Training Mode games live longer on the server.

Can you post a link to that table?

https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=328681286

[dschingis27]

And several of my friends have recently said they will NOT be renewing their premium membership because of this decision.

If playing without ELO makes them not wish to keep premium, maybe they were not enjoying playing anyway, and in this just makes them realize they could use their money and time for something else.

What I don’t understand is why you defenders of this change are so hung up on the ELO point that only some players have mentioned, when there are SO many other concerns raised by people in this thread.

Windrisen’s comment was in response to a post about the time penalty markers you may get now that you are forced to play time constrained games, and how this new enforced way of playing does not work well for them and is close to a deal breaker for that user.

There was NO mention whatsoever of ELO in Windrisen’s post, nor in the post Windrisen replied to. If you’re soooo keen on defending this change despite it clearly having a real negative impact for many BGA users, how about actually reading their arguments and trying to understand where they are coming from, before trying to counter argue about something complete irrelevant to what they are saying or the point they are making?

Well, your response here doesn't make any logical sense. There is no forcing to play time-constrained games unless you care about Elo. The only way to get into trouble with time penalties is if you care about Elo. Otherwise just play training mode and enjoy yourself.

[Cotj]

You stated:
"If you want to want to play with "no time limit", we now encourage you to play using "Training mode" ("infinite sign" in the new lobby), which is the safest way to play this way."

My friend and I just tried this solution. We started a game, but got interrupted. When we came back (just over 4 hours later), the game had been automatically abandoned. It appears that Training Mode games are considered Real-Time and get automatically abandoned after 4 hours of inactivity. That is NOT a "no time limit" game. Your solution is not a viable alternative. Please bring back "no time limit" for turn-based games or at least let Training Mode games live longer on the server.

Can you post a link to that table?

https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=328681286

Yeah looking at the timing, the last move was made at 12:31:38 PM and Due to "Inactivity" was cancelled same day at 4:07:03 PM


I find this REALLY weird because I have played Beta games "forced Training" and in those games we play over a week or so, and have never had them cancel.

[Peter D Switzerland]

If playing without ELO makes them not wish to keep premium, maybe they were not enjoying playing anyway, and in this just makes them realize they could use their money and time for something else.

What I don’t understand is why you defenders of this change are so hung up on the ELO point that only some players have mentioned, when there are SO many other concerns raised by people in this thread.

Windrisen’s comment was in response to a post about the time penalty markers you may get now that you are forced to play time constrained games, and how this new enforced way of playing does not work well for them and is close to a deal breaker for that user.

There was NO mention whatsoever of ELO in Windrisen’s post, nor in the post Windrisen replied to. If you’re soooo keen on defending this change despite it clearly having a real negative impact for many BGA users, how about actually reading their arguments and trying to understand where they are coming from, before trying to counter argue about something complete irrelevant to what they are saying or the point they are making?

Well, your response here doesn't make any logical sense. There is no forcing to play time-constrained games unless you care about Elo. The only way to get into trouble with time penalties is if you care about Elo. Otherwise just play training mode and enjoy yourself.

Before suggesting the comment makes "no logical sense", perhaps you should try reading it and following the suggestion. A number of prior comments give reasons why, for example: training mode is unsatisfactory as a work around (e.g. the 4 hour timeout); time penalties do matter (for people who play with friends and with strangers); turn-based play isn't a workaround for real-time no-time-limit games (because spectating by friends is made harder); and many "no time limit" real-time and turn-based players like ELOs (for gentle competitive scoring within friendship groups).

You have fallen into the same error as the other defenders of the change: assuming you understand the one-true-way to play games and enjoy oneself. Now please stop blindly defending the change and instead try reading through and understanding the various concerns raised. i.e. don't fixate on explaining the rightness of your view, or dismissing others perspectives, and try to understand the basis of the concerns being raised instead.

[Joe Huber]

Having just stumbled across this change - I don't play on BGA all that frequently - I'm rather annoyed by this change. Not for myself, really - I have no issue with playing in training mode. But I have friends who _do_ care about the ratings, such that training mode isn't a good option for playing with them, and oftentimes one player will teach the others at the start of the game, which doesn't really work with time limits. Or, more simply put - this reduces the value of BGA for me, given how I use the site.