Board Game Arena

Why does timeouting in real-time games affect player's timeout standing for turn-based games?

In a real-time game, especially a fast one, you just have a couple of minutes to react. If something unexpected happens IRL it's entirely normal to be late for your turn occasionally. Does that mean the same player is more likely than other players to timeout in Turn-Based games? Not at all. The two things just aren't related.

The two are related. If someone joins a fast game, they should be able to play fast, and stay at the table. If the unexpected happens, this is rare. Timeout thresholds are every 10%, so if it is happening more often than once every 10 fast games, it isn't unexpected -- it's the player knowing that there is a decent probability of them getting interrupted, and not caring that this affects other people.

The "not caring that this affects other people" bit is why they are related.

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Edit: Timing out, by itself, is not an important statistic. What is important is each timeout is an indication that something (boss walking in, doorbell, internet failure, terrorist activity shutting down transportation terminal, etc.) is more important than finishing the game in a timely manner that the player said they would do when the game started. Now, while I myself don't care if I leave others hanging if bombs start going off around me, after a few times of having to shut a browser when my boss walks in might give me pause before saying I can finish a game.

I agree the two things are probably not related, but I don't really want them separated in terms of the statistics for the player.

Those disruptive situations, like internet problems, doorbells, and the occasional bombs going off, are not the types of issues that cause someone to go over time on a turn-based game. People who run over time on turn-based obviously don't have the time availability to get on here everyday, as opposed to a short delay. And people who run over time all the time on turn-based are more likely to just disappear altogether. And people who disappear either never return to the site, or they don't get what turn-based is and dismiss the game. (In my experience, it's never been because they were losing.)

However, I have no desire to separate the stats. People who are slow on turn-based games really don't have time to be playing them, and while that is a totally different issue than someone who has internet problems, there's still an issue going on there. I'm not much concerned about which issue it is.

Jest is making a good point that anyone can have the occasional problem, and the ones we need to be concerned about are the habitual ones. If it's habitual, what difference does it make why? If your internet connection is that bad, or you find it impossible to ignore the texts coming in, then don't take live games. If you can't be on here, don't take turn-based games. Either way, there's some issue going on that causes it to be more than an occasional problem.

Although honestly, in the end, someone being over-time a bit is really not my biggest concern. If someone gets ridiculously too slow, I'll make a note on them. I'm more concerned about people who abandon games.