Board Game Arena

The fixed time limit is good and necessary for real time tournaments. In turn based tournaments, however, especially slow turn based, it causes several issues :

• If you and your opponents are in similar time zones, whoever goes to sleep last has a large advantage. Does BGA really want to incite players to deprive themselves of sleep and reward those who do ?
• The same is true for any other long period during which all players are offline, like working hours. Does BGA really want to incite players to be late at work and reward those who do ?
• More generally, your ability to finish a game with positive time does not only depend on how often you connect and play, it also depends on how often your opponents do. The faster they are, the harder it is for you. This is unfair.
• It your opponents are in different time zones, someone will most likely have a big advantage as well, just because of that.
• The "Playing hours" feature is not a solution, it can only fix a small part of this problem (the sleeping hours) at the cost or preventing players from very different time zones to join (because their night would be during the playing hours)
• The fixed duration prevents players from using time jokers
• This brings on the active debate about kicking out-of-time players from tournament games (like here : https://boardgamearena.com/forum/viewto ... =8&t=20816). Many people think it's unfair to do so and I tend to agree, but I think the problem is not the kicking but the rules that allow this situation to happen.

All of this is sacrified for only one gain : you know beforehand how long each game and the whole tournament may last. This is a good thing, sure, but probably not that much important for turn based tournaments that may last for weeks, or sometimes months. If one could use a time joker when needed, the duration would be unimportant.

So why not add the option to play tournaments with the same time rules used for simple or arena turn based games ? (+ X hours/days per turn). I don't think this would be complicated to develop, since these rules already exist for other game modes. And if we keep the fixed limit options for players who like it that way, it wouldn't hurt anyone.

There is one thing that requires some thinking though : a game could last forever if one player stops playing and nobody kicks that player. A rule would be needed to automatically end the game in certain conditions (eg. when a player is in the negative for a duration that is worth 2 or 3 turns, like -3 days in a 1 turn/day game ?)

I made a suggestion about this several months ago in the bug reporting tool. It never got a single comment or upvote. But I have a feeling it's only because very few people saw it, not because nobody cares about this idea.
So here it is : https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=29010

I agree with most of this assessment, having just been kicked out of a tournament game https://boardgamearena.com/9/loveletter?table=183096775 where I was actively playing, was wining, but was an hour over the time limit being the only player on one side of the world. Very unprofessional. I've been reluctant to use my time jokers, as they tend to be overkill (four days?) and it's not clear if I can get more of them. Any insights I'm missing?

haoleboy wrote: ↑30 June 2021, 19:10 I agree with most of this assessment, having just been kicked out of a tournament game https://boardgamearena.com/9/loveletter?table=183096775 where I was actively playing, was wining, but was an hour over the time limit being the only player on one side of the world. Very unprofessional. I've been reluctant to use my time jokers, as they tend to be overkill (four days?) and it's not clear if I can get more of them. Any insights I'm missing?

I don't think time jokers get applied to tournament games, but I understand your frustration. It's unfair to have to miss out on sleep to participate in a tournament game.

haoleboy wrote: ↑30 June 2021, 19:10 I agree with most of this assessment, having just been kicked out of a tournament game https://boardgamearena.com/9/loveletter?table=183096775 where I was actively playing, was wining, but was an hour over the time limit being the only player on one side of the world. Very unprofessional. I've been reluctant to use my time jokers, as they tend to be overkill (four days?) and it's not clear if I can get more of them. Any insights I'm missing?

I've experienced this a few times myself... being kicked from a game that I am clearly active in, because I ran an hour or two overtime while I was sleeping. I think for multiplayer games, the decision to skip a player should require more than one vote. And maybe there should be a grace period for players who are clearly making an effort to play the game.

For tournament games, maybe skipping a player should require the approval of the tournament administrator. (especially for 2-player games)

NSarhorn wrote: ↑01 July 2021, 21:13

haoleboy wrote: ↑30 June 2021, 19:10 I agree with most of this assessment, having just been kicked out of a tournament game https://boardgamearena.com/9/loveletter?table=183096775 where I was actively playing, was wining, but was an hour over the time limit being the only player on one side of the world. Very unprofessional. I've been reluctant to use my time jokers, as they tend to be overkill (four days?) and it's not clear if I can get more of them. Any insights I'm missing?

I don't think time jokers get applied to tournament games, but I understand your frustration. It's unfair to have to miss out on sleep to participate in a tournament game.

Time jokers can't be used in tournament games, because of the fixed limit. This limit enforces the fact that the maximum duration of the tournament is known by all players before it even starts. That's one of the reasons why I suggest the addition of non-fixed time limits. As long as all players have accepted the unknown duration of the tournament, there is no reason to forbid the use of time jokers anymore.