People who kick out players

[Great_Martini]

I'm sure I'm not the first to moan about this, but it's getting increasingly difficult to play games like Saboteur, 99, Perudo and the like. They work best with a large number of players, but it seems inevitable that as soon as one player goes over time, another player gets impatient and kicks them out, thereby ruining the game. Does anyone have any solutions? The only one I can come up with is to red-thumb anyone who kicks out a player so I don't have to come across them again.

[Ze Monstah]

I'm sure I'm not the first to moan about this, but it's getting increasingly difficult to play games like Saboteur, 99, Perudo and the like. They work best with a large number of players, but it seems inevitable that as soon as one player goes over time, another player gets impatient and kicks them out, thereby ruining the game. Does anyone have any solutions? The only one I can come up with is to red-thumb anyone who kicks out a player so I don't have to come across them again.

1. A solution is to set the games "No time limit", before starting them.

This way, you won't have to Red Thumb anyone who does nothing wrong by expelling a player who goes out of time, in a "Time Limit" game.

From what you say, it looks to me that the one ruining the game is the one who runs out of time, not the one expelling, since... the player who runs out of time should know perfectly his/her time limit, when she/he joins the game and the game starts.

2. Another solution is to ask in the game chat/private message... if the lagging player is there, if (s)he is ok, how's the weather, or etc.

3. Another solution is to ask the other players in the game chat/private messages (PMs), to wait... or to propose them to turn the game TURN-BASED (this is available only if the out of time player went offline, not if (s)he's online but... lagging).

I personally dislike having to wait for lagging players (and they are a bunch...).

If someone goes out of time, (s)he/they deserve(s) to risk getting expelled, from where I stand.

Of course there are things like emergencies (I swear that lately... a lot of people have all sorts of emergencies, in more than 20% of games), accidents, internet failures, etc.

If a player who runs out of time has 1 of those (with or without getting expelled as a result), a good thing would be to try to explain the issue, when/if coming back.
But I have rarely seen this kind of situation.

[Great_Martini]

That's a fair comment, but when you kick someone out, the game dies. I'd rather give the out-of-time player the benefit of the doubt and keep the game alive.

[Ze Monstah]

That's a fair comment, but when you kick someone out, the game dies. I'd rather give the out-of-time player the benefit of the doubt and keep the game alive.

Yes. Unfortunately... not everyone has the mood to wait, and some people are pressured by time, etc.
If they have to go and don't expel the player, and leave the game open just 'cause they don't want to expel that player, and then they leave and forget about the game and the lagging player comes back... they will be the ones getting expelled eventually.
Which is really not cool.

Just set your games to "no time limit" and/or talk these things before game starts, and I guess all should be ok.
Or even if a player lags, talk in the game chat box, when you see the clock going low, or something.
Or even send that player a private message (PM).

[dschingis27]

One solution could be to set the game speed to "Slow" (either by creating a new table in Manual Mode or by changing game settings via cogwheel in Automatic mode). That way you allow more time per turn in the first place and you are more likely to be matched to players who do not mind taking more time.

I would never set "No time limit" when I play against strangers.

[katicilli]

In the game in discussion I was the one who kicked out the player. I would not have done so, if I had had the impression that the person would return any time.

But in this case it was a newbie, who joined two turn based games and disappeared afterwards. I think he was not even aware, that the games started after he left and that other people were waiting on him. So the game was blocked and would have stayed so until it would have timed out.

It is not the first time I have seen this with new members. Maybe someone here has a better idea how to handle such a situation?

[qwertasdfg]

In turn based games it makes even less sense to expel people.

The only reason I see is that you need the game to end urgently because you'll need unavailable for a month to come.

I agree, just red thumb expellers. That way you make sure one game at a time that you won't have to deal with them again.


What you can do in real time games if someone has lost their connection and someone has done the first step of expelling:
Talk to the remaining players in the chat. ask them if they've never ever lost their connection/had other spontaneous troubles.

[waxje]

I'm sure I'm not the first to moan about this, but it's getting increasingly difficult to play games like Saboteur, 99, Perudo and the like. They work best with a large number of players, but it seems inevitable that as soon as one player goes over time, another player gets impatient and kicks them out, thereby ruining the game. Does anyone have any solutions? The only one I can come up with is to red-thumb anyone who kicks out a player so I don't have to come across them again.

Before a game starts, you can see the amount of time you have to play a move in a game. In real time games, i give people the benefit of the doubt. Call their name in chat and have some patience. In Turn based where you have + 24 hours to make a move, if you go overtime, i kick. Because people know at the start of the game the amount of time they have to make a move. If they do not have sufficient time, they can use their vacation joker. In the past i waited for player, but games would last for +30 days and that's not fun but dragging energy.
Some players also use the kick system to their advantage, they go overtime, get the benefit of the doubt, other player waits, goes overtime gets kicked and penalized.
Also, if something unexpected happens, and a player has to go, there is always a chat window to inform other players.

I don't think it's fair to red thumb people who kick someone who is overtime, because they are not the ones lagging the games and making other people wait... It also makes me wonder why being overtime is becoming a norm?

[Ze Monstah]

As some of the players above commented... I cannot believe people Red Thumb (or encourage others to Red Thumb) players who expel people who are out of time.

The truth is that many players don't care very much about the games they join (from the time perspective, or the settings perspective), and this is only their fault.

If everyone read or understood the settings of the tables they joined... Or if they stopped joining tables knowing their internet drops like... once every 2 seconds, there would be far less lagging and expelling.

So I would harshly suggest to blame the ones lagging for all sorts of reasons, not the ones expelling when they see some offline player or a lagging player goes out of the time they should have normally been aware of when they accepted the game start; and usually, no explanation, no "sorry", no nothing.

I think I only once gave a Red Thumb to someone who expelled another one, but the situation was a bit... different:

I was winning a 4-players game of Tokaido, the player who expelled was losing, and 1 of the other 2 players went offline at the end of the game (my luck...).

It was probably an Internet issue, and I started writing in Game Chat: "please don't expel him if you see he comes back online".
He came back online, of course, I wrote again "don't expel him, he came back!", of course, but got 20 seconds out of time, of course, and the player who was losing expelled him, of course, because, and i quote "i didn't see he came back online"... AFTER I REPEATEDLY SAID HE CAME BACK ONLINE AND TO NOT EXPEL HIM....... I decided to not believe that.

So I guess there are all sorts of situations, but in general, the players who get expelled, in my opinion, deserve it, especially if the other players try to talk to the player in cause (I personally prefer to send a lagging player, the link of the game page), but with no result.

[Countess-Aleksey]

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.