Board Game Arena

Hey playing people out there!

I am quite new on this site and just started with my first 1-year membership because I liked to play Carcassonne with different people all over the world. I really like the idea to play board games with people all over the world. I like the different type of games on BGA and I also have the feeling the community is really open-minded.
There is one thing which bothers me since the beginning of playing games here on BGA. The ranking and the penalties. I am an 36-year old adult and I am quite self-responsible for my behaviour. I always try to finish games which I started but sometimes my baby cries at night or anything else important happens which forces me to stop playing immediatly. Why do I have to get a punishment by a computer just because I am self-responsible. Why is there always this Ranking about the Karma and if it is low it says "You are bad". I don't think we should treat children with punishment and rewarding for the "right" behaviour and I also don't think that is a good thing for adults.
I mean I understand the needs of a Tournament-Setting with strict rules and of course penalties but when I just want to have fun and play some rounds with people all over the world, why has to be there a punishment. I am sure everyone has his reasons why to play slow or to stop playing at a certain point.
Also the banning of the text-chat for players with a karma lower than 50% is a treatment which doesn't fit in my view of appreciation the Value of talking with each other. The BGA says: "You were a bad boy, know you are not allowed to talk to strangers anymore!"

I am sure there a different opinions about that topic and I am really open and interested, about your view.
Happy Discussion,
Lukas

The problem is two things :

Firstly there is no way to tell when someone stops playing whether they have a genuine emergency or whether they just can't be bothered. You can't punish only the lazy because you can't tell why people do play.

So why have punishments at all for casual play? Well like you I have children. I don't get much time to play games. It's VERY annoying when I finally get time to play and my opponent in a real time game doesn't play and just sits there wasting my precious time.

So I think the current system is fair enough

I would suggest playing turn-based games (with high speed settings) instead of real-time. Sometimes these games are played by people who are at the computer and will respond pretty quickly, but who don't want the stress of realtime.

The answer is that you should play only turn-based games and not realtime games. For a realtime game, there is an expectation that everyone will be present and finish the game. If there was no karma penalty for abandoning realtime games, people would just start games and abandon them.

You should only play realtime games when you can commit to finishing the game.

Whatever the reason you quit or run out of time, if you do it often, other players have a right to know it. Low karma doesn't mean you're a bad person, it just means (among other things) that you're more likely to have a real-life emergency or computer problem.

If you don't care about ratings, karma or time, play in training mode.

FSKFSK wrote: ↑27 March 2022, 00:38 You should only play realtime games when you can commit to finishing the game.

I can't comprehend why this is not obvious.

Last night, I was playing 'Solo' with a group of folks, and we played about 5-6 rounds one after the other. Between rounds, before a new one starts, the system has you click a button at the top of the screen (sorry, I cannot remember the exact wording on that button right now) to begin a new round. I had not yet clicked that button for a new round (I guess I COULD have, but I really don't think that I did) and left because I didnt feel like playing another round. Before I could leave, I was told that I would take a penalty for leaving, and had to confirm that I really did want to leave.

Why did that happen?

If I was in the middle of a round and left, I could completely understand why I would take a penalty, and I whole-heartedly agree with that, but I was not....I was in between rounds.

I am a new player, so I got a message this morning that incident would not be held against me because I am new, but that just doesnt seem right.

LugosisGhost wrote: ↑27 March 2022, 09:42 Last night, I was playing 'Solo' with a group of folks, and we played about 5-6 rounds one after the other. Between rounds, before a new one starts, the system has you click a button at the top of the screen (sorry, I cannot remember the exact wording on that button right now) to begin a new round. I had not yet clicked that button for a new round (I guess I COULD have, but I really don't think that I did) and left because I didnt feel like playing another round. Before I could leave, I was told that I would take a penalty for leaving, and had to confirm that I really did want to leave.

Why did that happen?

If I was in the middle of a round and left, I could completely understand why I would take a penalty, and I whole-heartedly agree with that, but I was not....I was in between rounds.

I am a new player, so I got a message this morning that incident would not be held against me because I am new, but that just doesnt seem right.

I watched the replay. You left in the middle of the game. A game is not a round. The settings of the game you joined were to play until someone gets 100 penalty points, no matter how many rounds that takes. You left when you had 82 penalty points and no one had yet reached 100....so...the...game...WAS NOT OVER.

OK, I accept that. Like I said, I am new, and I didnt know the rules/parameters of the game well enough, I guess.

Thank you for the clarification, Meeplelowda.