Is it possible to avoid playing with trade-hiders?

[Cos-]

I HATE playing this game with people who set their trades to off so they just don't see trades. It really really ruins the game for me. I would always rather abandon the game than keep on playing, if someone is doing that. I also think it's a truly asshole way to play, and that anyone who does that is someone I never want to play any game on BGA with.

Fortunately, it's uncommon, and most games I play don't have any trade-hiding players. But it sucks to get a few moves into a game and only then find out one of the other players is the sort who wants to turn off trades. This leads to a discussion in the chat - except sometimes they never see the chat nor respond - and then a long wait to abandon the game.

What I'd much prefer is to either make it clear at the start that this table is NOT for anyone who intends to turn off trades, so that such people just don't join the table, or some way to disable that option entirely on the tables I create.

Is it possible to do either of these things?

[Dennis W]

For clarification - a "Trade Hider" is someone who simply does not feel the need to do player trades to enjoy the game?

[KP1024]

Boycotting trades is part of the game. You can type your own description into the table that everyone should be willing to trade, but there's no guarantee anyone will follow that.

[Cos-]

> a "Trade Hider" is someone who simply does not feel the need to do player trades to enjoy the game?

I don't know what "doesn't feel the need" means, so that's not a clarification if I say either yes or no.

A "trade hider" is someone who clicks the setting that makes it so trade offers are never shown to them at all. They don't see the trade offers, and don't need to either accept or reject them. They may still *offer* trades themselves, so they may actually do trades. And other people who don't click that setting may end up rejecting most or all trades. So "feel the need to do player trades" is unclear here.

Someone who clicks to make it so that other player's trade offers don't even show up for them, so they never see them, IMO totally ruins the game. I think they are complete assholes, personally, and that it's an offensive and awful way to play. I assume they feel otherwise. That's fine as long as I can just never ever play any games with them and they can go enjoy the site on their own without ruining it for me (and other decent players). But I cannot find a way to do that.

[el cosimo]

I don’t see the problem.. it is the same when they always reject too.. then I like it better that they turn the option on. So they don’t slow down the game by always wait and reject.

I just found not people use it good. I turn it always on when we are at 75% because trading then is just giving points away

[euklid314]

I do not fully understand your point. You accept it that a player *manually* declines most of or every single trade offer by other players. But you cannot accept it that a player *automatically* declines every single trade offer by other players.

I understand that it is less fun for you if all of your opponents on the table do not trade - since then luck becomes more dominant compared to a normal game with trades.

But what is the problem if only one of your opponents eliminates himself out of the equation and you have only the other 1 or 2 players to trade with? In general, not trading is a disadvantage anyway.

A trade on your own turn is always *much* more valuable than a trade on another players turn (no danger of 7s and robbers since you can buy with the traded ressources right away). Some player value that too highly and only trade on their own turn. That is a suboptimal tactic for themselves - but why do you care that strongly? Please note, that this a serious question, I am really interested in your answer.

[Cos-]

If a player declines trades that they SEE, that's very very different from setting it so that they never see trades. A player may think they're not interested in trades, but occasionally a trade will come up that really does match what they need, or that is much better than they expect, so they may take it. They may not even know to anticipate what they'll need, until a robber attack takes away something they were depending on using, or the dice rolls give them an excess of some resources, not on their turn.

Choosing to decline a trade you SEE and do not want, is fine, it's how the game works.

Setting it so you never even see other people's trade offers, severely undermines the game. It takes out one of the core elements of the game. It is not playing fair, or decent. If that option has to be in this adaptation, it should be something people explicitly agree on in advance; I should never be forced to play a game where someone gets to do something nasty and hostile like that. It's not good gamesmanship, and it's not even playing the same game. It is not Catan if you can't offer people trades.

(It also feels extremely disrespectful, like a "fuck you" from that player to the others. It makes me hate the person, which severely detracts from any ability to have fun playing with them.)

[cigma]

I also think it's a truly asshole way to play

It is not playing fair, or decent.

Why are you using such harsh (if not rude) words to describe these other players, who just like to play it another way than you do (and even to their disadvantage, if you are right)?

If you don't want to play with them, you can give them a personal red thumb and you won't be matchd with them again in any game.
Or you can open up a group of trading catan players and play only with these players.
Or you can suggest an option to disable trade hiding while creating a game table here: https://boardgamearena.com/bugs

There are many ways to solve your problem, but grumbling won't help you.

[ANKOU2000]

I usually dont "trade hide" and manually decline trades. But some players, especially at beginner level, make 3 to 4 trade offers per turn. Asking for clay or rock when there is none around the board, offering a 1/1 trade that would obviously give them a great asset on the game and you shouldn't accept, or offering a resource everyone has a full hand off.

Catan isn't about each player building his settlement, it's about making sure you settle before / faster than the other players, which often implies not trading, obviously not in the late game.

We are a bit out of your subject that is more about having an option for setting the game, but I'm certain there would be less trade-hiding if players stopped making silly offers

[Dennis W]

> a "Trade Hider" is someone who simply does not feel the need to do player trades to enjoy the game?

I don't know what "doesn't feel the need" means, so that's not a clarification if I say either yes or no.

Not really sure where to go from there. 'Doesn't want to?' 'Dislikes the format and would rather not deal w/it'? 'Thinks they are good enough to enjoy the game w/out trading' ?

Did you really not understand the meaning or just like playing semantics?

They are playing the game legally and how they enjoy it. And you let that piss you off and ruin your experience? Because all of Humanity does not follow your personal rules? You are in for a rough ride.

If I refuse to listen to trade proposals in Monopoly will you call me obscene names too?