Board Game Arena

So incredibly sick of cowardly, unsportsmanlike players kicking others when they barely go over on time, ESPECIALLY when they have been taking multiple turns in the last hour. This morning I took three turns in an Ark Nova game and 30 minutes over the time limit. Then the player decides to kick me after a break. Unsurprisingly I was winning this game and I'm sure this led to them wanting to expel me.

I know there's probably nothing to be done about this long term but it's really ruining the experience of gaming on this site, in both real-time and turn-based time controls. I mainly want a way to report players who are doing this but I don't see any way of doing so.

The other player did nothing wrong, which is why there is no option to report them. You might want to edit your post before a moderator does it for you, because as gets pointed out a lot, calling somebody out by name on the forums is frowned upon.

The clock is part of the game. If you go over the time your opponent has the option of winning by kicking you from the game. You have no cause for complaint.

The totally separate problem of how this is resolved in multiplayer games (which is not about kicking somebody who is winning but about kicking somebody who isn't to create a draw) is absolutely an issue - a really hard one to solve, but definitely an issue. But its not an issue of people being unsportsmanlike, just an issue of how the site resolves a perfectly legitimate behaviour.

I edited the post to remove the player's name.

However, I strongly disagree with you here: they absolutely did something wrong. I understand that the clock is part of the game but when you're using it to flag people who are clearly still online and taking turns, that is unacceptable behavior. We're not at a chess tournament where using the clock against the other player is a legit strategy. We're in separate parts of the globe playing a game together and sometimes you go over by an hour or two due to time differences. If I haven't been seen for a day or two then yes, by all means boot me, but this is ridiculous.

Queen_of_England wrote: ↑21 December 2023, 18:04We're not at a chess tournament where using the clock against the other player is a legit strategy.

Some people treat it that way, and we don't get to unilaterally decide that they can't think of games on here that way. You are free to red flag the people who do it.

It could be worse. They could automatically flag someone on time on BGA. Some people have even asked for that (I suspect because they don't want to get their hands dirty by calling time themselves).

I personally handle this by giving someone who has clearly been playing regularly and not timing out time to come back, especially in real time games if it shows a "player xxx has disconnected" message. If it is a two-person real time game, I just convert it to turn-based. But these are my preferences based on how I'd want to be treated and the type of environment I want to foster on here. Other players have a different....style....and there is no site rule or policy that they are violating.

There are people complaining like this:
Other players take too long. They use up almost their entire time every move. On turn-based, they would be online without making their move. In some cases even logging off again without doing so. Although they are not exceeding their time limit, this is totally unacceptable. When someone joins a fast turn-based table, then they should be ready to play when they are online. And now they even used a time joker and take even longer.

Then there's people like you saying:
I have exceeded the time limit, but I was on time almost the whole game and it's almost over, that is not the time to be kicking someone.

Between these two poles of players there needs to be some point where to draw the line. And that is the time limit that you have. Make sure that you only join games, where you can stay within the time limit over the whole course of the game - even if time-zones are unfavourable for you - and you're good. Use a time joker, when something makes you take longer (it's part of BGA-rules that this is allowed ~4 times per year).
When you joined a game where you can't keep up with your promise and exceed the time limit, you were the first who was unfriendly to the other player because you both agreed to a faster game and you weren't holding up to that.
Surely there are many players, who will be nice in that situation and don't boot you. But they don't have you. You can give a RT if you don't wanna tolerate people that are not especially nice. But you can't complain.

Queen_of_England wrote: ↑21 December 2023, 17:25 So incredibly sick of cowardly, unsportsmanlike players kicking others when they barely go over on time, ESPECIALLY when they have been taking multiple turns in the last hour. This morning I took three turns in an Ark Nova game and 30 minutes over the time limit. Then the player decides to kick me after a break. Unsurprisingly I was winning this game and I'm sure this led to them wanting to expel me.

I know there's probably nothing to be done about this long term but it's really ruining the experience of gaming on this site, in both real-time and turn-based time controls. I mainly want a way to report players who are doing this but I don't see any way of doing so.

Nah if you went over time, you were definitely not winning the game. You signed up to play by some rules and violated at least one of them. As others have said, in certain scenarios it is an auto loss. Just because it is not automated on BGA and is left for the players to enforce doesn't make them "cowardly" and "unsportsmanlike".

Nah it actually does though. The reason it is unsportsmanlike is that they continued to let me play as I was under time for several turns until I was almost back in the positive, so they were not only allowing it but seeing that I was sitting at my computer playing. Only after I made more moves and increased my lead did they then kick me.

If you violated the time limit (which alone might make some people upset), it's up to your opponnents to be very friendly and let you play (I would in most cases) or not. But it's not about sportsmanship. It's about friendliness. You cannot force friendliness - it can only be given in free decision. You can try to avoid unfriendly people. You can tell them that it would've been nice if they'd let you play (after saying sorry for being slow of course). But apart from that, there's nothing to be done about it.
So in your case, they tried to fake friendliness for a few turns. Or maybe they didn't realize earlier. Or they let you play for a few turns as long as you were quick but then you took a break and they didn't like that... who knows

Queen_of_England wrote: ↑21 December 2023, 21:54 Nah it actually does though. The reason it is unsportsmanlike is that they continued to let me play as I was under time for several turns until I was almost back in the positive, so they were not only allowing it but seeing that I was sitting at my computer playing. Only after I made more moves and increased my lead did they then kick me.

I agree with you that it is unsportsmanlike. Conduct that you wouldn't do over a real table doesn't become acceptable just because it's online. No, just because you don't usually have a clock when playing face-to-face does not fundamentally change the interaction.

But I do agree with everyone who says you can't force people to behave in a friendly manner. And the online/offline thing goes both ways. I'm sure you wouldn't suddenly ghost your friends over a real board and walk out of the room with them having no idea when you're coming back, popping back in to make a move or two, etc. I'm sorry for your experience if they did toy around with you, but ultimately the clock exists and you have to act accordingly. You know these people are out there, and eventually someone will do it again if you continue to run out of time. I'm not saying you should only play with people you personally know who won't do this to you, but that's an option.

By signing up for fast turn based games, you are committing to playing at that speed. Based on this experience, perhaps use the next slowest turn-based setting next time. One thing they absolutely can't do is kick you when you haven't run out of time, so you don't have to rely on them being nice or sportsmanlike.

Queen_of_England wrote: ↑21 December 2023, 17:25 So incredibly sick of cowardly, unsportsmanlike players kicking others when they barely go over on time, ESPECIALLY when they have been taking multiple turns in the last hour. This morning I took three turns in an Ark Nova game and 30 minutes over the time limit. Then the player decides to kick me after a break. Unsurprisingly I was winning this game and I'm sure this led to them wanting to expel me.

I know there's probably nothing to be done about this long term but it's really ruining the experience of gaming on this site, in both real-time and turn-based time controls. I mainly want a way to report players who are doing this but I don't see any way of doing so.

I see that you've been kicked out of two fast turn-based games with playing hours that don't seem appropriate for you. The game in question had playing hours from 1AM to 1PM PST (or 4AM to 4PM EST). It looks like the earliest in the day that you started playing was 6:50AM PST. Your opponents were both in the same European time zone, so they both had to wait around 6 hours each day for you to start making your moves. You really should not have joined this game.

I've played some fast turn-based games in the past, and they usually have someone join that is away for almost the entire playing hours. I'm always curious if they are doing it intentionally, or perhaps they don't even know about playing hours.