Board Game Arena

Hi,

In a situation where a player is losing so instead of conceding or playing the game out, he is using a Time Joker to extend his time and create new games where he is finishing them so he can win and increase his ELO while "holding" all his losing games in limbo.

My suggestion is that anyone who has used a Time Joker should play their turn on all existing games resetting the time limits (right now its multiple days as opposed to hours) where it is their turn before they can create/join any game.

Interesting--I was wondering about this, too. In addition, is there any way to just extend the time limit for all players in a game with a player using a time joker by the same amount, to make it fair and reduce chances for shenanigans?

I can't think of any downsides, but would love to hear any.

Of course I think of another feature I would love in regards to Time Jokers after my last post...

Please make it obvious when somebody has played a Time Joker. On my Games in Progress page, those who played a Time Joker appear with a red clock symbol next to their name, identical to when somebody is out of time without a Joker, and a different icon (or at least not the red clock) would be less confusing. I was thinking of reporting this as a bug (I also get email notifications about them being out of time, but I'm still double-checking with somebody about the exact time they played their joker to confirm).

Overall, I think the following are needed, in no particular order:

• stop/impede Time Joker players joining AND creating any new games (at least turn-based; I could see an argument for letting them play real-time games only...):
  <disregard>oh, and don't allow registering for tournaments beginning before Joker expires!</disregard>
  • automatically, or
  • indicate on somebody's player icon whether they have an active Time Joker (like the premium icon, but maybe bigger or as an overlay?) so folks know to steer clear if that player hosts a game (disabling automated joining, for both them and for other players potentially joining their hosted games, should be necessary anyway); this option would just be for if full-automation had technical limitations, or
  • Time Joker applies only to active turn-based games started by the time it's played (so new games would not get any increased time limit; they would have to play a new Time Joker for that)
• when a player uses a Time Joker, extend the time limit for all players in each of their current, active (play has started; no time benefit for anyone at in any not-yet-begun created tables) turn-based games by the same amount, to prevent (or at least drastically reduce) abuse
• use a different icon on the Games in Progress page when it's the Time Joker player's turn (maybe unicode ?), instead of the current behavior where they look exactly like anybody else out of time until I click to go to the table

I don't actually know if a Time Joker already only applies to active games vs. newly created ones, but...yeah, there you go .

HermitWife wrote: ↑07 July 2024, 21:14 oh, and don't allow registering for tournaments beginning before Joker expires!

The time joker doesn't apply to any tournament games, so this provision is unnecessary. I agree with all your other suggestions though.

lol, now people cheat by using time jokers?

Mathew5000 wrote: ↑07 July 2024, 21:58

HermitWife wrote: ↑07 July 2024, 21:14 oh, and don't allow registering for tournaments beginning before Joker expires!

The time joker doesn't apply to any tournament games, so this provision is unnecessary. I agree with all your other suggestions though.

Ah, right! This one really isn't necessary . I've edited my list above.

nccc wrote: ↑08 July 2024, 00:57 lol, now people cheat by using time jokers?

Obviously folks can't do it THAT much, but this wasn't the first report I heard of it happening, so...yeah, icky .