Board Game Arena

I'm in a tournament game with an opponent who ran out of time a while ago. I think eventually he'll be timed out of the game by the system. But is there any reason I shouldn't skip his turn if the game is giving me that choice? How do people handle that situation?

Firstly, thanks for checking! I'm sure there are a thousand different opinions about this, but here's my approach:

I always try to get a response from them in chat first. I pick a somewhat-arbitrary amount of time (the greater % played of the game, the more time I give, especially if I'm losing to show I'm not just cheesing things—making it somehow relative to a turn length for your game speed is also a good idea) for them to respond. I simply say "everything ok?" and/or the auto-translated menu message "are you still there?" in case of language differences. Doesn't hurt to check how long they've been offline on their profile, either (though at least one BGA browser extension makes you appear always-online, but then they shouldn't be going red much with that active anyway).

If they don't respond or return, I usually say something like "sorry, but I've got to move on at this point—hope all is well" and skip. If they return and respond in chat with a sorry, and maybe even an explanation, I'm even more generous going forward unless it gets really bad. If they return without responding or apologizing, then future infractions (either after having gained plenty of time back again or if in the red for an amount of time showing they're not even trying to make up time), I either give them less time to respond or just skip, depending on circumstances and how egregious their overtime is; I still usually try to chat again.

I would also give less time in other circumstances, like if the rest of the tournament is just waiting on your match to proceed, etc. You can probably get away with being stricter in tournaments in general, but it's good form to at least give a little grace.

If they're using an extension to block chat, they really should be announcing that up-front or just be better about not going in the red—that's the trade-off.

If I've gone into the red at all that game and they didn't try to skip me, I pretty much just won't skip them at all unless it gets extreme.

Throwing in this last one for good measure: when you have more than 2 players (outside of Memoir '44 of course), I would always check in with other players to see how they feel about skipping and timing—I got so angry in a game I'd been playing for 2 weeks when another player skipped a third player without consulting the rest of us first!

TLDR: chat first.

I agree with HermitWife on the chat first.

I almost never skip players because I am here to play Memoir’44. As long as the opponent does play I want to play on.

One thing to note: tournament games are automatically ended after the total time has elapsed, giving the win to the player taking the least time.
So, I usually let that expire in tournament games.

For arena games, I tend to check in the chat more. There opponents can actually regain time, and there are other penalties that are already applied if you time out. So, it's less of a problem there and especially bad form to end a game the second a player goes over time.

As for extensions blocking chat: I tend to see that as the problem of the player using them. I'm not going to go out of my way to check for that.

Good advice, thanks all.