Board Game Arena

Hi there,

I believe that there should be a way to report a player for abusing the skip turn feature as my understanding of this feature is that you are supposed to allow people to have their thinking time and use this feature if they are taking unreasonably long (not four seconds over) or if there is reasonable belief the person is disconnected or away from the computer.

I played a three player game which seemed to have slight bugs with the thinking time and was dropping more than it was supposed to be and there was a player who repeatedly kept trying to skip both myself and the other player. I had a turn on a fast game where it was prompting me to do multiple things and it went over and i couldnt finish it all and I was removed from the game.

I do not believe this was fair as I lost a significant amount of ELO for this and it was very clear that I was finishing my turn. The game we were playing kept dropping player time significantly if there was any action you were required to do on another players turn. I did red thumb the player but I am not satisfied with this and believe there needed to be a way to report the player.

You can't report a player if they are following the rules. The first time you go into the red there is a cool down timer before someone can skip you (20 seconds I believe but this could be wrong). The cool down timer reduces the more frequent you go over time.

If you exceed this then the player has every right to skip you by the rules on bga. You might not like it and feel it's unsportsmanlike, but they are the rules and you should have stayed within your thinking timer. If you believe that the thinking timer was running down quicker than it should have you can raise a bug report.

Stephz98 wrote: ↑06 April 2025, 10:10 my understanding of this feature is that you are supposed to allow people to have their thinking time and use this feature if they are taking unreasonably long (not four seconds over) or if there is reasonable belief the person is disconnected or away from the computer.

Your understanding is wrong. You are supposed to allow people their whole thinking time, and not one second more. The moment it hits 0 is the moment it becomes "unreasonable". If you don't want to expel at that point, it's your choice, but others joined a game where each player has X time each turn, not "X time plus whatever some other player decides is reasonable".

Stephz98 wrote: ↑06 April 2025, 10:10 I do not believe this was fair

Not only was it fair, but you had to go over your committed time multiple times before you were kicked. The first time it happens in a game, you're given an extra 20 seconds. The next time, a little less. After mulitple offenses, you can finally be kicked.

You made a time commitment when you joined the game. You violated that commitment repeatedly.

It was fair. It was unfair. It's entirely debatable. It's a player's choice. This means that any decision is valid. And it also means that any decision can be morally judged depending on individual positions.

Also, the FAQ says:
"If the player seems to be away, we advise you to wait a few minutes: this player may be experiencing some network problems or have left temporarily. If the player does not come back, and their clock has become negative, then you may kick this player out of the game."

Nothing about what we supposed to think or do.