Board Game Arena

I am new to this game and i usually play games that have more players. Is it common here that in 2 player games people want to "abandon" game when they are in a hopeless situation? is this considered something like "unsportsmanlike conduct" or similar? I personally find this very disrespectful to the game and your opponent. I am not saying this type of people should get banned but... How about other people? have you faced this? i hope it is not widespread.

It's a matter of 'optimising time' and 'wanting to have a nice ending screen'.

The more you goes into hardcore player and abstract game, and the more you will find players wanting to abandon when they know they have lost.
The more you goes into game with a thematic, or further some lore/some story, and the more players would want to play until the end.

Romain672 wrote: ↑01 July 2025, 23:04 It's a matter of 'optimising time' and 'wanting to have a nice ending screen'.

The more you goes into hardcore player and abstract game, and the more you will find players wanting to abandon when they know they have lost.
The more you goes into game with a thematic, or further some lore/some story, and the more players would want to play until the end.

Note the difference between abandon and concede.
The former hopes for the winning player to not read the popup carefully / misklick, to get out of the loss, and I‘d consider that poor behaviour too.

Unfortunately, all you can do is to red-thumb them and move on.

Yes i mean there is a difference between "abandon" and "concede". i personally do use the "concede" to end the misery faster. Has been escpecially common in nine men's morris! God this game feels and looks so simple but.. then, it is not. That is actually expected "good behaviour and respect" in games like chess, where games can go on for very long even in a "clear" situation if players don't concede. It is not really a huge thing, just a sort annoying.

I have just recently given more thought for the extremely simple strategy games. Something i was never very strong at. But i find the simplicity fascinatiing even though i suck (at least for now). In the past i have played a lot of skill-heavy, luck-factor games and found them a "perfect" concept for me, but i still like to check out what else is out there. I hope good games and good time for everyone!

There's nothing wrong with conceding a game you know you have lost. It saves everyone time and your opponent still scores the win. The top chess players do it all the time.

But, yeah, abandoning a game is a bad look. The best I can tell you is that the culprit will lose karma points, which isn't a terrible penalty but it's something you can use to console yourself.

Also note that some players may have real-life reasons why they cannot log on, so a late player isn't necessarily abandoning the game. I usually allow late players extra time since I don't know their lives, but just abandoning a game because you are going to lose is the act of a scoundrel!

Bill Heller wrote: ↑12 August 2025, 12:51 But, yeah, abandoning a game is a bad look. The best I can tell you is that the culprit will lose karma points, which isn't a terrible penalty but it's something you can use to console yourself.

You actually are talking about yet another option again, neither about abandoning nor conceding, but quitting (or getting kicked after disappearing).

The mutual abandon functionality wraps up the game as if it never had been started, with no consequences for anyone (except for cooperative games like Hanabi). Offering this in the moment of clear loss is bad form, as it hopes for the winner to misklick or misunderstand.

I agree that it is very annoyyiiinnngg when players just stop when it appears they will lose. It happens far too often. At least a couple or more at a time..Ive had 3 in a row!
I find it is mostly those with higher ELO who usually play Arena and jump on social players to increase their ELO.
Why should the player left abandoned in the game be penalized bc the other player had a hissy and left the game?

Also, you can't tell me there is no algorithm bias to the higher ELO player. Lol

Just 2 cents worth.

TheaLuna wrote: ↑22 October 2025, 06:32 I agree that it is very annoyyiiinnngg when players just stop when it appears they will lose. It happens far too often. At least a couple or more at a time..Ive had 3 in a row!
I find it is mostly those with higher ELO who usually play Arena and jump on social players to increase their ELO.
Why should the player left abandoned in the game be penalized bc the other player had a hissy and left the game?

Also, you can't tell me there is no algorithm bias to the higher ELO player. Lol

Just 2 cents worth.

The site does tend to be set in such a way that it's harder for higher rated players given things like the consecutive win penalty. And I suppose pairings are naturally awkward for higher rated players since there is fewer of them. And BGA does even give lower rated players an elo protection cap at the bottom. So I suppose in many ways one could argue BGA is 'rigged' to favor lower rated players and against higher rated players.

That said, your post is looking pretty sketchy. 3 abandons in a row? I don't even see 3 wins in a row, since if a player was quitting you'd get the win for it, whatever you're describing didn't happen recently. Looking at Connect 4 I don't even see you with 3 Arena games, yet you talk about these things somehow happening in Arena on a Connect 4 thread. Your post is making me question if you even play high rated players, forget about having them quitting against you. A player might get an occasional game with them in pairings, but you getting several of them in a close period of time is looking unlikely.

No I gave up trying to progress in Arena. It was demoralizing! Lol. I pop in once in a while but nothing really changes..I spent a number of seasons having a good crack but no matter, even reaching elite, I ended up Bronze again at the end of every season. That was off putting too. I don't mind so much about ELO..it's all just an observation.

What is annoyyyiinnng is high ranked ELO players who abandon the game when it looks like they will lose... which is what we were talking about about, no?
Thank you for your reply.

You said you don't see many wins.. that's bc of what I'm talking about. It's not my experience that the bias is to lower ranked players. I know I'm not as bad a player as my ELO would suggest. Lol, Even people I play with all the time agree it appears that way..not that I'm speaking for anyone else.
Re the connect 4 thingy.. I've been working late and long hours and fell asleep a couple of times smashing my rep. So a few fast games of connect 4 is a quick way to rebuild. Again, I fell asleep and it's not a game I play as a rule. Just to jack up rep %
I'm sorry but 3 times in a row the game was just left hanging as I said, It did happen recntlyJust this week, you probably won't see it bc I just switch to turn based when they're out of time rather than boot anyone.. mostly. But no need to suggest I am being untruthful.

TheaLuna wrote: ↑23 October 2025, 12:24 No I gave up trying to progress in Arena. It was demoralizing! Lol. I pop in once in a while but nothing really changes..I spent a number of seasons having a good crack but no matter, even reaching elite, I ended up Bronze again at the end of every season. That was off putting too. I don't mind so much about ELO..it's all just an observation.

What is annoyyyiinnng is high ranked ELO players who abandon the game when it looks like they will lose... which is what we were talking about about, no?
Thank you for your reply.

You said you don't see many wins.. that's bc of what I'm talking about. It's not my experience that the bias is to lower ranked players. I know I'm not as bad a player as my ELO would suggest. Lol, Even people I play with all the time agree it appears that way..not that I'm speaking for anyone else.
Re the connect 4 thingy.. I've been working late and long hours and fell asleep a couple of times smashing my rep. So a few fast games of connect 4 is a quick way to rebuild. Again, I fell asleep and it's not a game I play as a rule. Just to jack up rep %
I'm sorry but 3 times in a row the game was just left hanging as I said, It did happen recntlyJust this week, you probably won't see it bc I just switch to turn based when they're out of time rather than boot anyone.. mostly. But no need to suggest I am being untruthful.

I've found this pretty rare in my games. It might be because I have filters that stop players too relatively low rated from entering my games. Usually, it's the lower rated players I have this issue with, might be because the elo and reputation penalty matters less for them, but who knows. Just a free win for me.

But yes, the bias is pretty clearly in favor of low rated players, as per the reasons I stated regarding BGA's consecutive win feature making it harder to raise high ratings and the minimum rating floor making it harder to lose it. It's already naturally easier to be low rated since it means you get more for winning and loss less for losing as it is, but BGA added things on top of that.

And yes, you're at good as your elo suggests, that's why you have it. Some players are 600s, 500s, even 300s. It's fine. It doesn't matter what people you play with say your rating should be. Some will try to say you're overrated and just getting lucky, others will say you're underrated and try to appease your ego. It's generally fluff. Your elo will tell you how you're playing, if you think you're better than that, then just play better and the elo will eventually go up accordingly.

If someone was actually trying to abandon the game, there's not much point in setting it to turn-based. They can just waste more of your time then. Setting it to turn-based would imply you don't think they're trying to abandon, if anything they're actively not trying to abandon but ended up running out of time anyways so you gave the more.