Board Game Arena

I’m honestly tired of people conceding games that are already in progress.
We invest time, focus, and strategy into a match, and suddenly it just… ends.
Not because the game is finished, but because someone decided to quit.

When you start a game with someone, you implicitly agree to play it to the end. In real life, nobody would just stand up and leave the table without a word.
I played a lot on BGA between 2020 and 2022 and I almost never saw this. I recently started playing again with a friend, and he agrees that on Ark Nova it happens all the time.

Rage quitters don’t even bother to warn, ask, or explain. They just concede. I don’t care about the Elo points, I care about finishing the game.

If conceding becomes normal, it kills the whole experience of board games.
Maybe frequent concessions should be penalized more seriously.

Am I the only one who feels this way ?

They conceded, probably because the game was over. They played to the end.

thmous wrote: ↑31 January 2026, 00:14

Am I the only one who feels this way ?

Yes. You're the only one.

There definitely was not a contentious 35-page thread about this.

(Seriously, how did you post this question without seeing, on the same screen, a 35-page thread with a title "can we stop conceding with one move to go" ? )

FrankJones wrote: ↑31 January 2026, 01:12
Seriously, how did you post this question without seeing, on the same screen, a 35-page with a title "can we stop conceding with one move to go" ?

In the mood I'm in, my answer to this would surely get me moderated.

Meeplelowda wrote: ↑31 January 2026, 01:25

FrankJones wrote: ↑31 January 2026, 01:12
Seriously, how did you post this question without seeing, on the same screen, a 35-page with a title "can we stop conceding with one move to go" ?

In the mood I'm in, my answer to this would surely get me moderated.

Don't do that

You're one of the voices of reason on this site.

FrankJones wrote: ↑31 January 2026, 01:12

thmous wrote: ↑31 January 2026, 00:14

Am I the only one who feels this way ?

Yes. You're the only one.

There definitely was not a contentious 35-page thread about this.

(Seriously, how did you post this question without seeing, on the same screen, a 35-page thread with a title "can we stop conceding with one move to go" ? )

Well, it specifies with one turn and this one doesn't. To be fair, the last thread devolved from having some reasonable takes going back and forth to it getting hijacked on a tangent with posts that puts Poe's Law to the test.

You're mixing conceding and quitting. Those are different things:

* Conceding: only possibly in 2p games, after 50% progression. The conceder loses normally, the other player wins normally. The game is counted as a win/loss to all effects with full elo/Arena score changes. Only final game stats (if any) are not complete. This is a legal move, no penalties involved.

* Quitting: can happen with any number of players at any moment. It's equivalent to being expelled by another player due to running out of time. It results in a full loss, plus an additional karma and elo loss. The other players get a shared win (so a tie if it's a 3+ player game), and only part of the corresponding elo/Arena score change (according the game's progression). This is a disruptive action and has its own penalties.

You are free to red thumb players who do one or the other or both, or any other player for any other reason. You're also free to discuss if the distinction between the two makes sense, or if the penalties should be different. But you should be aware that when you start a game any of those could happen. If you can't cope with that, don't start a game.

thmous wrote: ↑31 January 2026, 00:14 Am I the only one who feels this way ?

Yes!
Maybe people want to play one fast game, then take care of real life stuff, but if they have no chance of winning, they concede after 50% progression (which is perfectly legal).
Why would anyone sit and waste time, just to nurture someone's ego with unnecessary extra-play, in an unwinnable game for them?
Maybe someone could delete this new forum thread? If moderation would be too harsh...

Jellby wrote: ↑31 January 2026, 08:54 You're also free to discuss if the distinction between the two makes sense, or if the penalties should be different. But you should be aware that when you start a game any of those could happen. If you can't cope with that, don't start a game.

I second that and would like to add that if you, OP, indeed want to discuss that further, please do so in the other thread, and after
reading through the posts there. It started out as being about conceding on the last turn but it quickly became a discussion about conceding (not quitting) in general. I dropped out at some point bc I didn’t feel it was going anywhere, but for the first 15/20 pages or so, it was an interesting discussion that made me partially change my mind about conceding.

Hi everyone,

I am perhaps an old generation guy but I also love to play a lot in real life around a table : association, pubs, friends.

In this real life no one would stop the game and rush away because it looks like he is loosing. We go to the end, we say thank you for the game (and we meant it) and have a funny time. By the way in such condition it can happen that someone has to leave for personal reason (emergency, etc, ..) but it is exceptional.

BGA is a wonderful place to play with remote or busy friends to game we love, but also play with stranger.

However, I understand that more and more people want to find here the chess spirit : it is perfectly fine to concede ; or even some want to find a kind of video game.

I am an old generation and dumb guy that would love to keep the real life board game spirit on BGA, and be able to launch a game by selecting in a settings that : "we play up to the end". Would love to have such a feature to make both world of users and user expectations live together.

Best regards and have fun