Board Game Arena

I have gotten several penalties for not playing in time when I only play turn based games and I play several times a day. I don’t know what’s going on. Can someone please explain this to me?

JohnD7799 wrote: ↑23 April 2026, 23:52 I have gotten several penalties for not playing in time when I only play turn based games and I play several times a day. I don’t know what’s going on. Can someone please explain this to me?

What penalties are you referring to? Your karma is 100% and I don't see any expulsions in your last 20 or so games. Your profile says you have only run out of time 3 times and been expelled once in your last 266 games.

I’ve gotten several notifications (emails) that I was out of time and just today was prevented from starting a new game because I was “out of time” on a current game.

JohnD7799 wrote: ↑24 April 2026, 00:04 I’ve gotten several notifications (emails) that I was out of time and just today was prevented from starting a new game because I was “out of time” on a current game.

Did the email give a table number for the game in question?

Did the email actually say you're "out of time" or did it say you're "running out of time"?

The emails said running out of time, but even that is wild because I had just played a few hours prior and I shouldn’t have been anywhere near “running out of time”

JohnD7799 wrote: ↑24 April 2026, 00:47 The emails said running out of time, but even that is wild because I had just played a few hours prior and I shouldn’t have been anywhere near “running out of time”

For reasons known only to BGA, they send out "running out of time" emails even to the other players in the game. It's silly, because the other players can't even do anything until the player is actually out of time and they may not actually go over time. Maybe it's so you can warn them that you may choose to expel them? Who knows? I think it's unnecessary spam.

That aside, there may be a delay between when the email is triggered by whatever super-secret time threshold BGA uses and when the email is actually sent (if they are done in batches, for example), so by the time you get the email you may have already made a move.

Are any of these Arena games? I think there may be a restriction on starting new Arena games if there is a move pending, even if you aren't out of time, but I don't remember the details.

I just found this in the settings: "Send me an email when a player is running out of time" You can set that to "no" and I think it applies to yourself as well. https://boardgamearena.com/preferences?section=email

JohnD7799 wrote: ↑23 April 2026, 23:52 I have gotten several penalties for not playing in time when I only play turn based games and I play several times a day. I don’t know what’s going on. Can someone please explain this to me?

I'm guessing it is due to this game which is a fast turn-based game with 8 moves/day during what looks like an inappropriate 12-hour window for you. The clocks in this game only count down between midnight and noon PDT and you are mostly playing in the afternoon/evening, so you are probably losing at least 8 hours a day. Each time you make a move, only 1.5 hours are added to your clock. You probably aren't getting a chance to make many moves when you are actually available to play, since the player from Portugal is asleep (and not being penalized for it).

How are you joining your games? Do you use the "Play now" link at the top of the page, or do you go to a particular game page and join games there? If you are using the game pages, you should not use the flexible setting for the game speed, because BGA will happily add you to these inappropriate games. Feel free to vote for this bug or something similar if you would like this system changed.

I see you are also in another game with the same playing hours, but 24 moves/day. Luckily for you, some other player has not been making their moves, so you have not run out of time there.

Pareil pour moi, c'est saoulant de perdre de la "réputation" quand tu quittes une partie. Quand tu n'as pas de chance et qu'il n'y a plus aucune chance de gagner, à quoi bon perdre son temps ? Au contraire, ça permet au vainqueur de gagner plus vite et de faire plus de jeux. C'est pour cela que je na vais pas payer pour être "premium" : aucun intérêt.

Jim McQueen the Mod wrote: ↑25 April 2026, 17:07 Pareil pour moi, c'est saoulant de perdre de la "réputation" quand tu quittes une partie. Quand tu n'as pas de chance et qu'il n'y a plus aucune chance de gagner, à quoi bon perdre son temps ? Au contraire, ça permet au vainqueur de gagner plus vite et de faire plus de jeux. C'est pour cela que je na vais pas payer pour être "premium" : aucun intérêt.

Concede (see the upper right hamburger menu), don't quit, and you won't lose reputation.

It's also polite to check with the other player first unless it's something where conceding is normal like chess, backgammon, go, ... 2P abstracts with no score, just a win/loss status, generally.

Also, it would be bad to quit or concede if:
- it is > 2p. Your leaving affects the outcome for everyone and when some one leaves everyone else ties, so the winner is no longer the winner.
- it is a game with scores (the other player might want to see the final scores, and this is lost if conceding or quitting)
- it is near the end of the game. Just play it out to not be rude.

I believe the game needs to be 50% complete for concede to be allowed.

lefalaf wrote: ↑26 April 2026, 02:46 Also, it would be bad to quit or concede if:
- it is > 2p. Your leaving affects the outcome for everyone and when some one leaves everyone else ties, so the winner is no longer the winner.

Luckily you can only concede a 2p game.