Board Game Arena

How can I quit a game if a player hasn’t been online for a month or longer, without losing reputation?

All your current turn based games are in friendly mode - there's no time limit and no time penalties but there's also no reputation hit for quitting so you can just leave

That's strange. If you play friendly supposedly it means you want to play relaxed without the pressure of the game ending. If the other player is able to quit whenever they want doesn't that kinda defeat the point of the mode?

Or maybe your supposition is wrong. "Friendly mode" used to be called "training mode". It does what it does: no time, no elo, no penalties, the rest is in your head.

Well you can't train at the game if your opponent always quits before it's over.

Regardless of how you call it, it doesn't make sense that a mode would have no penalties at all. I'm sure most people would agree that there should be no mode where people are allowed to insult in the chat. Just because it's called friendly or training or whatever doesn't mean it becomes okay to treat your opponent however you please.

JimBut wrote: ↑01 September 2026, 12:28 All your current turn based games are in friendly mode - there's no time limit and no time penalties but there's also no reputation hit for quitting so you can just leave

Also turn based games get abandoned after 40 days of no activity - the longest running game you have should be abandoned in 4 days

tbhp wrote: ↑01 September 2026, 14:10 Well you can't train at the game if your opponent always quits before it's over.

And how can you train at the game if the other player isn't playing at all?

tbhp wrote: ↑01 September 2026, 14:10 Regardless of how you call it, it doesn't make sense that a mode would have no penalties at all. I'm sure most people would agree that there should be no mode where people are allowed to insult in the chat. Just because it's called friendly or training or whatever doesn't mean it becomes okay to treat your opponent however you please.

That's correct. Friendly mode means "no penalty for leaving the game", not "no peanlty for insulting in the chat".

tbhp wrote: ↑01 September 2026, 12:53 That's strange. If you play friendly supposedly it means you want to play relaxed without the pressure of the game ending. If the other player is able to quit whenever they want doesn't that kinda defeat the point of the mode?

tbhp wrote: ↑01 September 2026, 14:10 Well you can't train at the game if your opponent always quits before it's over.

Regardless of how you call it, it doesn't make sense that a mode would have no penalties at all. I'm sure most people would agree that there should be no mode where people are allowed to insult in the chat. Just because it's called friendly or training or whatever doesn't mean it becomes okay to treat your opponent however you please.

If you're so worried about your opponent quitting on you, then don't play friendly mode with them. The mode has very useful perks commonly desired, those that want them will utilize it, and those don't won't. Your assumptions on what friendly mode should be don't align with the site.

Your comment on insults doesn't really make sense, there's not really a connection between a player insulting vs a player leaving he game without penalty. Though you're also overstating the significance of a mode where insults were allowed. I can't think of a reason BGA would go out of their way to make one, but such a mode existing wouldn't have any real impact, as players could just go "I don't want to let my table have insults, so I won't play there." BGA should obviously have such a mode defaulted to off to avoid accidental entrances, but as long as everyone knows what they signed up for, it's fine.

cigma wrote: ↑01 September 2026, 21:12 And how can you train at the game if the other player isn't playing at all?

The person leaving the game is assuming the other person will never come back. They are the one making the decision. You can prove the game is over by their decision, that's factual, but you can't prove the game would never have finished if they had waited for the other person. That other person also isn't breaking the agreement since there is no time limit. If the first player isn't okay with that and wants to quit, they shouldn't have played in friendly mode in the first place. Leaving because they feel like the other player is taking too long seems contradictory with the whole idea of the mode. What is the point of being allowed to take any time you want if you might still get punished anyway? That's not much different than if you had just played regular mode.

Also what even constitutes "taking too long"? Since there is no time limit under that mode, the effective "time limit" becomes whatever the other player desires. Since they can quit any time they want, they may get impatient and end the game even earlier than what would had happened if you had played with a timer. This makes the mode potentially more unstable than regular mode, which is a bit ironic, and it means that I have pretty much zero incentive to ever play friendly mode. With a timer, at least it is always in my power to remain within the time limit. If I play friendly mode, I have no guarantee that the other player may not decide to quit at any time for any reason, so what is even the point of playing under those conditions?

Basically, the pressure of playing quickly still exists, it's just that instead of being regulated by an automatic system, it falls in your opponent's hands.

cigma wrote: ↑01 September 2026, 21:12 That's correct. Friendly mode means "no penalty for leaving the game", not "no peanlty for insulting in the chat".

Right, and as I explained above it should also mean "penalty for leaving the game". The mode should recognize that as a non-negotiable harm, just like chat insults.

Ceaseless wrote: ↑01 September 2026, 22:00 The mode has very useful perks commonly desired, those that want them will utilize it, and those don't won't. Your assumptions on what friendly mode should be don't align with the site.

Those perks would still exist with my suggestion taken into account. It would only make the mode better and suitable for more uses.

Ceaseless wrote: ↑01 September 2026, 22:00 I can't think of a reason BGA would go out of their way to make one, but such a mode existing wouldn't have any real impact, as players could just go "I don't want to let my table have insults, so I won't play there." BGA should obviously have such a mode defaulted to off to avoid accidental entrances, but as long as everyone knows what they signed up for, it's fine.

Not everything is okay just because people agree to it. The site has a responsibility to not let hateful speech happen, so I don't think it would be allowed to exist just because people signed up for it.

This goes for competitive aspects too, for example you can't create a tournament where there is a stage where some players just get randomly eliminated, because that would be an obviously wrong way to design a tournament. So, not everything that is possible to do is offered as an option, and I find it strange that quitting is something that people have the option to do without consequences.