Board Game Arena

It has been my experience, at least when playing board games in person, that a number of the players are in some way neurodivergent/quirkily brained. I would love it if this website was better able to accommodate a particular symptom that can come along with ADHD known as time blindness.

As a person with ADHD, I cannot sense time the way the average person does, there is no difference for me between 1 minute and 3 minutes, or 10 seconds and 30 seconds. This would be less problematic if I could see the timer at all times on the mobile BGA game so the first clue I am taking too long is not the 20 second warning that I am about to be expelled. This seems like it would be a relatively easy thing for BGA to fix?

Additionally, I think there should be a more time blindness friendly game option available in the form of allowing games to be created that require more than one person to hit the expel button to expel an opponent. If someone chooses to join that game, a message could pop up indicating that this game has been created to be friendly to those with a terrible sense of time, or those who might just need some extra time once or twice a game and as such it is required that the other players (maybe all but the player in the red, or maybe just two players) agree to expel a person, and the 20 second grace period will not decrease at any point. That way those of us who would benefit from a little more grace regarding clock time can find other similarly minded people to play with and we are less likely to get stuck in a game with someone who loves the expel button. I might not need this option as much if I could keep eyes on the timer, but I still think it would be a great thing to have.

Heck, they could also make an option to create games for those who love to expel people in which if a person ever runs out of time they lose. Allowing people to play games in the way that they desire makes for more happy players.

Natlovesboardgames wrote: ↑10 September 2026, 17:36 I would love it if this website was better able to accommodate a particular symptom

Great news: They have! People who suffer from time blindness (or IBS or anything else) can select the "friendly mode" time limit when starting the game. It does everything you want: Allows extra time, prevents opponent from expelling you, and includes the grace provided by ensuring you're not committing to something you may not be able to achieve.

Meanwhile, there's also the time-based mode for people who prefer strict, by-the-numbers turns. Players who select those are committing to play within strict limits and understand they may be expelled if they don't meet their commitments.

Friendly mode can’t be applied to Arena though, so that doesn’t help OP if they want to be able to play competitively with less time restraints.

It also doesn’t affect Elo, so it’s just not a helpful mode for anyone who cares about rankings and other related trophies.

Why would they only allow this in friendly mode?

Natlovesboardgames wrote: ↑10 September 2026, 18:21 Why would they only allow this in friendly mode?

Because that is the purpose of friendly mode? To play without timer or Elo concerns.

If non-friendly games didn't have timers, nothing would stop people from just abandoning the game when it is not going well.

I have had to switch from my computer to my cell phone occasionally when my internet loses connection. On my cell phone, I can still see my player timer in my player panel, same place it is when playing on my computer.

Are there some games that do not display the player timer when playing on a cell phone?

But OP isn’t asking for a friendly mode, they are asking for the other modes to have more lenient time options.

FrankJones wrote: ↑10 September 2026, 19:05 Are there some games that do not display the player timer when playing on a cell phone?

OP made reference to "see[ing] the timer at all times", so I assume they mean when they scroll down and the player panels are not visible. So, like, if they're playing TfM and scroll down past the map to where their hand is, they can't see the timer any more, and get lost in thought (or whatever) contemplating the options currently in their hand and don't know how much time has passed.

OP, maybe, since you're on mobile, you could just say "Hey Siri/Ok Google, start a 2 minute timer" or whatever interval you'd like. Then you could get a reminder of how much time has passed before the 20 second caution? Not the same as having it always visible, but better than nothing.

If you want some more time to plan your turn you can choose a table setting with longer turns. If you don't want to play at a table that has longer turns than your current settings then I'm sure you can empathize with the players who are expelling: they also didn't want to play at a table that would play at that speed, yet despite not joining a table with longer turn times the turns are taking that amount of time anyway.

The suggestions that multiple players need to vote to kick, or the 20s warning doesn't decrease just opens up the risk of abuse: a 3 player game where 2 of the players know each other and refuse to kick, so they both could leave for an hour and the other player is stuck in the game.
If the 20s timer doesn't decrease a player could keep making a move and undoing it to reset the 20s, again trapping other players until they quit the table.

Rule of the Internet is "if it can be abused, it will be abused". There was a post I saw recently from a user stuck in a game of Catan because the other 2 players blocked them early, preventing them from getting any points, then stopped trying to get any points themselves so the game couldn't end. There is another user who will join hundreds of turn based games at a time and then stop playing in all of them leaving the games hanging. After a couple months they play some quick games of Can't stop to get their karma back up and do it again.
This is why people are suggesting friendly mode, as it provides the grace you are asking for but if someone tries to abuse that grace you can leave without consequences.

You could also try turn based games, then you don't have to worry about the clock as much. "24 moves in a day" should provide the expectation that people are around and making their moves but will be much more forgiving with the turn timer.