Why do so many people cancel games?
I guess I’m not reeeaaally bothered I just can’t fathom the reasons!?
The rule set I choose is always standard with automatic handicaps, I limit my search to players within 2 ranks either way and I play almost exclusively correspondence games so time isn’t an issue!
Ok I take it back, it does bother me XD
4 Likes
There can be several reasons for cancelling a game:
- external reasons that have nothing to do with the opponent (“oops, it is later than In thought, have to run now, bye” or just a change of mind).
- a lot of players don’t like handicap go and drop out when they realise that the game is not set up the way they want to play.
- impatience: in normal games when a player waits for 5 minutes to make the first move might make the opponent decide to cancel.
There may be other motivations for cancelling a game.
5 Likes
Automatched corrs :<
Often ppl just click the automatch button “hey what does this do” without realising that game can start immediately if someone is already waiting to be matched. And many have their settings in “no preference” mode, and then they get surprised to see its handicap game on 9x9 or 13x13 board (especially in cases where they are the white player ^^)
5 Likes
Maybe with no handicap at all (and still within 2 levels) you could get less cancelations
2 Likes
Game creators have wide latitude to cancel games they create for any reason, because they have no opportunity to vet their opponent beforehand. For example, the game starts, they look at the opponent’s history and decide the opponent looks like a botter or an escaper (lots of timeouts in non-blitz), so they cancel.
By contrast, players who accept an open challenge see the specifications and can check out the opponent before accepting. These people are expected to play, and if they cancel a game you created, you can report them, and we will explain what is expected of them.
There are also cancellation trolls. This comparatively rare breed of troll enjoys wasting people’s time by canceling games. Coincidentally, a cancellation troll has recently been pestering OGS, so this is a timely subject.
3 Likes
I have seen some of the craziest kinds of trolls do absolutely insane things just to waste a given online stranger’s time or win a game (mostly on other servers). Things that make most people wonder why it is worth it for trolls to put all the effort into doing what they do.
But never in a thousand years would I have thought that there is such thing as a cancellation troll. That has given me a good laugh for the day.
3 Likes
I don’t see the point of providing a feature one’s not supposed to use.
1 Like
You must have overlooked the paragraph where I explained that game creators are fully entitled to cancel.
1 Like
And indeed game acceptors can cancel if the creator takes too long to get going…
5 Likes
Thank you, @Eugene, I forgot to mention that.
2 Likes
I understand the opportunity to cancel on the first move of each player for multiple reasons.
I don’t see why waiting the 6th to close it? The only thing i see is an opportunity to not play an opening you dislike which shouldn’t be a choice. Or to offer a bit of trolling…
1 retraction seems enough to me (for each player).
2 Likes
Yeah, after each player has played a move seems reasonable; I’m not sure why it needs to be longer than that
2 Likes
Just came across this thread again when reading the Help chat on the main site.
I wonder whether it’s meant to be in accord with all games being unrated when 6 moves or less that the button is there – otherwise a player resigning on or before the 6th move would have the same effect as cancelling it anyway.
Or do you mean that all ranked games should be considered rated if more than 1-2 moves long, instead of 6 ?
I mean that. Players have to take their responsability.
3 Likes
I object.
In fact, a lot of games are canceled on the second move.
The reason may be that they don’t want to play with temporary rankings, or this is a handicap game, etc.
Many people simply don’t read game settings, or check players.
They’ll make a move after the game starts, only to realize it’s not what they wanted, and then cancel.
If these games were all included in the rankings, it would definitely cause a lot of confusion.
The purpose of rankings is to reflect a player’s skill level, not to reward and punish players.
If a game ends in a cliffhanger, or the player who clearly won the game throws the game, there is absolutely no point in ranking this and it should certainly be cancelled.
2 Likes
It’s not because people behave wrongly that you need to accept it. This is encouraging them to be careless.
Basically you agree, you play. You jump out, you lose.
The argument that this happens many times has no value until you test the changes by a new policy.
Check other go servers choices and see if they have this recurrent problems.
Everyday there are reports by players complaining that their opponent escaped and OGS has to explain that no no this is only a cancellation. That ability to cancel in the first few moves is not something shared as obvious for everyone.
2 Likes
No one is saying there’s nothing wrong with canceling games and being careless.
In fact, throwing games is against OGS policy. If someone does this regularly, the moderators will warn and ban them.
Of course canceling the game counts as a loss.
In the ladder, high-ranking players will lose their rankings if they cancel the game, and low-ranking players will replace high-ranking players.
In a tournament, canceling a game will result in losing points or being eliminated, while the opponent will gain points or advance.
In the game results, it will be shown: Black/White wins by cancellation.
So what’s the problem?
The problem is that what is important is their ranking for them. That’s how a game counts. Touch their ranking and players will stop to run away. Reports will stop. Posts on this subject will disappear. All be fine and if someone lose a game because baby is crying, it won’t be the end of the world.
1 Like
Not really.
Ranking is important for websites. Important to reflect the user’s skill level.
Ranking is not something to reward and punish players.
Its purpose is to allow users to play with players of that skill level based on ranking.
Because the results that have nothing to do with skills should not be ranked.
Because such a game cannot reflect who has a higher skill level and who has a lower skill level.
No, there will definitely be people who are happy to drop in the rankings.
Because he can pretend to be a player with a weak skill level to play with a player with a weak skill level, or raid a player with a similar skill level.
There will definitely be people who are unhappy with rankings rising for reasons that have nothing to do with skills.
Because players with weaker skill levels than him will refuse to play with him, and he can only be tortured by players with higher skill levels.
There will only be more reports, “this game should not be ranked” reports everywhere.
Or, “This player should be ranked higher or lower.”
2 Likes
Here is the problem. How do you fix what has nothing to do with skills? Player realize he don’t like his opponent way of playing? Player wants to play black? Don’t like blitz or handicap? Knows nothing about 3x5 josekis?
I say, you start a game, don’t stop after that. Assume your choice and everyone will be happy.
I see this like referring to sandbagging. That would be easely detected when a player accumulate losses in the very beginning.
I still expect most players to be respectful and play their game they signed in.
I don’t expect at all you ll have that many reports you mentioned. When the rules have no ambiguities, reports will decrease instead.
1 Like