I was playing a live game this morning when my opponent said that they had to leave (it seemed urgent). I thought the game was quite even so I didn’t want to resign but also don’t feel good about winning due to time out/resignation. So I suggested that we pause, add each other as friends and continue another time. My opponent agreed to this so I sent a friend request.
When I logged on this evening I find that I had lost by timeout. The timeout happened 7ish hours after the pause so it wasn’t a 2 min toilet break type pause. My opponent hasn’t accepted my friend request either. This really annoyed me as I thought I was very reasonable in suggesting a pause when I was under no obligation to.
I was thinking about this after and thought that maybe it could be a good idea at least show pauses in the game chat… (ie: Game paused/unpaused by PlayerABC). Also in order for the game to continue, both players have to be in the game or press some button saying that they are ready to continue (that expires after a min or so). Or even converting a live game to a correspondence game.
Has anyone else had a similar experience? What should I have done/do here? Thoughts on the feature request?
Also this is the game/player in question: https://online-go.com/game/8172047. Just by looking at the game it isn’t clear that there was even a pause. This can only really be extrapolated by looking at the time controls and the start/end time in the game information.
recruit, your behaviour was exemplary! you showed good will and great sportsmanship even in the face of this unspeakable evil! as you were!
concerning the feature suggestion:
im afraid what you are suggesting would be just as exploitable. remember that moves can be played while a game is paused. if a pause can only be undone in mutual agreement, then that would effectively render all time-controlls meaningless. at the very least you would have to apply the same condition to starting a pause.
what would make more sense for situations like these is an entirely different feature, making it possible to delay play to another specific point in time at which the game will also resume automatically even if noone shows up :). sounds very useful afaic, especially for longer live settings.
PS: i think that is about what @aten meant as well.
hhmm, that is true @Kickaha. I still think it is a good idea to at least show pauses in the game chat…
Maybe a way to suggest a draw then? So that neither player is negatively impacted in situations like this. I think some other servers have that.
Suggest editing the title to be more informative about the subject of this topic.
Right, they made a gentleman’s agreement to adjourn the game with the intention of resuming later. Usually “later” is defined more precisely than TBD and should be.
Anyone familiar with KGS knows how their approach works. The game is effectively adjourned if either player ups and leaves. Mutual agreement, necessity, escaping, individual connection problems and server problems are all pretty much equal. At a later time, one player can click Resume (and do some things unilaterally, like resign). The key thing is that one guy can not restart the opponent’s clock running; if the opponent is online he’ll get a message that the game has been reopened and may choose whether to join. If he does, the game picks up where it was left off. If the game is not resumed within 6? months, the player who left first forfeits. (*)
A more formal approach, where a specific date and time is set and the clock of the player to move starts running whether he’s there or not is a little harsh except in the case of a serious tournament or an appearance in court. That sort of thing should come with an alarm clock to remind and warn players (not typical of court sessions). It should provide for earlier than planned resumption.
(*) p.s.: Does OGS have a mechanism that allows monitoring for excessive escapes? I don’t see a way to obtain a list of incomplete games even for myself. Need to facilitate identification and resumption of “adjourned” games.
true. postponing a game indefinately (or for up to x months) is the more casual approach, that should be thought of first, especially when connection issues are to blame.
? that would work for some situations.