Outrageous! You can't play multiple games anymore.

Since when do you have to be a "Premium" member to be able to play multiple games? This is outrageous chess.com! I'm done with you. 

Nope, you still can. At least as far as I'm concerned. 

this sucks when waiting for slower players

Didn't know you could do that to begin with. -.- I try to concentrate on what's in front of me. =/

Playing multiple games at once seriously weakens both or all boards. If you get sick of waiting for one or more players, than perhaps a game of patience, which is at the very core of chess, is not your game at all.

@McKorn and Phylar: your opinions are beside the point. The fact is some of us enjoyed playing simultaneous live games, and cannot anymore, and there was no notice, it just appeared...Its just a grab from chess.com for more memberships. There were probably not many people playing simuls, so it is just targeting real enthusiasts.. sucks. 

While I don't believe Phylor and McKorn's opinions are beside the point, I agree that Chess.com shouldn't have disabled simultaneous games for us free players. I've recently had a couple opponents disconnect after making a poor move, it's not fun to wait for 5 minutes before starting another game.

Outrageous!  My ability to play chess for free has limitations that it didn't have yesterday!

hmmm, I had no idea people abandoning games without resigning was the reason the multiple pplay option was cancelled. If so, it is ironic; I particularly used the multiple play feature when an opponent wasn't making a move in a long time (relative to the time control), so I'd start another game; in most cases the first opponent had rudely abandoned our game without resigning.Being able to start a simul game was helpful to me, that I wouldn't waste time waiting for someone who was in fact, gone.  The 'besides the point' comments that I referred to were the people who wrote that 'chess is a game of patience' with the inference that if you want to play two simultaneous games you're impatient(! )and the inference that focusing 'on the board in front of you' precludes being able to play multiple boards. Anyone who knows anything about chess knows that simuls are an important tradition in chess, and they don't preclude concentration nor patience. Too bad some people are abandoning games without resigning; it lacks common decency. Still, cancelling the multiple play feature doesn't stop people from abandoning lost games; it, in fact, penalizes the person who is on the receiving end of the abandonment. Radio

It punishes the ones on the receiving end only in that they must wait for a few minutes. You will receive a win in the end. However, this will drag younger players towards faster time controls and CHESS.COM STAFF, we call know faster time controls will yield bad habits in your average player! To all you masters, you have a choice, voice your concern or promote bad habits - everybody else should as well.

HOWEVER...

This is only a TEMPORARY solution to an ONGOING issue. To ALL staff, if you wish to slow down this issue then create a primary line that notes disconnects (not bad with the 2-5minute wait period) or times where a certain number of moves are made up to the end of time control.

Player A loses his Queen and quits leaving the game up.

Player B takes the Queen, heavily winning, stuck waiting.

Player A doesn't move for the rest of the game, or only moves a VERY unrealistic one or two moves; the system makes note of this and if it occurs twice more within x number of games (NOT TIME) then the player will have themselves heavily restricted with an automated message of why. These games can also be automatically recorded into the database for "insurance purposes."

I will leave it up to the Staff to decide how/why/when this could or should be implemented. However, after a couple weeks this should seriously weed out the players who do this and make Chess.com a more pleasant experience for all members - minus the trolls of course ^_^

Phylar, you write that it punishes the ones on  the receiving end only that they must wait a few minutes; they will receive a win in the end. I play mostly 30 minute time controls. Yesterday I was on the receiving end of a game abandoned in the first moves , and I had to wait twenty minutes before the game was forfeited by the server and the opponents abandon was noted. To your second point, I get no pleasure from receiving a win from an abandoned game; it is no compensation.

when I was on the receiving end of the abandoned game yesterday, I messaged the opponent afterward, telling them that I had to wait twenty minutes before I could play again, and telling that that it "was not nice". 

So?

1. If you are playing for points then the win matters to you.
2. If you are playing for fun then there is little reason to complain. Just abort/forfeit the game. Start another. The fun continues.
3. If you are a serious player, analyzing past games would be a better use of your time than waiting or playing another.

The way I see it is if you are serious about improving than #3 applies. If you are playing for fun then just forfeit and start another, I don't see the problem. Finally, if you are playing to gain rating then you will wait because, well, it gains rating. I am just not seeing a loss there.

I hope you know yourself that this argument is absurd. And on top of that you give the ragequitter a free win.

While I could see their current method somewhat 'working', I also foresee multiple accounts by the same user, for both parties. While this is against the rules, well, so is leaving a game.

I thus go back to a point I have said multiple times:

Have suggestions that could possibly MAKE A DIFFERENCE. Complain all you want, but words, pretty as they may be, won't make a real difference. However, if your pride stops you from enjoying the game out of spite for the other player, then chess might not be the best game to be attempting to enjoy.

Exactly. I couldn't agree more.

Your argument was absurd. It's not complaining, it's common sense.

This problem is hardly solveable with software without monitoring it. Assuming ragequitters have at least one brain cell, they will not keep leaving games all the time, but rather stall it with a move each xx minutes, making it hard to trace them, as some positions indeed require minutes to analyze.

That being said, a behaviour rating system depends on the honesty of players, and a lot of people tend to mark a player as toxic if they lose. Hence it won't work.

I cannot think of any reasonable solution to this problem, as it only affects a few % of all games. It is just not worth it to invest all those man-hours in it, especially for something that, most likely, doesn't even work optimally.

But, the reason why people complain is that a feature what was free is a paid service now. It is like removing tactics trainer for free members -> people will complain. If tactics trainer was never free, people wouldn't complain.

Solution: get a premium membership :P