It does not defend that your 2nd argument was absurd:
- If you are playing for fun then there is little reason to complain. Just abort/forfeit the game. Start another. The fun continues.
And honestly, I do not care that much. I just find it funny that the "short-term" solution (which I highly highly doubt it will be short-term), enhances the frustration, as free member, you get when someone stalls intentionally. Yes the other can't start a new game either, but hey, at least the chess fanatic can't either :D And then he feels like a badass, a real hooligan: "Look at me, stalling games, #SWAG"
Complain all you want, but words, pretty as they may be, won't make a real difference.
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.
Now onto my favorite part:
"erik (staff)
Unfortunately multi-games was being abused badly as players would simply leave a game in progress and start a new one just to irritate their opponent. There isn't much we can do to prevent it, though paying members are subject to having their accounts closed for abusing this. But for free members, the bad ones just don't care, and it is one of our top complaints.
Every day lots of "Hey, I was winning a game and my opponent just stopped moving with 10 minutes left to go in the game. So then I follow him and find out he just started a new game!!!"
I'm sorry that the actions of a bunch of bad-behavors ruins it for others."
"IM ACEChess (staff)
Hey Sir_Connery,
You make a good point. We also like this idea of a "self-moderating" behavior system by the members, though it's also not going to be easily implemented. What if members begin "thumbs downing" other members for kicks? There will need to be an automatic system of checks and balances...
The only thing I'd ask you to consider while we try to figure this out (and we will try to find the best solution) is that it's not bad behavior "by a few" that the "majority" is now getting punished for. Unfortunately, it's proven to be bad behavior by a large majority of members, and the complaints are many and often.
It's not a "premium vs basic" member issue! We love all our members
-- BUT you have to appreciate our point: If you now encounter a premium member who is abusing in this way, he can be reported, and when he gets caught and eventually banned for this abuse, he is losing money.
It *does* make a difference. Starting a new game, because others are doing the same to you is kind of "two wrongs don't make a right". We may find a better way to moderate this and allow basic members this feature back, but it's going to take some time, and the level of abuse that was happening was simply too much to ignore.
Thanks for your feedback here. We don't want you to go anywhere..."
I think the above answers in my defense.