Players who go AWOL

[Simpo]

What happens to players who go AWOL when they've signed up to a ranking game, confirmed their participation, but then miss the first turn causing the game to be reset if it is a condition of the game? Do they lose ranking points or suffer some other sanction?

It really inconveniences the other players who might have spent a few days communicating with each other prior to the first turn.

[Malarky]

Yes it does inconvenience others, you're right. But it happens, and it will keep on happening, for whatever reason. That's the nature of online gaming, and not just Dip - people quit.

They don't lose any rating points, as such. The reasoning behind that is that it doesn't stop it happening. If it's something that can't be helped, then it's going to happen anyway. And, if the player is a quitter at any stage, a ratings hit isn't going to stop it happening. People who worry about their ratings are much less likely to quit a game anyway, so we're mainly talking about people who don't care or who can't avoid it happening... or who have made an unusual mistake.

What does happen is that they lose points as if they were in the game at the end and lost. So they'll take a negative ratings hit, they just don't get an additional penalty. They may lose Ambassador status, too (again, though, someone who's gained Ambassador status is less likely to quit).

[Simpo]

You're right - still doesn't make it morally right.

[mdwpilot]

Perhaps you can keep some public statistics independent of rankings

# games joined (start/replacement)
%games finished (no matter the result)