You should be forced to select one of the buttons during the mulligan phase. I have had way too many games where the person was clearly AFK for the mulligan phase, to then show up during their first turn without any penalty. The amount of time wasting they can do without penalty is insane!!
Posted Oct 29, 2018, 11:44 PM UTC
There is currently a bug with the game. Happens to me a LOT, where I get a crash and have to come back to the game. Sometimes I loose a sealed or a draft because of that. So no, the problem isn't afking, the problem is the client itself.
I always see people in the comments furious at players roping, rightfully so, who say to report every player who does this. Which makes me worried I've been reported because I've been disconnected my fair share of times, only to come back just before the timer runs out.
If you’re reported with a game log attached I’m pretty sure they can see disconnects, etc. I think they’re more looking for a pattern. Unless you disconnect as soon as your opponent gets lethal every game forcing them to wait it out, I think you’re safe.
Report attaches a game log, so WotC will know what happened.
How do you report people? I've run into a few people who, once it's clear they're going to lose, just start super slow-playing, letting the wick burn almost all the way down before ending their turn.
I met a guy last week at FNM who bragged about doing this any time he played against a control deck, the salty bastard.
I suppose to my opponents it might look like that, but if I’m under the pressure from a control deck, I always play it out to the end. I won’t rope people for the sake of it (I’m not a monster) but there have been a few times where I didn’t feel like I was winning when my opponent conceded, so when I think I’ve lost I’ll play out the game to see if/when they actually win.
My internal excuse is also that I’ve had the game less than a week, and I’m super not familiar with standard at the moment, so seeing what every deck can do will help me build my own decks better - either taking inspiration, or knowing what I’ll need to deal with.
I don't mean playing out the game, that's not really an issue, I mean that once they realize they are going to lose, they just stop playing and waiting for the play timer to run almost all the way down before passing turn.
It's pretty obvious when someone is roping on purpose. If someone ropes for one turn then comes back and plays normally then OK maybe their client crashed or they had to step away for a minute. It's the people that rope every turn and wait until the last second to cast something that get reported.
This has happened to me twice, I just blamed Spectrum.
Happened to me as well. Game started but I never drew my hand and the only way to get out was to concede. I waited like 5 minutes and it was just frozen.
You are literally sitting at a computer with an internet connection when this happens. You can amuse yourself for a minute or two while your opponent lets the dog out.
Or if one of their kids wants to show them the picture they drew or thing they built with legos. Not going to blow off my children for the sake of an anonymous stranger on the internet. Sometimes I need to burn a time out or two to be a dad. Shit happens. It’s not always malicious, folks.
Right. If it's every turn, that's different.
Of course. If it’s an emergency, I concede and handle it. I’m not an ass. But if my wife wants to get my opinion on what to have for dinner or my toddler knocked over the trash can and is rummaging through garbage, I need a minute to handle it lol. Y’all be chill for one minute lol everyone get so up in arms anytime they see the timer.
This is why I never play best of three, because I never know when I’ll have to drop a game for family reasons.
Have you ever quit a game because it went way too long?
opponent doesnt care about your kids picture or legos. other people's time is just as valuable
If 60 seconds more than you’re expecting isn’t something you can handle, I don’t know what to say, apart from consoling you with the information that “at least there’s a hard limit, you’ll never be kept waiting longer than the sum of their extended timers”
If that amount of time is really genuinely inexpressibly important to you, you can slap that concede button and find a new opponent who won’t take as long. It’s not a good solution, of course, but it’s something.
other people’s time is just as valuable
It sounds like you’re trying to say other people’s time is MORE valuable.
Like I said, if it’s a legit emergency I’ll concede. But if I need 30-60 seconds to handle something I’m not going to drop the game over that and we shouldn’t expect people to.
It took me a while to realize I could toggle the option that has it play sound when minimized. Before I found that, I'd have to keep flipping back every few seconds, and it was obnoxious.
This is why I'm glad I have two monitors on my PC. Arena on one, something to entertain me when my opponent AFKs, DCs, or tries roping me on the other.
Thus perpetuating the cycle of alt+tabbers? Great solution, but let's maybe keep workshopping it? And in the meantime maybe don't queue unless you're ready to play and everybody pay attention when its your turn?
Unless you're a master wizard living in the ivory tower of your parents' basement, there is a thousand actual things that may take your attention from a game from time to time, from phonecalls to relatives (children, spouses) to pets. Undivided attention 100% of the time is just not feasible.
If it's going to take longer than 10-15 seconds to be an adult/father/husband whatever I just concede. My opponent doesn't care that work just called because some VP needs an updated report by end of day, they don't care that my wife wants to call me over to look at throw pillows for 3 minutes, they don't care about my daughters artwork, they don't care about my dogs, or that I have to get the door to sign for a package.
The only thing my opponent cares about in most cases is getting through a game of Magic at a reasonable pace, and that's more than fair because I don't care about their day to day either, but I do know I hate it when people waste my time, so I'm not about to waste someone else's time.
Sorry but that's completely ridiculous in this case. Most Arena games take less than 10 minutes. It is especially disrespectful to not be paying attention at match start when you have obvious choices in front of you during mulligan and the first few turns. Not only is your attitude on this being okay disrespectful to your opponents, your horse shit line about basements is outdated and rude for no reason. Pay attention to the game or don't queue. If you can't get 10 uninterrupted minutes you probably shouldn't be playing any game.
Also, being able to concede during mulligan would be nice.
This
I’ve had arena crash and loss of connectivity to server, if you’re going to charge 4-8 dollars a draft you can’t just be ruthless on this sort of thing. If it’s $1.5 fine then it would be more acceptable
Nah... even if a game is completely free it is not okay to punish a player for a badly made client
I’m on you’re side, but just saying that at the prices they charge it would be outrageous to be ruthless.
I’ve gotten disconnected for 2 minutes and dropped from a best of 3 when I was absolutely dominating a weaker deck in round 1. I was livid because it’s basically 6-7$ down the drain, think they refunded itbut it’s not just about the money it’s annoying to have a broken limited deck never get a fair run.
yeah okay, that's fair.
obviously the more they charge the higher the expectations for a decent/good function.
Imagine paying for a premium seat for a game and being place behind a support beam :)
I have had several issues with connection during the mulligan phase. Yesterday when playing my interface hung and i had to do a reset. I had to reset two more times before I was actually able to get through to see my hand and pick mulligan or not. I felt bad for the opponent, but in no way was I intentionally stalling, just furiously trying to get my computer and arena to cooperate so I could play the final match in the draft.
Sorry you see this often, your opponents may just be cursing out their own computers/internet connection/client.
It's the disconnection bug. It's a wide-spread problem that WotC hasn't even added to their list of known issues.
Thing is, the game in its current state sometimes crashes going into a game. So having a forgiving mulligan phase is great in that it allows players to reboot and still have enough time to mulligan.
I don't know about instant loss, but the timeout model should be modified to count this as burning against some timeout or just auto-accept after 30s or a minute. I get that life happens, but not having it count against anything is kind of crazy. For reference, I have 2 jobs and 2 kids and still have never AFK'd during mulligans. It's possible to just wait to play until your kids are in bed.
This is ultra annoying. Especially since your client is just locked waiting on them. I'd rather just forfeit and get another game than wait on them. it's enough to drive you crazy!
I've definitely seen Twitch streamers hit the matchmaking button then walk away from their computer to do things.
Seems BM as heck
It's also completely unnecessary when queue times are 30s at most.
And when they aren't, either the client kicks you out somewhere around a minute, or you can hit "cancel" to get out if your client hangs and just keeps trying to matchmake (I've had both happen to me).
Could be a habit they've picked up from MTGO, where you can be waiting a long time for a game and the matchmaker gives both players 30 seconds to confirm they are ready before it starts the game (or kicks the inactive player out of the queue).
This is definitely an excuse but if the game had some sort of audio cue or tabbed me in when my opponent is taking forever it would stop this more times than not.
The game does have an audio cue. Set your options to play sound when alt tabbed. And also quit alt tabbing.
Agreed. Had someone do it to me once then I just conceded. Not about to waste my time with someone intentionally griefing like that.
See I think this is the most appropriate time to afk. The timer could be shorted though.
I rationalize it as the time people are most likely to be tending to something to be able to focus on the game. If my opponent takes a minute or so during mulligan but doesn't afk after that I don't get upset.
Sorry for trying to run to the bathroom to take a piss after I queue a game hitler
indeed
It's a bag. Sometimes I have infinite queue, when in fact I was disconnected. When this bug happens, I have to relaunch the game to connect for real.
Man I get some salty people who just take the whole time cause I come back or counter something big. It gets annoying. Why do I wait 3 time out bars? Be just the one and n do turn they start with it...
Sometimes the client hangs too. I've had that happen at least once, the mulligan screen stays open but you cannot get anywhere. Usually requires an Alt+F4 program exit.
Same. I had one game where no pop-up buttons showed up. The standard pass priority button in the bottom right worked, but whenever I had to press a "Done" button after picking a card or assigning damage, it just wouldn't show up. I eventually noticed that pressing space worked, but in the mulligan I think I had to rope to get past it.
Yeah sometimes the cards aren't dealt. I'm just staring at the empty board but who knows if opponent thinks I'm afk.