There should also still be the lightning game 10 minute boot timer.

My main beef is intent. What does a 2 day timer accomplish that can't be accomplished better with a 3 day timer? Games go faster? Well, heck, why not make it a 1 day timer? Then they'll go even faster! It doesn't keep you from logging in on the weekends - it's too short for that. The same holds for the 5 day timer vs. the 7 day timer. Was the point to allow people to play only on the weekends? Well, you can't do that - you're going to have to log in Friday night to keep from getting booted from Sunday night's turns.

In other words, the 2/5 timer set was intuitively chosen to satisfy certain use cases (weekday and weekend warriors) and it's not satisfying those use cases. So, let's either institute timers that actually satisfy those use cases, which a 3/7 timer set does, or determine what use cases we're really trying to satisfy and adjust the timers accordingly. As things stand right now, the 2/5 timer set is completely arbitrary.

I'm not sure they were "intuitively" or otherwise chosen for those purposes. I do agree however that a 3/7 timer is useful for those purposes and is perhaps what many people want.

wow I would never join a 7 day timer game ever. I already don't join the 5 day timer games.

3 days would be good though.

1DT. Fast - Be prepared to play every day.
3DT  Normal - Don't worry about not always being able to play on the weekends.

I suppose "Normal" sounds like a default, huh?

Yertle, It's true that 5DTs are being used, but I'm pretty sure it's a bit less than 10% of the time, and I'd be willing to bet that more than half of those are folks who play in them only because they can't take turns on weekends. In other words, right now the only reason we need a 5DT is because we don't have a 3DT.  Do we really want to court the 2 or 3% of players who absolutely NEED more than a 3DT?  Keep in mind that these are people who by and large will never play in a tournament because 5DT tourneys are almost impossible to fill.  They might as well have their own stats because they will never play 90% of the people on this site. I never join 5DT games and I'm in one 5DT tourney, but only by mistake.

In fact, I propose that tournaments should be restricted to 3DT.  No 1DT option.  That way, no one is excluded. The object is to build community.

Why not give the option for those that do want it? I may agree that tournaments should not have the 1 day boot, but not giving people the option for a 7 day boot seems counter productive to not excluding people, because those who don't want to join those games don't have to.

Less options is cleaner; other than that I have no problems with 1/3/7. It's just that those 7DT players will be marginalized somewhat. It certainly doesn't hurt to try it.

M57 wrote:

 It certainly doesn't hurt to try it.

Except that it takes time to do.  Means coding it, more icons/tooltip, doing something to all the current games, changing tournaments, changing create games, fixing bugs that come with changing it :). I dunno though, just doesn't sound like a here do this in 5 minutes, especially when there is already a timer, 5 day, to account for what the big argument is about weekends.

Why bother will all current games? Unless it doesn't make a difference... but I see no problem just doing it for all future games made assuming it would be easier to do it that way.

Yertle wrote:

M57 wrote:

 It certainly doesn't hurt to try it.

Except that it takes time to do.  Means coding it, more icons/tooltip, doing something to all the current games, changing tournaments, changing create games, fixing bugs that come with changing it :). I dunno though, just doesn't sound like a here do this in 5 minutes, especially when there is already a timer, 5 day, to account for what the big argument is about weekends.

Also, the point is something you were arguing in (I think) a different thread. 5 days generally will cause longer games, especially with non-regular players. 3 days would strike the balance between a boot-less weekend and needlessly long games.

Because I normally play 2 day games :)
5 day timers will cause longer games, but they are already there for those that want to avoid weekend boots.

Anyhow, I'm just repeating what I've said a lot and just going round and round...so *shrug*.

2/5, 1/3 take your pick.. I can see where if it's not considered to be an important enough of a difference then keep it as it is. My concern is that the 2DT standard-normal-what 80%+ of the people play option effectively blocks a good chunk of players who might otherwise be in tournaments, and enables them to play more games.

1 day boot times (and even worse, 12 hours) was disliked intensely by most players when this was available before.

I do remember reading that on other threads. 36/72 hour timers could work, or is that too confusing?

As I said, the concern is that 48 isn't enough for the weekend, and 5 days is just too long for most people to want to join.

when i was a little rocK my pappy used to always tell me "KrocK... dont *mess* with some'n if its not broken!"
If around 75-85% of the people are using the 2 day boot why mess with that.

The thing that would make more sense is to look at the 5 day boot and ask, why is that not being used?
I assume that no one wants to wait a possible 10 days to boot someone. One possibility is to switch it to a 6 day straight boot. this would take into account the weekday only and weekend only player. At present, both types of players have to log on at some point during their real life (stupid real life always getting in the way of the fun *shakes fist in the air*)
With a 6 day straight boot it knocks 4 days off the present wait time for weekday only players and extends the time to accommodate the weekend only players.

I'm fine with either system.

Has someone mentioned just to treat Sunday as a "dead" day? The turn timers stop during Sundays.

Mongrel wrote:
Has someone mentioned just to treat Sunday as a "dead" day? The turn timers stop during Sundays.

Once or twice or a couple dozen times.  For a "No Boot Period for Sundays" the census then can't be reached as to what happens at 00:01 on Monday...oh extend it to 12:00 on Monday you say, then should that be 12:00 the Time Zone of the player or the system...Time Zone then that's really a possible 48ish window that could be played by players changing time zones...by the system then that's not really 00:00 Sunday to 12:00 Monday for all players. 

For a turn timers just stop you pretty much have the same problems, perhaps just reversed or wacky or something.

Not to mention some players may get to catch up or play on Sundays so just stopping time seems awkward.

Yertle wrote:so just stopping time seems awkward.

where's Joshua when you need him ;D

KrocK wrote:

when i was a little rocK my pappy used to always tell me "KrocK... dont *mess* with some'n if its not broken!"
If around 75-85% of the people are using the 2 day boot why mess with that.

Maybe before we come to a consensus about coming up with an alternative (which is a difficult and delicate task for this crowd), we need to come to a consensus that it needs or doesn't need fixing in the first place.  I vote we need to mess with it.

If 15-25% of the people can't play in "normal" games because they actually have real lives on weekends, then the system is broken for those people.  That percentage may very well be much larger if you count the number of people who have joined what they perceived to be a "normal" game for normal people like them, been booted or skipped over a weekend, and thrown their hands up in the air and never come back.

"15-25%", where's that come from? It very well could be, but I'm not a fan of random stats.