Dealing with Ropers
I think that something needs to be done about the increase in players intentionally stalling games; ropers, as they are “affectionately” known in the community. When they realize they’ve lost a game or have given up instead of conceding gracefully, these players will sit and stall, wasting the opponent’s time or prompting them to give up out of frustration, thereby giving them an easy win. On the surface, this doesn’t seem like a big deal, but for someone who has limited time to play the game, this stall tactic can be frustrating.
One idea, perhaps not the solution, but something to get the ball rolling, at least, because the rate at which this is happening has increased frequently. I think that if a player loses by timeout multiple times within a specific span, they should receive a warning. With further infractions, they should face disciplinary action. Or, as I said, maybe that’s not the answer, but I would like to move things forward on this topic because it’s no longer just a few isolated incidents.
Thank you for your time.
Tenshi#74356
shared this idea
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bonsai#70698
commented
I concur. I've reduced my "effective playtime" to ~2 hours per week now as the player-base has become so toxic easily 50% of Bo3 matches are tainted due to player misconduct.
That's up from ~33% a few years ago.
There's also now a distinct breed of "Arena-only control decks" that use cards like High Noon https://scryfall.com/card/otj/15/high-noon combined with multiple graveyard castings of sweepers, mass-flickers, and wraths whose sole goal is to delay the game w/o any sort of actual win condition. Combine these cards with roping on every turn and most players just concede. This is very unfun.
If WotC isn't going to take moderation actions for player misconduct, then at least provide the players with the tools to do it themselves.