Hello all,
The subject of this spammer alert is a player by the name of Hazel-rah. Last night I played a game with him, and from start to finish he NEVER ended his turns, except maybe once or twice. He wasn't idle, because when someone lagged-out or quit he was among the first to cast a continue vote.
There were like 7 of us total, and every single one of us was asking him over and over again (nicely and then not-so nicely) to end his turns, but he never responded. So then we thought that maybe he doesn't know how to chat, or perhaps he doesn't speak English.
About 4 hours pass by, and thanks to him we just barely reached middle ages by then and 5 of the original players already left because the game wasn't going anywhere. He still said nothing-- that is, until we all agreed via chat that we'd ally against him and quickly dispatch with him so he wouldn't be able to run down the timer anymore. Of course, by this point each turn was taking approximately 5 minutes (timed it on my watch), so even at a rate of 1-2 turns for catapults and cho-ku's in my capital, it still would've taken hours just to build up a large enough force, let alone get our ships there.
We were about to just attribute it to a noob who can't speak English or chat, when he suddenly chatted "lol quitters". That was the first thing he said the entire game, so we were all pretty shocked that he in fact could communicate, but simply chose not to.
He then started bragging about how we're leaving because we can't beat him (still not ending his turn btw). I confronted him on running out the timer, and he first said something like, "It's just like chess, you have to think about each move. If you were a smart player you'd know that." Yeah, right.... He also said he'd "probably" have ended his turns if we had been nicer to him about it. Apparently, "End your turns please Hazel-rah" wasn't polite enough for him....
I later spoke to someone in gs lobby who recognized the screenname and described having a very similar experience, though in his case everyone was smart enough to quit in the first hour. I wish I had been that smart....
Anyway, it's obvious that this player joins games and deliberately runs out the timer until everyone gets fed-up and leaves, then he declares victory and pats himself on the back. I'm sure he also gets some pathetic enjoyment at making everyone else wait for him. Talk about power-trip....
Anyway, consider this a fair public service warning. If you're hosting a new game and someone named "Hazel-rah" joins, do yourself a huge favor and boot him, otherwise your game is as good as ruined.
Cheers,
--Kristopher
P.S. I've heard of other people who do this as well, but never heard of a name used to refer to this type of player who runs out the clock every turn as a strategy to win or simply to annoy. Hence I have come up with the term: Clock-Jacker.
It takes a little imagination, but at least it's accurate and descriptive.
The subject of this spammer alert is a player by the name of Hazel-rah. Last night I played a game with him, and from start to finish he NEVER ended his turns, except maybe once or twice. He wasn't idle, because when someone lagged-out or quit he was among the first to cast a continue vote.
There were like 7 of us total, and every single one of us was asking him over and over again (nicely and then not-so nicely) to end his turns, but he never responded. So then we thought that maybe he doesn't know how to chat, or perhaps he doesn't speak English.
About 4 hours pass by, and thanks to him we just barely reached middle ages by then and 5 of the original players already left because the game wasn't going anywhere. He still said nothing-- that is, until we all agreed via chat that we'd ally against him and quickly dispatch with him so he wouldn't be able to run down the timer anymore. Of course, by this point each turn was taking approximately 5 minutes (timed it on my watch), so even at a rate of 1-2 turns for catapults and cho-ku's in my capital, it still would've taken hours just to build up a large enough force, let alone get our ships there.
We were about to just attribute it to a noob who can't speak English or chat, when he suddenly chatted "lol quitters". That was the first thing he said the entire game, so we were all pretty shocked that he in fact could communicate, but simply chose not to.
He then started bragging about how we're leaving because we can't beat him (still not ending his turn btw). I confronted him on running out the timer, and he first said something like, "It's just like chess, you have to think about each move. If you were a smart player you'd know that." Yeah, right.... He also said he'd "probably" have ended his turns if we had been nicer to him about it. Apparently, "End your turns please Hazel-rah" wasn't polite enough for him....
I later spoke to someone in gs lobby who recognized the screenname and described having a very similar experience, though in his case everyone was smart enough to quit in the first hour. I wish I had been that smart....
Anyway, it's obvious that this player joins games and deliberately runs out the timer until everyone gets fed-up and leaves, then he declares victory and pats himself on the back. I'm sure he also gets some pathetic enjoyment at making everyone else wait for him. Talk about power-trip....
Anyway, consider this a fair public service warning. If you're hosting a new game and someone named "Hazel-rah" joins, do yourself a huge favor and boot him, otherwise your game is as good as ruined.
Cheers,
--Kristopher
P.S. I've heard of other people who do this as well, but never heard of a name used to refer to this type of player who runs out the clock every turn as a strategy to win or simply to annoy. Hence I have come up with the term: Clock-Jacker.
It takes a little imagination, but at least it's accurate and descriptive.
