Game Setting: Automatic Turn Expiration
When designing games for Strategy Gamers I performed lengthy examination of common problems, annoyances, nuisances, and such that exist at other game sites. One of the most frequent complaints I found, coming from both players and admins, was stalled games and tournaments. The cause, in every case, is player absenteeism. Some players join games and lose interest or get too busy to play, other new players join a site, join a bunch of games and then move on without another thought.
I address this situation in a couple of ways. First, as most of the absenteeism is on the part of Trial accounts, I do not allow Trial accounts to join tournaments. Second, I limit Trial accounts to one game at a time (per allowable game brand). Third, I enforce an absentee time limit of three game turns. If a player fails to click End Turn three times in a row, then they are out of the game. If someone misses three turns it suggests that they do not have the time for that particular game and thus the remaining players should not have to wait, endlessly waiting for some sign that the player will return or not return. Furthermore, the game creator can alternatively select the Force Turn option in order to decide on a turn by turn basis how long to wait for an absent player, thus extending each game turn (assuming no player immediately clicks Force the turn).
(edit) I should add that it is not true auto-expiration in that the game turn does not process when the time is up unless someone is viewing the game. It is therefore possible that a game remains unvisited for a week while you are away for eight days yet you may miss only a single turn. This was done in this manner because on the occasion of players, enmasse, being absent for some reason, I wanted to effectively pause the game.
Hopefully this combination of designs will promote members joining games in which they can actively participate and/or creating games with Turn Lengths (up to 72 hours) that are appropriate to their chosen degree of availability.