The games statistics are a player's calling card. They reveal how often a player played a game from beginning to end. Playing each game from beginning to end is important for the playing culture, and it is also a matter of respect for the other players. If a player abandons a game, the remaining players are forced to look for a substitute, or, in the worst case, have to abandon the game altogether. The time they invested in playing is wasted. Therefore, players with poor game statistics can expect to have difficulties finding opponents. Poor statistics send out the message that this player will probably not stay in a game until it ends. Also, players who habitually do not finish games (quitters) violate the Terms and Conditions for PlayCatan and the Catan Online World.

A player's personal game statistics are displayed next to his/her avatar. They show how many games the player started (green arrow), finished (red arrow), and finished as a substitute (blue arrow). Only the last 99 games are counted. Card games and games with "noscoring" option are not included in the statistics.

Restrictions as a Result of Unfinished Games

In addition to the individual reactions of other players to one's own statistics, there is one important rule each player should consider:

Players who played more than 20 games, 20% of which are considered as unfinished, can only set up or join games with the game option "freeforall." These players are barred from all other games until their game statistics have returned to the normal range.

This restriction may make it more difficult to find games and opponents, which is why players should always make sure their game statistics are within the normal range. Nobody will take offense if a player can't finish a game because of technical reasons (e. g., power failure, disrupted Internet connection, etc.). The tolerance limit of 20% guarantees that such unintentional cases are not detrimental for the player. Games "finished as a substitute" are neither counted towards this percentage nor towards the 20-games limit.

Games Played as a Substitute, and Monthly Lists

Players who join games as a substitute help other players who just lost one of the participants in the game they were playing. Therefore, substituting is essentially a very laudable act, the reward being that the substitute player has no disadvantage if he/she loses the game. On the other hand, this rule also offers the great advantage that the games played as a substitute can take a player right to the top of the ranking list. However, players who want to reach a position in the list should primarily play their games from beginning to end. For this reason, the following rule applies:

To appear in the Monthly List, the number of games finished as a substitute player cannot be larger than the number of games finished in a regular fashion.

FAQ

What happens if a player leaves the game and we can't find a substitute?

Unfortunately, the game has to be abandoned in this case. But please don't just leave the game, because if you do, the game is counted as unfinished for you as well. Use the built-in Abort function instead. You can use this function to end the game by common accord between the players who are still present. In this case, no score is given for the game, but it is counted as correctly finished and does not burden your game statistics.

Why are interrupted games permitted at all? Shouldn't the limit be 100%? Why aren't users with such poor statistics automatically kicked out of the COW?

While persistent quitting is a violation of our General Terms and Conditions, we are opposed to automatic expulsion. A decision should always be made based on the individual situation, especially if it involves expulsion. The rule described here already restricts players with poor game statistics quite a bit. However, these players should also have the possibility to redeem themselves, and automatic expulsion would not offer this possibility.

How can I abort a game?

If you click on the Exit-Button during a game, you will be asked if you really want to leave or if you want to initiate a ballot to abort the game regularly. Only if all players agree in that ballot to abort the game, the game is counted as finshed. If you just leave the game, it will be counted as unfinished for your game statistic.