Simple: Do you think it's poor sportsmanship?

Yes, in most circumstances.

If it looks like you're going to win you shouldn't have to tell your opponent that its over since they should be able to judge for themselves.

There are some situations where this is not the case but all the situations involve your opponent being an asshole and stalling

Edited 11/13/2015 20:30:39

At what point do you consider it "stalling"? I admittedly am not that good at this game yet (I have fun and play it a lot though, and will get better). Sometimes I think I'm doing well and then in hindsight realize I had no chance all along.

Ranarius: I think if you don't realize or you are not sure yet that you are going to lose then it's not stalling to take your turns. On the other hand, if you're level 55 you probably start getting the hang of it...

I think more to the point, I'm annoyed at the number of people who tell me to surrender the MOMENT they feel like they have the upper hand. I can't count the times when I could have surrendered but came back to win a game.

I played some games on the ladder recently, and (based on the small sample of players I played against), mid-rated players (1600-1800) were more prone to surrender early than higher rated players, who would play until they definitely had no chance.

So, if you know for sure you're going to lose, surrender; if you have doubt, fight it out. Who knows, you might get lucky.

Telling your opponent to surrender is rude, unless you know they're stalling. Maybe they've totally lost, and don't know it yet, but that's fine.

It is extremely rude. But getting under someones skin is part of the game

At a certain point it's just stupid if you keep playing when you have clearly lost. Sometimes I get impatient and I will tell the other player, say, how much income I have and how much income I think my opponent has. That's usually pretty convincing. How my opponent reacts is how I decide whether to put the staller on my blacklist or not.

That said, particularly in high stakes games, or when I lose track of how a game is going due to real life business, I'll play a few extra turns beyond when I probably should surrender - nothing worse than a premature surrender! And I'll often apologize if I realize I made the game go on for too long.

I think no matter what you do, if you are polite and humble you'll be forgiven for just about anything. :)

Edit - oh there is an exception to the rule. On some LD template you literally won't know you are in a losing position until 5-10 turns after the fact because of how long it takes to move armies to the front lines. Then you should be encouraged to tell your opponent the situation so you don't both waste a bunch of time!

Edited 11/19/2015 07:12:39

Hmm. I will test this out and see what happens. In the name of research, of course

im not sure if this is true or not, but in my experience with the new ladder settings, it seems i have a better chance of coming back from an income disadvantage, since it costs less troops to complete a bonus and you no longer have to gamble with a 3v2. and in my rating range on the ladder (1500-1600) people are still prone to lots of mistakes (myself included :P), and some may not understand the positional potential. sometimes that takes doing the math and understanding where a person's picks are at, and i can't be the only one who is sometimes too lazy to do the required analysis. i'm usually gonna keep going for a couple of turns if i still have areas to expand, even if i am down by quite a bit. and if i feel like at the end of the game i should have surrendered a few turns previous, i will explain that i was hoping for a breakthrough, or i didn't know how hopeless my situation was.

i can understand letting someone know that they obviously lost, but you are not going to do yourself any good by being rude about it (or rather being perceived to be rude). i've played plenty of games with people that have 5 income and im just chasing them around the board. it sucks, but i know there's a decent chance of them getting butthurt and taking 2 days 23 hrs to make moves if i say anything to them. once a game gets to that point (if it's multiday) it really isn't that annoying to just take your turns with minimal thought until the other player totally runs out of running area or you catch them by getting first order.

I think no matter what you do, if you are polite and humble you'll be forgiven for just about anything. :)

i think this is just good all around life advice.

Edited 11/19/2015 19:38:36

Telling your opponent to surrender is immature and disrespectful, always. It's also pointless. If I think I've beaten someone and they haven't surrendered, then what is going to happen if I were to rudely tell them I think they should surrender? Either they don't think they've lost, so they are not going to surrender, or they do think they've lost but they are playing on anyway, in which case they are also not going to surrender. Did anyone ever play an opponent so weak minded that they would quit the game just because you asked them to? One would insult one's opponents if one implied such a thing.

"getting under someones skin is part of the game" - no it isn't. It's immature and rude.

Telling an opponent to surrender is only rude if the opponent hasn't already very clearly lost and is just dragging out the game.

Otherwise it's kinda warranted.

NZPhoenix (AHOL) has an interesting take on this issue:
https://www.warlight.net/MultiPlayer?GameID=9882913

Turn 10:

would you like to know a secret
this isnt going well for you

Turn 14:

im fucking sick of this mother fucker you lost

Turn 16:
...surrenders


Kinda boring game otherwise, but I always enjoy gloating after beating that guy - he's just so rude it's endearing!

It's all about context, and the way one communicates. There's a way to politely ask someone to surrender. "Telling" is a little different.

Edited 11/19/2015 21:59:28

I say never tell someone to surrender, also never ask.
You can say for example; " I have 350 income, in case you want to know. I am happy to pay it out though "

it's all well known at least since ancient rome:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olZLIC4T9uE

if someone don't know it there's nothing wrong in telling him that - but you need to this in right time and with right form. Otherwise you are just rude.

^ +1 to both tim and krzychu.

you sometimes get people who really have no clue that they are losing, that they have no chance, and are not trying to stall the game out. and then there are those who believe that surrendering somehow offends their manhood and that by forcing the opponent to eliminate them, they prove that they are not afraid to die... -_-

Edited 11/19/2015 23:18:38

I never tell someone to surrender (I would get pissed if someone told me that and stall to spite them).

I do however do a status check if I am quite sure I am way ahead. I might just tell them what they have, so they know I am aware they have no shot. If they don't take the hint, then I might tell them what I have. Usually that is enough to end it and they surrender.

I really don't run into that very often. It is usually some noob that just does not realize it, and I want to give them a chance to get a few more turns in for practice.

NZPhoenix (AHOL) has an interesting take on this issue

Yeah never trust this guy's opinions about surrender, he's consistently like this.