stahrgazer wrote:There's another point that hasn't been brought up; what's in it for CC to have a 'resign' button. Answer: nothing.
CC is a business. CC offers a small number of games to those who do not wish to pay to play. If a premium player gets stuck in a lengthy game, it may not be fun, but it doesn't hurt either. If a freemium player gets stuck in an lengthy game, that player may realize that $25 isn't too harsh a fee to play an unlimited number of games where getting stuck in one wouldn't matter.
Thus, the only player this change could really benefit, is the player who didn't cough up the $25 per year ($2.09/month, .59 cents a week, .07 cents/day) to play.
The only folks who can play CC have access to the 'net enough to play; and if they are in an area with internet access, chances are they receive birthday or holiday gifts throughout the year, in a value that exceeds $25/year... which means, they can probably afford to pay to play unlimited numbers of games so they don't get stuck, if they choose to ask for this as a gift instead of whatever else they asked for... or purchase a CC membership out of their wages, or allowance, or whatever, if they choose.
If paying for the privilege of not having to worry that 25% of your games might get stuck in an endless battle you have no hope to win is not worth it, why is it worth it to CC to spend the effort necessary to fix this for you?
This is irrelevant; at the point where CC
does offer free games to players, obviously lack has some reason why he wants to do something for nothing, for the free players. It's entirely possible that the only purpose of the free membership is to get you to sign up for the premium membership. Even if that's the case, though, the point remains because people are more likely to pay for a service if they perceive it as having lots of useful features. If the free members see the administration as catering to their needs, they are more likely to give back to the site that they enjoy (i.e. by buying a subscription).
Besides, that was just one reason why it's a good idea. I'm not a free player - obviously I wouldn't benefit from that, directly. However, I would benefit by not having to waste time playing games I have no chance of winning. I don't think I'm alone in saying that when there's a game that I see is hopelessly lost, I don't bother wasting time trying to figure out what the best move is, I just do the perfunctory actions and move on. I'd rather be able to save that time and play other games or do other things.
A totally different aspect is: Some people enjoy "the kill". A resign button deprives that person of the glee of taking out an opponent's last troop.
No one really enjoys "the kill" when it's been coming for five rounds and you've just been trying to break through neutrals to collect those last territories. If a significant number of people said that their enjoyment of the game would be diminished because they didn't get to finish games that they've functionally won by actually conquering all the opponents' territories, I would reconsider. But I don't think you'd find that many people, especially when they consider the potential benefits.