About a year ago, I made a somewhat snarky comment about golf to a friend. In retaliation, he invited me to join an online golf game,
Golf Clash. It plays mostly like golf. Players alternate turns trying to get the ball to the hole in as few strokes as possible, with ties broken on a playoff hole, nearest to the hole wins. I have actually lost on playoffs where I landed less than a yard from the hole, but my opponent was a fraction of a yard better. Winners immediately get trophies and in-game currency, as well as a chest with some more coins and equipment upgrades that gets to be opened later. Rankings are based on currency won, not matches. Higher ranking players get better prizes, usually rarer equipment upgrades. Losers lose two-thirds the amount of trophies and half the currency the winner received. I have had some wins, but I frequently get on these frustrating losing streaks for no reason. I had lost almost half of my progress around Christmas, and I am only now about caught up. Lately, I have win not only through my skills (such as they are), but by my opponents forfeiting their matches. I have found at least three ways to forfeit a round. First, one can just quit, for any reason. I have stuck out all of my games, even when I knew I couldn't win, so I would at least get practice. Just last week, I played against someone of a similar skill set. His tee shot wound up in a water hazard, forcing him to replay the shot his next turn. On my first turn, I easily went over the hazard and landed with a great approach. On his second turn, my opponent played the shot the same way with the same result, forcing a third attempt. My second shot landed in the rough, but very close to the green. On his third try, my opponent finally cleared the water, but the shot didn't get that far down the fairway. My third shot landed on the green. On his fourth shot, my opponent faced the truth; his club wasn't good enough to get onto the green. He tried, but the ball landed in the rough. As I was going for the putt, he forfeited the round. That was understandable, but still kind of dirty pool doing it so late. You see, the game awards a bonus chest for every eight putts made. He cheated me a stroke, but it really wasn't bad. A day or two later, I face a more experienced foe. On his first shot, he played a tight approach that would have gave him a great shot at the green. At the last second, his ball bounced into a bunker. As I was aiming my first shot, on a different approach, my opponent forfeited. While he would have had a hard time making the green from his position, he still could have won. I could have had my second shot land in a different bunker or even land out of bounds in the ocean (that green was on an island). He still had a chance, but I have no idea why he didn't take it. The second way to forfeit is by losing your connection. Many play with a mobile device, so the signal could always cut out. It wouldn't be fair to the either player to lose via a missed signal, so the player with the bad connection loses. I have actually lost a few games myself to this, and I have only played on a desktop. When I first started, the missing connection message appeared under a player's name. Now, the message appears on a huge block in the middle of the screen. It hides the field. I almost missed a turn not realizing I got the first stroke because of one. I think some unscrupulous players might intentionally to something to try and unnerve their opponents. This brings me to the third way of forfeiting, cheating. I was starting a round, when a message popped up on my opponent's turn saying he had tried to cheat and forfeited the match. I had no idea how someone could cheat, or why, as I have yet found any monetary reason to do so. However, just a few days ago, something weird happened. I had hit my first shot, but it bounced a little wild and landed by a tree. My opponents shot also went a little wild, landing in the rough on the other side. My next shot got caught in the tree branches and didn't go too far. My opponent's second shot acted strange. It went further than it looked like it should have and landed on the green. The image stayed on it a very long time before the game went onto the next shot. However, it began to replay my opponent's last shot instead of coming back to me. I didn't, and couldn't, do anything. I thought that he and to replay the shot due to a bad connection. When he didn't do anything, I thought it was a glitch or he had missed his turn. When that turn ended, the game went back to my opponent on the green instead of going to me. He then managed a very long and winding shot to make the hole, all but miraculously. Somehow, I lost a turn and therefore the match. I don't know what happened, but I now will be suspect every time the game gets glitchy. How many of my bad attempts were my own fault, and how many were not?
