A couple of suggestions- of course not all of it has to be considered equally- everyone feel free to chime in!
Concise description:
Have a new game option when setting up a new speed game, labeled something similar to "Automatically end game after a set amount of time".
Have a new game option when setting up a new speed game, labeled something similar to "Auto-convert to casual after a set amount of time".
Specifics/Details:
When this option is chosen, prompt for how long the game should last before it will automatically end or convert to casual.
Display this information on the games list on game finder, or anywhere else you might be able to join a game from.
Display this information on the game-playing page for all players to see. Also display a countdown.
Put a big announcement on the first page that comes up after a person logs in that these options are available now (but are optional of course).
Have some auto-speed tournaments that use these options.
Secondary suggetions (not as important to me, but would be cool):
As a suggested set duration to the one creating the game, have the site display the average duration of games with the chosen settings. The average duration shown will change as the user changes the settings that they want to have.
(In case the data for the average is not very tight...) Have a link to display a graph or a table of game durations for the last X number of games with the same settings.
How this will benefit the site and/or other comments:
People will be more likely to join these types of games and tournaments since they won't be obligated to stay online past the set time that it's set to go casual.
The players may be more likely to take more risks as the set time to go casual approaches, if they don't want it going casual, thus improving the chance that the game ends by that time (or if it still goes casual, that it ends in fewer rounds than it would have normally taken).
I like the idea of converting to casual after some time. Let's say that you have one hour of free time, you can commit to playing speed during that hour, and once the hour has passed the game would turn back into casual.
I think a "Convert to 24 hour game after 1 or 2 hours" would be a nice option. I only join 1v1 speeders (and sometimes escalating dubs) exactly for that reason... don't want to get stuck in a 4 player never ending game.
if its just me and I'm sick of sitting there playing the same game, i'll just say gg, auto out and db. But when I'm playing multiplayer you feel an obligation to stick around because of how your dbing would affect the other players.
B is a great idea. A as has been said is done via round limits. I never play speed games as the problem of time limitation is a factor. Allow me to play a game only for it to convert to standard allows me to play more.
But what about the medal? Should you get a speed medal for winning converted games or would those wins go towards standard games.
