Simple Lobby Mode is now available!

[Een]

For a long time, we have used the same good old lobby to get into games, and over time it has grown more and more complex. Many of you told us that it was sometimes a little too much: tables appearing/disappearing too fast, the wanna play section getting too crowded, table restrictions getting a little confusing, difficulties to get into the right table on a tablet/smartphone... Also, especially for beginners, the table creation process with the classic lobby was a little intimidating.

So we began working on a new "simple" lobby, with the main idea of simplicity: just click on all the games you want to play, then wait for a table to start! Table creation and matching with other players wanting to play this game are completely automatic to make getting into a game as straightforward as possible (of course, you can set some preferences first if needed).

This lobby has been tested by a group of volunteers, and we would like to give them a big thank you for their feedback that allowed us to improve upon the functionnality and design! For now it's still in BETA, but we feel that it's ready to be used by everyone who wants to.

Here are the key advantages over the classic lobby:
- it's simple and easy. Just click the "Play now!" button on a game, wait a little, then play!
- it allows to make requests to play for multiple games at the same time. Click on as many "Play now!" buttons as you want, then play the first table to start!
- it will automatically try to match you with players of your level and reputation to create the most enjoyable and challenging tables.

Also, it's of course possible to switch back to the classic lobby if you like it better: the new "simple" lobby has been designed to be fully compatible with the classic "advanced" lobby, so of course everyone in the community is still playing together!

To access the new "simple" lobby from the current lobby, click on "Advanced mode" on the right and select "Simple mode" instead (see image below) or just click on the following link: get to the simple lobby go go go!


We hope that you'll like this new way to get into games, and please give us your feedback, whatever it is, and especially if it's positive
Have fun!

[Victoria_La]

Looks really good! Thank you for all the amazing stuff you brought to us on this website!

[nandblock]

I'm getting a warning message every time I actually try to go to a table--is this correct?

[Een]

I'm getting a warning message every time I actually try to go to a table--is this correct?

Probably not. What do you mean by "try to go to a table"? Which lobby? Do you have a screenshot?

EDIT: ok, found it and fixed it. Thanks!

[mopie]

Thanks for keeping both options just in case! You guys (and gals of course) are awesome.

[Cragatz]

This looks awesome! I love the simplicity!

The only thing I would ask is if there was a way to add a simple indicator in the corner of the image for each game showing how many tables of that particular game are currently open for new players. This could be just a simple circle with a number in it. So I could see the number "3" on a game and know that 3 tables are available for play and that I could expect to play relatively soon. If I see the number "0" then I know that there are no open tables currently, that I would be creating a new table if I clicked "play now," and that it might be a while before I could expect to play the game.

Adding the longest wait time for available tables, or the minimum number of players needed to start the next game, or any other additional indicator to give players a little more of an idea as to how long they can expect to wait for the game to start might be nice also. This could be as simple as another small indicator in another corner of the image of each game, or it could be a tool tip when the mouse hovers over the "available tables" indicator as suggested above.

Absolutely love it otherwise! Thanks for all you do!!!

[Liallan]

It probably would have been smart of me to actually have helped test but, well, I didn't. Now that I can see it I do have a couple of comments.

The player level needs some explanation. Keep in mind you were trying to make this easier for beginners, and considering that I completely confused what this meant, I'm sure a beginner is not going to get it. At first I took it literally, like if I'm at 201 then "my level" meant 201, but it seemed ludicrous to expect to find someone at 201, and then have +/- 2 as far as it would go. So I finally realized you mean "level" as in average, good, etc. Maybe I was just being silly not understanding that, but someone new to the site I don't think is going to understand it and it's supposed to be easy for them. (It doesn't need a long explanation. Even just putting in parenthesis something like Levels=Average, Good, etc.)

I think it would be nice to add the Very Good and Excellent options to the reputation. (The lack of these options is one reason I will never use this.) "Good" is a misnomer because everyone starts out that way, so the options here are only allowing people to filter out those with bad reputations, but having to accept people who have never earned any kind of reputation. And whereas newbies do need to play to get a reputation, they are by far the most likely people to just quit. (Especially turn-based, and trust me, it happens a lot.)

Audio-video: What? I can get the concept of turning audio off, though you can do that yourself when you get into the game. But how can you not have video? This obviously has a meaning I don't understand.

[luck2]

i prefer Advanced mode and i use it now (there are more info. and im from PC)

But
~After this correction i have problems in Firefox browser (site is too different now) :
1) Often i need to change the scale of the page (text) for a
normal game, for example, in Race for the Galaxy.
(translator).

2) main chat works incorrectly


.. hm.. (main chat works correctly in english versions of pages) ....have worked correctly(..

[Cynthi007]

Well, I can´t see the main chat at all. After the changes it has just gone for me. I used to post there looking for players or getting notification when friends are online. Please fix this. Thank you.

[Jessicannot Sp eak]

i prefer Advanced mode and i use it now (there are more info. and im from PC)

But
~After this correction i have problems in Firefox browser (site is too different now) :
1) Often i need to change the scale of the page (text) for a
normal game, for example, in Race for the Galaxy.
(translator).

2) main chat works incorrectly


.. hm.. (main chat works correctly in english versions of pages) ....have worked correctly(..

same, firefox too

but when I visit the forum then go back to the game lobby (language switched to English), the interface becomes normal again