Why should Arena use 2 players?

[SYushen]

3 is the best.

[Ranior]

And yet others would say 4 is the best. (Like me).

GWT is kind of like Through the Ages in that regard, I think there are pockets within each community that prefer the game at 2, 3, and 4. It's hard/impossible to respect all those preferences, and so who do you go with?

BGA decided to make GWT 2 player. I suspect they probably looked at what player count was getting the most play and used that for this first arena system.

The good news is that there is a guru system and BGA listens to those voters for what the next arena settings should be. You get to be a GWT guru by being in roughly the top 1% of GWT players by games played count during the past 60 days. Gurus can make suggestions (like make arena 3p) and vote for them, and as such next seasons arena settings will be determined by the gurus.

The bad news is that the downside of the guru system is that since it goes by play count, it already has a bias towards lower player counts (where you can rack up a higher player count in less time, so it's easier to get to become a guru by playing 2p GWT than it is 3p, or 4p). The other issue is that as far as I can tell, it probably is just the case that the 2p GWT crowd has more numbers/fans at the moment than the other player counts do. As such, I wouldn't hold out hope that GWT arena will be played at other player counts in the next season.

(Note, I am not a GWT guru, but perhaps someone who is will wander in and can more directly speak to what the current voting is like for next season's settings)

[SYushen]

just go to BGG and see the community votes. 2 is literly the worst for most people.

[Posti]

I personally enjoy all formats but would probably rate the order 4p -> 2p -> 3p

2p plays vastly differently from 3/4p - It's more cut-throat and tactical (as opposed to strategic) plays are a lot more prevalent. The main difference being that in 4p games I'm more focused on my plan where as in 2p games many of my moves are a direct response to opponents choice.

My opinion is that 4p would be the most popular overall while 2p is best from a competitive standpoint.

[SwanseaStephen]

Maybe BGA/gurus could consider altering player count by season? Some games, like 7 wonders, do this. I think there is some precedent for competitive tournament play at 4p (I think more so than 2p but could be wrong) and I think there is an opportunity for GWT to broaden its competitive scope on the BGA platform. And in my limited experience with the game so far I prefer 3 player! I’m happy to play 3 or 4 player games outside of Arena, so it’s not a big deal to me, but just thought I’d suggest the possibility of altering player count by season

[Posti]

I wouldn't mind alternating the number of players per season - If there's any sort of vote it should probably be broader than current gurus if possible (for reasons stated by Ranior).

[Patrick of the Isles]

I wouldn't mind alternating the number of players per season - If there's any sort of vote it should probably be broader than current gurus if possible (for reasons stated by Ranior).

In a lot of different games I follow I see people sometimes suggest votes and polls in the forum. But to my reading, the site administrators' intention since they started the guru program last year is that only the top guru-voted suggestion each season will be implemented as a change to arena format. They've indicated that the guru system was designed to replace informal forum polls. It's not impossible that they would make an exception for an individual game, but it seems pretty unlikely given the number of games they manage and their intentional creation of the guru system.

[Chul]

I don't care how much better the game might be in a 3 player version, I hope next season it will become 2 player again. The queue time for arena is hopelessly long - more than 30 minutes for me in average. Two times so fare I forgot I even started the queue before I get a game... And most of the time I just give up.

[Patrick of the Isles]

I don't care how much better the game might be in a 3 player version, I hope next season it will become 2 player again. The queue time for arena is hopelessly long - more than 30 minutes for me in average. Two times so fare I forgot I even started the queue before I get a game... And most of the time I just give up.

I tried to tell them this would happen... but they voted it through anyway...

The writer H.L. Mencken satirically observed that democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.

[Posti]

*Moderator edit: this post has been removed and the author moderated.