Arena and 4 players game

[Slook]

Why is that arena mode requires 4 players games (Ticket to Ride, Kingdom builders...) to be played only player versus player ?
This was just changed recently for "Ticket to Ride", the initial arena season for this game was 4 players games.
The game I mentioned above, and likely many others, were not designed to be 2 players game.
Even if it is possible to play player against player, these games become really less interesting ...
to know if I am the only one thinking this should be modified ?

Thanks in advanced for the reply(replies).

[Meeplelowda]

Why is that arena mode requires 4 players games (Ticket to Ride, Kingdom builders...) to be played only player versus player ?
This was just changed recently for "Ticket to Ride", the initial arena season for this game was 4 players games.
The game I mentioned above, and likely many others, were not designed to be 2 players game.
Even if it is possible to play player against player, these games become really less interesting ...
to know if I am the only one thinking this should be modified ?

Thanks in advanced for the reply(replies).

These decisions are voted upon by "gurus" (selected from people who play the game frequently in any format, not just Arena). The problem is that these votes are sometimes based on convenience, e.g., how long it will take to get a game started, as opposed to the best format for the game. Often different factions of the player base fervently disagree on this point (for example, grab your popcorn and go look at people practically foaming at the mouth in the debate over whether Catan should be 3 players or 4 players in Arena).

I'm not expressing any opinion specifically about whether Ticket to Ride should be two players or not.

[caiopsoares]

"Go Nuts for Donuts" is terrible for 2 players...

[Grey Lord]

Problem with choosing number of players by Gurus is that if you play only 2p games it is much easier to became the Guru. As a result even with 10%-20% players who are prefering the 2p game it could be 2p in Arena.

[ChiefPointThief]

I made a thread about this (didn’t realize one already existed). I think for popular games with two distinct setting preferences that there should be two different arena seasons. Why have thousands of players opting out or playing with settings they don’t prefer because the gurus have a slight edge in favor of one setting?

[pabula]

thanks God all Dungeon Petz players prefer playing 4p games
I would hate it if they change it to 2p like they tend to change all games to that count.

[Roger GS]

This arena season is terrible. I spend about 1/4 as much time on BGA as I used to because of it.

[Swandog]

I agree. I really think that either the rules need to rotate more often, so that you get more seasons where there are more than 2 players, or there should be multiple arena modes, so that you can play arena with different player counts.

So many games are set to play as 2 player and a lot of them are not nearly as interesting with 2 players.

[Aramoro]

The problem is the Guru system and they way it ruins games. If you look at the season changes they trend is always to reduce the number of players, this lets the gurus play more games and stay as Gurus and thus keep choosing to reduce the player counts. Looking at the latest season

Code: Select all

Game		Best At	Arena Mode
Beyond the Sun 	3	2
7 Wonders 	4-5	3
Coloretto	4	2
Barrage		4	3
Coup		5	3
Art Decko	4	2
Nidavellier	3	2

This is all driven by the small number of player that play huge numbers of games so want games to go faster so want lower player counts. See the insanity of 2 player Coloretto which isn't even a game and when it was 2 player 7 Wonders Architects .

[Stuff by Bez]

It's not just about which is most enjoyable, but also about which is likely to get enough players for and which is most skill-testing.

Generally, high interaction games become more about the player chaos at higher playercounts.