two player arena

[thg0724]

Disappointed by the decision to have Arena games be two-player. Bummed actually. I started playing arena just recently and was quite looking forward to the new "season". One and done however.

[marknibb]

I don't like it either - closes off 2 lane tracks, so game becomes entirely defensive

[spartak1664]

I agree. This two players game is very boring.

[Maxtoine26]

oh no !! 2 players
Please, come back to 4 players

[wannaplay]

Was looking forward to the tournament. Going to skip the 2-player variant. Who voted for that?

[Flop Hecki]

I'm fine with both.

[Shimon142]

It’s nice that every season it changes, I hope next season will be multi again (maybe 5P.. that’d be cool)

[MadManMark]

Was looking forward to the tournament. Going to skip the 2-player variant. Who voted for that?

Per FAQ, a "guru" is whoever played the most games in the prior 30 days. If you prefer two-player vs multi, you'll naturally play a LOT more games in the same given time:

Fewer players => Fewer turns in a game => Faster games => More games played => Earning guru status

Thus there is a significant bias in "guru" assignment for players who prefer fewer players. In my game history 2-player TTR games are usually 4-8 minutes long, 4 player ones are 15-25 min.

This same reasoning presumably applies to almost all games; I noticed MANY games in the new arena season (not just TTR) switched from multi to two player this season. This is why I would suggest tweaking the guru ranking computation to not use simple sum of (games_played_last_30), but instead sum of (nbr_players) for that same set of games. Otherwise all BGA arena game seasons are naturally biased towards the fewest player settings, amongst the options which are roughly equally appealing.

But as for the specific TTR aspeect here, 2 player is just as fun/appealing as 4 player - only in a different way. Anyone claiming that 2-player isn't fun maybe should not be so quick to judge? The claim in the other thread that 2-player TTR is "all luck and no skill" is particularly laughable. I don't have a strong opinion if this arena season should be 2-player or multi again, but one thing I am certain of, the player making that comment should not have guru power for this game, as she clearly doesn't even understand it!

[KP1024]

Guru voting is a bit biased, yes.

But what's wrong with 2 player? The game is quite different, sure, but so much more fair and competitive. Fun strategies like blocking actually make sense in 2 player and "playing defense" is actually relevant.

[thg0724]

I was just looking over the "all players" stats and noticed:

Longest Continuous Path bonus 0.46

That is: players average getting longest path 46% of the time. I know ties are possible, so multiple longest paths can be awarded in a single game, but even considering that happens from time to time this must mean that the overwhelming majority of games are two player games.

As an aside: it would be useful, I think, to have the stats broken down by number of players.