Do most people study the strategy tips for new games, or ignore and learn through playing?

[cigma]

The first thing is that playing on BGA is not to be compared to RL board gaming: you can't really pause the game to get hints,

Actually you can: Play a turn-based game! Then you have got time to search for hints or - if you are playing it with friends like a real-time game- discuss your strategies without the ticking clock.

You can also host game tables and (by clicking on the door symbol in the new lobby) set the option to play with beginners only. Very likely it will become a beginner friendly table

[Meeplelowda]

Hoping people don't hop on the table without checking, naturally.

I wish you good luck. A frequent complaint on here is people button mashing and joining tables without reading the settings.

[watsu]

I don't personally read tips for games, but I did spend a fair bit of time writing some for Pente - https://boardgamearena.com/doc/Tips_pente I've been playing it off and on for about 30 years (swap versions for about 20) and am currently the top rated player here. There are much better players than me on other sites, but reading and studying the tips I wrote here is unlikely to get a player even up near my level of play without a significant deal of play experience after reading those tips (unless one happens to be a master level gomoku or renju player). I mainly wrote them in order to help players advance beyond a frustrated novice level of play. Also, the tutorial system is designed for a single example game, which is really not particularly helpful for Pente, since the openings are the most important part of that game and alos one of the trickiest to master. Learning strategies beyond those covered in the tips requires deep study elsewhere and a considerable amount of playing time. I would hope that the tips might help at least a few players to enjoy the game more, not less.

[SonicJuz]

Actually you can: Play a turn-based game! Then you have got time to search for hints or - if you are playing it with friends like a real-time game- discuss your strategies without the ticking clock.

You can also host game tables and (by clicking on the door symbol in the new lobby) set the option to play with beginners only. Very likely it will become a beginner friendly table

From what I've seen in turn based games, when people are not playing right then at that precise time, they are not available for discussing; they connect before their move and not after it (and that's somehow logical).

Thanks for the hint for hosting! I have searched I don't know how many times the button to set this option and never found it, so, reading the threads I ended thinking it was available only for hight elo players. Your post gave me further incentive to look... and I finally found it above the player list in the configuration menu (I still don't know what the door symbol is). Seeing I've sold softwares and betas, I feel particularily shameful. So now what I wrote on my posts is not that legit for games that don't need premium to host - even if, out of turn based, time is rarely enough for real deep discussions (not that they always need to be deep or that I would have the hang of it), especially where translation is needed.

yes, that's why I added that. I've been guilty of it at the very beginning.