Lobby Update & few extras

[lordalx]

From the latest improvements on the new lobby, we received a lot of feedback from you and continued to improve it, step by step.

It has been quite a lot of work since we integrated both manual and automatic table creation which might have led to some confusion and misunderstandings for some of you.

First, let me remind you of our initial intent for the lobby update: being easier for new players to discover and start games. I'm quite happy that more and more new players use it- daily!
Indeed, since the latest news on this topic, we have fixed many issues and also silently introduced small features. One example is giving you the capability to set your flexibility on some game settings, so that we can propose tables as close as possible to your favorite options, and so find you a table and opponents quicker.

The “old lobby,” as it is sometimes referred to, is still accessible from the 'Play Now' menu at the top of your screen.
You will find some details about exciting features introduced just now! (and below in a couple of minutes)

As usual, we will keep on listening to your feedback and provide a mini FAQ that will be completed later on.

What are the new features and why are we bringing them now ?

To tease them a bit, they are:

• “Bells system” to be notified of real time games with a lower audience
• “Live notification” to highlight key notifications such as friend requests or invite
• “Quick replay” to allow you to quickly launch new tables

This is something we have been working on for a few months already, we play with it regularly.
What is great for me is that it is something that started with sourisdudesert, and I am happy to share the outcome with the whole community.

As always, every significant change is announced through this thread: release summaries

Is the Game Page Finished?

No, it is not. I know how difficult it could be to explain to a new player how to create or join a table before. Here, the situation clearly improved.

We still have some plans to continuously adapt it and bring valuable information to it while improving the experience for long-time users as well. You have identified empty space on this page that we aim to fill. ;p

Will the ‘Play Now’ menu be removed ?

No, not now. We first want to get feedback from you and be sure that there are no other missing features from what we introduced.

I am also convinced that long-time players feel pretty comfortable with it, and will not remove it until they find everything they need on the game page.

Therefore, to be clear with you, the old lobby prevents us from bringing some new features. At some time, I expect it will be slowly removed.

Ok understood, and so what's next ?

As usual, we will not spoil the surprises (or let's rather say we will bring things when we think they are ready!), but "summer is coming" and I am sure there will be another announcement pretty soon!

Now, let’s detail these new features, and I hope you will adopt them!

Ding Ding! Introducing the Bell Notification System - Never Miss a Real-Time Table Again!

We have some news that will make you want to ring that bell: introducing the "Bell Notification System" on Board Game Arena! It is like having your very own game concierge!

Tired of waiting around for a real-time table to pop up for those hidden gem games? Well, just click on the bell, and you will be notified whenever someone starts a real-time table for your favorite game. No more of the "waiting for players" blues!
But that's not all! Create a table and bell-activated users will join you!

Now, before you get too excited, remember that this fantastic bell is your gateway to real-time tables only. Oh, and for our turn-based game lovers, don't fret! Just start a search, and the table will be open for players to join while you are away - playing another game for instance.Talk about efficient gaming!

So, ring-a-ling that bell and let the gaming shenanigans begin!

Toaster: New Notification System

We are also improving the way you receive the most important notifications. Instead of the bar at the top of your screen, you will now be informed of game invitations and friend requests by a notification popping up in the bottom right corner- like a piece of Toast, the features namesake.

You can easily click to accept or decline a new game from here.
Of course we will not bother you with these messages if you are at a game table!

Quick replay page: to allow to quickly relaunch new tables

The Quick Replay feature allows you to start searching for tables for different games easily.

Since the game-centric approach, we heard from you that it has become more difficult to start several games at once. The Quick Replay feature is there for you. It is available from your favorite games list.

Just click the blue button to start searching for opponents for that game.

From the dropdown menu, you can easily access any options for tables you have previously joined using matchmaking: the default options, Arena, and even your customized options.

Also new, you will see your progress in the Arena season or your ELO ranking when in any of your own lists of Favourites, depending on the mode you select.

Did you already know?
- a blue frame around a game highlights that this game currently has tables looking for players in Real Time
- from the Game Page, you can name your favorite settings using the Advanced Options, and they will be displayed as such in the Quick Replay feature as well
- if your Favorites list is crowded: you can create your own game lists and they will be displayed in the Quick Replay

I am eager to get your feedback about all of this. Don't hesitate to let us know.
... And since we are not perfect, we may have introduced some issues that you can report here .

[thoun]

About the bell alert, how does it works with differents settings ?
For example, I activated it for Nicodemus, being in RT Arena settings. Will I be alerted only for opened RT Arena table, or also for simple games ?

[menettm]

About the New Notification System, can we see in it that the new table is part from à tournament and which one ?

[Gulchen]

Is there now a way to chat at rematch tables?

(I remember the ​ ​ ​ "One click is saved. ​ Just type." ​ ​ ​ reply or replies from some other thread on this site, and
maybe that works for tables created directly, but I tried it at several rematch tables, and it failed each time.)

[cigma]

These sound like good news, thank you!

But with my old favourites list I can check all my many favourite games at one glance for open tables, if I minimize the icons:

Favourites_List.JPG (129.34 KiB) Viewed 3184 times

The new favourite list https://boardgamearena.com/gamelist?menu=favorite needs too much space, since I havent't found a way to minimize the icons just as well.
For me the new favourite list can not yet replace the old one for this reason.

[menettm]

About the New Notification System, can we see in it that the new table is part from a tournament and which one ?

Today new popup due to "New Notification System", and like yesterday I didn't know it was for a tournament !
It was for a tournament beginning today...

For me it is very important to give more informations about what is this new party !

[Stroom]

More and more bells and whistles. Is it really necessary? Going back to the 90s style of web design. I understand if some more notifications about arena games are displayed but... the new game view page is just a clutter of useless information.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunk_cost This is a perfect example of sunk cost fallacy.

Really, it isn't that hard to create a tutorial for new players how to use the old lobby and let them discover the platform themselves. I do not remember it being confusing at all. The opposite is with the new game setup page. All the useful information is moved further down the line. If anything, you should have a setting where the player can hide all the useless information from the game page. Just... horrible. Both in usability and bandwidth. All I need to see is the players who have joined and the game settings. Who needs to read the game introduction after they have played the game over 100 times already? Only thinking about the new players. Horrible. Horrible ideas.

The old Play now page is much more useful for several reasons and I do not see it changing with whatever changes you plan to make. It is clearly going to the dumbed down version that only benefits new players but the features for skilled players will suffer.

I do not care if a game has pending tables. I want to know what SETTINGS are used. I might want A and C or A and B but not B and C... You can't create a user-friendly filter interface for that. The lobby displaying all the relevant information is good enough for that.

[GTSchemer]

First off, as mentioned above, a new tournament game starting looks the same as a random person sending you an invite (there's even a decline button). The old bar at the top was vastly more clear, provided more information, and was more user friendly. It even looked less like an ad / malware popup in the corner.



Secondly, I appreciate the advanced features and hard work by the team. However as Stroom mentioned, the new lobby / game page has some awful qualities:



NEW: It is extremely cluttered. This can be anxiety-inducing and make it near unusable for some people. Imagine Tiktok or YouTube constantly barraging you with images.
OLD: The old lobby was clear, clean, and focused. Lots of blank space to only show what players care about, without distractions.

NEW: Increases bandwidth and complexity because many elements need loaded and managed.
OLD: Simple interface, low bandwidth, low complexity.

NEW: Makes information difficult or impossible to find, catering to new players rather than the core loyal site audience. May require additional clicks to filter and adjust.
OLD: Presents all key information at a glance (player skill levels, game options, number of tables, time open) with zero additional clicks.

NEW: Results in players creating a bunch of extra tables by accident, with no clear way to load them and close them.
OLD: Made it very obvious when you are in a lobby, and easy to hop back and forth between your active lobbies and close them.

NEW: Unusable on mobile for some users (see https://boardgamearena.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=31771).
OLD: Very clear and responsive on mobile.



It seems to me like a bit of a sunk cost fallacy, or a solution in search of a problem. I am someone who has been passionate about BGA for years, wanting the site to continue successfully without driving away users, and I am gravely concerned about some of these changes -- particularly once the old lobby is removed.

A tutorial system for using the old lobby, and potentially an option to use the new system and notification features, would cater to new users without driving the site's core audience away.

It should be possible to provide accessibility to new users without sabotaging those who made BGA possible in the first place. I think we all want that, and we're all on the same team...the challenge is the details.


Another option:

I would love if there were a dedicated lobby WITHOUT the visual clutter of the game page. No fancy background images, no intro text you have seen 500 times, no global list of players, no rules, etc. It should also load much faster and reduce server load.

[Wreckage]

I will attempt to be constructive here.

This is a typical “Play Now” page.


The first 5 points refer to my red marks on the pic.

1. I can see the restrictions of every table on the "Play Now" list easily. I’m looking for a strong and above table. Using the new lobby, I believe I can only see restrictions on tables I create myself. If there is a way to see other tables’ restrictions, I haven’t found it.

2. At the moment I took this screenshot, there were about 20 tables open for this game. Using the new lobby, I know I can click on each table individually, and then click on each player at each table individually, to see their ratings. However, waiting for a “strong and above” table for this game often takes about 20 minutes. If I have to continually click each table and then click each player at each table for that long, that's going to take hundreds, or possibly thousands of clicks to find a table with all strong players, while the tables are continually changing. Notice from the “Play Now” page this info is displayed easily for me to see with no additional clicks at all. There is some scrolling required when there are lots of tables.

3. The game shown here was created 50 minutes ago. This is useful info. The player who created this game has perhaps forgotten about it. This table most likely wont start. The new lobby should include this as well.

4. The new lobby requires 1 additional step of going to each table specifically to join it. However, if you’d like to join 4-5 tables, you can join them all from the “Play Now” page with as many clicks. With the new lobby, you must go to each of those tables and join, and then back to find the next table and so on. Remember you also can’t see the settings for any of the games until you go to the table, so you may go to many tables to investigate before finding 4-5 you want to join.

5. If you click “View” From the “Play Now” page, you go to the table, where you can, at a glance, see the exact ELO of every player, and their reputations. No clicks are required to get this info. Also if you’re on a PC, you can hover over their ELO to see how many games they have played. From the new lobby, you must click on each player to see their ELO only. Their reputation and number of games played are not available, without going to each of their profiles.

6. Using the new lobby, 95+% of the time when it says "this game matches my preferences", it doesn’t. My suggestion would be that for it to match my preferences, it must match against my preferences of the last game I created.

7. There is no “discuss” button. I understand the button appears once you join the table, but there are many reasons to communicate without joining. For instance “I can’t join because…” if they don’t meet a table restriction. Which if they were allowed to ask, the admin may be willing to adjust, but this might be a whole table discussion. If a person is running an event with multiple tables, they may want to give last minute instructions to the players at one of the tables. however, since there is no discuss button, this is impossible.

I don't believe the premise that the new lobby is easier to use by new players. I have had a number of family members and many friends join BGA before the new lobby was implemented, and I never heard the slightest complaint about it being difficult to navigate. By contrast I have heard hundreds of regulars on the site who hate it, and still can't figure out how it functions.

The old lobby is pleasant. It's possible there are ways to find info using the new lobby that I'm not aware of, it is a difficult page to solve.

[GTSchemer]

I agree with Wreckage, and echo the points mentioned -- in particular, (new?) players sometimes finding the new lobby system unclear.

I suggest one of these reasons is that players are forced into the game page, where there is a large amount of visual noise. Why not also support Play Now as a lobby page, with minimal queries and reduced bandwidth to load? If I want to start a game, I basically never want to see any of the information on the game page. Why force that on both me and the server?


Keeping "Play Now" as a dedicated lobby page would allow:

* The new element UI if there are compelling reasons it is required.

* Both new and experienced players to learn the new system more easily, with less visual noise.

* More flexibility because many more tables could be seen at once, as in the old system.

* More clarity about existing tables. Ever since the new lobby, I tend to struggle finding real-time tables, and I see many stranded tables that players accidentally started. Could these be connected? Players get frustrated joining endless tables which never start because the host didn't realize they did it. Players stop trying because of this frustration, and you get less real-time players.



I would like to also add an anecdote about a videogame which used to be extremely popular. Have you ever heard of Team Fortress 2? I played it for years, and made friendships lasting a decade or more. What made it so popular? The community, and in particular, the ability to easily see a list of different games, manually choosing one which suited your mood.

Team Fortress 2 is a shell of its former self. All videogames may die over time, but a particular inflection point came when a game update was forced on all players...to make everyone use an "easy, accessible" game search feature, instead of looking at a game list. Does this sound familiar? The idea seemed simple, to invite your friends and have the system magically find a game that suited you! However, what happened was that it killed communities because players could no longer scan, sort, and jump into what they wanted. Players no longer felt as connected, and gradually left the game.

BGA is a bit different than a videogame like this with community servers, but I hope the parallel makes some sense.