Beginner questions - lobby, starting new games,

[KazzyDee]

I’ve been here a while now, muddling through, but there’s a few things I’m not clear on and I can’t find explanations in FAQ, or by using Search function.

1/ I have seen several comments about a lobby page (an old one & a new one?) - what is this please? Which tab is it, and what is it for?

2/ Two tabs ‘Play now’ and ‘Games’ - which is the best way to start a game please?
I’ve seen that if you want to start a game with friends (RT or turns) we need to go into Play Now. If we just want to plan a RT game with anyone available we can use the filters of the Games page to help select but otherwise it seems the same; they both start a new game?

3/ when trying to create a game, I’ve noticed a lot of higher- ranking players decline to join. This makes sense as I am a comparative newbie so assume I would be either too slow, or too easy to beat but how can I create a game looking for people of similar level to me please? Is it best to play turn-based while I improve?
There is an option to play only against those of certain levels in the Settings part of Play Now (in Automatic mode) do most people not know about this, or not use it?

4/ I seem to have turned on a ‘bell notification’ for a game - and it shows up under Subscription on the Filter tab of the Games page. I can’t find how I did this, but would like to turn it on a few more of my favourite games, especially when they are not very popular ones. Where do I find this please?

Many thanks in advance for any help

[King Hrothbeort]

1 & 2 The Old Lobby refers to the Play Now page, most players that have been here a long time prefer this one. The New Lobby refers to starting games through the Games page. Use whichever technique you prefer, once you setup a game it will appear to all available players regardless of which technique you used to start it.

3 You can restrict the level of opponents you want when you set up a game, but this will only decrease the number of people who might join, which seems to be the opposite of what you want. I've seen some games (especially the more popular strategy games) where this is fairly commonly use. Whether you play turn-based or real time depends on how fast you want to play; turn based gives you plenty of time to think, but realtime is nice if you want a faster pace.

[nik592]

The bell notification is a relatively new feature - was mentioned in this update: https://boardgamearena.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=149529

I haven't used it myself so I can't tell you much about how to do it, but I assume that topic should explain it pretty well.