I am a Premium BGA member and I've had my account for 8+ years. My account lists me as having played over 21K+ games so I am easily one of the biggest users on BGA. Over the years I've seen BGA implement so many changes that were so shortsighted to complaints from myself and others. I reported someone for cheating in Thermopyles years ago. The correct action would have been to ban that player, scrub their history from the site, and fix the exploit they were using to game the system. Instead the solution was to create an arbitrary cap of 8,700 ELO for all games. I had been playing that game for years and clawing my way up to what I hoped would be #1 overall someday. Instead I was robbed of that opportunity and all of those hours upon hours I had invested were rendered meaningless as myself and others above 8,700 ELO were all lumped together so a true #1 could never be determined for the rest of time.
Some of these recent changes are outrageous and would absolutely make me ditch my Premium membership in the future. ELO is sacred to me and many other players. I routinely find new games to play and work my way above 300 ELO (or more). I take a great deal of pride each time I top that mark but I am always looking for new challenges so I typically "retire" from those games to find new ones. I love that both myself and others can see those ELO accomplishments if they look at my profile. By introducing ELO decay you are robbing myself and others of our hard earned ELO for absolutely no reason. The All-Time rankings for each game already require that you've played at least 1 game not in Friendly Mode in the last 60 days. That system works as players can't camp in the Top 20 in perpetuity - you only get 60 days past your last game to remain on the leaderboard. However, even if we aren't showing on the leaderboard we still get to keep our hard earned ELO. I am going to be livid if ELO I earned is robbed from me simply because I chose not to play that game anymore. I'm not negatively impacting anyone and I'm not listed on the Top 20 leaderboards if my last game is post 60 days ago.
Cooperative and solo games not showing ELO anymore is beyond annoying. I want to be able to see my ELO for those games - not simply my skill level designation. The reasoning behind the change is nonsensical. Who exactly is clamoring for their ELO not to show for these games?
Power leveling change does more harm than good. After every game there is a "Propose Rematch" button. The button is clearly there for a reason and yet your change is penalizing people for choosing that option. As others have pointed out you shouldn't be penalized for playing with friends as many people likely come to BGA for that very reason. Another issue pointed out by others is for games that aren't popular the amount of players available can be slim to none. You don't have a plethora of options to choose from (if any at all). The proper solution is to ban anyone that is blatantly cheating and wipe their results from BGA. Myself and others have done an admirable job over the years reporting blatant cheaters but sadly the response from BGA has been less than ideal to say the least. Players that aren't cheating (which I am guessing make up the vast majority of users on BGA) shouldn't be penalized by a "fix" to discourage the bad apples on the site that are cheating.
Team play change makes perfect sense. You shouldn't win/lose ELO from your own teammates.
Red thumb change sounds like an Arena thing and Arena doesn't interest me so I defer my opinion to those who play it often and are admirable players.
Some of these recent changes are outrageous and would absolutely make me ditch my Premium membership in the future. ELO is sacred to me and many other players. I routinely find new games to play and work my way above 300 ELO (or more). I take a great deal of pride each time I top that mark but I am always looking for new challenges so I typically "retire" from those games to find new ones. I love that both myself and others can see those ELO accomplishments if they look at my profile. By introducing ELO decay you are robbing myself and others of our hard earned ELO for absolutely no reason. The All-Time rankings for each game already require that you've played at least 1 game not in Friendly Mode in the last 60 days. That system works as players can't camp in the Top 20 in perpetuity - you only get 60 days past your last game to remain on the leaderboard. However, even if we aren't showing on the leaderboard we still get to keep our hard earned ELO. I am going to be livid if ELO I earned is robbed from me simply because I chose not to play that game anymore. I'm not negatively impacting anyone and I'm not listed on the Top 20 leaderboards if my last game is post 60 days ago.
Cooperative and solo games not showing ELO anymore is beyond annoying. I want to be able to see my ELO for those games - not simply my skill level designation. The reasoning behind the change is nonsensical. Who exactly is clamoring for their ELO not to show for these games?
Power leveling change does more harm than good. After every game there is a "Propose Rematch" button. The button is clearly there for a reason and yet your change is penalizing people for choosing that option. As others have pointed out you shouldn't be penalized for playing with friends as many people likely come to BGA for that very reason. Another issue pointed out by others is for games that aren't popular the amount of players available can be slim to none. You don't have a plethora of options to choose from (if any at all). The proper solution is to ban anyone that is blatantly cheating and wipe their results from BGA. Myself and others have done an admirable job over the years reporting blatant cheaters but sadly the response from BGA has been less than ideal to say the least. Players that aren't cheating (which I am guessing make up the vast majority of users on BGA) shouldn't be penalized by a "fix" to discourage the bad apples on the site that are cheating.
Team play change makes perfect sense. You shouldn't win/lose ELO from your own teammates.
Red thumb change sounds like an Arena thing and Arena doesn't interest me so I defer my opinion to those who play it often and are admirable players.
