Setting up games to be played within a group

[Lemur21]

So, I've created a group -- I've gone to set up and selected "turn-based" - adjusted the number of players and selected to restrict the game to only my group.

And then, I get a notice that the game is starting; and when I check - it's a bunch of people not from my group.

Why would that be?

[Lemur21]

Just happened again.

I had a game of Agricola set up for my group. One person had signed up.

Suddenly, the game started -- the person who signed up was NOT in the foursome; and the sign-up link I listed brings people to the game that started (that they can no longer sign up for).

So ... how do you set up a game for your group to sign up for; ensuring others don't get in (as it is now, I'm simply going to quit all the games that interlopers invaded; as the games were *never* set up for people not in the group to be included).

[nik592]

You have to set the settings for each game you setup, they don't carry over. That's my only guess as to why. Checking the games you've setup, some (like Earth) are correctly restricted, others (like Agricola) are not - most are abandoned anyway, so I can't really tell. I've personally never had a problem with my games being restricted when I use the settings, but I don't use them often. You should be able to check the settings on the gamepage, or if you go to the old style lobby (eg. https://boardgamearena.com/table?table= ... 80&nr=true, with the appropriate table number), you can see it's restricted.

That said, by quitting all these games, you've now tanked your reputation, and probably can't do much of anything. While you may not have intended for those games to be open to others, THEY didn't know that, and joined your games in good faith as someone who wanted to play. You could have explained things to them in the chat (perhaps you did) and requested to abandon the games, which would have allowed you to quit without penalty. But it's a bit late for that now.

[Lemur21]

They actually *were* all set up the same.

Here - for example - is a screenshot from earlier today.

You see the game I set up on top; same as the others I'd set up (LIBO only).

And yet, I got *added* to a game run by another player; and after that game started, the link to MY game was removed.

That can't be normal :/

[Lemur21]

Evidently - can't add screenshots .... sigh ....

[Lemur21]

I was advised by customer service to send it in as a bug.

Here's the screenshot: https://imgur.com/a/qcKJXDq

So, in actuality; the games *weren't* set up as open; they were all set up as restricted; but - for some reason - the system will assign another game (in this case, started by Cuadrix) the same ID # and then place me in there (even though I haven't signed up for the game.

This is why I didn't feel badly abandoning them (and had my reputation restored) - I never intended *my* games to be open; and I also didn't agree to be randomly placed into another's game. There's definitely something wonky/broken.

No one else has experienced this? We were trying to do something similar to how * works - where you set up a game, restrict it, and then post the link; and only those with the link can join. That's what this *should* do; but - clearly - it doesn't. :/

*Moderator edit: please do not specifically name other gaming platforms

[RugoseCone]

This has just happened to me twice. I set up two games, restricted to group, posted the link to them. Then I go back and find that BGA has created duplicate games that are unrestricted. The group restricted game times out before it fills and I get put into an unrestricted game with random people from around the world. Not what I had intended.

How do I stop this happening? I tried to cancel the duplicates, but BGA then cancels not just the duplicate(s), but the original (restricted) game as well.

Is there a setting I'm missing? Like "Please don't create copies of this game automatically" or something?

[mikkashar]

I was advised by customer service to send it in as a bug.

If you have filed a bug report, could you link to it so that other people seeing the same problem can find and upvote it? (I did not turn it up on a casual search.)

Setting up a game on the game page (as opposed to the "play now" lobby) doesn't seem to have a way to distinguish between "automatic" and "manual" games. I wonder if what's happening is that when you go to create a table, if there's an existing table that matches your parameters, you're added to that one rather than a new one being created (either before you've added the group restriction, or despite it). If so, that's definitely a bug. Have you tried setting up a game in the older "play now" lobby, and does that have the same problem?

[eugaet]

If you have filed a bug report, could you link to it so that other people seeing the same problem can find and upvote it?

Here's Lemur21's bug report:
https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=115332

[Lemur21]

I was advised by customer service to send it in as a bug.

If you have filed a bug report, could you link to it so that other people seeing the same problem can find and upvote it? (I did not turn it up on a casual search.)

Setting up a game on the game page (as opposed to the "play now" lobby) doesn't seem to have a way to distinguish between "automatic" and "manual" games. I wonder if what's happening is that when you go to create a table, if there's an existing table that matches your parameters, you're added to that one rather than a new one being created (either before you've added the group restriction, or despite it). If so, that's definitely a bug. Have you tried setting up a game in the older "play now" lobby, and does that have the same problem?

Had the same problem.

It's even worse. I created a bunch of games and shared the links to my friends to join as they wanted.

In some cases, some of them joined (but not all four spots were taken) - and then they were booted out and I was thrust into a new game (with my ID number) .

Here's an image (although this is one where no one from my group had signed up yet) - you can see that *I'm* the administrator on the top game; but somehow, I'm in another person's game (and both have the same Game ID).