Thoughts on live scoring?

[TheMrShadySlim]

I think I prefer games without the live scoring since it feels more in spirit of the game, but I would like to hear other peoples preferences.

I notice most games hosted tend to keep it on, but I am not sure if that is because it is on by default

[poserLX]

I've played a bunch of Scythe on Steam, which has live scoring for every game. I was a bit surprised to see it when I first started playing there, but got used to it. What makes me want to play with live scoring on BGA is my desire to play competitively.

Scythe is an amazingly fun game as published, and the lack of live scoring IRL helps players to focus on enjoying the mechanics. Once you start playing competitively, though, live scoring becomes more helpful than not. If you play in a tournament, for example, you would hate to lose a game simply because your "spidey sense" of who was winning was wrong. You'll want to end the game only when you're sure that you'll win.

One thing that live scoring won't do for you is tell you who will win given a set of hypothetical turns. It can only tell you the score for the present game state. But that in itself is a useful tool for competitive play. For this reason I suggest that all who create tournaments for Scythe on BGA enable live scoring, and I recommend it for the Arena as well.

I'd be open to live scoring being off by default for regular games. If that leads to more people playing games with live scoring off, fine by me. But I'll be playing with it on the vast majority of the time.

[incredibul]

I think it distorts the experience to a level that competitive play should not be the default for everyone. That being said I am used to setting it off when playing with my regular BGA Gaming group. I think the BGA Implementation should try to mirror the boardgame experience as much as possible, and life scoring isn't part of that, but that's just me.

[Chivvy]

Because life is much better when the end game rolls around and everyone is taking the time to manually calculate the standings before taking their moves. All live scoring does is give information to the novice who is overwhelmed and doesn't want to hold up the game, that the experienced player already knows.

[Badger Prof]

If it wasn't a perfect information game, I'd say no. But all of the scoring info is open in scythe. With it off all you're asking for is longer games w/ people sitting to calculate all of it instead.

On the other hand I think random factions are far more detrimental to a competitive game of Scythe. Auctioned factions (like in Terra Mystica) I'm hoping will become the norm in competitive play.

[Supereca]

I agree. We’ve been playing the game since 2017, and one of the most interesting aspects is that the winner isn’t always the one who placed the last star. It’s only when the points are added up later that the true winner is revealed. And isn’t the point to play your best game without constantly focusing on the scores? It’s much more exciting and unpredictable that way!

I think I prefer games without the live scoring since it feels more in spirit of the game, but I would like to hear other peoples preferences.

I notice most games hosted tend to keep it on, but I am not sure if that is because it is on by default

[poserLX]

I agree. We’ve been playing the game since 2017, and one of the most interesting aspects is that the winner isn’t always the one who placed the last star. It’s only when the points are added up later that the true winner is revealed. And isn’t the point to play your best game without constantly focusing on the scores? It’s much more exciting and unpredictable that way!

It certainly is a great way to play, up to a point. For most people, at most times, it's best to play the way you describe. But for those who want to play competitively, it makes more sense to have the score be open information. It makes for better tournament experiences, for sure.

I've done a Scythe in-person tournament a couple times now, and we had the rule that each person is allowed, once per game, to ask for a score check. At this point each player is obliged to calculate their own score as carefully as possible. This does slow down the game a bit, but since you can only do it once per game, you usually want to do it only when you need to check to make sure you will win if you end it. Or maybe you need to check to make sure someone else CAN'T end it with a win if you make certain moves. In any case, as I said, it makes for a better experience.

[paulboardgamearena]

The game also does not enforce the 10 second opponent analysis rule, but you don't see anyone complaining about that lol

[Badger Prof]

I understand the IDEA of it being cool to not know who's won until after the tallying. However, for those that dislike the idea of players ending the game when they aren't in the lead (thereby kingmaking or altering the end results for other players), live scoring being off feels like it would greatly exacerbate this occurrence.

[Cnythia]

Fun discussion!

I like live scoring. I think it evens the playing field between players of varying degrees of skill at mental arithmetic.

But I also like that it's optional, so if you don't want that info you don't have to have it. Just like you don't have to look at anyone else's board, but you can.