🌿ELO System Updates

[Zoe Ripley]

I don't understand how Chess isn't a compettetive game, why do you hide ELO? I want to see my elo.. If I don't see a change in my elo, I don't really want to play..

[GTSchemer]

I don't understand how Chess isn't a compettetive game, why do you hide ELO? I want to see my elo.. If I don't see a change in my elo, I don't really want to play..

Because Chess is extremely easy to cheat at, and there are websites dedicated to competitive Chess already. BGA Chess is only for casual purposes.

[Jellby]

Just follow the "read more" link: https://boardgamearena.com/faq?anchor=f ... edrankings

[Zozoken]

We're always listening to your feedback and working to make Board Game Arena the best place to play. Keep those messages coming!

See you at the tables,

The Board Game Arena Team

As a paying customer, I feel compelled to tell you where I'm at currently in my relationship with BGA. Last year around this time, I was happy to continue my subscription not only for myself but also for my family. One year later, the layout has been incredibly frustrating to use, to the point where I installed a Chrome extension to get better site navigation. The servers are constantly going down. I saved the url to my notification logs because most of the time it doesn't load for me when I try to use the shortcut menu under the player avatar. And nowadays, games won't display correctly on mobile, which gets temporarily fixed only to break again a few days later. Because of these issues, on top of the already discussed issues with competitive play on BGA, I've quietly explored other ways to play board games online. The result is I play less and I care less about my results on BGA. My goal went from wanting to play every game available on BGA to playing the bare minimum of games for the friend circle and BGA groups I'm in. I will evaluate whether your service is still worth paying for when it gets close to the time when my subscription runs out, but right now it's about 50/50. Perhaps you don't care about the user experience of just one subscriber, but I have a feeling I'm not alone.

Thank you for all the hard work the BGA staff puts into this site. I hope you find a way to provide better game and server stability in the future.

[GTSchemer]

We're always listening to your feedback and working to make Board Game Arena the best place to play. Keep those messages coming!

See you at the tables,

The Board Game Arena Team

As a paying customer, I feel compelled to tell you where I'm at currently in my relationship with BGA. Last year around this time, I was happy to continue my subscription not only for myself but also for my family. One year later, the layout has been incredibly frustrating to use, to the point where I installed a Chrome extension to get better site navigation. The servers are constantly going down. I saved the url to my notification logs because most of the time it doesn't load for me when I try to use the shortcut menu under the player avatar. And nowadays, games won't display correctly on mobile, which gets temporarily fixed only to break again a few days later. Because of these issues, on top of the already discussed issues with competitive play on BGA, I've quietly explored other ways to play board games online. The result is I play less and I care less about my results on BGA. My goal went from wanting to play every game available on BGA to playing the bare minimum of games for the friend circle and BGA groups I'm in. I will evaluate whether your service is still worth paying for when it gets close to the time when my subscription runs out, but right now it's about 50/50. Perhaps you don't care about the user experience of just one subscriber, but I have a feeling I'm not alone.

Thank you for all the hard work the BGA staff puts into this site. I hope you find a way to provide better game and server stability in the future.

While I agree with you on most things (I've been very vocal about disliking the main page layout), I will note that the recent mobile issue was not easily avoidable, and many devs involved (volunteer and otherwise) in fixing games as quickly as possible.

If you are curious, details can be found in my post near the top of this page, and also later in the thread here: https://boardgamearena.com/forum/viewto ... 89#p189689

Long story short, a major browser engine used by many (but not all) browsers changed a core calculation that BGA had been designed to use. There is not an easy way to rework 1000 pieces of software created over the years, so both BGA and devs have been working to get everything back together.

It is very different from the main page rework etc., which I assume were done for other reasons. This may not matter to you as a user, but I thought you might want to know.

[Zozoken]

We're always listening to your feedback and working to make Board Game Arena the best place to play. Keep those messages coming!

See you at the tables,

The Board Game Arena Team

As a paying customer, I feel compelled to tell you where I'm at currently in my relationship with BGA. Last year around this time, I was happy to continue my subscription not only for myself but also for my family. One year later, the layout has been incredibly frustrating to use, to the point where I installed a Chrome extension to get better site navigation. The servers are constantly going down. I saved the url to my notification logs because most of the time it doesn't load for me when I try to use the shortcut menu under the player avatar. And nowadays, games won't display correctly on mobile, which gets temporarily fixed only to break again a few days later. Because of these issues, on top of the already discussed issues with competitive play on BGA, I've quietly explored other ways to play board games online. The result is I play less and I care less about my results on BGA. My goal went from wanting to play every game available on BGA to playing the bare minimum of games for the friend circle and BGA groups I'm in. I will evaluate whether your service is still worth paying for when it gets close to the time when my subscription runs out, but right now it's about 50/50. Perhaps you don't care about the user experience of just one subscriber, but I have a feeling I'm not alone.

Thank you for all the hard work the BGA staff puts into this site. I hope you find a way to provide better game and server stability in the future.

While I agree with you on most things (I've been very vocal about disliking the main page layout), I will note that the recent mobile issue was not easily avoidable, and many devs involved (volunteer and otherwise) in fixing games as quickly as possible.

If you are curious, details can be found in my post near the top of this page, and also later in the thread here: https://boardgamearena.com/forum/viewto ... 89#p189689

Long story short, a major browser engine used by many (but not all) browsers changed a core calculation that BGA had been designed to use. There is not an easy way to rework 1000 pieces of software created over the years, so both BGA and devs have been working to get everything back together.

It is very different from the main page rework etc., which I assume were done for other reasons. This may not matter to you as a user, but I thought you might want to know.

Thanks for letting me know. Seems like something BGA would have wanted to communicate but for some reason decided not to. Sounds like a tough issue that's sadly not in anyone's control. Part of my decreased activity is due to being very busy in real life lately (hence my dependence on mobile). Very unfortunate timing!

[The Nuzzer]

Seems like something BGA would have wanted to communicate but for some reason decided not to.

Did you write that with a straight face?

[h_illes]

We're always listening to your feedback and working to make Board Game Arena the best place to play. Keep those messages coming!

See you at the tables,

The Board Game Arena Team

I simply don't get it. You make changes directly against the players' feedback, then when you are told about this clearly and explicitly, you still leave it like that.

The actual games are mostly nicely implemented and working well, and they are the reason most players come here. However, those are the work of mostly volunteer devs. In other words, BGA people have nothing to do with it. The framework around it is crumbling, with regular 'server difficulties'. The other parts of the site that people are interested in (e.g. the ELO system or the main page), you made them worse.

To summarize, BGA decision makers and devs have nothing to do with the parts of the site that work well and appeal to the users, and everything to do with the parts that are working poorly. Doesn't this bother you at all? How do you guys tell yourselves that you are doing good work? In any properly run company, the atrocious decision-making displayed here would have resulted in those decision-makers removed from their position a long time ago.

[h_illes]

I am approaching the end of my current 1-year subscription. When I signed up for a 1-year subscription, I did that trusting that I will be able to keep enjoying using the site as before. BGA broke that trust entirely; by now, the majority of my subscription period has been marred by the ELO shenanigans, which were mishandled on all levels, seriously reducing the enjoyment I had in using the site. As a paying customer, I feel completely cheated. Is this really how BGA operates? Depending on how you look at it, this is highly unprofessional at best, and cheating users out of their money at worst.

[The Nuzzer]

Today I had to red-thumb someone for the first time just to avoid getting no Elo. I'm surprised its taken this long. I guess it's just because it's a very sparsely played game.