This is an idea I have thought about for a long time, but I was too afraid it would look stupid or something... But I really think that it could potentially improve the experience of players, especially now that the playerbase has increased so much.
There exist several car-pooling applications in the world, but one of them (a French company
) has reached a great success: Blablacar. The specificity of this application was that it allowed users to indicate how much they like to talk, so that the algorithm would take it into account when finding matches. Because some people like to talk a lot, some just want to do their business, some lie somewhere in the middle...
It is the same for board games. I am typically someone who enjoys chatting during a game, especially when it's a game that I see as "talk-friendly", like Catan, Not Alone, etc. (in Catan, this is associated with the exchanging feature, and in a similar vein, I feel frustrated when other players only do sea trade). Sometimes, I will find players like me and everyone will have a great time; other times, I can come across someone who just wants to play and might complain against me. To a silent player, a talkative player might look like a chatterbox, taking your time, annoying, a whiner... Reversely, a silent player might seem like a no-fun dude etc. There's no need to decide who's wrong, because both are and none is: all that matters is to know the way you are and like to play and try to adapt to others; and it's much easier if you are matched with players with a similar spirit.
Thus, it would be an option to add a new characteristic within personal preferences, which would be something like the blabla level, the talkative level. It could for instance include 3 levels, 1 meaning you generally don't like chats and want to find players who will respect that; 2 would be the default level, where you have no special preference; and 3 would mean you prefer finding other players who like to talk, and won't complain at you speaking too much. Of course, this is a generalization, and you don't either like to talk or not, but at least it would make matches a little closer to players' preferences.
In games with a small playerbase, that would have no impact, but it could have an effect on other games such as Catan, Belote, Colt Express etc. (I don't name 7 Wonders because I don't think the potential for chatting is very high there).
The preference would work just like the ones already implemented in the website, like language, elo, game settings..., adjusting the matching algorithm.
What do you guys think?
There exist several car-pooling applications in the world, but one of them (a French company
) has reached a great success: Blablacar. The specificity of this application was that it allowed users to indicate how much they like to talk, so that the algorithm would take it into account when finding matches. Because some people like to talk a lot, some just want to do their business, some lie somewhere in the middle...It is the same for board games. I am typically someone who enjoys chatting during a game, especially when it's a game that I see as "talk-friendly", like Catan, Not Alone, etc. (in Catan, this is associated with the exchanging feature, and in a similar vein, I feel frustrated when other players only do sea trade). Sometimes, I will find players like me and everyone will have a great time; other times, I can come across someone who just wants to play and might complain against me. To a silent player, a talkative player might look like a chatterbox, taking your time, annoying, a whiner... Reversely, a silent player might seem like a no-fun dude etc. There's no need to decide who's wrong, because both are and none is: all that matters is to know the way you are and like to play and try to adapt to others; and it's much easier if you are matched with players with a similar spirit.
Thus, it would be an option to add a new characteristic within personal preferences, which would be something like the blabla level, the talkative level. It could for instance include 3 levels, 1 meaning you generally don't like chats and want to find players who will respect that; 2 would be the default level, where you have no special preference; and 3 would mean you prefer finding other players who like to talk, and won't complain at you speaking too much. Of course, this is a generalization, and you don't either like to talk or not, but at least it would make matches a little closer to players' preferences.
In games with a small playerbase, that would have no impact, but it could have an effect on other games such as Catan, Belote, Colt Express etc. (I don't name 7 Wonders because I don't think the potential for chatting is very high there).
The preference would work just like the ones already implemented in the website, like language, elo, game settings..., adjusting the matching algorithm.
What do you guys think?
