Why the changes?

[avibobby]

I've seen nothing discussed on this so it was a surprise to me ... why did it change this season now so that it no longer "skips uneventful final tricks"? What's the point of that? Just to make the game take longer for no reason?

Also, there has been no conversation about bringing back the visible round scores into the arena game, so why is that back, too?

Seems like two changes to make the game more unpleasant.

[ufm]

Ask gurus. It was 9 vs -3.

[Bartie]

I am with avibobby on this one.

These "so called guru's" must've been either very drunk when voting for these settings or either very incompetent.

Disabling the option "skip uneventful final tricks" is what bothers me the most. A game like 'hearts' should be played at a certain pace. If not, it gets boring for the ones waiting. By enabling this option - what I think is a good update from BGA - it keeps the game flowing and nice for everyone.
Disabling this is option is so un-Heartsy as it could be. It really shows that the people who decide this are at another level of playing the game than regular players, or... maybe worse, the people who do care about it, don't care to vote when they're being guru's. So, with this in mind, maybe the 'guru'-system needs an update.

The other option "count hand scores" confirms my thought on the kind of people who decide these options, or, even give the suggestion.
Hearts is all about counting cards, it's literally core mechanic of playing the game. If you take this out, it's just a game where you need no brain for.

This being said, I honestly hope these settings can still be changed so the future "champion" is a deserved champion who masters the game, not your "average guy".

Bartie

[ABCsDad]

I proposed the change. The reason why I proposed it is by skipping uneventful tricks you gain a piece of information when someone may be attempting to moon. You know there is still a way to block it and can change your play. By playing out every trick you have a little bit less information. So not intending to slow it down, but to keep it a little bit closer to fair.

Edit: Additionally, everyone is counting the hand scores anyway. So I figured if we just enabled that option it would offset the "thinking" time people use to review the history and try to keep games at the same amount of time.

[avibobby]

ABC - thanks for sharing. I hear what you're saying and the rationale behind it, even if I don't necessarily feel the same way.

I guess I'm additionally disappointed that the site and game didn't notify me or other that this was up for debate/change/vote so it sort of just happened and caught me and others really off guard. That's surely a function of BGA structure more than anything, but still irritating that it happens seemingly so quietly. I feel like changes should at least have a discussion post made available so people have a space to share opinions.

As for the hand scores being visible ... I don't know about that one. It gives people an excuse to play lazily in the background rather than actually pay attention, in a game that already struggles to field competitive rounds often with players that don't try to win to begin with (which we know is prevalent based on the BS scoring system that rewards 3rd place).

I think a much more meaningful change would be to reduce the thinking time allotment in arena games. That would cut down on a lot of the issue with length of game drawing out. I get dropped into "slow" arena games all too often where the clock is something like 1:50 max or so. I'm not sure in what world we need to be giving people so much time for to play a single card, especially now with hand scores visible again. It enables mobile players to play Hearts, minimize the app, and end up taking 60+ seconds per move in entire rounds. It feels like the lowest hanging fruit that could help speed up games more than anything else.

Oh well, all good, I guess this is what it is now.

[ABCsDad]

Those thoughts are totally fair. We've talked around plenty of tables and share many of the same frustrations. I'm definitely not saying my suggestion is the end all be all, just wanted to offer up what my intentions were behind the suggestion.

I agree with you about wishing people paid attention, and would definitely vote in favor of changing the thinking times! Ultimately I think that's the only thing that would force people to pay more attention.

[avibobby]

For sure. Appreciate you sharing and being responsive here. Will see how things go this season and hope for the best, of course. I'd love to be mistaken on this and certainly trust your opinions, too.

[Jellby]

The reason why I proposed it is by skipping uneventful tricks you gain a piece of information when someone may be attempting to moon.

Hmm... But the information you "gain" when skipping is useless, because the tricks are skipped anyway and you can't do anything.

The only difference I see is that by skipping tricks you kind of know that every decision you make could be important, while if tricks are not skipped you may be already in the "uneventful" part of the round... or not. Without skipping tricks you may make the mistake of thinking that what you play doesn't matter. But with skipping tricks you could make the same mistake (because the reason this trick is not skipped could be due other players' decisions).

[paolof92]

The reason why I proposed it is by skipping uneventful tricks you gain a piece of information when someone may be attempting to moon.

Hmm... But the information you "gain" when skipping is useless, because the tricks are skipped anyway and you can't do anything.

The only difference I see is that by skipping tricks you kind of know that every decision you make could be important, while if tricks are not skipped you may be already in the "uneventful" part of the round... or not. Without skipping tricks you may make the mistake of thinking that what you play doesn't matter. But with skipping tricks you could make the same mistake (because the reason this trick is not skipped could be due other players' decisions).

The important information is when there is no skip, so you understand that could be a way to stop the moon.
Anyway for me advantages are far less than disadvantages with this option disabled.

[Raul4ever]

I have always found the skip to be useful because if the play is skipped at the end, the moon has already succeeded. There would have been no way to prevent it from happening. So, what's the point of getting that information.