Remove the Alpha Game invite limit

[Starwarrior1128]

BGA wants us to playtest games in Alpha and then puts this nonsensical limit on how many friends we can invite. How can we playtest games if we can't invite people? We also don't know how many invites we get per day. I also had a game prematurely end before it even started because I invited 1 too many people past the limit which closed the game and I had to reinvite all the other people the next day.

[Tisaac]

BGA wants us to playtest games in Alpha and then puts this nonsensical limit on how many friends we can invite. How can we playtest games if we can't invite people? We also don't know how many invites we get per day. I also had a game prematurely end before it even started because I invited 1 too many people past the limit which closed the game and I had to reinvite all the other people the next day.

Please BGA do NOT remove the limit. As a game developper, the goal of alpha is to have reviewer testing the game and finding out bugs and reporting them. The fact that non-reviewer players can play the game means that the overall quality of reports is very low, or sometimes even non-existant because these invited players sometimes don't even report the bugs they might encounter. Alpha is NOT an early access !
You have a daily limit of 5 invites iirc, this is enough IMO to avoid too many dilution with non-reviewer players.

[Starwarrior1128]

You have a daily limit of 5 invites iirc, this is enough IMO to avoid too many dilution with non-reviewer players.

I think the problem is that if you invite 5 people, 2 will maybe join and if the other 3 decline then it uses up the 5 invites and then I have to wait the next day to invite more and if those people decline then I have to wait another day to invite more people. If should be the invites get used up if a player actually joins a game. Plus I had games get closed because I invited one too many players (there is no digit counter of how many invites you have left), I don't understand why those games can't still open until the next day when I get more invites.

Also 5 invites is too low, I might be reviewing multiple different games or multiple games of the same name.

The fact that non-reviewer players can play the game means that the overall quality of reports is very low, or sometimes even non-existant because these invited players sometimes don't even report the bugs they might encounter.

You don't know for sure if those non-reviewer players won't report bugs and you don't know for sure if Alpha reviewers will report bugs either. Plus many times it's the only way to find enough people to actually play an Alpha game. Also I know my friends and I know they are on BGA often, I'm more wary of playing unlimited time Friendly Games with strangers because they can take forever to make a move which I don't like.

[SiRan90]

So only invite people you know that will play so your invite doesn't get wasted.

[Tisaac]

You have a daily limit of 5 invites iirc, this is enough IMO to avoid too many dilution with non-reviewer players.

I think the problem is that if you invite 5 people, 2 will maybe join and if the other 3 decline then it uses up the 5 invites and then I have to wait the next day to invite more and if those people decline then I have to wait another day to invite more people. If should be the invites get used up if a player actually joins a game. Plus I had games get closed because I invited one too many players (there is no digit counter of how many invites you have left), I don't understand why those games can't still open until the next day when I get more invites.

Also 5 invites is too low, I might be reviewing multiple different games or multiple games of the same name.

The fact that non-reviewer players can play the game means that the overall quality of reports is very low, or sometimes even non-existant because these invited players sometimes don't even report the bugs they might encounter.

You don't know for sure if those non-reviewer players won't report bugs and you don't know for sure if Alpha reviewers will report bugs either. Plus many times it's the only way to find enough people to actually play an Alpha game. Also I know my friends and I know they are on BGA often, I'm more wary of playing unlimited time Friendly Games with strangers because they can take forever to make a move which I don't like.

I am almost sure it's 5 invites per day per game, so that seems more than enough to invite your friends to play a specific new game for an evening, and you can re-invite a different group of friend for the same game the very next day. I don't see the point of having more invite than that per game, really.
And again, I am not saying you and your friends are good/bad reviewers, I am just saying that reviewers have a high threshold for joining the group and that allowing 5 completely fresh players per reviewer per game per day can just sometimes means that reviewers are actually a minority playing the game, which is clearly not what is intended with the alpha/beta/reviewer process. At this point, just make the alpha 100% public.

So only invite people you know that will play so your invite doesn't get wasted.

+1 to that.

[Starwarrior1128]

So only invite people you know that will play so your invite doesn't get wasted.

Just because I know them doesn't mean they will join the game (especially if it's a game they don't have interest in), whether they decline or join that invite gets wasted. An invite should only gets used up if the player joins.

[SiRan90]

Yeah but you could ask them before inviting them