How does loss of xp work with beta games

[yodamus]

It is my understanding that when a game goes from beta to complete. You lose the experience you gain while the game was beta ? Is this correct. And if so. What happens to the trophies for games played and won work. Do they start over. Since they took away my exp for them . Confused. Lost lots for exp just now. Wondering what happened. What game. Would like a notice as to how much and why for loss of exp. They give notice for every increase. Should have notice when decreased...would like to know how that works. Thanks for help

[Jellby]

You don't lose XP and trophies when a game goes from beta to full release, as far as I can tell. You only lose them with some other changes, like competitive features being removed (co-op or easy-to-cheat games) or maybe due to some penalty.

[yodamus]

Then even more of a reason to give a notice as to why there was a loss of exp. No penalty for me. I don't play co op games or easy to cheat games. Lost over 400 exp. Would like know why ?

[Jellby]

You've played some cooperative games (Daybreak, Mini Rogue) and games with disabled competitive features (Turing Machine, Chess). I can't say if any of the games have gone through any changes recently, but it could be any of the games you have played in the past. For instance Point Salad was moved back to alpha at some point and then released again. How recent is that "loss"?

PS. XP points don't have any use, I'd suggest you just ignore them.

[yodamus]

OK. So yes. I have played those games. Lets see. 1 game of daybreak. Solo. Friendly mode. 2 games mini rogue. Also. Solo. Friendly. 0 xp and zero co op playing. Never played a co op game ever on here. With others.. Nothing to lose 400 points recently of exp for. I have already lost small amounts before when games went from beta to full release. So it is possible. Next. How dare you tell me !! Exp is nothing. Ignore them !!. My playing time. My exp that i earned. It is important. Really ? Ignore them. Nice answer. . Many of us play for that exp and to move up the rankings. Even if I'm 20,000. That is part of the fun of the site. I set goals each year for playing ..exp is one of the goals. Exp is EARNED from playing. Taking it away. Needs an explanation. That is all. I just would like to know what causes loss of exp. Why it is that when us regular players. Not devs or programmers ask for help. We get flamed broiled. Example. Crazy bug thread. Rip op apart. Why. I ask for simple answer for loss of exp. Get told to ignore what I an doing and curious about.

[nik592]

How dare you tell me !! Exp is nothing. Ignore them !!. My playing time. My exp that i earned. It is important. Really ? Ignore them. Nice answer. . Many of us play for that exp and to move up the rankings. Even if I'm 20,000. That is part of the fun of the site. I set goals each year for playing ..exp is one of the goals. Exp is EARNED from playing. Taking it away. Needs an explanation. That is all. I just would like to know what causes loss of exp.

Threads pop up on here every so often (maybe every 1-2 months) with someone asking "What does XP do? How do I use it?" and people inevitably respond, it does nothing, you use it for nothing. But then, whhhhyyyyy does it exist? It must be for something! No, it's really not. You can just ignore it really. Oh, okay. That tends to be how those threads go.

There's a whole thread about this feature (https://boardgamearena.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15001) that was started by someone in BGA admin about 5 years ago. If you read the early posts, XP and achievements were supposedly still being developed, but that seemed to stall out. There used to be a message somewhere that said the feature was still in beta as recently as about a year ago. It seems the feature was only partially developed and has now been kind of left as is, so to me (and Jellby and others probably), it seems kind of pointless. If it makes you happy to track yours, then by all means - I think Jellby was just saying, whether you gain or lose XP doesn't impact anything else on the site, so you don't need to worry about it from that POV. But it's unlikely anyone (who posts here) can explain why you lost XP, or any way to get it back. If the fact that it's unreliable is upsetting to you, then you may want to track something more in your control (like plays, wins, win/loss ratio, etc.).

Why it is that when us regular players. Not devs or programmers ask for help. We get flamed broiled. Example. Crazy bug thread. Rip op apart. Why. I ask for simple answer for loss of exp. Get told to ignore what I an doing and curious about.

You do know that basically all of the people who are reading and/or responding to your comments are not associated with BGA in any way and are just players like yourself? A handful might be game developers, who then have a little bit more knowledge of the framework, but minimal power (and unlikely to have much knowledge of the BGA framework or things like XP), and then an even smaller amount are mods/admin, but mostly those people don't seem to answer questions about why the site is doing odd things (see threads about the change to the return to lobby button, the fact that reputation penalties are no longer detailed, and various other threads).

That XP doesn't do anything, and you can just ignore it is the best advice that we are able to give (as fellow players). If you don't want to follow that advice, then that's ok.

And I can't say I see that the op was "ripped apart" on the other thread you mention - many people in the thread have a different perspective on the weirdness of that bug, and that can feel like everyone is against you when they have another opinion, but people are free to have their opinions. It's happened to me in various forums too, it's just sometimes how it is.

[FrankJones]

Thoughts:

1) Different things have different meaning and importance to different people. I think it is impolite to say to someone, "XP here does not matter, you should just ignore it and note care about it". It obviously natters to the OP, because the OP decided to post about it. It's not as though the OP was expecting to be able to buy BGA merch with the XP. The OP simply wanted to know why XP might decrease without explanation, and indicated that an explanation would be appreciated. Nothing unreasonable there. Maybe there could be an automated system message in the inbox.

2) Different people can have different opinions, but at times here on BGA, there is a sense of "ganging up" on one person in a thread who sems to have a minority opinion. Sometimes with minimal kindness or compassion or understanding, and sometimes with overt abrasiveness or condescension.

3) Sometimes, in these situations, assumptions are made based on very little. "If you're so bothered by this ...." or "You seem to only care because it happened to YOU", etc. People pounce on a possibly questionable word choice and then make all sorts of inferences or assumptions that are often completely off the mark.

4) I think the XP system is pretty cool I like getting the achievements, having them pop up after a game when I wasn't expecting it, and gaining a high-value achievement. It's a neat reward, even if it doesn't "mean" anything. I think it's cool that there is a leaderboard and that someone has 8 million points. If that player awoke tomorrow and had only 4 million without explanation, would anyone tell that player, "who cares, they don't mean anything"?

5) Sometimes people who seem to have more programming knowledge and/or development experience talk to people in a way that is ... not conducive to making friends or generating polite and constructive conversation.

6) I myself may have been guilty of one or more things in the above list sometimes. Usually, it happens because I do not look over my reply and check whether my tone or word choice might be inadvertently conveying negativity that I am not intending.

7) Here is how I would have responded to the OP:
"I can understand how it would be frustrating to lose XP that you have earned. Here are some possible explanations, and some possible solutions. Most likely, BGA will not make any adjustment, but, it can't hurt to contact BGA support and ask. Best of luck "

[yodamus]

I did not come to forums to be told what I should care about and what I should not care about and ignore in life. I came to get what I thought would be a simple answer as to how exp loss happens and works with beta games. My bad for asking. Never again.