Sudden new arena matching screen?!?!

[FrankJones]

sometimes they hide the player names, i assume that is the intended approach.
most of the time you can see the opponent though, which is a complete joke. that's the end of any competitive arena game, where top players will be dodged many times.

I want to be matched against high rated players.

I want to be able to avoid the games against lower rated players. Little to gain, much to lose.

Now imagine a bunch of high rated players who are like you. (Unless that's the point you're making.)

?

I don't follow.

Or maybe I do. I'm saying that as a high-rated player, I want to be matched against other high-rated player. The result of that is that lower rated players will have fewer opportunities to play high-rated players.

As it should be. Players should work their way up the ranks.

[Countes-Olivia-Manny]

I have a better idea, GET RID OF ARENA!

[tet3]

I have a better idea, GET RID OF ARENA!

Why? No one is forced to play Arena. BGA offers so many different modes of play, why would you want to take one away? If you don't enjoy it, don't play it. I'm not particularly into tournaments and wouldn't miss them if they were gone, but I would never advocate for removing them, since they are clearly very popular with a lot of other users.

I really don't understand what you were trying to add to the conversation.

[BalGAmor]

This should now be fixed. Names shouldn't appear anymore. Please go to Bug Reports if it does.

[Countes-Olivia-Manny]

Thank You BalGAmor for resolving the issue.

[Meeplelowda]

People don't like change. First it was the return to the "home" page instead of the lobby after a game, then it was the logo, and now it's this.

I'm in favour - if someone isn't paying attention and a game starts, I'd rather abandon early without penalties than the game starts and then wait for the whole of their play clock to run down (and on some games that can be many minutes). Sure, they don't get penalised, but life happens and it's always seemed a little harsh to me.

It's going to take a short time for everyone to realise that it's new, and there might be more cancelled games, but in the long term we'll appreciate it.

The issue isnt the change, its the lack of communication of said change.

Better late than never, I suppose:

Re: Release summaries
Post by BalGAmor » 10 October 2025, 01:10

Release October 9th, 2025

• You now have to accept a game in Arena once the table is full. This prevents games to start without your knowledge and potential loss of Karma.

• Victory in Arena games now awards you League Point(s) regardeless of your opponent's level.

• Improvements made to group lists.

• Improvement made to date display on "modern" pages.

[FrankJones]

There were previously situations in which a victory in the arena did not result in arena points being gained? I've always gained arena points with a victory.

[tet3]

This should now be fixed. Names shouldn't appear anymore. Please go to Bug Reports if it does.

Thanks for fixing whatever remaining issues there were with suppressing usernames in the Arena game start screen.

However, it is still the case that that change to username presentation is absent from the Release Summary post. Also, that change, as well as the requirement to manually confirm the start of an Arena game, and the change to League Points came 2 days after the new season announcement explicitly said that there would not be any rule changes for this season.

That's not a good way to treat your users.

[tet3]

There were previously situations in which a victory in the arena did not result in arena points being gained? I've always gained arena points with a victory.

I believe that if you were 2 or more leagues above your opponent, then a victory didn't award you stars in your league. So it only applied in games that had 4 or more star leagues. And even then, it was rare, since the matching algorithm avoids putting players that far apart together, and the games with more leagues have more players. But I've definitely had it happen.

[FrankJones]

There were previously situations in which a victory in the arena did not result in arena points being gained? I've always gained arena points with a victory.

I believe that if you were 2 or more leagues above your opponent, then a victory didn't award you stars in your league. So it only applied in games that had 4 or more star leagues. And even then, it was rare, since the matching algorithm avoids putting players that far apart together, and the games with more leagues have more players. But I've definitely had it happen.

Oh, I see. I am not sure whether I have ever played an arena game with that many tiers. Wait. I think I did - Hearts, in one arena season. But I was never matched up with anyone so many tiers below that I failed to get points for a victory.