Not loving the 3 player model in the arena, opinions?

[amiked]

I prefer the 3 player arena format to the previous 2 player arrangement.

[JohnRM]

Speed can be increased now that there's one more player to think/act ahead of you. Max speed feels way longer than on two players due to this, all day to think.

That should help with the longer game time complaints.

[Bookish32]

I'ts awful. Keep getting games with 500 ELO and 100 ELO - those poor 100 ELO never have a chance to advance.

[Chocobo Kick]

It's so disgustingly boring. BGA should go back to 2 players arena

[secha001]

Personally, I've found the games to be more balanced. The additional player makes the end of round scoring significantly more compeitive because if 2 players tie for 1st, it is only a 1 point advantage over getting 3rd and that has led to some interesting end of round decisions for me. I think I like the pink cards having more use as well because it's more feasible to play around them in a 2 player game.

To each there own, but plain wingspan was getting rather dry for me and this is a nice change of pace

[Bitunjac]

It really depends on what you use BGA for. Personally, I enjoy a quick 2 player game. I've played over 4,000 games of Wingspan and the 3 player option just doesn't work for me. I can always play in the open play area but the arena option gives me a little more to compete for. It does allow for different strategies and game play back and forth, but again it depends on how you use the site. I've also played enough that I can appreciate the little tiny micro strategies that the 2 player function offers. It's harder to plan ahead in a 3 player game.

Anyway, I'm hoping they go back to the 2 player option for future seasons.

[WingspanG0D]

For me it feels weird that people almost only complaining about the time issue, while for me the biggest issue that i have with 3 player mode is that an extra player can really mess up your game bye doing stupid actions. Kakapogu (sorry if i written the name wrong) is the only player who mention something in the comments about it. Stupid humming bird activation and wilson snipe activations of a third player can really mess up your game, also if opponent has a vulture and the other opponent starts hunting it can hurt you game. Some opponents draw bad birds out of the bird holder and then another oppoment can get an awesome bird. It are all examples why i am not playing arena currently. If i lose because i make stupid mistakes or just have bad luck i can deal with it, but losing because of bad plays of a third player seems not what arena mode shoud be about, especially because 2 player mode was working great. Anyway, i hope next season it is reverted so i can play arena again. Still want to get that 1st place trophy

[Groovenstein]

It's a mostly fun format. Unfun when you're 94% through the game and the player locked into 2nd place skips the player locked into 3rd place at the first possible nanosecond, resulting in you getting exactly 0 arena points for a guaranteed win. And while I don't really care about elo, it's even more insulting when the skipper gets more elo. What loser behavior.

[Kakapogoglu]

For me it feels weird that people almost only complaining about the time issue, while for me the biggest issue that i have with 3 player mode is that an extra player can really mess up your game bye doing stupid actions. Kakapogu (sorry if i written the name wrong) is the only player who mention something in the comments about it. Stupid humming bird activation and wilson snipe activations of a third player can really mess up your game, also if opponent has a vulture and the other opponent starts hunting it can hurt you game. Some opponents draw bad birds out of the bird holder and then another oppoment can get an awesome bird. It are all examples why i am not playing arena currently. If i lose because i make stupid mistakes or just have bad luck i can deal with it, but losing because of bad plays of a third player seems not what arena mode shoud be about, especially because 2 player mode was working great. Anyway, i hope next season it is reverted so i can play arena again. Still want to get that 1st place trophy

Now that I have played a few 3-player arena games, I can come back to my message you are referring to. I must say that time is still an issue, even if I play turn by turn. I've started games for more than two weeks and it's very slow, and still barely at 3rd round.

About strategy, I keep what I wrote and obviously agree with you about gifts. BUT... it happened that I was the one who made gifts, for example with a Wilson's snipe because I had a bushtit (or similar) in my game, and the only way for me to win was to play like this, even if I was competing against someone who needed those extra cards. I don't think those power activations were stupid though, but yeah, for sure there are players taking the game more casually, with less strategy and experience that will make "stupid" moves that could benefit another opponent and be frustrating for you. The fact that there is another player in the game (with a good strategy or not) adds things out of your control, and it's more difficult to win.

The difficulty is obvious when you see that the top 5 barely reaches 1800 points in the arena ranking (before it was 1900, which is a significant difference). Personally, in a few 3/4 - player games, I lost around 100 ELO points from 600 to 500, coming back up is a challenge

[FrankJones]

It's a mostly fun format. Unfun when you're 94% through the game and the player locked into 2nd place skips the player locked into 3rd place at the first possible nanosecond, resulting in you getting exactly 0 arena points for a guaranteed win. And while I don't really care about elo, it's even more insulting when the skipper gets more elo. What loser behavior.

Yes. This is just brutal.

Imagine being in a 3p game against two players who are 400 Elo higher, with an imminent win. What a huge accomplishment, and a massive Elo gain incoming. And then one of the high rated players runs out of time and gets skipped by the other.

I just avoid 3-player games altogether.