BGA has a serious bully problem

[BarnardsStar]

I played Hearts a few times.

So if you play a game of football, and every 5 minutes wherever you are you just randomly pick up the ball with your hands. Because you can do that, you have hands and there is a football. And sometimes you see other players pick up the ball (throw-in / goal keeper).
So then if other people tell you to NOT do that, you are saying they are wrong and also the game of football is completely stupid because it should on some level be able to tolerate to be played with someone who likes to pick up the ball with their hands.

Did Mark do something to hurt you personally? Your entire post comes across as very aggressive and hostile, and I don’t see where that’s coming from.

Also, your analogy here is terrible. BGA wouldn’t let you make an illegal move, like picking up the ball with your hands.

[RicardoRix]

Also, your analogy here is terrible. BGA wouldn’t let you make an illegal move, like picking up the ball with your hands.

You can pick up the ball with your hands in a game of football.

[mayar21]

In my opinion, whether a gaming community is toxic depends entirely on the platform or the publisher. They are the ones with the tools to remove toxic players, so if toxicity persists, it means the publisher simply doesn't have a problem with it.

Take League of Legends as an example. I used to play it quite a lot, and it was full of toxic players. The publisher kept claiming they were fighting it, but the reality must have been different. If they had actually taken action and issued strict, immediate suspensions, the problem would have been solved in no time. However, they didn't want to fight it because those were players who spent money on the game.

Regarding Board Game Arena (BGA), I played a cooperative game—Tichu—just once. One opponent kept rushing me in the chat to move faster, even though there is a move timer and I was well within my limits. What’s interesting is that when his friend had similar or even worse times, he didn't rush him at all. After that first experience, I stopped joining co-op games altogether. I don't play to get stressed; I want to have a good time.

As for a solution—if a platform isn't bothered by toxic players and does nothing about them, they could at least provide an option in the settings to permanently disable the chat. (Unless such an option already exists, as I haven't looked into it closely yet).

[amargasaurus]

yes mayar21, that's exactly what I've been meaning to say.
It's near to impossible this was the first instance of these players being rude to beginners, yet they were still allowed to continue playing on this platform.
It seems to me BGA does not care enough to prevent this from happening.

[nik592]

Hanabi is about learning the conventions (through practical play), not just playing them. It's an absolute 1-of-a-kind awesome experience, but yes you absolutely have to find the right players to play with.

For you perhaps, but not for everyone. Like Frank, I wasn't looking for Hanabi to be a perfectly solvable puzzle, though kudos to those who can learn the conventions to play it well. This is generally how I feel about most games. I like to play lots of things. I'm not a high level player in anything. That includes Hanabi. I just want to see what we can achieve - I don't care about playing a perfect game every time, playing it as a solvable puzzle doesn't sound fun to me (but I can respect it may be fun for others).

Also, your analogy here is terrible. BGA wouldn’t let you make an illegal move, like picking up the ball with your hands.

You can pick up the ball with your hands in a game of football.

Only under certain scenarios. You were talking specifically about doing it in an illegal context.

So if you play a game of football, and every 5 minutes wherever you are you just randomly pick up the ball with your hands. Because you can do that, you have hands and there is a football. And sometimes you see other players pick up the ball (throw-in / goal keeper).
So then if other people tell you to NOT do that...

BGA does prevent illegal moves. Beyond that, people should be able to play how they wish, at whatever level they like. If someone playing at a lower skill level bothers you, filter them out of your tables. Some people think blocking shouldn't be allowed in Ticket to Ride. I don't exactly like it, but it's absolutely part of the game. I'll probably get annoyed that it happens, but I'll try to work around it and I certainly won't berate my opponent for doing it. The only time I really care is when a player blocks for the sake of trying to annoy their opponents and tanks their own game in the process of just trying to get in everyone else's way (in which case, I still won't berate them, but I will red thumb).

So that's why people like to think the game should be played by competent players and why they like the game more if that is the case. Also if you have Ronaldo and a 5 year school kid playing together it's also not going to be much of an enjoyable match.

This is also faulty. If Ronaldo starts a game in a park with a sign that says "anyone can play" instead of a sign that says "pro-level only", then Ronaldo can't get annoyed at the kid who decides to join because he just likes to play football too.

[tbhp]

Also, your analogy here is terrible. BGA wouldn’t let you make an illegal move, like picking up the ball with your hands.

You can pick up the ball with your hands in a game of football.

But that would be against the rules. BGA doesn't let you do anything against the rules, so there is no behavior comparable to picking up the ball with your hands.

[FrankJones]

I played Hearts a few times. I was studying the Hearts program tutorial in preparation for programming a card game, and I wanted to see how the play matched up to the program. I was subjected to snide remarks once they realized I didn't know what I was doing. Maybe they thought I had a clever new strategy at first. But apparently I held onto the wrong cards for too long, or some such. I lost and someone else won, but that wasn't good enough. They didn't get to win the RIGHT way. Or maybe the wrong person won because of me. I don't know. Some kind of epic tragedy.

I think there must be something wrong with the game if a bad player can't just lose, and the remaining players fight for the spoils. If a game depends on everyone playing "correctly," that seems like a design problem to me. Fortunately I don't have to contend with that kind of nonsense in the two player abstracts I play. Worst case, the experience can be less than ideal if someone is playing horribly, but they just lose and either drop out after that or start to improve. I never felt inclined to criticize anyone for playing badly. I will offer pointers if requested of me. One guy wanted me to instruct him on good moves at the beginning of each of his turns in Oust. That seemed kind of pointless and like too much effort on my part. He became enraged when I refused to do it.

Your post is spot-on.

Hearts is a cesspool. The issue is indeed a programming one: Instead of one player winning and the other three players losing, the game is scored such that the winner gets 3 wins (against each of the other 3 players), and 2nd place gets 2 wins and one loss; 3rd place gets 1 win and 2 losses; 4th place gets 3 losses.

So, 4th place gets demolished in Elo. This means 2nd and 3rd place will often dump the points onto 4th place player to ensure they themselves do no end up in 4th place, thus handing a win to the player already in 1st place. It can be frustrating for everyone involved. (I long ago stopped playing because of this, as this seems to go against the fundamental idea of the game, which I think should be to try to win.)

[FrankJones]

I don't really understand not wanting to play with newbies and then blocking them.
My suggestion is that players who don't want to play with newbies setup their preferences before starting a game.

Agreed. I use the filters in every game I create.

I think one problem is, some people use the newer (and poorly designed) game page to create new games and tables, which has less intuitive and less user-friendly game setting options.

On the other hand, the older "play now" screen has clear and easy filters to use.

I'm guessing some beginners also wish to use filters to avoid playing with advanced players, but don't know how to do this from the game page.

[RicardoRix]

Also, your analogy here is terrible. BGA wouldn’t let you make an illegal move, like picking up the ball with your hands.

You can pick up the ball with your hands in a game of football.

But that would be against the rules. BGA doesn't let you do anything against the rules, so there is no behavior comparable to picking up the ball with your hands.

It was meant to analogous to just 'playing badly'. It's you that has brought the BGA specific rules enforcement into this.
If you don't like 'picking up the ball', then 'hoofing the ball out the park every-time you get the ball'.

[FrankJones]

I think I understand what RicardoRix is trying to say, but the football analogy is not a good one.