Can we please get a Casual mode (ie non-ranked)?

[BarnardsStar]

I’d also recommend going via “Play Now” and saying you don’t want to play with people not at your level. If you are a 150 Elo player and end up in a game with a 350 player, they will feel very aggressive to you. If you stick closer to your level, then even in ranked games it’ll generally have a friendlier feel.

[Hopkins]

Many games are rushed to the end or played extremely aggressive/toxic.

I usually pick games with at most one move per day to solve this. They frequently move more quickly, and I have never encountered anyone I’d deem toxic! It’s also worth avoiding aggressive games if you don’t like that. The objective is to win, after all! Two of my favourite games are Quantum and Ark Nova. Quantum requires you to be super aggressive so don’t play that! Ark Nova is almost completely passive. I’m also rubbish at it but I don’t care because I like filling a zoo with animals .

I don't care about my rating and I'm shocked that most people do here.

I also don’t care about my rating, so I ignore it. Perhaps you actually do care about your rating?

[tbhp]

Playing non-friendly without elo would defeat the purpose of elo: it's not about a rankings, it's about evaluating skill. If you're going to play "serious" (i.e. with time limits, no quitting, etc.) then it should affect elo accordingly. If you don't care about the rankings, don't pay attention to them. If other players bother you, report them or avoid them.

People who would want timers and karma in a friendly mode don't want them because they are trying to play serious, but simply because they want to have fun playing a lot of games in a short amount of time and with people who are respectful.

The way it is now, with no karma and no timer, may not be considered very fun by those who just want to have fun.

I don't see a good justification for why those settings should ever be left out. They have nothing to do with whether a game is played seriously or not. They are always useful settings to have.

I'm sure many people were surprised when they first learned that the mode didn't have them. When you play casually with friends, that doesn't mean you want people to be rude or want the game to go on forever.

[tarongot]

I have account on BGA for more the decade, and I remember that before that was possible. ELO and time were separate options. You could play with ELO without time, and play without ELO and with time. But at some point owners decide to change it to make it more simple. And its not only thing like that. I personally don't like simplifying everything. I think boardgamers are in general smarter then average people, so they don't need that.