Especially good player takes over arena for a particular game

[Gulchen]

For ​ ​ ​ "the players profile has a non English language listed" ​ , ​ ​ ​ is this the extremely good player or the one other player?

If it's the one other player - so, there's no indication that the extremely good player doesn't speak English - then you could try
asking for handicap games with the extremely good player, played in Friendly Mode (so these games don't affect the rankings).


I don't know which game this is ​ , ​ so I can't give specifics, but a handicap could be something like

the player must do some usually-bad action at least some number of times, perhaps specifically early in the game
or
the player can't do some usually-good action, either at all or more than a given number of times
or
for perfect-information games, you get to choose one or more of that player's early actions
or
for games with hidden information, that player must reveal to you some or all of
the information available to that player which otherwise would be hidden from you

.



If ​ "the players profile has a non English language listed" ​ is for the extremely good player, then you could try including

the that-player's-language versions of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handicap_(Go) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handicap_(chess)

in whatever you get translated into that person's language.

[tbhp]

I don't understand how you can say getting to elite league is a grind. They did everything they could to make it the easiest possible. You can't be demoted to an inferior league, and you only need to win a few games to get to the superior league. You get more points when you win against a player in a higher league, so if your level is that of an elite player and the game is not very luck based, you are in a very advantageous position to quickly get back into elite league, because the system treats you as a lower rated player than you actually are.

The grind starts once you are in elite league and it may take over a hundred games to get to the very top spots.

[lefalaf]

(agreeing somewhat, but:) Why demote good players in the first place if it is so easy to get back there? Seems pointless. If someone is elite, they are elite. Why mess with everyone every 3 months?

I guess there are also the participation trophies/XP for advancing past league boundaries over and over again. I guess that may matter to some people.

But only Elo / arena Elo (does it carry over between seasons? I forget, but I think it did) truly shows advancement / skill.

The real battle is mostly all in elite as you alluded to when the arena Elo comes into play. But you aren't allowed to just continue there. You first have to play a bunch of games below your skill level. Or from the other perspective, folks not as skilled yet have to be hammered by elites who don't belong in the lower leagues.

Leagues make no sense to me if they are not grouping by skill level. Isn't that their whole point (outside of BGA)? Same with weight classes - fair competition where either side has a reasonable chance to succeed.

[tbhp]

(agreeing somewhat, but:) Why demote good players in the first place if it is so easy to get back there? Seems pointless. If someone is elite, they are elite. Why mess with everyone every 3 months?

Because arena is not an ongoing thing, it's a totally new competition that starts every season. It's not comparable to sports leagues. You have to prove again that you are still worthy of elite league. And like I said, the leagues don't mean much anyway, since you can rise just by playing. What really matters is your arena score. When you are playing in the starting leagues, you are already working on your arena score, it's just hidden until you get to elite league. So you aren't actually "wasting" any time in the lower leagues, you are already climbing in the rankings.

[tarongot]

.....

I think that's general problem that many games, even good games in my personal opinion, are just not popular. I still remember how i waited 3 WEEKs for a match in a game I wanted to check. And its not uncommon. Very often I find new game I want to check, and find out that basicly no one plays it.

1 player in arena is just split of that general problem. And it is something that BGA, publisher and developer should work on. I have account for more then a decade and I have never saw BGA, publisher or developer advertise theirs game. Sometimes players work on that without any support, and even worse, from those who have actual tools to work on that matter.

I also have a game where previous season was like 5 players total. 5 players that played that game whole 90 day season.

[Andrei3009]

If you want to play a non popular game, you can simply write to the players in private messages with an offer to play. The main thing is to do it politely and respectfully and A lot of people will respond.

Before writing, I try to look at profiles and look for those who played not so long ago and/or play with the same settings as me (if possible)

[tarongot]

If you want to play a non popular game, you can simply write to the players in private messages with an offer to play. The main thing is to do it politely and respectfully and A lot of people will respond.

Before writing, I try to look at profiles and look for those who played not so long ago and/or play with the same settings as me (if possible)

So you not only have to find a list of players for that game, which is not easy, you also need to look every profile to see who not ago played it and then write to them for invite. You think how many people will do it instead of just move to different games?

Before you at least had that invite option as BGA feature so you could use it. But recently it was disabled, without warning, without word. No one knows what happen. Many people thought that is bug and reported it. Almost 2 moths passed and no single update on status from BGA staff/developers.
(https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=206847)

[Andrei3009]

If you want to play a non popular game, you can simply write to the players in private messages with an offer to play. The main thing is to do it politely and respectfully and A lot of people will respond.

Before writing, I try to look at profiles and look for those who played not so long ago and/or play with the same settings as me (if possible)

So you not only have to find a list of players for that game, which is not easy, you also need to look every profile to see who not ago played it and then write to them for invite. You think how many people will do it instead of just move to different games?

Before you at least had that invite option as BGA feature so you could use it. But recently it was disabled, without warning, without word. No one knows what happen. Many people thought that is bug and reported it. Almost 2 moths passed and no single update on status from BGA staff/developers.
(https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=206847)

I wrote this as a potential solution for those who want to play a specific game. I've done this many times myself and players were found decently quickly, especially if you're looking for strong opponents.

Also let me remind that the ELO table only shows those players who have played within the last two months. I mostly searched among those players.

Upd: As a player who only plays turn-based games, I didn't take this into account. If you play in real time, my method works much worse, but you can still agree on a specific time. However, in unpopular games, finding a real-time match is extremely difficult.

[tbhp]

And it is something that BGA, publisher and developer should work on. I have account for more then a decade and I have never saw BGA, publisher or developer advertise theirs game.

I mean, regardless of this, there's only so many games the userbase can play in a day, so there is always going to be games that don't get much play.

The paradox is that the more games they add to the website (which is a good thing), the higher proportion there will be of games that are not popular.