Red thumbs in Arena: player comfort vs. room for manipulation?

[Nils Nils]

The option to offer and accept a draw is another odd feature that doesn’t make sense in a Mountain Goats game, especially in Arena mode, where the scoring always produces a winner.
It’s not common, but it gets abused too: when two friends are paired against each other, they can agree to a draw so they don’t damage each other’s rating.

[Jellby]

Abandoning is not a draw. A draw (tie) affects elo and statistics, an abandonment doesn't.

[Nils Nils]

Abandoning is not a draw. A draw (tie) affects elo and statistics, an abandonment doesn't.

Yes, you’re right, I worded that imprecisely. What I described earlier as a draw is actually recorded at the end of the game as “Table abandoned”, but the essence is the same: it can still be manipulated exactly the way I described.

[groverapid5079]

The tension is real: red thumbs exist so players can avoid people they do not want to meet, while Arena rankings assume everyone can face everyone. One design that respects both is to keep the block for chat and casual tables but ignore it for Arena pairings, while letting a player report abuse directly from a ranked game. Another is to cap the number of active red thumbs a player can hold, which limits the strategic use without removing protection from people who genuinely need it.

[Nils Nils]

I agree that you should be able to play everyone, regardless of a red thumbs down, in arena. But just FYI, I blocked you bc you were an *** to my friend so much so that he quit playing on board game arena. Not due to wanting to avoid you as there’s no one else I can gain more arena points from with a win. (And lose as little with a loss. From an elo/arena pov, you’re the ideal opponent) I actually realized I wasn’t getting you in arena and considered undoing the red thumbs down since it takes much longer to get games rn but I think you deserve it so I’m not sure what else to do. I believe I’ve only given a red thumb to 3 people on BGA, all of whom are problematic, and you’re the only good player among them. So once again your theory seems to be baseless

For the record tho, I support the idea of playing anyone & everyone in arena.

Edited by moderator: if anyone is entitled to an opinion, doing it in a polite way is much better.

Our games are actually a good example. Maybe in theory I’m the ideal opponent, but not for you: in practice you’ve lost far more points against me than you’ve won. Our stats: I’ve won 7 of our 8 games (88%), and you managed to win only once.
In points, our games look like this: +20, +18, +12, +17, +20, +19, +19, −29. You gained 29 points from me in total, while you lost 125 to me.
https://boardgamearena.com/gamestats?pl ... ateStats=1