suggestions to play that don't work

[Call me Ishmael]

It is frustrating to receive an suggestion to join a game, then to attempt to accept it, only to find you cannot join the game because there are table restrictions in place that won't let you join.

Solution 1: When the table administrator sees his list of potential invitees at the bottom, then only those players who meet the minimum level / reputation / left game requirements he has set up will appear, making it impossible for him to suggest to play to someone who will then be barred from joining due to sufficient qualifications

or

Solution 2: Whomever the table admin extends an suggestion to, that player, if he accepts, will automatically be added to the table, bypassing any minimum requirements. The onus will be on the table admin to examine the reputation / level of the invitee prior to extending the suggestion.

I really hope that BGA will adopt one of these two suggestions, because receiving an suggestion, accepting it, then being refused at the table is quite a negative player experience.

[sourisdudesert]

Hi,

Do you mean "suggestion to play a game" or "invitation to play a game / save this place for a player" ?

Because when you invite someone (ie: save a place for him/her), all restrictions are bypassed - of course.

[Call me Ishmael]

I guess I mean Suggestion...I will edit it to say Suggestion.

When ever I get a suggestion in BGA to join someone's table, then it won't let me join the table, I feel like I got invited to someone's party only to be turned away at the door.

[Liallan]

A better solution is to be able to turn off the suggestion thing altogether. I get tired of them, especially since they are coming from live games most of the time, which I mostly don't play, but have them all in my "want to play" list so I don't have to scroll through a bunch of games I don't know. I'm not sure looking at the game is what does it - I'm fairly sure I get those suggestions even when I haven't looked at anything. (After all, I rarely look at the live games.)

I'm curious how many people actually join a game based on one of those suggestions, and whether that "feature" is even worth it at all. It certainly has no use for someone who only plays turn-based.

[demiurgsage]

Suggestions are good thing. But should be an option to exlude you from the list who wants to receive a suggestion.

[Ankeszu]

Suggestions are good thing. But should be an option to exlude you from the list who wants to receive a suggestion.

I like that idea, especially if you can set it on/off for each game separately. Or at least on/off for all games with possibility of one or two exceptions.

[ollyfish2002]

That is one of the reason I did not renew my subscription.
When I was BGA member and ELO visible, I was in the top of the list and got too much suggestions.
Not being a BGA member allows to hide your ELO and be somewhere hidden in the list.

[senatorhung]

That is one of the reason I did not renew my subscription.
When I was BGA member and ELO visible, I was in the top of the list and got too much suggestions.
Not being a BGA member allows to hide your ELO and be somewhere hidden in the list.

uh .. that is incorrect. BGA members can see everyone's ELO. when you let your membership lapse, you don't see anyone's ELO, but other BGA members can always see yours.

as for the original topic, this would be another reason to have separate lists of games you 'want to play' between real-time and turn-based. that way, you only receive suggestions for real-time games that you are willing to play real-time.

[sourisdudesert]

Just a word to say that we know this is an issue.

We imagined this suggestion system when there was only realtime on BGA + way less players. Now it's inappropriate. But not only this : a large part of the current lobby is inappropriate because now there is too much players on BGA.

One of the possible future could be :

• Special interface for those who only want to play with friends (no need to pollute the lobby with private games).
• Propose an "Automatic mode" for those who just want to play asap with games/opponents that meet their (custom) criteria.
• Keep the current lobby for those who want to precisely choose what & against who to play.

[Andy_K]

I think a good first step would be to add some filters (or sorting) to the existing lobby.

'Only show games I am eligible to join' would make a lot of sense, consider that even being the default behaviour. It is a little frustrating to scroll down the list of games and then have to check the criteria for each to see if you'll actually be able to join it. Given the site is very popular now, I don't think there's a need for players to be able to see every game that might be waiting for players.

Players have a list of games they 'want to play', but don't necessarily want to play any/all of them at that exact time, so a list of checkboxes (or even a single-game selection dropdown) to filter the available games list would be very useful. Or even just sort them by game so it's easy to scroll to the appropriate section.