Let prospective players know they can play games if they join a group.

[brisdaz]

HI I'm a member of a public group that is pro-social whose only code is that there is banter. Only problem is not many people know about it. It would be great if we could restrict games to that group but also have the automatic simple mode notify prospective players that it's possible to play the game if you agree and join the BGA group.

[LudoH]

I must say I am still not convinced on what is the best way to favor social interaction on bga (and on online games in general). In any case your observation is accurate and I believe it would be good to change things so that people have more friendly interaction, and in this direction any experimentation sounds good to me. Restricting game is easy as far as I know, but advertising and making this restriction perceived positively is the challenge here!

In one word I agree for trying and seeing if this succeeds in a few weeks/months, except if somebody has a better plan

[Kanacho]

This idea kind of reminds me of clans or something on other games. If you really thought this was a good idea, restricting table access to a certain group is very easy (you can do it in game lobbies). It is problematic though trying to get people to join your game from your group unless you make a post or chat in our group. If you do that, then maybe you can find people to play a game. A better option might be to limit special tournaments to group access only (I'm not sure if this is possible, but you can check), and advertise that the group is open and free to join. Tournaments also stay up for joining a lot longer that a standard game (unless we are talking turn-based). I also don't think restricting tournaments to a certain group would be negatively perceived either. I think you just need to go about it the right way, and make sure to reach out to the community in some way (maybe the forums we are using right now is a good option)?

[Liallan]

If I feel like restricting to a group, I tend to post a message on the group that I've put up the invite. (Not that I do this very often.) I have sometimes posted a message whether or not I've restricted it.

One issue that it is difficult to know these groups exist to start with, which is sort of an underlying problem. There are so many groups here and there simply isn't a way for people to know about all of these, especially when someone maybe forms a similar group, not knowing one already exists. While you can attempt to search for group names (which is more than we used to have), the word you're trying for has to be in the name of the group. Plus you have to be social enough and look around the site and decide to visit Community to even know this exists. (I suppose if you don't want to look around the site a bit, then maybe you don't care about groups anyway?) Maybe key words would help the search.

[Estemy]

Right now it takes me 3 clicks to join a game my group is hosting. I have to click on groups, then find my group, then read the messages and then follow the links to a game.

It's already great that group games pop up as first in the lobby, but the entire group system is a bit weak. Everyone loves clans and guilds so the groups should be able to modify their own pages (add tiny forums, auto-friend (or yellow icons for online clannies). Display groups top 50 (advertizing but at an appropriate page). Group highlights (every day select one group that can promote themselves)

It's great to play games with friends, but im not so lucky as to have a lot of irl friends who also play on bga. Therefore i need to MAKE friends. Currently, groupes is the only way. If only it was easier to make a good group and get good ppl for it...