New BGA lobby Frequently Asked Questions

[SleeperService]

How can one spectate games with the new interface?

[gin-features]

Just to add my voice, I really, really do not like having to click on each game I _might_ want to play just to find they are too high a level, or are using options I don't like, then come out to the lobby to click on another game hoping the same. It was 1000% better the old way, where you saw all of the open tables for games I might want to play, and can decide from there.

[JCase16]

From the lobby screen it shows the players in the game, their ELO level (not number) and it shows the settings. I can see them at least.

[Cullich]

From the lobby screen it shows the players in the game, their ELO level (not number) and it shows the settings. I can see them at least.

That's not a change. Once the list for a particular game is open, that list basically looks the same.

[ringersoll]

How can one spectate games with the new interface?

I really enjoy watching other games in progress.
This is important!

[sourisdudesert]

How can one spectate games with the new interface?

You can still see the list of games in progress and spectate games: "Games" => Click on a game => "X games in progress" => "See games in progress"

[eoc]

You can still see the list of games in progress and spectate games: "Games" => Click on a game => "X games in progress" => "See games in progress"

You might want to consider, in the expanded view of one game, making the game name (perhaps just the name, not the image) clickable to point to the game's detail page from where you can spectate. Because the lobby apparently stores which games were expanded / collaped for one session, it's not a problem if players accidentally click it because they can just go back without losing any of their page state.

edit – some more info on why this matters to me and apparently others: we like a visual way of learning games, or are curious how the implementation of the game looks on BGA. If there is no easy path from "play now" to watching others play, you lose this audience, because the lobby is the supposed center of player action! In addition, you have a nice box for suggesting to try games I don't know yet. The game detail page would have resources such as the game rules, helpful text from the wiki and a way of spectating. Now: how do you reach the game detail page right from the game presentation in the aforementioned "SUGGESTIONS FOR YOU" box? There's huge images and I can click on Play, but where do I find out how to play?

[EllieK]

I am a real timer and I play many games and overall I like the changes. I'm getting used to the new interface -- after I expand my favorite favorites I have an interface that closely resembles the old interface, except the new interface groups the available games by game, a very nice improvement. Problematically however, these 'expanded' games cannot be reordered or sorted and the list of expanded games doesn't seem to have any permanence -- when I clicked between manual and auto all my expanded games were reset/lost.

I would kindly request the following changes to an 'expanded' game list.

1. Permanence in the list. Next time I log in, I want to see all the same games expanded in the same order.
2. The ability to manipulate the order of the items in my 'expanded' games list (move to: top, bottom, up 1, down 1)
3. (wishfully only) A further ability to auto sort the expanded list of games (i.e. sort to top -- the most recently played game; game with most open tables; games where my rating is 'strong'; etc. etc.)

Please?

[failedatquittingBGA]

I generally think the changes are good (expand all has made the manual lobby way better), but I have a few issues:

1. I think this set up is poor for trying new games that I have never played. My former way of picking new games to play is to scour the turn based list for fast paced games with lower level players. Starting random games with restrictions on the levels of players seems like a less efficient way to find games where low level players want to play quickly. If there was any way to see the tables for games that I have not tried without having to add them all specifically or search for one game at a time, that would definitely help this situation.

2. It seems like the new ideal is to set up multiple real-time tables and start the one that fills up first. This would be way easier if the game would automatically start once the table fills to the maximum number of players instead of requiring the table creator to start it, but from my experience thus far, this does not always occur.

3. I personally would also love a way to filter turn-based games by speed, but I know this was not a feature of the previous lobby and would probably not be easy to implement.

I love that we can wait for multiple realtime games and that tables are grouped by game. Can't wait to see how arena mode changes things up

[JCase16]

I wholeheartedly agree with everything EllieK says here.

I am a real timer and I play many games and overall I like the changes. I'm getting used to the new interface -- after I expand my favorite favorites I have an interface that closely resembles the old interface, except the new interface groups the available games by game, a very nice improvement. Problematically however, these 'expanded' games cannot be reordered or sorted and the list of expanded games doesn't seem to have any permanence -- when I clicked between manual and auto all my expanded games were reset/lost.

I would kindly request the following changes to an 'expanded' game list.

1. Permanence in the list. Next time I log in, I want to see all the same games expanded in the same order.
2. The ability to manipulate the order of the items in my 'expanded' games list (move to: top, bottom, up 1, down 1)
3. (wishfully only) A further ability to auto sort the expanded list of games (i.e. sort to top -- the most recently played game; game with most open tables; games where my rating is 'strong'; etc. etc.)

Please?