A new lobby for BGA

[SpinMatt]

It took me a bit to get used to, but I love how easy it is to set up games and join multiple tables all without leaving the lobby. I really appreciate all the work you all put into this.

[asd123321]

This has us constantly collapsing or expanding the games available.
We have to expand the game to see what is available and collapse the
last game played because they are in the way above the Favorites.
Give us the option to have the Favorites all listed uncollapsed.
Then the Play NOW would be used instead of Create, whereas now it
wastes 2 inches of display with a blank game.
Have the Favorites icons at the top.

Getting rid of the "suggest table to player" is a very bad idea. I am
recruiting players constantly and getting them to join. We can't tell
who is around and what the prospects are. Having a message pop up is not
that big a deal to ignore and you could have the option to turn it off.

You should have announced that it would happen the day before. How many
checked out the design before implementation? Having non-Favorites
alphabetized is definitely better. The people have disappeared.

How about a vote on the interface changes? 1 against.

[Josunae]

Previously you could choose which way you wanted to look for and play a game. Why take away the choice of the old lobby. Many people dont want to be automatically placed into a game. Have you ever had an update/change that has had so many complaints? I have enjoyed board game arena as a member for a number of years, but I doubt that will continue with the new format. What was wrong with being able to choose?

[thomasf55]

Makes it more difficult to see all the games that are available at any one time.

[Marphod]

While i generally prefer the new lobby, i have comments:

Pros:

• i can click on what i want without the games scrolling past
• much easier to find the games i want
• i find the interface cleaner
• i like the listing of my elo in an easy to see place
• I prefer the new manual/auto and real time/turn based selections

Cons:

• Harder to find a table i want. options are less pronounced in the game listing.
• there is no significant size difference between small and medium icons. small icons are still too large
• my impression is that the tables listed are slower to update with respect to joining/departing players
• a collapse button, rather than a X in a corner is an odd design decision.
• i don't like that a game leaves my list when i select it.
• it feels like space is wasted with the blank space below the game name & icon in expanded boxes
• why on earth did 'suggest a game to a player' functionality go away?
• the 'suggestion for you' section is way too big and doesn't have a way to suppress or shrink
• Same with 'find a game'
• no way to see how many people online are interested in a game. this means i won't know if a less popular game is even possible for real time play

Suggestions:

• How about a no-icon/text only game listing option?
• How about an expand/collapse all option for favorite games (manual)
• how about giving some filtering options for manual mode (e.g. 'only list games with [option]')
• For those who are missing the 'live update'/'mass community' feel, how about an option for a left-column listing game creation/starts/abandons?

[Daggerheart]

Big improvement! Thanks

[Naavia]

I like the lobby. Thx for your effort.

[ChameleonBG]

So hopefully they add this most played games on option. And having that suggested list is helping especially if you dont have many friends online to get game on. And the those buggy features like settings will not get saved afterwards could be fixed. But I am hopeful that it will be eventually good. Just need some iteration. So waiting next patch then. Feedback is important so after patch we see what is good and what is not.

[windie_terry]

Last version is better for find games in faster pace.
This version required players to open each game first and then go in which is much slower than before.

[sourisdudesert]

UPDATE - September 13th.

At first, we would like to thanks everyone for your precious feedback.

Changing things is not an easy process, but this change was really needed. Yesterday, despite the maintenance operation on the morning and a change of your habits, you played almost the same number of games than a regular day on Board Game Arena. This was our main objective, so thank you for that!

Following your feedback, we immediately worked on some updates. Two are visible right now:

• There is now a "See all game tables" link below your favorite games. Using this, you can "expand" all games with a single click (or collapse all). For those who have an important number of favorite, we recommend to use the "small icons" display option too.
• There is now a "Configure" button when creating a table, to make explicit the fact that you can still access the "configure table" interface. Note that this interface is ALWAYS available when you click on the table itself.

We will continue to collect your feedback and improve this new lobby, so thanks for your inputs!