Don't require 'Open table to others' before starting a game

[manwaring]

I believe that the current implementation for starting a game from a table is unintuitive, especially for new users on the site. Right now if I want to start a game with only specific people I need to click a tiny hyperlink 'Restrict table access', then click 'Open table to other players' and then click 'Start game'.

None of that is intuitive. I believe a far better and more streamlined approach would be to have a 'Start game' button available alongside the 'Open table to other players' button. If I'm at a table and want others to join it's clear to me I should click 'Open table', and likewise if I'm ready to start the game as-is it's clear to me that I should click 'Start game'.

If you agree please upvote: https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=18707

And my apologies if this issue/suggestion has been raised before - most of the search terms associated with this (e.g. open table to new players before start game) are filtered out in the forums here because the words are too common, resulting in unhelpful search results.

[Jest Phulin]

There are reasons the design is like this. Changing the design would break the ability to do some features.

Table configuration cannot be changed once another player has joined. It is too frustrating for people to join a game with one variant, only to have the table administrator change it on them. Therefore, the table can't be joined until the administrator has finalized the configuration. This is why there is a specific "open table to other players" button. (Yes, there's a slight issue with invited people joining before this button is pressed, but that's an issue for a different thread.)

Some games play well with a wide variety of player counts. The administrator says "I want between X and Y players." At least X players join, but not Y players. The administrator gets tired of waiting for more players to join, so can then use the "Start Game" button to launch the game. If the system started the game without this button, player counts would have to be set to "I want exactly this many players."