Arena Season 3: let's go!

[sbryantf]

This is a response to the other thread, but wouldn't be allowed there because it is not a full solution to the three problems. Honestly, I don't see B and C as serious problems. So what if someone can game the system to get to a higher league? If they really are a weak player (and A is somehow resolved), the worst case scenario is that they reach the elite league and then end up with a really bad rank at the end of the season. That scenario really doesn't seem that bad to me. Certainly not enough of a concern to ruin turn based Arena for all the other players. I agree A is a serious problem, but it is much easier to solve if you're not also trying to solve B and C.

[sourisdudesert]

Honestly, I don't see B and C as serious problems. So what if someone can game the system to get to a higher league?

In fact B is also working with the AES / ArELO when you are Elite. Having "streak" of winning games after a "streak" of defeats is way better for your Arena ELO than having wins/losses. Actually, this technique is already used in non-Arena game to cheat the Elo :/

Conclusion: B this is a serious issue for final Season ranking.

[sbryantf]

Ok, but you have already posted a suitable solution for A and B. And I still believe C is not a serious problem. At least not serious enough to justify getting rid of turn based Arena completely.

[frogstar_A]

I can’t believe Turned Based is eliminated....I’m beside myself.
How can we effectively play and learn new games with friends, or new acquaintances from other countries?
How can all games be considered equal when it comes to the time required to play?
How are working adults supposed to partake in more than one or two games a week?

My friends and I joined this website early this year as a way to effectively have fun together while living in different time zones and Turn-Based games are the only way this is possible.
We also have found each of our own favorite games among the Arena crowd and Turned-Based games are the only way this is possible.

You are going to immediately alienate a mass amount of power users and I cannot believe this is happening. People will leave.

You could play Simple Games (not in the Arena) - they can still be Turn Based

[frogstar_A]

Ok, but you have already posted a suitable solution for A and B. And I still believe C is not a serious problem. At least not serious enough to justify getting rid of turn based Arena completely.

I think A and B are very serious problems, and they need to be solved before Turn Based games are allowed back into Arena

However, I am with you on C - is that really a problem at all? The moderator's post suggests they can "quickly play a Real Time game to get to Gold" as if they will definitely win it, but they might not. It's very different to having 10 turn-based games in play at once and only finishing the winning ones (which also spoils the others for people). If they DO win the real time under C why is that not a fair way to get to Gold - they needed 1 shield and won a game to get it?

[ureloch]

This problem has just taught me that there are player who play LOTS OF SIMULTANEOUS turn based games on the SAME game!
It's beyond my comprehension
A request I thought to submit to BGA admins was to add an optional alert if you are trying to start a game you are playing at ALREADY! It sucks when it happens!
So, of course, the idea of limiting league games to one at a time for each board game would be enthusiastically welcome for me! You'd do me a favor

[zaynonymous]

I can’t believe Turned Based is eliminated....I’m beside myself.
How can we effectively play and learn new games with friends, or new acquaintances from other countries?
How can all games be considered equal when it comes to the time required to play?
How are working adults supposed to partake in more than one or two games a week?

My friends and I joined this website early this year as a way to effectively have fun together while living in different time zones and Turn-Based games are the only way this is possible.
We also have found each of our own favorite games among the Arena crowd and Turned-Based games are the only way this is possible.

You are going to immediately alienate a mass amount of power users and I cannot believe this is happening. People will leave.

You could play Simple Games (not in the Arena) - they can still be Turn Based

There are certain games that I'm specifically interested in playing Arena (as are many others in many games) for the level of competition.
There are certain games that can only have competitive Arena matches via Turn-Based.
Real-Time is not a solution for every game in the BGA 300+ game catalog.

[sourisdudesert]

Dear everyone.

Thanks a lot for your feedback and discussions on the dedicated discussion (viewtopic.php?f=3&t=17703), which help us a lot to identify solutions to make the turn-based Arena back.

Good news: based on your ideas, we managed to add some rules to turn turn-based Arena to - hopefully - prevent the cheaters to abuse Arena ranking system. The new rules are already in place, and the turn-based Arena is back.

New rules:

• For Arena turn-based game, for a given game, you are now forced to play on the table where it's your turn for the longest time. Example: if you have 2 Carcassonne games, you can't play on the game where it's you turn for 5 minutes before playing on the other one it's your turn for 5 hours.
• You cannot start a Arena realtime game if you have a turn based game with the same game in progress where it is your turn to play.
• At the end of the season, all turn based games will be stopped, and the player who consumed the most time will lost the game (all the opponents will be winners).

With these 3 new rules, we hope to solve all the cheating techniques described on the dedicated forum discussion. We also chose a solution that does not bring too much constraints on turn-based players.

This can obliviously evolve in the future, depending on what happened.

To conclude, we hope that all of this will show that we are taking these subjects (Arena, cheating, competition modes...) very seriously. We know that there is a lot of work still to be done on these subjects and that it does not evolve fast enough for many of you, but please be sure that we are working on it.

[Billy Pilgrim]

Wow. Speedy response and a great result. Thanks for listening

[Ranior]

Thanks much for this speedy resolution that addresses the concerns brought up by both fans of the turn based mode and those concerned about the growing number of cheaters that were spotted at the end of season 2. I've thought through the proposed solution and it looks to nicely eliminate the issues while creating minimal disruptions to the turn based experience.

Kudos for listening to all the feedback and arriving at a nice solution in a rapid time frame. Thanks much.