Happy New Year 2021 !
It's been rough, but it's now time to dive into a new year and changes.
First, we need to thank all of our Members, Premium or Free, who have been enjoying Board Game Arena for years.
You helped bring your family, friends, or events to the platform.
Thanks to all of you, and to developers, publishers and game designers, Board Game Arena is getting bigger every day.
There's now over 5 200 000 accounts on Board Game Arena.
And more than 269 games available.
We couldn't have dreamed of such a growth in such a short time.
THANK YOU.
We also want to thank our wonderful team of moderators, working in the shadow, who are helping us more than ever:
Tyfo,
Hell_Gring_Goth,
Ynata,
Falabule,
Eman13088,
MsMayhem,
Coxy5,
Kangourou_mutant,
Romdos,
and
BlueMerry.
And the developers, but the list is too long to be displayed here
Thank you. You're awesome. Really. And we couldn't have dreamt of better people to have with us.
So what's next?
Let's keep it simple: many, many things will be coming to BGA.
We will try to make them happen during 2021. But of course it will depend on many parameters.
First parameter is the size of the core team: we are only 4 people to manage BGA.
And we have hundreds of developers working on different games.
What we want to keep:
- Low price for Premium:
Due to the increasing prices of banking fees, we're keeping the price as low as possible (As an example, that's why the lower Premium subscription you can get using Paypal is limited to 2 months, due to their fees).
That's something we need to pay attention to. We're also considering more ways for you to support BGA, but it takes time.
For the newcomers, please note that we still don't display ads and we do not sell or share your personal data to any third parties. Yeah, we're doing it the "hard" way but we think that you don't have to be tricked.
BGA is living out of the support of its Premium subscribers, and we want to keep it like that. The price could evolve as we would align to the different fees and charges, but we intend to keep it as low as possible.
That's what freedom is to us. Power to the users.
- Strong moderation:
More and more families, kids and companies are joining the platform everyday. Of course, as we welcome everyone, we cannot always filter bad behaviors at first sight.
We give people a chance to stay, to read the rules, and to just act kindly. We understand that some could get frustrated by losing some games, and we strongly encourage them to get better.
But there will still be some bad behaviors: that's why we're developing tools, analysis and moderation case studies to help us keep the service run as kindly as it can.
We will, of course, reward good manners. We want to value that.
- Game releases:
Every Wednesday, a new game. Every 2 weeks, a big game. There is plenty of games coming for 2021 that you can't even dream of.
We're striving for quality and we're trying tools to get games validated on as many configurations and as many user-cases as possible.
Our developers are aware of the bugs and other problems, and we want to improve the way you can send feedback.
This year, we will strive to get the highest quality we can for releases. Browsers are evolving, technology is always moving, we will keep on making games playable on as many platforms as we can.
But please, update your browser: we cannot support Netscape anymore
What we want to update:
- One of the big changes for 2021 is going to be on the main website: The overall 10-year-old interface is outdated.
We understand that it's totally fine for our oldest members, as they are used to it, but it's still not normal to have to click on a game, to add it to your favorite list to be able to play.
It's also not normal to have to click more than 5 times to start a game. We know this, it's been a way to fix the lobby. But should be changed.
Profile pages are outdated, friend system is vintage, privacy control should be better, etc... We know that.
You'll be glad to know that this year we will start a new version of BGA that should improve everything, but we will go step-by-step (ohhh babyyy).
Depending on your feedbacks and our analysis, you should be able to discover a new and simpler interface to play games, add friends and manage your accounts.
This is the big goal for 2021, but it could also be delayed. That's a very big project. We have already been preparing stuff on our side since months, we will update you during the year about it but don't expect anything until a few months.
The new version will probably go into beta first, with a specific access, so you will still be able to use BGA as it is for the next year.
- Streaming and Streamers :
We would like to propose some content related to BGA on a regular basis. Currrently we have the Wednesday BGA LIVE going on, but we want to provide more content in different languages
for you to interact with people in different ways: knowing more about the games, the strategies, and have some fun.
- Quality Of Life:
Weak opponents, finding players, overall access, bugs: we will track down more data on any issues that are going on.
During the whole year, we were able to keep the service up to 99,5% of the time. We want to get it as close to 99,99% as possible (we're not dreaming about 100% as nobody can, but why not.)
We will try to improve translations and support for pronouns in the next version, as well as a better way to control your data.
Also note that we never ask for your real name, and that's for this reason: we want you to be able to play without having to bother about your IRL life.
We will improve these aspects too, as they matter to us.
- Tournament, Arena:
It's already in progress as you can see on some pages now, and it will continue to improve. In fact, that's something that will never get "done" as it needs tweakings and fine-tunning all the time.
We check feedback and statistics, and we will try to make ARENA a great way to find out your exact level worldwide.
Many more things are coming, and we cannot get into more details here, but we wanted to share our main priorities with you.
Board Game Arena's audience will be growing, and the service must evolve. One step at a time.
It's a long road we've gone through since more than 10 years, and while we're staring at the horizon, as far as we can see there, we can say that it's far from finished.
But with your help, your love and passion (thanks for your supports through emails) we're feeling confident about the upcoming years.
Better times will come, with you,
but we're also expecting to get back to real boardgames, around real tables.
We're proud to be there for you to enjoy playing games with your friends, or have your weekly dose of board games, but we're also really eager to get back to real tables, with real components to touch,
and to see you in real life during events, worldwide.
We're wishing you the very best for 2021.
Love, Games, and friends.
More than ever, we want you to take care of you and your relatives.
We will take care of everything else.
#PlayWithTheWorld
With strong love from the team :
Greg Isabelli
Emmanuel Colin
Ian Parovel
Jurica Hladek
