The sadly pay-to-play process

[FacundoFerray]

For years, BGA was an oasis for playing table games online at no cost, just what we could afford from time to time.
After the new owner arrived, more and more games went Premium ... really sad news for us.
Hopefully one day, good things will stop being assaulted by greed

[coxy5]

Fyi it's not the owners that decide to make games premium

[MoiMagnus]

For years, BGA was an oasis for playing table games online at no cost, just what we could afford from time to time.
After the new owner arrived, more and more games went Premium ... really sad news for us.
Hopefully one day, good things will stop being assaulted by greed

It's not BGA who choose which games are premium and which are not.
The deal BGA has with the licence owner is the following: they get the choice between
(a) Allowing their game for free on BGA
(b) Allowing their game as premium on BGA, and have some money proportional to the number of players on their game
(c) Prevent their game to be accessible on BGA
Additionally, they can change from one to another at any moment.

Most editors first put their game for free to attract players, then switch to premium.
(And we're "lucky" on BGA that they just switch to premium rather than removing their game from the platform, like they do on platforms that do not have a premium option)

[Note: you can still play for free to premium games, you just need to play with a premium stranger, or have accumulated enough gift points to have a free month premium]

EDIT: a games switching to premium dates from way before the Asmodee deal. I remember seeing those "this games switch to premium" since at least the beginning of the pandemic.

[Tisaac]

EDIT: a games switching to premium dates from way before the Asmodee deal. I remember seeing those "this games switch to premium" since at least the beginning of the pandemic.

I completely agree with what you said, however there were at least these changes during the last year span :
- Hanabi become premium in December (so before Asmodee bought BGA), after being premium for many many years
- Can't stop became premium in March (after 10 years of being free)
- Takenoko became premium in May
For the last two, BGA explained that the decision was taken by publishers before Asmodee joined the party.

[Lymon Flowers]

For years, BGA was an oasis for playing table games online at no cost, just what we could afford from time to time.

And it still is!

[ViolentSilence]

For years, BGA was an oasis for playing table games online at no cost, just what we could afford from time to time.
After the new owner arrived, more and more games went Premium ... really sad news for us.
Hopefully one day, good things will stop being assaulted by greed

I quite like the complaints of 'greed' from someone calling for freebies from other people's work... There have been premium games for years before the Pandemic, but here is the good thing - you can play on ANY title that a premium member opens, you don't need to have a premium membership yourself. Would you prefer it if all the game designers instead insisted on separate apps with purchase costs, and the need to buy it before even trying to play it? How else would you have designers and publishers get rewarded for their work in creating something for you to enjoy?

If more and more games are going premium, we're also getting many new ones that are free to everybody. The list of newest games is maybe 1/4 being premium, the titles in Beta are way less than that, and we've just had Viticulture added there which is free to everybody at the moment. Doesn't exactly feel like people are being unfairly disadvantaged...

[MrChom]

Even if games are on Premium I hardly think €24 a year or "One cup of coffee per month" is an extortionate amount to go towards game creators and publishers for giving us access to their games, as well as presumably some to BGA for running the website. I know for some people that's expensive relative to their earnings, but even then they can buddy up with someone who can afford premium and get the premium experience.

If you don't want a premium system then, sadly, the other choice is to lose all those games because publishers/authors don't want to give away their work for free.

[el cosimo]

Even if games are on Premium I hardly think €24 a year or "One cup of coffee per month" is an extortionate amount to go towards game creators and publishers for giving us access to their games, as well as presumably some to BGA for running the website. I know for some people that's expensive relative to their earnings, but even then they can buddy up with someone who can afford premium and get the premium experience.

If you don't want a premium system then, sadly, the other choice is to lose all those games because publishers/authors don't want to give away their work for free.

It is not everywhere same price, I think for some countries is it more

[hayduke]

I think it is ridiculous that you expect to use for free what other people have worked for or created.

[Kuun-Lann]

I think it is ridiculous that you expect to use for free what other people have worked for or created.

I totally agree. Regarding the creator of the game itself or BGA platform. Any service need to maintain serveur, develop and adapt new games.
The price paid (regardless of the country) is a ridiculous price compare to buying boardgames directly and finding some People and table to play with.

I just discovered BGA a few weeks ago and as i'm really happy for every people i discover in every game and for the creators of this platform