Board Game Arena

Possibly your worst idea of all time

Really interested to see how this test goes.

I think for the very popular games this is a wonderful plan. It's been kind of silly how everyone eventually hits elite league in Can't Stop, etc. The whole system will make a lot more sense if players are actually getting matched roughly by their skill, and it is well worth the wait for the popular games that are firing off all the time.

I'm a bit more ambivalent about how much it will help something like Terra Mystica out which only has Bronze, Silver, and Elite and already queue times could be fairly long--making them even longer I'm not sure if it does much good.

Wait, is there some evidence that this was intended by the BGA admins? I assumed it was an unintended bug.

There are several open bug reports today in relation to this site behavior, the most upvoted one here:

https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=47221

Patrick of the Isles wrote: ↑28 August 2021, 05:20 Wait, is there some evidence that this was intended by the BGA admins? I assumed it was an unintended bug.

There are several open bug reports today in relation to this site behavior, the most upvoted one here:

https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=47221

See souris post on page 1.

Ha, thanks! That's what I get for not noticing this post had two pages!

Wow, I really hope the admins revert this. Reducing player choice always seems like a bad idea.

To make things clear: we will fix the "bug" (ie: not able to change the settings) on next week.

In the meantime, we are accumulating data to see if the default should be this or the previous one. Clearly, both have advantages (quicker matchmaking VS better matchmaking).

Does the setting have to be the same for all games? I can see that this new way might be better for games with lots of players like can't stop, 7 wonders etc. But for games with less where people need to play players in a different league to make a match, I think it will lead to lots of players quitting and not giving it a chance as they think they're the only one waiting, when in reality they're the only one in their league waiting and they will be matched with others in a few minutes if they wait. Also was the change published anywhere? Without people knowing what's going on (most people do not read the forum!) it's hardly a fair test?

It is ridiculous even for very popular games. I'm only in silver league in 7 wonders because I haven't played arena yet this season, and now it is impossible to get a game. Previously I would never wait more than 2 minutes (and generally less than 30 seconds), now I've already spent more time waiting the past two times I've tried than it takes for a game to play....over 10 minutes waiting already is just unacceptable for a popular game.

The problem with this system is whatever level has the most players in active levels will always be quick to get games and will never be available to play against a player from a level with a smaller player base (all Elites will be matched against each other before the parameters are ever opened up, for example). This essentially means you can only play with people from exactly your level (unless multiple levels are equally uncommon, and even then it would be a crapshoot whether or not you are lucky enough to get paired with them).

it seems that not all players are part of this test.
On games like Coinche where there are not many players in each league, this makes it very, very long to get to the tables.
Why not make these new default choice in the settings and let the players change them as they wish.

I understand the reason of this experiment but if people want to play with the same opponent's level they just have to choose it. Now it aweful for some games where there are not enough players. The waiting time is more than 30 minutes sometimes whereas the players were there bu a lot just leave the arena because of that. SO please put IT back.