Is this game dying?

[anonymustard]

UX update from me and my friend.

1. He restricted ELO matchmaking to one level above his "up to Good Player". He was matched from his ELO of 120 to a player 380 ELO.

2. I have unmatched the bottom three ELOs and it seems to work to not play brand new players.

HOWEVER, in both of our cases, the ELO restrictions constantly and consistent reset to "ALL" after only a few games (sometimes as soon as the next time you search for a realtime game).

[ruvs_]

FWIW me and my girlfriend both got in to the game pretty recently (in the last 3 months?) because of the video on it on SUSD and some of the hype around Glory to Rome. I've logged over 100 games, and she's got almost 500. While the learning curve can be tough the process of learning the game was a lot of fun and everyone I played against has been super nice and welcoming and informative. It's an old game so the player count is bound to go down, but I definitely don't see the game dying anytime soon. So much replay-ability just in the base game and all the expansions add seemingly endless fun. I think Innovation will remain a hidden gem for a long time to come. I hope BGG will implement ultimate and the additional expansion packs, and I hope one day someone organizes an in person tournament.

[anonymustard]

FWIW me and my girlfriend both got in to the game pretty recently (in the last 3 months?) because of the video on it on SUSD and some of the hype around Glory to Rome. I've logged over 100 games, and she's got almost 500. While the learning curve can be tough the process of learning the game was a lot of fun and everyone I played against has been super nice and welcoming and informative. It's an old game so the player count is bound to go down, but I definitely don't see the game dying anytime soon. So much replay-ability just in the base game and all the expansions add seemingly endless fun. I think Innovation will remain a hidden gem for a long time to come. I hope BGG will implement ultimate and the additional expansion packs, and I hope one day someone organizes an in person tournament.

What percentage of plays are in-person versus on BGA? The BGA players are not particularly welcoming... they aren't NOT welcoming either, to me it's like playing bots (it's not like there is sparkling banter during games).

In person is always better for everything, but in other games the matchmaking is much closer.

I think the most likely version of this is some of the great elements of the game will be found in newer games.

4th Edition is in alpha here but at this point seems like it will never make it to main BGA, so the the imbalanced 3rd cards will stay as the player base fizzles out.

[zortog]

I'd suggest that, in one of these lopsided arrangements, the experienced player try to give some advice at the end, to help the beginner out! It can be as simple as "you had a chance to block my good move here", or "next time someone is spamming this card, here are some ideas to try...". Seems most people here just spit out a GG and leave the game at the end, if that. I'm thinking a little about the teaching environment around some go servers that I played on in the (distant...) past - after almost every game, people offer to go over the match in detail, turning it into a lesson. Not everyone wants this, but that's ok too!

[Andrei3009]

I'd suggest that, in one of these lopsided arrangements, the experienced player try to give some advice at the end, to help the beginner out! It can be as simple as "you had a chance to block my good move here", or "next time someone is spamming this card, here are some ideas to try...". Seems most people here just spit out a GG and leave the game at the end, if that. I'm thinking a little about the teaching environment around some go servers that I played on in the (distant...) past - after almost every game, people offer to go over the match in detail, turning it into a lesson. Not everyone wants this, but that's ok too!

I've often thought about giving players advice (in other games), but many people don't need that advice and it can offend a person, especially if they're upset about losing. That's why I don't advice anything unless the opponent asks or hints at it. Or if he complains about unlucky draws

[mudshark_baby]

I'd suggest that, in one of these lopsided arrangements, the experienced player try to give some advice at the end, to help the beginner out! It can be as simple as "you had a chance to block my good move here", or "next time someone is spamming this card, here are some ideas to try...". Seems most people here just spit out a GG and leave the game at the end, if that. I'm thinking a little about the teaching environment around some go servers that I played on in the (distant...) past - after almost every game, people offer to go over the match in detail, turning it into a lesson. Not everyone wants this, but that's ok too!

Yeah, first game I ever had of Innovation and on here was someone with v high ELO, coz couldn't get any matches at my level.

I commented asking them to be gentle with me and they destroyed me in 9 minutes.

It wasn't any fun. Luckily a friend in another continent kindly played with me and I learned a lot from that. But they only play on a phone and the interface is terrible for this game in terms of card selecting etc. So I haven't played here since. Which is a damn shame.

[Andrei3009]

As a beginner, I'll give you another argument why this game is difficult to start playing: to understand the game situation, you need to know the cards. When I first played, I set up a long game on purpose, but the time was still too short. I didn't have time to read the cards, and by the middle of the game I just gave up, as I completely lost my understanding of what was going on. It is impossible for a beginner to play with limited time. There are also some cards that can completely destroy your plans, and if you don't know them, you can get a very insulting stab in the back, after which you will want to leave the game.

[Phoxtrot]

Well, you yourself can open a table and restrict it to lower ranked people.

[anonymustard]

As has been explained over and over, the ELO matching both resets automatically to include all ELOs, and when restricted makes the game unplayable because of the long queue times.

It's nice to see other new players in this thread validating that the new player experience is unpleasant.

[FSKFSK]

If you need time to read the cards, consider playing in turn-based mode instead of realtime mode. If your elo is at least 100, you can try tournaments.