Board Game Arena

joshuakingrams wrote: ↑09 July 2026, 20:08 why are some faction's premium. This is dumb.

Is it, though?

It seems entirely reasonable that the publisher should be able to get some kickback for allowing their entire game to be played here for free by anyone in the world. Instead of requiring some huge payment, they just gate a few factions behind a measely $3.50/month paywall, which also opens lots of other premium options.

yes but why is this being restricted. it makes it seem like bga is just trying to make money off of people who want to play twilight imperium. they are saying twilight imperium is non premium... as long as you do not play with the good factions.

Beta games usually aren't premium. Twilight Imperium is a game that will likely be premium when out of beta.

i hope so

That won't change anything. And it's also not true that games are not premium while in beta and then become premium. Some games are free for a limited period after release and then become premium, but most premium games are already premium during beta.

That's what I'm saying. This game isn't premium now, but it will become premium more likely than not.

And that won't change the fact that nonpremium players have a reduced faction choice.

Correct!

ugh

GTSchemer wrote: ↑10 July 2026, 15:42

Jellby wrote: ↑10 July 2026, 15:36
Just a question. Is it then possible for a game's code to see the premium status (and/or elo) of a player? If that's the case, that's one argument we lose against RNG conspirationists...

Since game code does not know premium status, the game code actually uses a dedicated API function BGA added. [...]

Still a dangerous precedent. I don't feel that confident in refuting these conspiracies about premium-RNG-favouritism anymore. But maybe they have enough staff (or AI sigh...) soon to hold the forum at bay. Or they just accept to let it spread with much less rebuttal speech.