Board Game Arena

tbhp wrote: ↑09 November 2026, 02:08 Just looking at the Elo distribution of a game would give a much more accurate estimate of what the luck factor is.

Spades has more luck than captain flip?

lefalaf wrote: ↑09 November 2026, 06:43 It's just when there are only 4 levels (I think), there isn't much room. 1 would be Go, Quoridor, etc., 3 might be a lot of games with dice and/or cards that are lighter on strategy, 4 would be Martian Dice. But there's be a big range within the levels with so much variety around. Where to draw the lines being a bit subjective.

It is true that games are set to 3 by default so some games have 3 ratings if the dev didn’t bother to assign ratings. & you can argue that this game that has
a 2 should be a 1 etc

But when you get to the Martian dice of the world typically there isn’t much debate if these are level 4 luck which was my point.

Also it does go up to 5 but not many games have a 5 luck rating.

ChiefPointThief wrote: ↑09 November 2026, 08:22 Spades has more luck than captain flip?

I don't know, but then you have to wonder why the Elo doesn't go as high.

tbhp wrote: ↑09 November 2026, 02:08 Luck ratings seem weirdly assigned in many cases.

For example, games where your success depends on making the same choices as the other players should have much higher luck factors, because if you end up in a game where everyone makes weird choices, you can end up losing through no fault of your own, which is something impossible to predict.

Then there are games that contain random elements that seem to be given high luck factors for that reason, even though they involve more skill and offer more control over the outcome than certain games where there's not as many random elements.

Basically it seems the people who decide the ratings just look at how much randomness there is in a game, without applying any critical thinking as to how this actually affects the luck factor.

Just looking at the Elo distribution of a game would give a much more accurate estimate of what the luck factor is.

Can you give examples?

ChiefPointThief wrote: ↑09 November 2026, 16:20 Can you give examples?

Stella is an example of the former, and is how I realized those types of games have flawed luck ratings.

For the latter, you gave an example yourself. I see Captain Flip has a 4 luck rating, but its Elos are not all particularly low, so that seems wrong. On what basis should a game like that be so high?

Given there are 5's some of those other ratings aren't so off then. I see 0's on Texas Bingo and TTR Maps, but they are 0 for all 4 attributes, so seems a bad data thing and not that 0 is a real rating. I've seen a couple where the dev/rater was confused and reversed the scale. (1 for high luck) At least one is a BGA admin (didn't look deeper at the others), so that's puzzling, momentary brain fart I guess and no one double checking that.

Back to the original topic. I like the 3 you already mention in the group: Can't Stop, Lucky Numbers, Super Mega Lucky Box.

I had to drop a bunch of ideas that were clearly 4 or 5 which had (presumably) default 3's. Some other ideas for good ones, IMO:

5
Martian Dice
Piraten Kapern
Golf (Play Nine looks nicer, but is only a default 3)
Farkle
- there was another Martian Dice/Dalek Dice variant, but I'm having trouble remembering the name and cannot find it in the list

4
King Domino
Pina Coladice
Pixies
Incan Gold
Cardiceo
Dice Forge
Pickomino
Roll'n Bump
Dice Mission
Diceathlon
Dicy Cards
The Mother Road (similar to Can't Stop, ugly board, but great game)
Geek Out Masters
Dice Summoners
Mega Jackpot