Board Game Arena

Notch226 wrote: ↑08 September 2025, 16:35 It's pretty impressive how insulting and belittling the "elite" players are on this forum and it's all within the rules. I guess if you're polite with your put downs it's fine, well fine if you have the ELO to back it up. New people are judged poorly but high ELO players can get away with a lot. I know I'm not allowed to have an opinion since I haven't played TM on this platform. So please keep talking down to new players, just be passive aggressive and you're within the rules. If you tell people they are dumb and not at your level just be sure to do it nicely. Remember we are just simple folk with no understanding of how the congnosescenti play so try to explain it in small words we might grasp.

Why are you so eager to contribute on a matter you never experienced on your own?

Magicnerd wrote: ↑08 September 2025, 06:45 Here is the problem: In 2 player, there is no advantage to ever doing 2 actions except for when you want to place a tile combo or grab 2 milestones at the same time that are contested.

There is a clear advantage to only doing 1 action that is constantly in effect. Namely that you can see what the other does and respond accordingly.

If in 2 player you are ever playing 2 actions while not having a good reason to, you are playing suboptimally. This makes 1v1 matchups devolve into some weird game of chicken, where both players are not doing anything substantial until the other is forced to make their good moves or pass, as not to give away information unncessarily.

This behavior / tactic is often not deciding in who wins of course, but it severely slows down the game to a crawl and for me personally it ruins the experience.

I think a good variant option would be: maximum 1x action passing per era. Then you still keep the option to use it strategically without hindering the game pace unnecessarily.

Very good summary.

Notch226 wrote: ↑08 September 2025, 16:35 It's pretty impressive how insulting and belittling the "elite" players are on this forum and it's all within the rules. I guess if you're polite with your put downs it's fine, well fine if you have the ELO to back it up. New people are judged poorly but high ELO players can get away with a lot. I know I'm not allowed to have an opinion since I haven't played TM on this platform. So please keep talking down to new players, just be passive aggressive and you're within the rules. If you tell people they are dumb and not at your level just be sure to do it nicely. Remember we are just simple folk with no understanding of how the congnosescenti play so try to explain it in small words we might grasp.

The level of bullying and harassment by the "elites" in this thread is not okay. Thank you for pointing this out; it's not easy to speak up against these self-anointed elites knowing that the response will be, as you noted, insulting and belittling.

Their attitude seems to be:

"We will dictate how this game is played, and we will blacklist and insult people who wish to decide for themselves how many actions they deem appropriate to take on their own turns. Anyone who does not capitulate to our terms is obvious [scared, a noob, unskilled, whatever], because its' not possible for anyone skilled to actually have a different opinion regarding a perfectly legitimate way to play within the rules of the game."

It's an attempt to pressure and intimidate "lesser" players into conforming to their own viewpoint, which pretty much is the definition of bullying and harassing.

It has no place on a family-friendly website like BGA, and it very clearly violates the BGA code of conduct in multiple way.
If the "elite" players wish to play with some sort of "social contract", they are free to do so in their own private tournaments. But, dictating this as a general policy and then talking down to anyone who dares voice objection - that is not okay. It's negative and toxic, and it is intimidating to newer or less experienced players.

I intend to speak to BGA staff about issuing a statement requesting a stop to this inappropriate behavior and issuing a general warning that continued aggressive posts of this nature will result in penalties.

People here at BGA should feel comfortable deciding for themselves how many actions they wish to take on any given turn, without fear of bullying, intimidation, pressure, or harassment or insults.

It's sad that this even needs to be pointed out.

primrose1234 wrote: ↑08 September 2025, 16:53

Notch226 wrote: ↑08 September 2025, 16:35 It's pretty impressive how insulting and belittling the "elite" players are on this forum and it's all within the rules. I guess if you're polite with your put downs it's fine, well fine if you have the ELO to back it up. New people are judged poorly but high ELO players can get away with a lot. I know I'm not allowed to have an opinion since I haven't played TM on this platform. So please keep talking down to new players, just be passive aggressive and you're within the rules. If you tell people they are dumb and not at your level just be sure to do it nicely. Remember we are just simple folk with no understanding of how the congnosescenti play so try to explain it in small words we might grasp.

Why are you so eager to contribute on a matter you never experienced on your own?

A person can recognize and call out inappropriate behavior without having played TFM on this platform.

Oh, wait, it's only the self-anointed elites that are allowed to have an opinion. Wow. The irony is fascinating.

*post moderated

I'm not going to play on here due to the attitude that is clearly evident in this forum. Why would I bother? So I can get talked down to and told that I don't know anything and should be required to sit through watching replays before I am allowed to have an opinion. I was interested on how it's played here. So I read these forums to get an idea, and boy did I get the idea. This isn't for me or any new players. The people who play this a lot don't want to be bothered with lesser players "ruining" their ELO.
So congratz on creating a welcoming community for new players. Of course I get it that you don't want new players messing up your way of playing and having low ELO and risky their precious ranking.

Notch226 wrote: ↑09 September 2025, 14:30 I'm not going to play on here due to the attitude that is clearly evident in this forum. Why would I bother? So I can get talked down to and told that I don't know anything and should be required to sit through watching replays before I am allowed to have an opinion. I was interested on how it's played here. So I read these forums to get an idea, and boy did I get the idea. This isn't for me or any new players. The people who play this a lot don't want to be bothered with lesser players "ruining" their ELO.
So congratz on creating a welcoming community for new players. Of course I get it that you don't want new players messing up your way of playing and having low ELO and risky their precious ranking.

The self-anointed elites have made this forum a toxic place for new and less-experienced players. It's sad. And it's wrong. And it's against BGA's policy.

I am sorry you had this experience. I have not seen any other game here on BGA that has such arrogance and condescension shown by "top" players toward "lesser" players. On Wingspan, Splendor, and Azul forums, to players help newer and less experienced players. And they do it politely. For some reason, TFM seems to generate an attitude of superiority among players who meet their own self-created definition of "top player".

I consider myself a top player in some other games, and I go out of my way to help new and inexperienced players. I have mentored several such players, without the condescending attitude or superiority. It's not difficult to be kind and respectful, though apparently it is for "top" terraforming Mars players. Well, some of them, anyway.

Notch226, you are not the only one who feels the way you do - it's just that most people wouldn't post, because, as you noted, all that does is result in being talked down to, which is what some people (ideally) can get away from by playing on a family-friendly site like BGA.

*post moderated

RoyalRook wrote: ↑09 September 2025, 16:58 Frank I am pretty sure you are the toxic one here. You are not pleasant to have a serious conversation on any topics, because you always feel like being victimized. That's the definition of being insecure, all you have to do is to put in the work to actually play the game at a higher level than you are used to. So you can actually undestand what you are talking about. I started the topic because I wanted to level up the community, players who put in the work from the beginning already reaping the benefits, you just simply being left behind.

Right, the person who spends countless hours helping make this game better and improve the overall TFM community is the toxic one.

BGA has a low threshold for bullying and harassment. You have already had 2 posts removed from this very thread, in addition to your various previous bans for similar behavior.

For the record, I have repeatedly engaged in high-level strategy threads when posted by players who are actually willing to treat people respectfully, such as Corvus. And I know you've seen my participation in those threads, since you also have posted in those threads.

Please, be kind and respectful to others.
Thank you.

Consider the irony of a bully telling me I am the toxic one because I do not like being bullied, I do not like other people being bullied, and because I politely ask that people in this forum treat each other with kindness and respect.

Amazing.