BETA: Arena mode (Season 0 - BETA)

[spedia2116]

No relegation means that you have to win only 3-4 games to advance to higher level.

Have in mind that once you are in gold or higher, playign against lowre levels only nets you 1 dot, Im right now in gold in some games and i have to get 1 dot at a time (and dont get me on ever losing those games, you lose 5 dots.)

I know. It was example of late stadium (after 2 months) when you play with someone from same league but with low skils. Later there will be more players in gold league who get there by some luck (because of law of large numbers) and you can use them to get easy points to advance and basically become same player as they were to the other ones in your higher league.

And it's another reason for not to mix players from different leagues because you can lose many points and brown league player can be a good one who just started to play.
If there has to be level mixing it should be only done if lower level players played at least 10 or 20 games. It at least will be a chance that this is their level which they normally represent.

[Daavids]

I hope its planned the feature to be able to filter to obsserve only arena games of certain rankings, for example i would like to watch replays or active games of Elite players in a specific game.

I would like it too

[sourisdudesert]

UPDATE:

We changed many formats following your remarks, and create a forum thread dedicated to Arena format discussions:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=14388

[Pedros]

Several times this morning the following has happened to me when starting a game (Backgammon):- when the game "ready to start" page is displayed (ie the page with the names and details of the two players) my opponent is displayed with the usual green tick but my name has the hourglass symbol as though waiting for me to "Accept". Nothing I can do apart from attempting to go back a page and start again - but that is fruitless as well. Only way out was to attempt to start another game, which is refused but which gives me an "already playing one game" message which allows me in!

[RicardoRix]

With Arena mode you are splitting the available players into 2.

Show the Arena tables as the normal part of the lobby, just don't show the player names \ level.

This way the lobby wouldn't feel like it's split into different levels and help fill tables, and not divide the player base - this is especially true for the little played games that struggle to fill any tables in any scenario.

You have already mentioned how it is difficult to fill tables with the bigger games, and so have reduced the number count - that's not a 'competitive' decision, the first and foremost reason for Arena apparantly and you've already caved.

I think the format would be better as 1 giant swiss tournament, with leagues and then each season you get promoted \ demoted.

Currently, the start of a season is just random luck whether you get paired with a Novice or a Pro.
Leagues in general would normally be considered to have a set amount of players, but here you just switched ELO for 'Arena Points' and made everything else more more random and divided.

You need a poll to make a decision. You may have 20 people agree to a suggestion, but what if 120 disagree?

[sprockitz]

With Arena mode you are splitting the available players into 2.

Show the Arena tables as the normal part of the lobby, just don't show the player names \ level.

This way the lobby wouldn't feel like it's split into different levels and help fill tables, and not divide the player base - this is especially true for the little played games that struggle to fill any tables in any scenario.

You have already mentioned how it is difficult to fill tables with the bigger games, and so have reduced the number count - that's not a 'competitive' decision, the first and foremost reason for Arena apparantly and you've already caved.

I think the format would be better as 1 giant swiss tournament, with leagues and then each season you get promoted \ demoted.
The start of a season is just random luck whether you get paired with a Novice or a Pro.
Leagues in general would normally be considered to have a set amount of players, but here you just switched ELO for 'Arena Points' and made everything else more more random and divided.

Well said! I agree with both these points! Putting the lobbies back together more neatly (so simple manual mode can see the actual arena mode tables) would be a huge help.

And on the last part, a giant swiss like tournament (actually playing 4-6 games per swiss round to make things go faster and reduce luck of a single game draw) over 2-6 rounds of games (depending on number players signing up) would do an excellent job determining a champion. Everyone competing would have to play the same number of games to earn a title...my hope is something like this will happen to at least complement the arena mode when tournaments finally get their overhaul

[sourisdudesert]

Show the Arena tables as the normal part of the lobby, just don't show the player names \ level.

Good question.

At first, we wanted to do that too.

However, what is the point? You're going to see one Arena table for each game, with anonymous players, which you can join. We cannot of course allow you to invite/suggest player so all you will be able to do is waiting.

So at the end, it is not different than using the automatic mode, except it needs more click and is more complicated.

Beside this, if there are several Arena tables, there will be all the same, so there is no way you can decide which one is the best for you. In the contrary, our matchmaking algorithm is making you join the right table in such a case.

TLDR; it brings zero additional value, while it has drawbacks.

[sourisdudesert]

And on the last part, a giant swiss like tournament [...] would do an excellent job determining a champion. Everyone competing would have to play the same number of games to earn a title...my hope is something like this will happen to at least complement the arena mode when tournaments finally get their overhaul

We definitely want something like this in addition to the Arena mode.

Our goal is to have 3 kind of games:

• Simple game, for those who are not interested in the competition at all.
• Arena, for the most active competitors.
• Official tournaments (to be developed), for those who want to compete with the best players with games planned in advance.

[RicardoRix]

Show the Arena tables as the normal part of the lobby, just don't show the player names \ level.

TLDR; it brings zero additional value, while it has drawbacks.

IMO 100% wrong , what drawbacks?
If this is true, then why do you show 'People waiting in Arena mode' icons? What value does that give?

You are purposefully dividing the community. I don't play Arena mode, I don't like it for many different reasons and I don't use automatic mode.

I am struggling to find opponents to my collection of little games, I can only assume that a lot of single players are sitting in time-stasis waiting for an Arena game. I'm ready to play them...but won't ever find them.

Arena, for the most active competitors.
Official tournaments (to be developed), for those who want to compete with the best players with games planned in advance.

IMO scrap arena mode, focus on the official tournaments idea.
If the old ELO leaderboards were a problem, then just reduce the time it takes to drop off the leader-board status.

[sourisdudesert]

IMO 100% wrong , what drawbacks?

I explained them just above.

If this is true, then why do you show 'People waiting in Arena mode' icons? What value does that give?

This is to make sure the lobby is not divided in 2.

I can only assume that a lot of single players are sitting in time-stasis waiting for an Arena game. I'm ready to play them...but won't ever find them.

You can find here the average waiting time for the Arena games, which make me think that the time-stasis is not so big
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=14389

You can also see in our stats that there have never been so many games played each day here on BGA since the Arena mode came up.

I totally understand that you don't like this new mode. We didn't build this new mode to please everyone: we built it to please a certain category of players. This is why we gave you the possibility to ignore it.