Board Game Arena

Very sorry to read that you've abandoned the timed lobby. I know some didn't like it, but particularly for games with smaller followings, it made it possible to increase considerably the chance of getting a game at all. Any chance of reinstating it at least for these games?

One hour waiting for 7 Wonders.. Still no game... Fantastic....

^Okay, where were you guys when the thread for the "scheduled" arena mode was flooding with negative reviews?
--------------
As I've mentioned previously, I liked the idea of the previous system, however the execution itself wasn't that great. It was riddled with bugs. And there were a few things that could have made it much better (For example, make it easier to "sign-up" for a game, make the algorithm a bit faster, show the amount of players that have "signed-up" for a game etc...).

And, even though it was beta, the system was riddled by major bugs, so, no matter what it was, it would always receive negative feedback because of that. A couple more testing before releasing the final product would've been great.

Also most people are conservatives by nature, we humans tend to oppose change.

I think that BGA was overwhelmed by the ridiculous amount of negative feedback, and that is why they've decided to return to the old system. However, the type of feedback that the system would have received if it was well optimized is still unknown.

So, instead of trying to optimize the "Scheduling" system, which actually had many upsides as mentioned in their announcement post, and had gathered many positive feedback when it was first announced. And finding out whether that "idea" was fundamentally flawed, or it was just presented incorrectly, it was decided to just take the easy way out and just return to the old system.

Though, properly optimizing that system would probably take some time? and since many people signed their disapproval. BGA would likely lose players until then. So, I get that, but I still hope that the "schedule" system gets a second chance, later on, but without all the bugs that it had before.

Those are just my two cents on the topic, regardless, I'll still respect the existence of the current system.
----------------

Gunslinger99 wrote: ↑08 February 2020, 18:17 One hour waiting for 7 Wonders.. Still no game... Fantastic....

Yeah, and I've been waiting for Race 4G - nothing, and it's supposed to be a popular game.

I'm convinced the current system has some match making bugs b/c if I restrict the level I never get a game.

I think a schedule system could work but what was presented wasn't necessarily best....but better matchmaking could be implemented within the current system that forces players to wait a little longer in order to get better matchups. For a 2p game don't automatically match the first two people who want to play b/c they are willing to play with any level. Wait at least a few minutes to try and match players of the same level.

If people gave negative reviews because the system was buggy, then you can never deduce the system is bad. It must be corrected before taking people reaction into account.

I also think that a dual system could work very, very well. So e.g. for 7 Wonders you allow immediate live matches (the current system) for 25 minutes of every half hour and then there is a 5 minutes "gathering" of players when no live match can be started. Instead we have a fixed game start after these 5 minutes with the cool matchmaking algorithm doing its magic. For the next 25 minutes the live matches go as usual and then again, 5 minutes gathering of players until fixed start at the end of the half hour. So we could have scheduled games every half an hour whereas most of the time we just use the current system.

That would also solve the problem that when no game can be found for someone at the fixed starttime just because of uneven player number, the unlucky players do not need to wait another fixed amount of time. They can try find another Arena game right away.

So all the players who care for the matchmaking and not so much for the waiting could cluster together at the fixed times. All the other players can find together as usual during most of the time. Wait times are very limited for all.

really I think some behind the scenes matchmaking improvements could solve the issues with the most popular games. Games starting every minute or less could prioritize finding players of the same level for a few minutes before opening up the matching to multiple levels.

I'm not playing much in BGA lately due to the rest of life, but I'm a happy premium member and intend to renew because I love this spirit.
You people are doing an amazing job and it's also evident that you're putting a lot of passion. Things will always have a downside but you totally deserve my admiration for all you do - congratulations for your ideas and for putting them to test!

sprockitz wrote: ↑08 February 2020, 22:04 I'm convinced the current system has some match making bugs b/c if I restrict the level I never get a game.

Same here. And I don't want to play with 3 levels down - risking 30 points to get 2-3.