Board Game Arena

Mr_Magic wrote: ↑09 July 2024, 16:12

chrisnn wrote: ↑09 July 2024, 15:03 Not a fan. This might be what finally gets me to stop spending so much time on BGA.

Really? it doesn't change how the games play at all

The new page doesn't change the game UI, but it is what most users see first when they visit BGA. This is a huge issue.

As a workaround, it seems I can still bookmark https://boardgamearena.com/player?section=recent to get a clean news feed interface.

If the admins are reading, please leave this page for us and we will love you.

Great, my extensive post disappreared within seconds or didn't even get published. What is this, Youtube?

However, I have to second many comments. Especially the ones about the news feed. I know, it's been a lot of work and all that, but burrying a good, liked and useful feature like that is a disservice. I understand, that you want to promote as many games and stuff as possible, but this is just another example of "modern web design missing the point". More clicks, less overview, excused with the "mobile friendly" killer argument. And I'm sorry, but the "get(ting) used to it" point isn't helpful. BGG got a lot of backlash there. MANY people aren't using their official (totally convoluted) homepage as their landing page, they use the old school dashboard. And the same goes for their new subscription page. New features, but less usability, so they reoffered the old one as an alternative.

If I had a say, I'd focus more on the community aspect and strengthen it. Reducing the news feed and burrying it did the exact opposite. I'd suggest introducting team tournaments or championships that consist of a number of different games. Or how about having official tournaments that are streamed, with a commentator, maybe the designer at the final game? There could be off air qualifiers. That'd be way more interesting than the hall of fame.

Oh, and btw. how about a direct link to a page, where I can see the tournaments I'm playing? I can go to the current games, but during elimination tournaments, when my current game is done, I have to search hard to find the actual tournament page.

Btw. I personally just changed my BGA bookmark to my personal news feed. It's more relevant to me than basically everything else on the homepage. Did anybody do a basic usage analysis? Or ask people what features are important or not? Or how people use the page? I guess not, because this is almost never done, at least not in a propper and helpful way.


P.S.: I just realized, that the "send" button does not always really send the post. Any ideas why that is?

P.P.S: I don't want this post to be considered a plain rant. I've studied media and communications, to I know a thing or two about what I'm "complaining" about. I think a productive and constructive discussion is the only serious way.

P.P.P.S.: Speaking of features, changes and the news feed. Mine (and probably many others) just got flooded with arena rules. Where can I edit, what news I get or what to display? Maybe have a single page for all the changes and send a single news, so people can check for changes, they're interested in? In case there's no way to edit my feed that way, let me quote Picard: "Make it so!" Live long and prosper!

Oof, what a mess. And whatever you did broke the game pages. If I go to Ark Nova now, there's a huge white space in the middle which forces me to scroll all the way down the page for the rest of the information.

I'd love to see a simple improvement like, when I check out a new game, knowing which of my BGA friends are already playing that game.

pasko92 wrote: ↑09 July 2024, 15:25

LaOread wrote: ↑09 July 2024, 12:14 I think it looks nice, but how do I find the messages posted before that I could see on the old home page?
For me, that was the most useful feature of the old home page; all the announcents from my groups were very visible.

You mean the Newsfeed? It is there, but a bit small (with only the last 2 news being displayed). But there are 2 triangular buttons which you can use to expand the newsfeed to the number you want (and it is saved).

Thanks, I see it. I seem to be able to expand it to 6, but no more... it's not enough. I've just changed my BGA bookmark to the Newsfeed page.

LaOread wrote: ↑10 July 2024, 00:44

pasko92 wrote: ↑09 July 2024, 15:25

LaOread wrote: ↑09 July 2024, 12:14 I think it looks nice, but how do I find the messages posted before that I could see on the old home page?
For me, that was the most useful feature of the old home page; all the announcents from my groups were very visible.

You mean the Newsfeed? It is there, but a bit small (with only the last 2 news being displayed). But there are 2 triangular buttons which you can use to expand the newsfeed to the number you want (and it is saved).

Thanks, I see it. I seem to be able to expand it to 6, but no more... it's not enough. I've just changed my BGA bookmark to the Newsfeed page.

There are maybe 10 items but for some reason the script is automatically hiding them, probably based on screen size. I was able to use custom CSS to view all the items.

I will not dwell on the many problems of this new homepage that other people already made a point about in previous topics.

However, I did not see anyone talking about the change on the tournaments info. I miss the upcoming tournaments, and as a creator of tournaments, I guess it also impacts the player count as many registered in the last 24 hours when the a tournament started to be shown to them in that upcoming tournaments box. Please, consider bringing it back even with this new design.

As everyone, I am really displeased with the new front page. I really liked the Newsfeed on the front page as it kept me updated on what my friends were doing plus all the messages from the different groups I'm in.
Now even if you extend the thing, you see like 4 messages at most.

The newsfeed being switched to the player's profile is quite annoying. Before there were only info ABOUT the player (me) and you didn't need to scroll extensively to get to the games list and whatnot. Now it is visual pollution on my profile for something i would click on the front page to see only when I needed it, not being shoved in my face constantly each time I click on my profile.

An example is I was looking for the game Can't Stop on my list of games played yesterday. I wanted to go straight to the game by doing Ctrl+F and typing "Can't Stop". Many many friends have joined a Can't Stop tournament so I had to click Next many many times. Without the Newsfeed of my friends on MY profile, this would not have happened. It is inconvenient because it is information not related to me on my profile.

On top of that, the front page is too overly stimulating and colourful. There's buttons for plenty of uneeded things everywhere like I have no desire to play the most recent games. If I want to play games, I click on Play Now or Games, not the front page... Every single box is too big and my eyes actually kinda feel attacked by the overstimulation of everything.

Please take into consideration all the feedback from everyone here and switch back to the more simple and efficient front page. Thank you.

Yeah this webpage is not great, it would be great if we had the option to toggle with the old layout. The old layout wasn't great, don't get me wrong. But this new layout is just overwhelming.

A big part I feel, is the lack of seperation between elements. The big banner on top (which takes up way too muhc space to just show Azul) has news on the side of it that opens a new window. Then underneath theres more news. and then underneath that theres a New/Hottes/Recommended games and to the right of that theres newsfeed that only shows 2 unless you expand it Further. It's just too much and too many things trying to vy for your attention at once.

I thought the whole point of paying for premium was to be spared ads. now every time we long on, we see huge, over-vivid 'ads' for games that are not even targeted to our playing tastes.

1. Premium members should have the option to be spared ads here as well as at the start of games. If I want your suggestions of what I should play, I can already find them elsewhere.
2. There should be a 'mute colours' option for neurodivergent users, migraine sufferers, etc.
3. I agree with some others that the most interesting parts of the old home page (upcoming tournaments in games I know and friends' activity/comments on my wall) should be prominent on any redesign.

On a positive note, the XP ranking is a fun addition IMO.