Board Game Arena

Everyone has their limit. It's a combination of limited experience and limited talent. Playing is partly, but not entirely, about the "journey." I guess I'm not a good sport, but I don't like losing all the time.

My advice? Don't study. Don't review replays. Don't narrow your selection. That's all good advice for great players trying to become exceptional players. In your case (and in my case), just play against people who are at about your level.

OP, your last posts sound more like having a problem with reaching what you perceive as a skill ceiling. So that some tips given by me and others, such as restricting tables to your level, won’t help. Being more relaxed with losing or just having fun also won’t help if it’s actually the fun (of improving) that has gone missing.

So I guess it’s down to grow or go, invest a lot of time by watching replays, reading/watching strategy content and playing tons of games, or move on. I prefer the latter. Moving on to different games doesn’t have to mean not playing again, as you can still play over the table with friends and even revisit the game from time to time on BGA. Maybe there’ll be a point in time when it feels right to take another attempt at improving, and maybe it’ll be easier after a hiatus.

Ceaseless wrote: ↑16 January 2026, 05:59

nik592 wrote: ↑15 January 2026, 08:06 BGA told me in my end-of-year wrap-up

We have those? Where did those pop up? Was there a special spot or did they just show up? (I could see myself having completely forgotten about them if they didn't stand out, lol.)

It was an email, sent about a week ago.

One more suggestion: The games you're playing are difficult. Try an easy, luck based abstract. Even playing badly, you'll win a lot more than you are now.

My two most popular games on BGA are Herd and 420. I always have tables open

MarkSteere wrote: ↑16 January 2026, 08:30 Everyone has their limit. It's a combination of limited experience and limited talent. Playing is partly, but not entirely, about the "journey." I guess I'm not a good sport, but I don't like losing all the time.

My advice? Don't study. Don't review replays. Don't narrow your selection. That's all good advice for great players trying to become exceptional players. In your case (and in my case), just play against people who are at about your level.

Everyone has their limit, though I find players often think they've hit it far sooner than they actually do. The tools for improvement are not mystic arts only available to some sort of elite group of players. They're just standard tools for a player to pick up and use. If you don't want to improve at a game then there's nothing wrong with choosing not to pick up those tools, as they aren't going to achieve what you're looking for. But if you are looking to improve, then don't avoid the tools because you think only super-players can use them, that is far from the case.

nik592 wrote: ↑16 January 2026, 11:40

Ceaseless wrote: ↑16 January 2026, 05:59

nik592 wrote: ↑15 January 2026, 08:06 BGA told me in my end-of-year wrap-up

We have those? Where did those pop up? Was there a special spot or did they just show up? (I could see myself having completely forgotten about them if they didn't stand out, lol.)

It was an email, sent about a week ago.

Hm, I don't see it. Surprised it was a week ago though, would have figured it would be a New Year's thing.

Ceaseless wrote: ↑16 January 2026, 18:23
Hm, I don't see it. Surprised it was a week ago though, would have figured it would be a New Year's thing.

They say that you only get it if you opted for the newsletter in your profile. Plus, if I remember correctly, the language has to be set to English/English and others. There are complaints though by people who say they didn’t receive the mail even though all of that applies to them. BGA hasn’t reacted to these complaints yet AFAIK.

Ceaseless wrote: ↑16 January 2026, 05:59

Archisian wrote: ↑16 January 2026, 00:45

stillframe wrote: ↑15 January 2026, 19:49 This is what a properly functioning rating system does. Unless you are one of a handful of the best players, the system will get you close to 50%. Win some games? Rating goes up, making it harder to gain and easier to lose. And vice versa when you lose a few. Working as intended.

So it's kind of one of those things where I accept my place? Like Bill Parcells said "You are what your record says you are."

That quote is just talking about the present skills, it doesn't mean you can't improve. Though I believe the point you are quoting is trying to say a proper pairing system should have players face similarly skilled opponents so that instead of your winrate going up as you improve the skill of your opponent goes up instead.

Yes, this is exactly what I meant. You are right though, the pairing algorithm may not support this outcome very well. In addition, it requires a large, active, and skill-distributed player population to work well, which does not exist for all games (but does exist for Wingspan).

do any games on BGA offer skill-based matchmaking without resorting to filtering by rating? Any games that if you queue up in Play mode and/or Arena will automatically avoid uneven matches? Pairing seems to be entirely based off queue up time only.

Swiss tournaments are a good way to offer skill based matchmaking since players get sorted by their rating. I recommend them for all skill levels.

Ceaseless wrote: ↑16 January 2026, 18:19 The tools for improvement are not mystic arts only available to some sort of elite group of players.

Well sure. Theoretically, anyone at any level could seek to improve their play. But realistically? I have forum channels for many of my games. Sometimes a topic will spring up about hearistics in a certain game. Only the upper echelon guys are ever interested in analyzing games. In my case, I'm not at that level. I can't participate in those discussions. I don't even understand what they're talking about.

I suspect most players just want to get on with it. There's little interest in earning a PhD in game science.