Board Game Arena

kaneaaa wrote:I'm really disturbed by the moves you are starting to make as a service, I have to be honest. I reckon what you're moving to is a two-tier service, widening the gap between the premium and non-premium users.

this is a ridiculous comment. how do you think the server gets paid for ? do you see how many games are being run 24-7 ?

Hi,

Well, everyone has the right to have his own opinion about "freemium", but just to make things 100% clear :

BGA will never give some direct advantage to paying members over other players to win a game.

It would of course ruins the spirit of the board games ...

I can say it another way : we're not Clash of Clans or Candy Crush...

kaneaaa was complaining over Lost Cities being premium over in the main discussions forum. I'm just going to go ahead and quote my reply since he/she never replied to it over there.

I haven't heard of any sign that will change down the road for Lost Cities. As for the membership, you've played over 4600 games in the less than two years you've been here, kaneaaa. Being a paying member for those two years would costs you less than 1 pence per game played. Isn't the service worth that? 4600 games played for the price of buying one real board game.

kaneaaa, you are certainly entitled to your opinions. And if you think the new changes are destroying the site, feel free to leave. Not trying to be harsh, but just kind of the reality of the situation. If you choose to start paying for this service that you use daily, great.

Also...

It seems the lessons of the French Revolution were not learned, after all... shame, as i used to be fond of this site...


The darkness is closing in to infect BGA.

A bit melodramatic, perhaps?

I've never played a real time Lost Cities game. I've never seen an empty seat. Every time a game appears, it already has two players sitting and about to start. The Play Now page doesn't seem to update in real time.

And I suppose if an empty seat was available, you then have to enter the lobby first because you can't join a game from the Play Now page. Game has probably filled by then. Not worth the hassle.

I guess I have to become a member. I'm still in my beginner's free phase but why isn't 2 & 6 month membership a sixth and half of the price? Drop those two to fairer amounts and you may get more members. Worth a try.

It looks like the reason why it's so hard to get a game is because there are standard users sitting like ninjas waiting for a club member to open a table. Unless you want to sit there and try to out ninja them, which is hard to do, you won't be playing Lost Cities as a standard user.

I can see the reasoning by wanting to give club members some perks but it just makes the average user who logs on for a couple of games basically rule this game out and future games implementing this idea.

I imagine this game would ordinarily be one of the popular games but it's in the bottom half of games in progress as it only starts when a club member wants a game. I can't say I'm a fan of exclusive table starting.

I started some games and i don't find players easily xD

chriswen42 wrote:

dzulai wrote:please implement Undo for Tzolkin (or to every game if possible)

Undo for Through the Ages would be great. They warn you that you're about to get screwed but by then you have no more civil actions left so you're screwed.

I agree! And even better--let's try to get the new version of Through the Ages (TtA) updated on the site

"The principle is the following: anyone of you can join a Lost Cities game, but only BGA Club members are able to create new tables with this game."

BGA is no more a free gaming platform.
We have 2 categories of players, with differents rights.
May be it is that you want, no problem, but it has to be admited as a fact.

"without invasive and off topic ad banners"
The constant 'Buy on Amazon' link is an intrusive advert toward a immoral company.

You earn money part of unpaid workers, we need to know about BGA organisation, ethic, and chain of decision-making, with official status for BGA... company ? association ? scoop ? open source ?

best regards.

Well, we are a company because we couldn't "legally speaking" be something else.

BGA introduced a kind of "freemium" model, but as +95% of the games are free to play, there is a big "free" and some very little "mium" here

We always made clear that this service exist thanks to volunteers, like many other services/companies in the board game world or in many other domains. This was the case since the beginning, this is always the case at now, and we don't want this to change because we think involving the players community is the best way to bring the best service to players.

By the way, we'd like to make Amazon link disappear, but at now there is no international board game shop other than Amazon to partner with. We are thinking of a replacement solution that would be better (and which would probably bring more money to this service, by the way ...), but we prefer to focus on games, like always

As for me, BGA is no more a (in french)
"super aventure d'ami bénévoles qui veulent faire un grand site de jeux de plateau en ligne, avec des bénévoles, et un revenu pour payer l'hébergement"
Ça y est, vous êtes une grande plate forme de jeu en ligne, et c'est tout à votre honneur.
Mais maintenant il vous faut prévoir votre métamorphose.

"We always made clear that this service exist thanks to volunteers, like many other services/companies in the board game world or in many other domains. This was the case since the beginning, this is always the case at now, and we don't want this to change because we think involving the players community is the best way to bring the best service to players."

Things've changed now, we dont work for players, we work for free for a company with its employees, and the company provides boardgames facilities to players. BGA is no more a free gaming platform designed by passionated gamers, but a business. That's not bad, that's not good, that's just a new deal. BGA needs now to make profit, at least to pay employees (1 for the moment) but not all workers. You're the final decision-maker, and the one you'll make profit with BGA.

We need at least to know your balance sheet. You may choose a more democratic model. It exists many.

But please, do not create disparity between accounts. Do better than other platform (in an ethical way, ban Amazon ) and unpaid workers'll follow you, or pay game developpers, that's another possibility.

Concerning Lost Cities, may be only premium members can create tables the 6st first month, then open the table creation to everyone... not perfectly egalitarian, but a bit better. But as far as BGA status are concerned (if there are any) you're the only one to decide.

As for me you cannot mix private business company and unpaid workers, there's something ... incompatible ...
Either everyone is unpaid and money pay hosting, meetings, and no personal benefits or it's an unequal business with hidden employees.
In theatrical show, in France, artists have to sign a special unpaid contract if you want, as a company, to earn money with there work without paying them.

Think of free and open source bussiness company. They earn money too, with another business model, or association that protect the code, and pay employees.

Anyway, not a big deal, I finish backgammon pro with Peyo for fun, and I'm free not to contribute anymore after that.

What is other unpaid worker opinion ?

May be I'm the only one who want to talk about this. I'm old, and still idealist ?

best regards.

Hubert