Board Game Arena

Posted: **02 December 2022, 11:25**

The new look when you start a new game or a rematch has simply removed all clarity and replaced it with confusion. It is also ugly and without any look or style instead of a clean functional style, but the looks don't much matter. Functional clarity is all we need. Please change back asap! It is awful.

(my first post after many years on BGA. It is that bad...)

Posted: **02 December 2022, 12:02**

It's inconvenient.
and.. layout is confusing.

Posted: **02 December 2022, 12:07**

Thanks for your feedback.

I should ask everyone to be constructive and specific here. General remarks ("this is ugly", "this is confusing") do not help us very much to figure out how to improve things, while specific remarks (which situation, which button, which action or series of actions...) allow us to reproduce situations and see why this could be issues.

Again: we want to move forward, not backward, so this is not very useful to post here if this is not helping us to improve the new lobby

Thank you again!

Posted: **02 December 2022, 12:32**

I thought I had made myself clear (functional design), but if you want more specifics, here:
- when I start a game or a rematch, I would like to see nothing else on the page, but clearly view this one game. Who has joined, who hasn't, what game options, is it possible to start, etc. I do not want to look at a lobby with other stuff on it, especially unrelated game starting offers. The way it still is when you go via play now.
- there is way too much on the page, it seems non-functional, confusing and unpleasant. I am not concerned with the looks, I just want straight focus on the relevant information.

Posted: **02 December 2022, 12:45**

nik592 wrote: ↑30 November 2022, 14:10
nik592 wrote: ↑30 November 2022, 11:41 ETA: Clarified with sourisdudesert that the mode I'm looking for (which is no time limit with friends only, not training mode) is only available in the old lobby.
OK, so the problem with this, now that I've explored it a bit more is that if I click "rematch" on a game, it takes me to the new lobby, and doesn't have that setting selected, even though it was in the game being "rematched". And from there, there's no easy way to get to the old lobby to select that setting. I found I had to click on the lobby, which was in Arena mode and I needed simple, then find my game and open it up and click View on the table. It'd be really nice if there was a way in the new lobby to view a table you're on in the old lobby straight away (or possibly even to have the old lobby as default while both are going to exist).

So much this. I play exclusively with family, and we have set tables/players. We exclusively use this feature, and in the old lobby this was one click. Now it takes so many clicks.

I love the idea of a new lobby, and the reasons they did it, but they missed. I also agree with other people that the layout needs improvement; the sections are way too big.

Posted: **02 December 2022, 12:48**

Yeah nah, please don't. Or rethink.

All the important intel used to fit on one screen now it requires scrolling down with heaps of underutilized space. The ELO thing provides less intel than ever. And rematches now require 4 clicks to accept ...

Posted: **02 December 2022, 12:50**

I just had a thought with the lobby. I realize that it would be a decent amount of work, but what if you made it "skinnable"? There are so many talented devs working on these games; I'll be a few of them could make some wonderful lobbies. And then have end users select which one they want. Have a default one, of course, but then have an option to select a different skin.

Posted: **02 December 2022, 15:19**

sourisdudesert wrote: ↑02 December 2022, 09:02 The best for you is to set "Game Speed" to the "Infinite sign" (= training mode). This way, there is no time limit, and no one is stuck in the game because there are no penalties either.

But why shouldn't I be able to get ELO from playing games with my friends, and we choose to potentially play slower than BGA speeds allow? I'd also ask why are people starting or accepting games with no time limit with friends they can't trust enough not to abandon them in a game? The no time limit mode is exclusively restricted to friends and warns people very clearly that if people stop playing, you won't be able to get out of the game, and people have the option not to choose it. And also, doesn't the 90-day timeout mentioned by another user apply?

Posted: **02 December 2022, 17:06**

How to enter the game chat before joining a game? I cannot find a DISCUSS button.

Posted: **02 December 2022, 17:49**

The new New Game page is not great. It's just a mess visually on a phone or even a browser.

This should not have been rolled out until restrict-to-group was supported. Under game options it now says

> This feature will be available soon.
> Tip: you can use "Invitation link" feature to invite your friends or a group in the meantime.

The beauty of restrict-to-group is you do not need to know who in the group wants to play. This is less functionality in a more confusing interface.

edit: please at least give us the option of using the old (and clean) interface to start new games until the new lobby has all the same functionality.

Board Game Arena

New lobby (integrated to game page)

Re: New lobby (integrated to game page)

Re: New lobby (integrated to game page)

Re: New lobby (integrated to game page)

Re: New lobby (integrated to game page)

Re: New lobby (integrated to game page)

Re: New lobby (integrated to game page)

Re: New lobby (integrated to game page)

Re: New lobby (integrated to game page)

Re: New lobby (integrated to game page)

Re: New lobby (integrated to game page)