Board Game Arena

You don't expect that someone will play with non-international rules. You may not know that other rules exists.

On the other hand, I didn't know there was a such thing as "international" rules. I was surprised to see that on there. So I'm not sure why it's "unexpected" for someone to use non-international rules. I don't even know what that means. Since I'm in the U.S. I'd more expect that what's published here would be non-international. (I get that the site isn't in the U.S. - but lots of people on the site are.) The point is just that anyone on here could do anything, so I just don't see why that would be "unexpected," as though no one would ever do such a thing.

But the options of a game should always show, for the very reason that you don't know what someone might do. And those options do show in the section where all the info on the game is, so not sure what you're missing. The first invite I got had the 3-tile variant, which I didn't even know they'd implemented, but it was on the info about the game so I knew that variant had been picked.

There was an official change in rules in 2008. So if you didn't buy the game before the rules was changed you likely don't know that there was other rules than international.

In this case, there should also be a warning if rules are international.
I always played Carcassonne in real life with 1st edition rules, and I did not know there were new international rules, so the first time I played Carcassonne on BGA, I was very surprised !
At realease Day 1, BGA Carcassonne had only international rules available, and I think that 1st edition rules were made as an option because several players requested it, as they were used to it (and maybe, like me, didn't even know about international rules).

And, as said before, the options selected for the game are visible before the game starts, you know, on the left of the screen, below game speed, ELO ON/OFF, and with "strategic variant".

There is now a warning if the rules are not international (= standard).