Board Game Arena

I have a premium account. If my wife and I want to play with another couple that live together in another house, do they also need to have at least one premium account in their household to play with us? Or can I invite the 3 of them (my wife and the couple) in a game with me with them all having free accounts?

all 4 of you can play, you only need 1 premium account at the table. You will have to be at the table first for both of them to be able to join.

that is, if you want to play a premium game, non-premium games require 0 premium accounts.

nmego wrote: ↑12 May 2020, 11:20 that is, if you want to play a premium game, non-premium games require 0 premium accounts.

This is incorrect. All games have a restriction that requires players to be from different IPs. However, if there is at least one premium member at the table, this restriction is lifted. So, to play a game with two people from one IP and two people from a second IP only requires one of the four to be premium.


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And, the overly long explanation. Some of the game distributors were wary of granting licenses to BGA that allowed a group of people to play at the same location for free, rather than buying a physical copy of the game. This was seen as a bigger issue than just playing for free for most games, but not all. The solution was to restrict play that appeared to be at the same physical location to require a membership, and for some games require membership to even start the game. I am not positive, but I think I remember a comment from admins once that membership dues are shared with the distributors.

I do this a lot, with my family and my brothers family, only 1 premium account is needed.
It just comes up with warning messages about same IP addresses.

Thank you all for the replies! Very helpful!