Board Game Arena

I have always thought about which are the worst and the better way to start chatting during a game.

I would like to say something about the worst way that is the extremely frequent "gl hf" = good luck and have fun.

I think we should forget it for 2 reasons.
1) totally useless: we are not here to suffer the pains of hell and I don't want to play and win with luck but with merit.
2) repetitiveness and lack of originality: it is unbelievable to see players clicking for thousand times on a standard and boring cliché or simply digiting gl hf while we could use an enourmous number of different words and expressions that say something about us and the thing that every human being really needs.

And the better way?

In my opinion is "joy (or peace) to you".
But someone told me that "ehi, how you doing?" is the perfect way to start any conversation involving the interlocutor to open up to a sincere dialogue.

I hope all players in BGA appreciate my effort to improve players relationships.

I always wish my opponents good luck. That way, when I defeat them, I know that my skill overcame their luck.

I generally play turn based games . . . and after I have played my first turn I type "Hello".

If the game is Carcassonne, I follow up with "Thank you for hosting our game" . . . since I am thrilled that I will have the privilege to play my favourite game here at BGA. Often I have waited anywhere from one to three days before I am matched into a game of Carcassonne . . . so I am very happy to finally get started playing.

My opponents usually say "Hello" back to me . . . and acknowledge my thanks with one of the happy meeple emojis.

This works very well . . . we get off to a friendly start . . . using the most basic greeting . . . simple and polite.

You mention "the thing that every human being really needs" . . . I suggest that we all need kindness.

And . . . I do appreciate your effort to improve player relationships here at BGA.

Thanks Janetta for your reply and support I have really appreciated.

I totally agree with you: kindness is crucial and is the basis of every relationship.

Unfortunately sometimes we don’t see it and therefore you are perfectly right to ask for it.

But I would like to make with you and other players in BGA another step forward on this path and suggest to evitate the same blocked formulas because they are so cold and I need to feel that I am here with a real person and not with a robot that want only to run a pc program.

That’s why I ask people to write what they really feel and possibly go on with the conversation, not only two words at the beginning and then bye at the end of the game.

Thanks for reading.

I prefer something like 'may satan take you and your meeples and I wish you pain and suffering for all of eternity if you win this competition '

We're not here for pleasantries but to crush our opponents.

As with your other thread, the problem here isn't everybody else in the community. It's your insistence that other people's comments can only be interpreted literally. As a result, you are unfairly presuming bad faith on behalf of other players.

Not everyone here is a native English speaker. Not everyone here types 120 words per minute. And, as is natural in any community, people start to adopt the norms of the community, which include 'glhf' and 'gg'.

Instead of assuming that every text box comment has been designed to irritate you, you could follow the Principle of Charity. Other players might be friendly. What if you were to approach every conversation from the position that they are, rather than that they are not?

I normally say, "Hi, have fun" or something of the sort. I usually leave luck out of it for some of the same reasons you dislike it. But if someone tells me that I'm certainly not going to look down on them for it. I'm usually happy to chat in more depth with people if they are interested, but am not going to force it if they never respond. I also realize some won't speak English, some are on phones that are hard to type into, so if someone doesn't respond we can play in silence, but I'll still generally type gg at the end, ignore it if you don't like it, that is fine, but don't need to tell people not to do it or doing it is wrong.

I always tell my opponent that I hope they almost win.

I prefer to say "Hello there" ... hopefully someone will reply one day "Obiwan Kenobi, you are a bold one" ... but never happened yet.
I sometimes add "enjoy the game" ... because some games are not about luck but about logics/tactics.

... and seometimes with people with smartphone I say "please pay attention to you internet connection"

As most of the people here are not not native speakers of English, it always seems very unpolite to me to just type some abbreviation. Also it says to me: Sorry I can't spare the time to write in complete words to you. So usually I just ignore the gl hf comments or answer with sidnsa