Board Game Arena

Hi everyone,

definitely not a rant but I want to express my feelings... I feel natural to say hello when I enter a room, a shop, and even online of course.

I started playing here a month ago... I noticed that usually players play well, in time and following the rules... But they don't even speak a single word. Not and hello, not a gg... Obviously they are not obliged and I haven't any expectation about a conversation. But I feel surprised about the absolute silence...

This evening, random play at a game, I say "good luck!". No reply. I win, I say gg. No reply. The other player propose to play again, I accept. He win. I say gg. No reply. Again, the proposition to play again. I rejected.

Definitely aware that all people are different and with the most varigated cultures and behaviour manners.

I'm happy to play. But happier when even a minumum of conversation is made.

End of my thoughts.

You may encounter someone going on a tirade in response to a "gg".

Hi Axios!

I normally play with friends who I met outside of BGA and we have discord chat going at the same time. So I normally don't encounter what you are talking about.

But, then yesterday I decided to play with BGA automatically selecting opponents for me.

I get what you are saying, because I would always want to write in chat, "thanks for the game" or something. Eventually, I just kind of stopped. It's not rude, but it does feel like the optimisation of instant playing we have here - that we do want - results in a loss of social norms, that I don't think we want. It's a kind of sad trade off we have here. I do want a bit of recognition that I am a human behind the screen who played with you, or whoever, but I also think the following way after finishing a game with an auto-selected player, "right, game done. Next!"

So, if I talk depends upon my display set up. If I have it set up as touch screen, it is too difficult to write and play. But, if I have it as keyboard I can write, but on some games that means it doesn't fit on my screen - example, SOLO. On my old laptop I could see all of SOLO in keyboard mode - but can't anymore. I miss talking.

I also find that if playing in Arena mode, people are less there to socialize and more to compete.

Saying Hello when you enter a shop, etc. is very culture-dependent. (It was quite hard for me to learn to do it when I first travelled to places where it's normal.)

And for me, it is not natural at all to say Hello to strangers in a game and then nothing else. If someone says Hello, I expect them to continue the conversation, and find it weird when they lapse back into silence.

Some games I talk a lot (if there's discussion-worthy gameplay; if they start talking off-topic and seem fun/interesting). Some games I say nothing at all and enjoy focusing on the game, or chat to another BGA friend not involved in the game. I NEVER just say Hello/Goodbye and nothing more, and I dislike it when my opponents do this.

I sometimes wonder about a 'willingness to chat' setting for player profiles, so you can set yourself as only wanting to play with silent players or talkative ones, or with any range between the extremes. The default is you're OK with any degree of chatting, and then players have the choice to restrict it

It's probably too big a faff to set up, but it would be nice to find chatty players for when you want games like that

ViolentSilence wrote: ↑26 June 2021, 13:43 I sometimes wonder about a 'willingness to chat' setting for player profiles, so you can set yourself as only wanting to play with silent players or talkative ones, or with any range between the extremes. The default is you're OK with any degree of chatting, and then players have the choice to restrict it

It's probably too big a faff to set up, but it would be nice to find chatty players for when you want games like that

yeah, but often in FFA games, I saw people tell what to do to make the best move like "you do 54w3w12 to crash at 2 (but was getting at 5 if wasn't helpping)" in a more than 2 players game. Feels a kinda helping people to do whatever what the best is for them and control them (easier done whit low ELO level), so, yeah, creating Kingmaking while speaking like that could make you just the master at everything, but, stuff like that, already than a kingmaking isn't great viewed normally by players, but whit chat!? This type of kingmaking could have a moderation on them.

i did saw in like 3 games or so, someone doing it whit a low elo player and trying to helping him, but was extremly close to us still, so why helping him. Like, if you like to help someone getting better, why not in a 1v1. Then you can tell, because, it's will bring good help, but never in a 3 players games or even more.

I do find it weird when players don't talk, but I've gotten used to it, and seldom talk myself. If someone starts a conversation I'm happy to say something, like nice move, or "ouch" or something playful, but usually don't get a response, so kinda stopped doing that unless they start it. For me I figure that there are a lot of non-english speakers, so that unfortunately discourages folks from chit chat. for the most part, we're not here to chat, but the shared experience of the game kinda makes you want to have some kind of interaction... it might be fun if you could have reactions to the log, but that might get annoying quickly...

When i'm playing on my pc it's easy to open up the chat and say a hello or good game back, when i'm on my phone however, it's nearly impossible to chat so i don't talk. Might look rude but the chat screen does not fit my screen properly


There might be a lot of reasons why people do not respond. Just enjoy the ones who do .