Board Game Arena

I am astonished that BoardGameArena has arranged that trick taking card games like Spades and Solo show the cards that have gone.

This is wholly inconsistent with the most fundamental of card playing rules - I fear that whilst the excellent site organisers understand all manner of games, they do not understand the ethics of trick taking card games.

It means that a fast skim-reader can look and see what's been played before they make their own play - and that's (in essence) cheating - but it is not against BGA rules.

But BGA seem impervious to such logic, and maintain that it's the way they do it .....

What prevents any player from taking notes in the comfort of their own home?

Nothing can stop players from making notes, taking screenshots or whatever they wish. It would, of course, take them time to do it, which matters a little when one is playing REAL time.

I have been put right, having been unaware until this evening of the great number that play turn-based. Here, it may be imperative to be able to see what's been played (recently, at least).
But my concern is with real time games.

If I open a table, I can control several settings & options ... why can't I choose to NOT show what cards have been played?
This is NOT against the core game's processes, but is consistent with the way it has been played for many, many decades by real people, at real tables, with real cards.

To NOT see cards-gone is CONSISTENT with the 'real game' in real time.

As Jellby said erasing logs does not prevent taking notes as it can be done with minimal effort. It doesn't take a lot of time as you think.
In fact many digitalized games are not 100% same as real-life games for various reasons.
Almost all games on BGA (including traditional card games) keep logs, and some games even allow live scoring which is hard or impossible in real-life.

JusterGame wrote: ↑28 December 2022, 22:57 Nothing can stop players from making notes, taking screenshots or whatever they wish. It would, of course, take them time to do it, which matters a little when one is playing REAL time.

Disagree. I just need my little 4 x 13 grid sheet and I just check a card with a pen whenever I see it. Pretty trivial and fast to do if I want to.

Tisaac - Your matrix needs to be a little more complex, since it also matters who played which card, and when.

JusterGame wrote: ↑29 December 2022, 14:03 Tisaac - Your matrix needs to be a little more complex, since it also matters who played which card, and when.

Still trivial.

Are you suggesting that card counting is cheating? I always took it as part of the game. I don't need to look to see the history of the game to know who played what. A good spades player keeps a register of sorts in their head and has a very good idea what the other players are going to play. Is that cheating?

The one thing that I like is to see the last trick. Sometimes I'm looking away when the last trick gets played on and the cards are scooped off the table before I can see who played what.

Totally agree with OP. It's a cheatsheet and ruins a huge aspect of the game, remembering what was played and not

What a lot of NONSENSE.

There are so many ways to CHEAT, but the LOG is not one of them.


I have a suggestion: Decrease the time allocated for each move.