Board Game Arena

I got negative Arena points for a win:

https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=449542561

How is that even possible? I am putting this out here because I received no response for the bug report in well over a month:

https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=107164

I am soliciting support from other users - if you don't want this to happen to you, please consider upvoting the bug report.

To BGA staff - is this considered normal and acceptable? Should I expect this to happen again? This has so many bad implications, starting with, why should I even keep playing Arena if my rating goes down even if I win. In any case, why has there been no response to my bug report so far?

Ultimately this is a potential problem if you don't restrict the "player level" range you're happy playing with. There's no point playing a game were you can't gain (which is anything more than 2 levels below you I believe). I'd also argue that this should be a default setting for that reason.

Ehrine wrote: ↑23 January 2024, 10:25 Ultimately this is a potential problem if you don't restrict the "player level" range you're happy playing with. There's no point playing a game were you can't gain (which is anything more than 2 levels below you I believe). I'd also argue that this should be a default setting for that reason.

I don't think you fully understand how Arena works. Let me explain. At the beginning of the season, your Arena rating starts from 1500, but it is not displayed, and you start from a lower league. As long as you are below the highest league, your Arena rating is 'masked' - you can't see it anywhere, instead a secondary level is displayed (consisting of your current league and a number from 0 to 9). This is the situation which you refer to; you cannot improve this secondary level against opponents 3+ leagues below you, so you do not make progress towards the highest league. But even in this scenario, if you play a game against an opponent 3+ leagues below you, the result will still affect your (yet invisible) Arena rating. Once you reach the highest league, your Arena rating becomes unmasked, and the secondary level is no longer displayed. From this point on, your Arena rating change is no longer affected by the opponent's current league and level, only their Arena rating (even though it might be still masked). Lower league opponents typically have a lower Arena rating as well, but you absolutely can gain Arena rating by winning against lower league opponents.

Now that's out of the way. Let me emphasize that I received NEGATIVE points for a win. There is a qualitative difference between gaining 0 rating for a win (which I am not happy about, but have learned to live with) and gaining negative rating for a win. Negative rating for a win should never be possible.

I upvoted

It is certainly a bug. However it might be hidden behind thousands of lines of code... and this might be the reason why you didn't get a quick answer...

gmrsmrt wrote: ↑23 January 2024, 11:59 I upvoted

It is certainly a bug. However it might be hidden behind thousands of lines of code... and this might be the reason why you didn't get a quick answer...

If that's the case, why don't they come out and say so? Also, if that's the case, it means it could happen again, right?

Just for closure: finally got a response for the bug report, yay! Although why I had to create a separate thread to get a response is unclear. I also never got my Arena point back. But at least the issue will not repeat, which is the main thing.