Board Game Arena

Bonjour, ou sont passes les gens sur le site ? Chaque jeu demande une eternité pour trouver des joueurs mais 80 % du temps il n'y a personne pour jouer...

Hello, where have people been on the site? Every game takes forever to find players but 80% of the time there is no one to play...10 years ago it was more simple

One factor might be that there are more games, so the players are spread out between them.

Another might be some of the interface changes which make the player experience frustrating in some ways, e.g. the old Play Now interface let you see all the tables for multiple games, but the new system is more opaque.

I'm definitely finding it takes longer to get games, but then the site is becoming more and more frustrating to use and a lot of people are talking about cancelling memberships (or have already done so) so I'm not surprised tbh.

My guess (no proof) is that there are many more games, but not as many more users as before, so each game gets on average fewer players. Then, longer waiting times makes people abandon less popular games and concentrate on the most popular ones. Probably something similar as what so often happens with the economy: the "country" grows, but the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

I agree with the reasons stated above. But also, a few years ago when they started "Arena" it basically divided the the players for each game into 2 halves, that don't see each other. The players who only play regular games don't see players who only play arena and vice versa.

Many of the old players you used to play against might still be active, but you will never see each other.

Wreckage wrote: ↑12 April 2024, 07:28 But also, a few years ago when they started "Arena" it basically divided the the players for each game into 2 halves, that don't see each other.

... and they were already divided in two (real-time and turn-based), so at the end we have 4 almost separate groups for most games.

The site was at it's best probably about 2019. Most changes in the last couple years are not good, or outright terrible. All I can figure is maintaining arena must take all the time of the entire staff.

GTSchemer wrote: ↑11 April 2024, 14:33 One factor might be that there are more games, so the players are spread out between them.

Another possibility is that it hasn't happened. That people complaining are those wishing to play games in formats that are not popular. As the games and formats expand it doesn't necessarily spread the players thinner but increases the number of players who struggle to find games and thus come to the forums (with an additional effect that players will tend to flee games where they cannot find games). I certainly have no trouble finding games and have noticed no change in how long/easy it is to find them.

manu2480 wrote: ↑11 April 2024, 14:23 Hello, where have people been on the site? Every game takes forever to find players but 80% of the time there is no one to play...10 years ago it was more simple

Do you know about the notification bell for real time games with a small player base? In order to find it, you have to use the new lobby on the game page. Let's say you want to play Squadro: just go to the game site https://boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?game=squadro and click on the bell to activate it (and click again to turn it off).