Premium membership not worth it. I'm canceling.

[Icebrg]

I have paid for a Premium membership here at BGA for many years. I don't really know where my money goes, but it doesn't seem to be going to improving the service. BGA is getting worse and worse. There are connection and server problems EVERY day. Many days I can't start a game because one I have previously played won't finish properly preventing me from starting a new one.
If I thought my membership money were going to make improvements I wouldn't think twice, but I've been around long enough to see that it is not improving. Sorry, I'm canceling my Premium membership.

[Meeplelowda]

I have paid for a Premium membership here at BGA for many years. I don't really know where my money goes, but it doesn't seem to be going to improving the service. BGA is getting worse and worse. There are connection and server problems EVERY day. Many days I can't start a game because one I have previously played won't finish properly preventing me from starting a new one.
If I thought my membership money were going to make improvements I wouldn't think twice, but I've been around long enough to see that it is not improving. Sorry, I'm canceling my Premium membership.

Have a good life.

Sincerely,
Premium member appreciating the 100s hours of enjoyment I've received for the price of one physical game per year.

[Oxmeister]

All fair enough, and we should all consider whether our subscriptions are bringing us value for money. Personally, I play on here every day, and it's thus excellent value for money given that I could spend the same amount of money out on the town inside the first hour. As I said though, I play almost every day, YMMV.

One small point to make is that a substantial portion of the subscriptions income is likely going to pay the staff & owners of the site, which is fine.

That said, I share I your concern about investment & issues - I do see a lot of investment going into new games, which is sometimes great (and pragmatically will bring in new players , so understandable), but I'd also love to see a bit more directed towards improving the bread and butter basic experience, server issues, responding to user bug reports etc too

If anything I'd probably be willing to pay more if certain features were offered in return, such as exclusive tournaments, or features that helped me analyse/improve at the games I play.

[oeconormal]

Thank You for your comments that brought me to new thoughts and for the opportunity to place them here.

Thousand premium members pay €3000 per month. That is about 2/3 of what an educator earns in Deutschland. And they are far underpaid. Employers usually claim that they pay twice as much for that position as the employee earns, which seems reasonable to me. (People in less developed countries might have popping their eyes out, comparing these numbers to average wages where they live. I'm sorry. Unfortunately people in rich countries don't understand that this unevenness they cause is driving the world civilization to hell. #earth4all)

One small point to make is that a substantial portion of the subscriptions income is likely going to pay the staff & owners of the site, which is fine.

As far as the owners are concerned it is not fine with me. While the staff is truely working for the good service we can enjoy here, owners (investors, shareholders,...) usually gain profits just for holding the money without really risking or contributing anything to the product. Since in Deutschland 1/3 of all income is such and similar gains, you need not wonder why most working people feel distressed and unsatisfied. BoardGameArena doesn't seem to be that kind of company though. But what you tell about the deterioriation of the service makes me not so sure anymore. My involvement here might just increase the profit for someone else.

[GTSchemer]

For what it's worth, a few of us developers (we are not BGA staff, just developers and players) have seen increasing reports about this "game stuck and not ending" problem. I think BGA is going to look into it, so if anyone has specific bug reports or other details to share, this might be a good thread to link them in.

[h_illes]

For what it's worth, a few of us developers (we are not BGA staff, just developers and players) have seen increasing reports about this "game stuck and not ending" problem. I think BGA is going to look into it, so if anyone has specific bug reports or other details to share, this might be a good thread to link them in.

ELO shenanigans!!!

[Lilly-Fee]

ich spiele nicht mehr auf BGA oder nur ein Spiel. ich bezahle nur für Etwas wovon ich überzeugt bin und die Fehler usw. dafür bezahle ich nichts. Das andere ist das es zwar viele Spiele sind aber auch nicht so schöne spiele dabei sind. Im Gegenzug die Spiele was viel gekauft und gespielt werden erscheinen hier gar nicht. Ich las einen Bericht das BGA Leute bezahlt die Spiele erfinden und dann kleine Verlage machen. Das kann ich mir durchaus vorstellen denn von vielen gibt es nur ein oder 2 Spiele. Das andere ist auch nicht gerade ein Aushängeschild für BGA. z. b. Hotel Austria ein tolles Spiel wird viel gekauft und gespielt das gibt es hier nicht. BGA machte ein ähnliches Spiel Hochsaison was für mich keinen spielfluss hat oder ich auch nur in Erwägung es zu kaufen. Wie viele andere Spiele. Noch ein Punkt. Ist man kein Mitglied dann muß man 30 sekunden warten bis das Spiel startet. Sorry das geht gar nicht und das mache ich auch nicht. Meine Lieblingsspiele wie Doppelkopf, alle Dog Varianten , Siedler und Puerto Rico ist für mich hier nicht spielbar da ich bessere ergebnise kenne. Was mich noch stört ist die Spiele immer wieder zugbestätigungen haben und Spielzugretourtaste. Für mich ist das KIndergarten . Aus dem Grunde spiele ich lieber auf anderen Spieleseiten wo es garantiert nichts kostet und nicht eine einzige werbung auf der Seite ist. Hier wird man zugepflastert was mir persönlich zeigt das BGA mit ihren 18 Millionen Schulden noch schnell an Geld kommen will. Ich wünsche mir das es verkauft wird den ab April wird Asmodee aufgeteilt in Schweden, Frankreich und Amerika. Ich warte guter Dinge . Ich versäume nichts und auch sollte ich gelöscht werden ist es mir egal ich hab meine 2. Leidenschaft wieder entdeckt das lesen. Euch aber ein gutes neues noch nachträglich .

[Hervor]

I currently don't have a premium membership but I have had one in the past. For me the decision to cancel Premium was not because I was dissatisfied but because I find that the normal membership is not that much worse and something had to be cut from my entertainment budget. That being said, I completely understand not paying Premium because the connectivity issues or similar issues are annoying/not worth paying for.
What I do not support is complaining about a free service.
Having to wait 30 seconds before starting a game is not the end of the world and I don't think we are being bombarded with ads. I don't have adblock, so I should see the maximum number of ads and never has BGA tried to sell me car or anything else beside the premium membership.
Concerning Asmodee's debt: looking at the embracer groups annual report 23/24 digital sales (which I assume BGA falls under) make up barely over 1% of Asmodee's sales. The vast majority of sales are physical products (98%). Therefore it is highly unlikely that the management expects BGA to cover all the debt and interest payment. So maybe we can stop panicking. BGA premium memberships are not going to have to pay those 18 mio.

[JoysJoy]

So how are all the other Tech devices in your world running? Any glitches on your Internet service and your cell phone? Have you noticed that the sun is in the biggest solar maximum we have since the 1800s?

Has it occurred to you that maybe the servers that BGA uses are getting hit by the same solar flares?

Have you thought about how much it cost just to have the servers for as much data as we need for BGA?

By all means walk away from the only possible board game site where we can play with each other. But to think that your three dollars a month deserves better? I think this is as good as it gets for three dollars a month

[YBAlex]

This is quite an interesting subject, even if I'm not really concerned about the price of the membership (3€/month is ridiculously low for the amount of hours you can play, compared to video games or movies), but I understand some people in lower income countries could find it expensive.

These debates about how the subscription money is spent could be solved by a transparency effort from BGA. It would be really interesting to see a detailed budget.