Board Game Arena

I've come back to this after a year or two, used to love playing Can't Stop and other quick games. It was always pretty easy to get a game, in my experience. I usually had 10 to 20 games on the go, it satisfied my appetite.

Rejoined a few weeks ago, I now find it takes much longer to get other players. It doesn't appear as if the number has dropped massively, but maybe enough to explain some of it. But I also notice that my requests for a game vanish pretty quickly at times. I caveat this by saying my mental health isn't the best, but I don't think I am imagining it. Whatever it is the take up rate of games seems not as good.

I've also read the comments about the new interface, and I agree with all of them. Don't know how often you make changes to it but there's a lot of truth in the saying "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". It really is a dog's dinner.

This is clearly run by intelligent well meaning people, don't, go down the road of making change for changes sake. It never works, I used to run a play by mail company so I have some experience of this.

I think what happened is: Too many games, fewer players per game, they concentrate on the most popular ones.

Jellby wrote: ↑05 May 2025, 17:38 I think what happened is: Too many games, fewer players per game, they concentrate on the most popular ones.

I agree. It looks like Can't stop has lost some of its shine recently. I'd bet that mostly Flip 7 has taken over Also very popular are Captain Flip and Piraten kapern. If you'd like to play a little bit more strategic (but still very short and easy), you may try Symbiose.

Jellby wrote: ↑05 May 2025, 17:38 I think what happened is: Too many games, fewer players per game, they concentrate on the most popular ones.

Exactly that. Plus player split between arena and non-arena.

Faraway is another quick game with fast queue time for 2p. Either play or arena.

You could argue that players have found new fast games that are more fun than can’t stop.

Game dilution is certainly an issue for some games, but there are still plenty of games with steady player base.

For sure. More games spread out players. But. Can't stop for me was the first game bga introduced to me and probably many others. . probably why it was so popular a few years ago . I played it for awhile. Still do tourneys. But since then many many short, fun , More strategy games have come out. Symboise great example. Learn to play other games. Expand the horizon.