Board Game Arena

I'm interested in learning how do red thumbs works in arena with multiple players. Red thumb prevents a player from joining a lobby created by a person who red thumbed, but does that apply to arena? If so, would it block other players who you red thumbed to arena lobbies you're in?

Druha wrote: ↑04 June 2025, 03:13 I'm interested in learning how do red thumbs works in arena with multiple players. Red thumb prevents a player from joining a lobby created by a person who red thumbed, but does that apply to arena? If so, would it block other players who you red thumbed to arena lobbies you're in?

Yes, it works in Arena. It is the subject of some controversy, and at one point BGA even announced that they were going to stop it from working:

This system can, and unfortunately is, used to prevent some players from competing against the best players. Considering that the Red Thumb system is being abused this way, on purpose or not, we will update the way Red Thumbs are impacting the matchmaking for the next season.

(emphasis added) Source

But they never implemented the change, so it's still a thing.

Thanks for the reply! I too thought that this system is very prone to being abused in both 1v1 player and multiple players arena. In a 1v1 case you get a very convenient way to pick your opponents by red thumbing good players. In games with more than 2 players, if I understand the system correct, a single player can block a red thumbed player from an access to the whole lobby.

This is a big issue in arena and making it nearly unplayable for me this season where I am struggling to defend a title I've held for 7 seasons where there is a smaller pool of players and I simply cannot get many games.

This is due to more and more players abusing this to prevent matches with the top players once they lose a few in a row and it is crippling in 2 player modes.

@lordlax said in the post referenced above from 2023, this would be changed for the next season. Can we get news if a change is still planned to be made as I'm sure I'm not the only one losing faith in Arena play

ELO System Updates
Post by lordalx » 13 December 2023, 09:41
→ Red Thumbs for competitive play
One last thing that is going to be changed in a few weeks will be the impact of the Red Thumbs.
You can currently give a Red Thumb to any player with which you had a bad game experience. This prevents you from competing against them in ranked games or the Arena, but not in Tournaments.
This system can, and unfortunately is, used to prevent some players from competing against the best players. Considering that the Red Thumb system is being abused this way, on purpose or not, we will update the way Red Thumbs are impacting the matchmaking for the next season.

How can Arena be considered a fair competition while red thumbing remains permissible?

If a player presents a significant issue, it is imperative that they be reported and subsequently banned from Arena for the remainder of the season.

Le007n wrote: ↑08 June 2025, 23:11 This is due to more and more players abusing this to prevent matches with the top players once they lose a few in a row

are you just guessing about this or did you confirm it in a way?

ribidilus wrote: ↑10 June 2025, 22:16

Le007n wrote: ↑08 June 2025, 23:11 This is due to more and more players abusing this to prevent matches with the top players once they lose a few in a row

are you just guessing about this or did you confirm it in a way?

BGA itself said it was being abused this way. It's quoted above.

"more and more players abusing" and "once they lose a few in a row" are your terms were their terms but not the one of BGA. But good to know, that you don't have any information about it

Edit: fixed mis-attribution

The problem with the Arena debate is I see it both ways.

Should you be able to specifically avoid players in a competitive environment? No, and like others I've found more and more players using the system this way.

However, I also know from experience, the reason I was red thumbing players, was because it's completely asinine to keep playing players who play for 45 minutes, quit on the last turn when they've lost, and void the game in multi-player games. These days Heat has solved this issue, by playing the game to conclusion even if someone leaves the game, but the vast majority of games do not have this implemented, and without this it's also silly to expect players to have to put up with wasting hours of their time.

Until, you solve the latter problem for more games, it's kind of untenable to stop red thumbs working for Arena, albeit the solution now exists to be rolled out for more games, so it could be implemented if they fixed this issue for more games.

A workaround could be "Red thumb" in Arena games means -> no messages allowed. Are there games, were messages are necessary to play against opponents? (Werewolf is one, but it really should be removed from arena)