Board Game Arena

I haven't played 2p in a while, but I remember the economy being severely broken. It's too easy to manipulate desired tiles just out of buying range of your opponent, and there aren't enough players buying tiles from the master builder. It then turns into a crap-shoot about which cheap tiles happen to work best, or who happens to get that coveted outdoor room.

I know many people think 2p for any game is the ideal way for competitive mode, but this game just isn't that fun mechanically at that player count. I move that arena mode should shift 3p or 4p for next season.

The problem with 3 and 4 player modes in this game is that a player will get a huge benefit just by pure change if they happen to be the next player to someone who is really bad at pricing the rooms. I've lost many games but also won quite a few purely because a player is bad at pricing. (3vs3 and 4vs4 work much better if the players are roughly equally good at pricing).

Hence, 1vs1 makes a lot sense in this game, specifically IMHO. So I disagree with you in this regard. It is not a crap-shoot - the only unknown your opponent knows and you don't, are the bonus cards. Try to get your opponent to just a few $, especially when it would be your MB turn. Try to avoid the same position yourself - that's the twist of 1vs1! Also know when it is best to pass and take the 5000 (it's key to manipulate the distirbution of money, remember your opponent also gets none when you do this). In 1vs1 that is bound to happen (as the rooms are more expensive and the players have their MB turns much more often, paying to the bank instead of the other player(s). The outdoor rooms are equally lame(ish) in 1vs1 as in other modes, too (unless you get aligning bonus cards or very lucky with door placement).

Of course, all these effects - the portion of how much chance affects the end result will always average out over time. But in 3vs3 and 4vs4 the deviation caused by chance (caused by who happens to be bad at pricing, how much, and player order) is higher than in 1vs1 - they are the crapshoot if any (when playing with randoms).

The dynamics are different, it almost feels a whole different game depending on the number of players. It is OK if you don't like 1vs1.

That's pretty well-reasoned.
I'm also in the camp of really not-liking 1v1 at all, so I'll "make some noise" here in hopes that we get future Arena seasons with higher player-counts.

is there that many people to play arena mode?
I queued for hours for a real time game and no matches found.
I'd prefer the arena mode to remain 2p given that.

I agree with OP, its just not fun in 1v1 to constantly have both you and your opponent low on money and not buying anything. I avoid it at all costs.

I must admit it is a bit weird design choice the game planner made according to number of players and prices; the fewer the player, the price of the rooms goes up, while at the same time more money goes out of the circulation and into the bank (1/N of the players are always paying to the bank). OTOH on average more rooms are not sold and more coins are added to circulation this way, but I don't think it sets off the difference - but this is also a "balancing" mechanism; if people buy more expensive rooms or take passes, more money is being put to non-sold rooms.

However I don't know how much play testing they made while designing the game, and maybe it just is more interesting to play this way. It would be interesting to shift the rooms to the cheaper slots as a test / house rule (when playing the real tabletop game) and see how it works out.

The argument "no one is willing to play 2p in arena, therefore we shouldn't go to a higher player count" seems spurious to me: the 2p game plays very differently (and IMO much worse) than the multiplayer game, so I would not opt to play arena with those options.

I'm glad arena's 3p now, and i hope the data/playerbase keeps that or even goes to 4p, which is the version of the game that's the most interesting. The left-right binding problem is serious, but hopefully by the time one gets to "serious" levels of arena that's mitigated.