Board Game Arena

So this is a very limited case scenario, but I'm just curious.

I play a game with relatively few players and a pretty small community. So I often see multiple people in my friends list "waiting" and then when I join, the game instantly starts.

But a few times I've noticed 3, or even 4 players in my friends list waiting at the same time, but the games not starting, or not starting with all of us together. I've asked them about game speeds (and setting to flexible), checked ELO restrictions, red thumbs, and as far as we can tell, it's none of those.

Could there be anything else missing? What kinds of things does BGA take into account when seating people at tables in Arena? Just seems weird to see 4 players waiting for a 4 player game and no game starting.

I think BGA has experimented with the following ideas, which may or may not be implemented right now, I am only speculating.
(1) Try to match players with similar strength or from the same league or from close leagues first, only if it doesnt' work (for some fixed amount of time, idk maybe 15sec, 30sec in real-time, probably much more time in turn-based), then match any available players.
(2) Try to not match the same players over and over again back-to-back. Maybe for some time searching for other players, only if not working then match the available players.

For both these things, not getting players of similar strength, and getting the same player again and again, there have been many complaints in the past. I think BGA tried something here without increasing wait times too much. But I am really only speculating.

ResonanceSM wrote: ↑29 October 2025, 19:55 So this is a very limited case scenario, but I'm just curious.

I play a game with relatively few players and a pretty small community. So I often see multiple people in my friends list "waiting" and then when I join, the game instantly starts.

But a few times I've noticed 3, or even 4 players in my friends list waiting at the same time, but the games not starting, or not starting with all of us together. I've asked them about game speeds (and setting to flexible), checked ELO restrictions, red thumbs, and as far as we can tell, it's none of those.

Could there be anything else missing? What kinds of things does BGA take into account when seating people at tables in Arena? Just seems weird to see 4 players waiting for a 4 player game and no game starting.

Well, it would be pretty bad if players could join each other in Arena of course.

but is that worse than sitting the queue and not being able to play even though you have enough players who want to play?

ResonanceSM wrote: ↑08 November 2025, 03:50 but is that worse than sitting the queue and not being able to play even though you have enough players who want to play?

Yes. If you want to set up a game with a friend, trying to do it in Arena is cheating. Arena was designed so players don't know who they're going to be paired up with. There are other options for setting up games with specific players.

I'm talking about people who aren't trying to cheat, but just trying to play. When you have low player count games, people are just going to keep playing each other. So when this happens, you have enough players, but nobody gets to play.

ResonanceSM wrote: ↑08 November 2025, 04:48 I'm talking about people who aren't trying to cheat, but just trying to play. When you have low player count games, people are just going to keep playing each other. So when this happens, you have enough players, but nobody gets to play.

Sounds like a good thing. If they want to play each other, they have access to places besides Arena.