Board Game Arena

I used to play sabs on bga years ago, I wanted to try again and now I only play on “silent table” which is ridiculous, the whole point if this game is communication, bluffs etc.

What’s happening??

How we got to silent
The 'maximum number of saboteurs' option was introduced because when there is one less saboteur it was way too easy for diggers to win and not fun for the lonely sabs.
As the Saboteur community got more experienced, it found that the best balance of diggers : saboteurs is with max sabs in 10, 7 or 5 player games (6:4, 4:3, 3:2). Since it is difficult to fill 10 or even 7 player games, 5 players games were played most.
When we got more experienced in 5 players, we found that 3:2 was still too easy for diggers to win, so to help sabs and make it more balanced, we found removing table talk in 5 player games makes it much more balanced (although diggers still have a slight advantage).

Other reasons for silent
Silent tables also make it easier for players on mobile, have a language barrier or just prefer not to chat with strangers and want a faster game. And throw in the fact that players may quit before the end means players are less willing to invest their time in table talk.
Playing irl of course the table talk is the main reason to play the game, but online players enjoy the game in more diverse ways and are more adapted to playing with random strangers.

My experience in silent
For me, the group of players I played with got so experienced in silent 5 player games that everyone:
- knows every card in the deck and counts how many of every card type is remaining
- can work out the saboteurs in the first three to five moves of each round based only on moves
- knows all the possible tactics and strategy
and as a result games are usually decided on the luck of the draw rather than the relative skill of the players.
Now I actually prefer to play the odd game with inexperienced players because it is more interesting.

I agree that silent games feel less fun because there are no opportunities either bluff or work together. This is why adding the extra goal cards from the 20th anniversary edition would greatly enhance the gameplay. With the possibility of there being a spider, the saboteurs have reason to build towards something. In addition, the miners cannot always just mindlessly build straight due to the possibility of going in the wrong direction. The plus 1 and plus 2 goal cards could also incentivize everyone to be more selfish in pursuit of gold.

bga should just have an option for silent / no chat for those players that want it.

Some just don't want to read chat or the fun of the game is solely figuring it out themselves without teammates.