Board Game Arena

Goodness is not measured by how nice you are to your friends and family or how you treat others when you are happy. It is measured by how you treat newcomers and strangers, and how you treat others when you are not happy or irritated, especially when they are not deliberately causing your irritation.

On this basis there are quite a few tichu players that are not actually kind humans and some that are quite hostile to newcomers. Those that witness the bad behaviour and say nothing and/or remain friends with the culprits are nearly as bad as they are by effectively condoning their poor treatment of others. There are some that are hypocrites and live in an echo chamber created by themselves and their friends into thinking that they are nice people because they are friendly with each other, but this is not the true basis of kindness. Sadly for them, some will live long in denial.

After reading what other people say on other sites about their tichu experience on bga, I can say with full confidence that this site is not seen by many as a welcoming and pleasant place to play tichu - and I fully agree with their general experience.

From my first game in arena I was questioned several times with an unwelcoming, suspicious and authoritative tone about my account and what I was doing on this site, as if these people had officially been appointed by bga as gatekeepers of tichu. Since then the unpleasant has continued - mostly in arena games - where I have been outrightly blamed for some losses whilst in one situation the person attempted to hide the reason with a fictitious, flimsy excuse - that if true would have been obvious in previous games played together.

I have been red thumbed even though I made no more mistakes, or fewer, than my partner made and neither of us was really responsible for the loss as we had little chance really of winning the games (this is because most games in arena you either win easily or lose with little 'real' chance of winning - at least this has been my experience so far). I guess their fragile ego and/or sensibilities required them to blame someone, and that had to be their partner.

This all amounts to some rather unpleasant people who are sadly ignorant to their own lack of human kindness. Maybe they think that is okay because it is just in the virtual world and they can't see others face to face and see how it effects them, which is still ignorance. Maybe they are lacking something in the real world and that is why they spend so much time on this site playing a frivolous card game, taking it so seriously, and being unpleasant to others for no justifiable reason.

Justifying your poor human decency towards others (especially newcomers) by the need to win and be successful is just not actually justifiable.
I might understand a player red thumbing someone when their play is so bad and they make many obvious mistakes, but when another player does not actually make mistakes (mistakes are where a player could actually have deduced or calculated from known information the correct decision to make in a given situation) and makes no more mistakes than you yourself, then it is not justifiable.
You might say I can red thumb whoever I want for no reason at all, therefore it is ok, but that in itself is not a justifiable excuse from a moral or human decency point of view. You should really question behaviour in these situations before you start questioning others' behaviour.
Just because you do it in the virtual world does not mean it is acceptable.

However, if you are not actually one of the people (type of person) mentioned above, then good luck to you, I hope you can maintain your sanity and human decency while many others around you frequently show their lack of human decency and potentially drag you down to their level.

Good standards of human decency and consideration for others are harder to encourage, build up and maintain across societies than to look away and allow them to fall away. To stand by, do nothing, and watch them fall is almost as bad as to actively participate in their decline.
Good standards of human decency and consideration for others are the fundamental basis for any and every place for people to pleasantly co-exist or gather to spend their leisure time enjoyably doing something together.

I doubt this will stimulate any real change as most people who display a lack of human kindness to others (not including their friends) will say to themselves 'not me, I don't do that' or become rather defensive and try to justify their behaviour to themselves. But one can only live in hope, at least for newcomers to this site in the future.

what do you think is the purpose of lobby games and then what is the purpose of the arena mode? Feel free to provide your definition, i will provide mine here:

Lobby - the space for all the "why so serious? it's just a game" and "get a life" kind of players. You are new, you wanna learn the game, or you just want to kill time with a quick game of tichu? This is your space. If anyone gives you a hard time here, such behaviour is indeed worthy of condemnation. A 100% with you on this.

Arena- space for the competitive, experienced and ambitious players. Players, who want to measure themselves against the top opposition. Not an alternative to lobby games, when there are no open tables. Not your space, if you can't be around 50% true win rate and better (in bga, that translates to 75% win rate).If you don't have that, being asked what you are doing in arena is a fair question. Excuse me, but you don't have a right to be as bad as you want, join a team game and expect your partner to be thrilled by it. "oh hello, i am pursuing my arena goal here, but it's awesome that you joined, although now i have to endure watching in slow motion, how you are throwing a perfectly winnable game, and with it, my hard earned rank/goal/ambition/points/whatever".

Tichu is a 2v2 team game. You have responsibility towards your partner, and they have responsibility towards you. Demanding competence (not to be confused with the laughable 100 elo eligibility) to play competitively in arena, is, in my view, perfectly warranted. If you don't want to be liable for your erroneous plays, you should consider playing a different game or stick to the lobby games and polish your skills there to not get a red thumb for incompetence in your first arena game again. Everyone can make a mistake and we all do make them, but some type of mistakes should not happen at this level.

I am sorry if your experience in arena has been negative, i don't know your skill level, we have not played together in arena, but all i ask is for you to understand the other side as well. Good judgement in your games!

36-2048-N_138-2529-E wrote: ↑06 August 2026, 21:52 I have been red thumbed even though I made no more mistakes, or fewer, than my partner made and neither of us was really responsible for the loss as we had little chance really of winning the games (this is because most games in arena you either win easily or lose with little 'real' chance of winning - at least this has been my experience so far).

I might understand a player red thumbing someone when their play is so bad and they make many obvious mistakes, but when another player does not actually make mistakes (mistakes are where a player could actually have deduced or calculated from known information the correct decision to make in a given situation) and makes no more mistakes than you yourself, then it is not justifiable.

This looks like a red flag to me. Assuming you don't make mistakes and games that are lost couldn't be won are two assumptions that keep you away from improving. I reached almost anything you can reach at tichu and yet I recognize so many inaccuracies in my plays.

Oh wow - wanted to write something on my own, but I just agree with the 2 statements above to an extreme extent... and there is no way to like/up those - so THAT, in more words!

First of all it amazes me how some people take words in an online chat room so serious and get hurt that they went through and wrote a long post about human decency like our human decency is going to show in an online tichu game.
Are you really that fragile?
You can't handle a bit of judgement from your partner?
Have you thought maybe this game isn't for you or at least the competitive mode?
You are talking about Human decency about playing an online game which unfortunately your partner has to rely on.

I have been playing Online games since 1998 (Starcraft) and from 2000 era so many games played in real life environments in internet cafes.
We always used to banter to each other and have fun. Never really gotten into a fight and even if we did we would forget about it the next minute.
That is what losing in competitive gaming environments make you do- get angry and lose it, the real winner here is the one that can control himself and not get emotional over a game.
The amount of "judgement" that I have received from some people telling me how to act/talk here is the most mind blowing thing I have experienced in an online environment the past years but I promised myself I wont cause "trouble" dont give too much attention to it and just ignore and play.
(I read somewhere an idea of making Arena Mode Restricted to people that have a certain % win rate, let me tell you, I have blocked nearly everyone below 70% win rate in order to get decent games in Arena even though I have to wait hours before finding a lobby which is the big negative of all that but I prefer it that way).

Even when I was playing tichu on brettspielwelt I never once caused someone to say something bad about me.

I think the website and how it works plays a big role in all that.
People will report you for the tinniest little comment you might say in chat and moderators/admins will insta -karma you and warn you which on its own is a bad punishment since you can farm karma easily by choosing to play a fast game to get it back up.

TLDR; "Just have fun and not give much attention to people's comments in an online game".

PS: silentProtest that TLDR does not apply to you, you are a special case.

Also wdypmtf1 post was perfect. Kudos to you sir.