Board Game Arena

I'm very new to this site and forum, what's the best way to find people to play a game? The live chat seems to be premium only and I assume they don't want the forums to be clogged with people requesting, so IDK what to do if a game doesn't have a table waiting for players. Is there a designated place for people to ask or something like that?

Create a new table.

I usually just have it set to automatic and the site puts me at a random table that matches my settings and has a free space.

Konkichi4159 wrote: ↑22 September 2026, 18:14 I'm very new to this site and forum, what's the best way to find people to play a game? The live chat seems to be premium only and I assume they don't want the forums to be clogged with people requesting, so IDK what to do if a game doesn't have a table waiting for players. Is there a designated place for people to ask or something like that?

Create table and wait, that is only solution now I'm afraid .
There was something additional before but it is no longer available. For some unpopular games you might wait for weeks to play your first game. Some people try direct approach, they look into game's players, see who is online and PM's them, or send direct invitation to table. That is not very common, and for cooperative games it won't even work. Because thanks to absurd policy cooperative games have no ranking.

PurplePrimula wrote: ↑22 September 2026, 19:55 I usually just have it set to automatic and the site puts me at a random table that matches my settings and has a free space.

And from what I have heard sometimes it puts you into not matching settings.

tarongot wrote: ↑22 September 2026, 20:17 And from what I have heard sometimes it puts you into not matching settings.

That's if you inadvertently have your settings designated as "flexible."

Meeplelowda wrote: ↑22 September 2026, 21:56

tarongot wrote: ↑22 September 2026, 20:17 And from what I have heard sometimes it puts you into not matching settings.

That's if you inadvertently have your settings designated as "flexible."

I wouldn't know. I almost never use that automated searching. I only said what I read other people reporting. And I know that BGA has many not fixed bugs so there could be one also.
Old fashion Lobby is better choice. Better control, it is from old BGA days so less chance to have bugs. I use it for years, and it works as I want.

tarongot wrote: ↑22 September 2026, 22:05 Old fashion Lobby is better choice. Better control, it is from old BGA days so less chance to have bugs. I use it for years, and it works as I want.

You're preaching to the choir. Look at my signature.

If there's already no people creating tables, what makes you think you could find a sizable group of people ready to play that game?

The problem is that there's just not enough people interested in playing the games you want to play. There's no way to magically change that.