Hi all. Been awhile since I've posted here.
I wanted to note something that I believe is problematic. Basically, the playroom gets a new game or games. Barbu for instance is a great game.
However it requires at least 3 people, probably 4 for best results.
Now, that should be fine. However, because of successive updates to people being able to limit who can see their tables, join their tables, even contact them, this is practically impossible to achieve unless you are already in a group of people who plays together regularly.
When I see a few, very few tables of the new game being made, and instantly hidden, which the creators unmessageable because they don't wish to be contacted by anyone other than their friends... It's discouraging to say the least.
Of course I create a table, but waiting for 3 or 4 people to join is an effort often in futility. I personally don't prefer to use bots, as this is a multiplayer platform, but that often ends up being the only option.
Essentially, I am encouraging people to be a little bit more open. There are over 100 people on the english side at the moment. Maybe all of you already know everyone else and have your judgements made, but maybe not. If not, it would be useful if tables actually stayed open, and if people could actually play games rather than watching small, insular groups disappear spontaneously to play private, exclusive games amongst themselves. It sometimes feels less of a social game platform and more of a hundred small, contained gaming communities. Which is not what it was, at least when I was here.
Happy gaming and so on.

Unfortunately this is true and myself one of them honestly :D
I believe this was much more socialized place especially in 2014 and before, now can't remember playing with people i've never played before with at all. the thing is when keeping the table public, some try to play with new people some of them have language barrier and for whatever reason leaves in the middle or leaves causing losing etc, so much mess, this is one of the reason I avoid playing with completely new people.
that been said, if you saw me playing any of these games certainly you can pm me, you are in my friend list haha.
you can always check your friend list and pm them as well, friend list really one of the coolest feature.
good luck.

Hi,
same here, you can feel free to invite and we can organize something.
I know you also talked about the same issue with Citadels in the past, and I can't disagree. It's very hard to get a public game of anything with more than 2 people, unless it's 1000 miles. In fact, I don't remember the last time I played a public game of Citadels, Bouilabaisse, Hearts, or anything a little more involved with completely random people that I didn't know. It's usually with friends, as Fawaz said leaving in the middle of such a game becomes a mess quickly, even more so if it happens to be a team game, so even those who enjoy and like these games prefer playing with people who they know they can trust and who won't leave unless something important comes up.
I don't know what would be a solution for this. Most people reading the forum don't have this issue, i.e they don't leave games in the middle and speak English well enough to organize a game, so the people you are trying to reach won't read this.

:) I appreciate both of your replies of solidarity, and of course will reach out when I see you on. However, that does slightly perpetuate the issue, as we, or I in this case, am still staying within my friends list, I.E specific group.
I do understand the issues with people leaving mid-game though, and in general the reason the platform has shifted in the direction it has. I can't say I have a solution off the top of my head, and you are right that this probably isn't going to reach the... let's not call them offenders, but the problematic players.
Nonetheless, perhaps some discourse on the matter would be useful. I might not know of a solution, but I can't help feel that enough discussion might result in one, or part of one, and result in a more inclusive space. That would certainly be a good thing, no?

Completely agree with your post, The issues you pointed out probably make it harder for new players to enjoy the platform as well.
Group or team games can be tough to play with people you don't know as Nikola said but I believe we as a platform can be more open when it comes to playing 1 verses 1 or 3 player games. From personal experience, I've rarely had problems playing with a stranger 1v1.
The feature where one can limit who joins their tables I think contributes greatly to these issues. Many players have that turned on and I personally do not understand why. You can achieve the same result if you private your table and and invite who you want.
I can understand those who limit messages and invitations because some might not want to be bombarded with alerts but limiting who can join tables I feel is pointless and detrimental to the platform.
And of course, as you said, players need to be willing to venture out of their little groups.

Yeah, agreed. Removing the ability to choose who can join a table would really help the platform in integrating other people in here and helping them make friends and play.

The onus is on the person who creates the table and that is why they are the table master. If you want games then create them yourself and guess what you never know others may join you if you leave the table open with a couple of bots to spaire. A tip is to leave some empty bots on the side because people will think there are many at that table and could be more likely to join your table. If they see you and a bot they will think I won't join because there is only 2 but if they think there are many people they will be more curious to find out who is there. Many now just send random invites and never bother to ask you, in some cases they are just lazy as some can speak English so no excuse. I am wary of joining some tables where there is a llot of people because they speak their own language these days and of course I wouldn't invite in return because of the same issue.

A couple things here.
Firstly, keeping bots at a table in order to essentially fool people into joining might work, but that seems a rather sad solution. People should probably want to join to, you know, join. Not because there seems to be an inordinant amount of people there.
Secondly: We can indeed just create a table, and the burden is then on us to keep them open until we have enough people to play. However, waiting for an hour is not fruitful. Additioanlly, many join, don't respond to comments that we are waiting for more, and then leave immedietly. This necessitates bots to start, which takes us right down the same path we were at beforehand.
Thirdly: what is the problem with playing with others who speak their own language? The language they speak has no impact on your ability to play the game. If the only intent is to chat, then why join a game table at all? The idea behind a game table is the game, so it functionally shouldn't matter who is there or how they communicate.

If everybody has the same attitude I won't create a table because others won't join then nobody will join? If you look at people waiting for tables in the main room it could be 20 or 30 of them and I bet most people ar thinking the same thing.

It is off-putting when you get many texts when your playing especially in a foreign language, Cribbage is one example, especially when playing with 6 players. Most of the time that message is only between to people so they should use the PM option. Although, it is against the rules to write in a foreign language. If conditions arn't to your liking then naturally you play people that you enjoy playing against. If you hate the smell of a person who smokes say 30 a day would you sit next to them in a Café to eat something or would you move to another table? This is another example why you get more hidden tables. It is the same with those who are rude, use bad language or those that keep saying fast, fast etc. People will make there choice and that is the way of the world.

i notis that to on here and on rs games to

Edited by moderators to remove bad language.
I'll take this into consideration. I used to be one of the people that did it, but to be fair, some of the people's reactions are downright rude, and they act like we're stupid andd bad people for kicking them.
SO I was playing with a friend, and then someone joined and i just didnt feel like letting them play that day. SO I kicked them, and they private messaged me, like, *** you idiot *** idiot why did you kick me
But I am sorry and will try to be more open to people playing in the future.

Rory, if you don't want anyone to play, only your friend, why did you make the table public at first?

lol for real