Practice vs Rated Games

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TheSeal

Initially I liked the new set-up. Now that I have been matched with a never ending stream of opponents who have similar ratings but don't know more than base cards, I don't like it any more. Could you please switch the appearance of the matching screen to put practice game at the top? I hope that may redirect some people who just click the first button they see.  Thank you.

tufftaeh

Umm... "Equal opponent" should ignore familiar cards! Do you maybe have no subscription? In that case I recommend to use "Wait for Expansions" instead.

TheSeal

I have a subscription to all expansions. The problem is that I am being matched with people who have a rating that is appropriate for "Equal Opponent". They earned that rating playing the base set. The matching is ignoring the familiar cards as stated. I do not want to play rated games with people who take five minutes per turn while they figure out the cards even if I will eventually win. That is not fun. I suspect that everyone hits the first button they see under "Find a Game". I think my problem would be reduced if the first button were "Human Opponent" under practice games. Hence, my request. Thank you for clarifying for the powers that be.

Rabid

How about letting those with subscription "wait for an opponent that also has expansions".


tufftaeh

@TheSeal: Ah, I understand now. You would like inexperienced players to be encouraged to unrated ("practise") games so you have a better chance of "equal" opponents playing faster.

While your suggestion might help a bit, it collides with the desire to have as many rated games as soon as possible in order to get meaningful ratings for better matchmaking (in regard to playing strength). Of course, the current ratings don't mean too much yet, and you're definitely right that there might be quite a large group of inexperienced players who have played mostly Base. The majority of these players will more often lose than win games with "new cards" and thus eventually get a lower rating, but if I understand you correctly, you are actually not referring to playing strength but to playing speed.

So a personal setting for "playing speed" would help you more, I think. You could set this to "fast", and inexperienced players (or players who like to think a bit more) could set it to "normal" or even "slow". That setting would then be considered in the matching process, possibly with a weight defined by the player as well.

Jacob Marley

Quote from: tufftaeh on 09 April 2017, 06:44:26 PM
@TheSeal: Ah, I understand now. You would like inexperienced players to be encouraged to unrated ("practise") games so you have a better chance of "equal" opponents playing faster.

...

So a personal setting for "playing speed" would help you more, I think. You could set this to "fast", and inexperienced players (or players who like to think a bit more) could set it to "normal" or even "slow". That setting would then be considered in the matching process, possibly with a weight defined by the player as well.

The problem with such a setting is enforcement.  Without some form of play clock*, these settings are ultimately meaningless, except to "legitimize" players complaining in chat when their opponent doesn't play fast enough for their taste.  Even if you are matched with others who have the same settings, there is nothing to say they have to play as fast as you want.  Frankly, with some complex kingdoms, even top players will take a significant amount of time at the beginning, and critical points during the game, to work out strategy.

Really, I don't think there is a true solution to this problem.  Some people will simply play slower that others want, and at the end of the day, as long as it is no deliberate slow-rolling, we just have to live with that dynamic.

*And we have had that discussion at great length without consensus on how to do it.