I’m curious in folks opinions here: What do you think are characteristics of a good game implementation on BGA? What things do you like, or hate, when you’re playing a game online? Are there certain games that you think do a particularly good or bad job at these things?
I am writing to the Board Game Arena administration.
When Ukrainian is selected as the interface language, players who have specified "Russian Federation" as their country in their profiles are displayed under the offensive label "Нацистська Педерацiя" ("Nazi Faggoration") instead of the correct country name.
This wording is genuinely present in the official BGA application. It is neither a neutral translation nor a harmless joke. It is a politically charged and offensive label applied to people solely on the basis of the country they have listed in their profiles.
What makes this particularly outrageous is that this wording is not displayed uniformly to all users and may go unnoticed by the very players it targets. I discovered this issue by chance. As a result, a player from Russia sees the normal country name in their own interface, while another user, under certain language settings, sees a derogatory label referring to that very same person.
Furthermore, some games are displayed in Ukrainian to players from Russia, while players from Ukraine see those same games in English. How can this be interpreted as anything other than deliberate provocation? It is worth noting that many players from Russia pay to use this service.
Board Game Arena sets standards of conduct for its users and prohibits insults, aggressive behavior, and the use of its platform for political conflicts. I consider this situation a violation of those very rules by the platform itself. I demand that BGA do the bare minimum: follow its own rules and treat all players with respect, without exception.
Regardless of political views or opinions on current world events, players should not be subjected to political insults by the platform itself. Insulting players does not become acceptable simply because the offensive wording is hidden in a particular language version of the interface and is not visible to some users.
If BGA genuinely upholds the principles of equal treatment and a zero-tolerance policy toward insults, this issue must be addressed immediately rather than ignored. The platform must demonstrate basic compliance with its own rules and show respect for all players, without exception.
I expect a public apology!