Flags are chosen without any constraints by the user itself.
So it can be where you live but it can be a place you would like to go, a place you like the name, your favorite opponent place, whatever. Lot of players even didn’t chose one.
Which may lead to some confusion (like if you try to meet someone for ex.)
I’m fine with all that but i think to put the flag at the top near the avatar is a waste of precious space.
The flag is on the profile, and could be added to the game information too.
Edit: the flag is on the popup when you click the player name (thx @Feijoa)
I think the flags are nice. When I play someone whose language I speak, I sometimes chat in that language. If they’ve picked the wrong flag, well… no big deal. This use case is not important enough for me to check game info or the profile page though.
Two more thoughts:
people who don’t like flags don’t need to use them (maybe we can add a setting to hide all)
the flag should overlap the profile pic, so I don’t see us getting a ton of space back from removing it
I don’t think gaining one line is worthwhile. The screen of a phone is not square. And I like to see where my opponent is from without having to navigate elsewhere (and if I do so during a live game the system will consider me as an escaper).
Many choose a flag based on country of origin or residence. Personally I like to see them, adds to the flair of an international community and gives me a tiny bit (of potentially wrong of course) information about my opponents. All that is not really important of course, but I’d miss it nevertheless.
I also would prefer to not see flags on the game page and took measures to deactivate my own when they started showing up a year or two ago. I don’t want to imply that I’m somehow representing my country when I play a game and think it has added unnecessary political tension around here.
Sure, it’s fun to meet people from all around the world, but I can’t think of any situation where I’d voluntarily choose to display a flag when meeting an international group, except maybe to have fun on a couple of national holidays.
The flags are here too:
Another suggestion though - it would be nice if that popup, which has plenty of room, had the actual name of the country.
Oh so great! maybe you could share how you did that?
That’s wonderful! Then a “language(s)” input in the profile and the pop up would give a much better information as a flag. In many countries you have to be careful of which language you want to use, like in Belgium, Switzerland or like in Israel and some East European countries. Even inside USA (Spanish vs English)
In international meetings, people don’t generally display a flag but they may wear a badge showing their name and affiliation. So a good equivalent would be, instead of displaying a flag on OGS, to display a short sentence.
I have hidden them with my ad blocker browser extension (uBlock Origin). This was discussed before, I think in the context of hiding the prominent Ukraine-themed stone in top left corner.
