Quitters making many gamers question their games... - RaychelSnr's Blog

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RaychelSnr's Blog

Quitters making many gamers question their games... Stuck

Posted on April 20, 2010 at 11:48 AM.

(12)

While perusing the Operation Sports forums yesterday, I came across a thread made by OS'er akula who was frustrated as could be with how online quitters aren't punished properly in online games. Being a man of the people, I decided to give akula what he wanted and to highlight an issue I've seen OS'ers bring up throughout the forums time and time again: online quitters and how to deal with them.

The problem is simple here: a lot of people decide to talk a big game before playing and if/when they start getting beat, they bail on the action to find a new opponent to hopefully belittle through the game. Now, I'm not going to explain why there is likely a psychological problem here, but I do think gaming developers need to start punishing these players while also offering options to gracefully quit early.

There are some drawbacks to going full-on Old Testament punishment on people who quit, such as some people being left in the crossfire. For instance, how could a server tell if someone quit or if their connection just died? Do you punish each person for each instance equally if the server's could never tell the difference? That's a problem, but I also think in the year 2010, dead connections aren't nearly as big of a problem as they used to be.

Bama83 chimed in with this comment, "My issue is that there is no "concede defeat" option. I tend to play with a lesser team, sometimes I'll simply get squashed. Playing 3-0 with 2 minutes to go is a bore and I just want to move on. I'd love to say: 'I lost. No biggie.'" Bama's idea is a good one, and I think all Online games should have this simply for the gamers who would rather be honest than dirty...I know there are several out there.

Another potential solution comes from OS'er, Str80uttaChicag0, posted a blog with a sample system which would rate players on sportsmanship. So when you are looking to make a game, you can see people's sportsmanship rating and determine if they are worth the trouble or not. I like this idea, and it'd help the community weed out bad players anyways. Plus, I could totally see a game forcing bad players away from the good ones by separating online rooms based on their sportsmanship ratings.

But now, it's your turn. What are your ideas to end the plague of quitters in online gaming? Do you punish them? Do you go Scarlet Letter on them by labeling them quitters? Are there options like the 'concede defeat' option out there to use? Let me know! This is only the beginning of a much longer look at online gaming's problems and possible solutions!

Comments

# 1 DETROITROB @ Apr 20

I have experienced my fair share of "quitters" while playing online. My favorite game is MLB THE SHOW 10. There are a lot of people there that like to quit in the first inning. It actually hasnt happened to me so far this year. Not only that but since I am a "sim" player, what type of gamer do I want to play? What I do to try and make sure I limit the amount of times it happens is this;( #1) Look at their stats..you can tell by looking at the various stats on their gamer card if they are legit or if they are likely to pull some bs on you. (#2) Look at their win/loss record, as well as the amount of times they disconnected or quit. 1-3 disconnects , you might be able to understand. I saw a guy with 27 disconnects the other day. He wanted to play..no thanks ! If I find guys that play "realistic, sim style baseball" then I add them and once I get so many guys, i mainly only play games vs these guys. Be careful who you play and your chances of having an enjoyable online gaming experience will increase.

# 2 Valdarez @ Apr 20

I never mind people quitting, as long as I got the win, and the game ends right there so I don't have to burn time finishing the game. Playing Company of Heroes, people would quit, after I decimated them back to their base and were able to quit effectively giving me the loss. It caused me to quit playing the game. There was no point in playing when your record never represented your true win/loss rate.

On a side note, not really applicable to sports games, but smurfing was just as big an issue in RTS games. Here's an article I wrote on smurfing years ago --> Smurfing in Online Competitive Video Games (if you don't know what a Smurf is, it's explained in the article).

# 3 elgreazy1 @ Apr 20

lol @ Smurfing. I've been on the crap end of that ordeal many a time.

As for quitters, I don't mind so long as the game penalizes them in some way (records, experience, etc). Regardless, after all players I face who quit early I simply go to my XBox setting and set them to Avoid and leave negative feedback. It may not do anything, per say, but at least it's something and I'll know never to play them again.

# 4 shadthedad @ Apr 20

They should do a last 10 game message board as well as a user rating similar to Ebay. It isn't brain surgery. All it takes is a little caring on behalf of the developers. It's the year 2010! Players play on-line. Make the experience worth it.

# 5 apps80 @ Apr 20

I've got to the point with Madden where if I'm ahead by two scores and have the ball I don't expect to be playing much longer. There are instances where I understand why the guy would quit, and like Smokez said, I've quit. It doesn't happen often, but there are things that will make me quit.
I agree that it almost gotten to the point where it's who can make the other quit first. Maybe 1 of 3 of my games actually finish, and that's being generous. I realize most of them are going to end in quits so might as well make him have to. I average 7-8 play drives, and I'm not looking to score on one play, so my scores are usually still close into the third quarter. If they aren't it's game over.
Sometimes there's not a lot of people online and people with high dnf % are all you can play. So even if you mark these people you still may be stuck playing them.

# 6 stlstudios189 @ Apr 20

I never quit even playing against the cPU I have lost by 40 points in a game on Madden. Online my scores are even worse ( I have never won an online game) Nascar was actually fun to play online but, quitters are everywhere in life.

# 7 CreatineKasey @ Apr 20

I liked APF 2k8's method of rating a player after the game. Yeah, people got mad and rated people down, but if you saw others you respected play the same guy and the rating was good you had at least some idea that you're getting into a game that will finish out. In Madden, Online Franchise has really eliminated quitting and added value to games. For ladder matches, one can review a player's game history quickly I believe and if they have a bunch of quits you can obviously just not play them. I do NOT like how you have to play out the game VS the CPU in Madden. It's boring.

Quick Hit football lacks a quitter function, so people don't get losses. It's hilarious. Guys have records like 19-0-218. The 218 are the quits. Unreal. I probably have 33% less wins than I should in that game because of quitters.

I'd personally be pretty harsh on quitters since I am not one. I'd go with the 2k system of rating players and add in a 15 minute wait before you can join another online game after you quit one beforehand. Yeah, it's not a lot... but it could help at least a little.

# 8 threattonature @ Apr 21

Quitters should definitely be penalized and has to a degree ruined online gaming to me. I play all games as fairly as I can. A lot of guys seem to try using the cheapest means they can to win and once they see it's not working will automatically quit out. Nothing worst than wasting 10-20 minutes for someone to quit out and for you to not at least get a win out of it.