**I searched for a similar post with no success. Feel free to delete if this topic was initiated already** I know this has been addressed sporadically in other threads but I wanted to start a topic specifically for this issue. I think the only way to stop players from leaving intentionally is penalize them for doing just that.I understand things happen and players need to leave from time to time, as I’ve done before in the past. Thats not the problem. I’m talking about players that are losing legitimately and leave, screwing the rest of your teammates over while they try to join the other team or another match. Even with the newest balancing updates, switching teams is still a thing. If there was a way to track how many times someone has left during a match and once they exceed a certain amount in a given timeframe, they should be prohibited from entering an online match for a set amount of time. Is that a bit harsh? I’m not sure. But players that leave just because they are losing makes my experience with PvZ miserable. During some games, even being outnumbered, we’ve managed to come out on top. But the large majority of times, it has me enraged. Any ideas is this has implemented before in PvZ and if this is a viable option so we can try to eliminate the quitters.

@DeAtHaDDiCtiOn5I don't think there's been another post on this, though I remember @dwooten77 mentioning the idea in a more general discussion somewhere else 👍It's a good subject to bring up. A number of other games have an automatic time penalty of 10 minutes if players quit mid-match, preventing them from entering a new game & it might not be a bad thing.Speaking for myself, if I know I'm going to have to take a break or stop playing soon, I only enter a match if I'm sure I have enough time for it to go full length.If I had to stop for some unforseen emergency, then incurring a time penalty wouldn't bother me.I don't believe in quitting mid-game myself. It's a game - you win some, you lose some. I don't believe in bailing out on my team & have stuck through some awful matches for that reason - but if a game was so toxic I was tempted to rage-quit, then a time penalty is good thing to allow you to cool off.Interested in knowing what others think! ADDED: I do think though that if any such system was introduced, that the time between one game ending & another beginning should possibly be extended, to allow people enough time to make a decision & exit.And maybe the idea of a team-vote to concede the match could be investigated in extreme cases.

That’s where I’ve seen this subject brought up! @ToastedSarnie I also don’t jump into a new game unless I know I set enough time aside to complete it. Of course, with 4 kids running around and no spouse, there’s time family calls and I need to step away. Like you stated, if I received a time penalty for leaving, I’d be fine with that. Honestly, I think 10 minutes is not long enough and it should be a bit more substantial. I understand this could discourage people from playing the game but if they are habitual quitters anyway and get penalized for it, we don’t need them in the PvZ community anyway!My boys play Rainbow Six Siege and in Multiplayer Modes, you can vote to kick out a player for friendly fire, misconduct or any immature actions (or anything else for that matter) and I think that system in PvZ could thrive. For example: If we notice someone taunting and it’s happened to more than one player in the match, casting a vote to remove that player and possibly a reason for the removal would be beneficial. Just some ideas and I’ll respond to the other messages above when I get on my break. 😁

Unfortunately it's not really possible for to program solutions to penalize for certain human behaviors or use patterns, although it's certainly tempting to suggest such attempts.To play Devil's Advocate it you were to program in a substantial penalty for quitting a game mid-match, ostensibly in an effort to force continued participation, rather than seeing those quitting players continue to actively play you would likely either encourage those players to simply abandon the game for a time or you would promote "AFK" behavior where characters sit wherever they spawn until the match ends.In one scenario you wind up reducing the number of players in the lobby and in the other you have a player who selects a character but then doesn't contribute, just passively collecting a win or a token amount of XP, depending on the game mode. On one hand you wind up with smaller team sizes overall since slots could be left empty or you could wind up with full teams where some members aren't contributing, and therefore unbalancing each match, until they can leave "safely".Rather than penalize the behavior it works better to investigate why people are leaving mid-match and then seeing if that reason is something fixable- you can't fix when life gets in the way and you can't fix frustration due to a disparity in skill levels in the lobby but frustration over an unbalanced game mode or mechanic is something which could, and should, be looked into for fixing.For example, I myself steer clear of Turf Takeover currently because the combination of 8v8, reduced TTK and accelerated capturing of stationary objectives leads to a lot of frustration during certain sessions when playing as the defending team. I'd rather not play at all than feel obligated to stay in a match where the attacking team is clearly just sprinting through the map and we have no chance to stop them or properly defend.

@DeAtHaDDiCtiOn5 I agree that habitual quitters should maybe get a more severe penalty of some sort, but quite what & how I can't work out! I don't think it should be too severe for one-offs, as it's impossible to judge the reason.Kicking players by votes is something I've often wished for, but at the same time I'm wary of the idea as being too open to abuse. It might possibly work ok in 12 vs 12 lobbies, but in 8 vs 8 if there's a group of 4 friends who are not necessarily very fair-minded, that might be a lot tougher . . . Tricky!

@DeAtHaDDiCtiOn5 People leaving in a lobby can become very frustrating, and there is no punishment for doing so, unlike some other games. However, some people may get disconnected, the game may crash for them or they desperately need to leave or AFK for something. So, perhaps if this was a feature, you only would get punished if you deliberately leave or rage quit, rather than get disconnected, or the game crashing, or it's unfair to you! 🤔

Penalty For Abandonment! | EA Forums

14 Replies

TheSprinter85
Hero
6 years ago
@FRC_Foxman Many people don't particularly seem to care if they win or lose as much as getting vanquishes, so extra rewards for winning would be nice.
Perhaps a win in a regular PvP game could be 1 prize bulb and, for weekly modes, could be rainbow stars ⭐🤔?
realitysquared
6 years ago
@DeAtHaDDiCtiOn5 Thank you for the compliment to my writing. Part of my job involves writing documentation and training materials so I get a fair amount of practice.

I also wish that we, as players, could do something to address the idle players or those who aren’t contributing but the best we can hope for there is the ability to vote to kick players. That option is a double-edged sword though since it could be used maliciously by those looking to cause issues.
DeAtHaDDiCtiOn5
6 years ago
@realitysquared Well that explains the writing skills! What I’ve been doing is just blocking those people that don’t contribute at all and by doing that, I haven’t been put in a game with them since. Maybe that’s luck or a coincidence but I’m hopeful it’s working how it should. I’m not saying there are a lot of players being idle (I play on PS4, West Region) as most of the time everyone is doing their part. But for the select ones that think they can sit around and do nothing, they are the ones that need to find a different game to play.

Honestly, for the few games I’ve played that allow voting to kick players, rarely have I seen it used maliciously. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen as I’m sure it does but it’s a rare case for me to see. Normally players are getting kicked for friendly fire, excessive taunting, etc. so I think it’s worth the risk to bring this to PvZ. I love playing all the PvZ games and want to continue to play them so I hope we can work together as a community to help solve this and some other issues promptly.
CaniTouchChinz
3 years ago
@DeAtHaDDiCtiOn5 What, ppl supposed to stay and not "throw in the towel?" They should let you to continue to drink energy from them? If u won then you won. If ppl wanna quit let them

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