One of the most annoying things players can do in multiplayer games is leave, suddenly and abruptly, in the middle of a match. It’s not too much of a problem in online games that support bigger numbers of players, like Fortnite or Battlefield, but for games with modes that require smaller numbers of players – a single quitter can destroy whole rounds.
The recently released Gears 5, for example, has three main multiplayer modes – and most require co-operation between small teams, where even just one missing player can ruin a match. Now developer The Coalition are taking deliberate quitters to task – and particularly rampant offenders are seeing bans of up to two years.
A few affected players have taken to Reddit (spotted by SegmentNext), such as ‘NoLifeDGenerate’ – who was banned for 640 days and claimed they were given “no warning whatsoever.” Microsoft’s director of communications Dana Sissons replied on Twitter, and he said “we looked into this person’s account and, in the last day alone, he has played 21 escalation matches and quit 18 of them.”
Sissons also took another player to task who had a similar ban, saying “he quit 18 of 21 matches today alone… his quitting ruins the game for the other nine people he was playing with.” These quit penalties apparently went active last week, on October 9. However, there is a temporary reprieve for these players, as tweeted out by The Coalition.
Quitters have been receiving month to year long suspensions for prior behavior.
This is how long you can be suspended for being a rampant quitter. Take heed.
Over the next few hours, impacted users will be un-suspended, but 1 quit away from suspension.
You have been warned.
— The Coalition Studio (@CoalitionGears) October 10, 2019
According to the developer, players who were banned for rampant quitting over the weekend will be allowed to continue playing – but are essentially on probation, as they are apparently only a single quit away from having their suspension re-activated.
Reaction from non-banned players to these suspensions has been generally positive – making it very clear that players who have had their games ruined by people quitting in the middle of a match don’t think very highly of the quitters.