There are a lot of people here asking for harsher penalties or bans for more people. I’d like to point out a few things for the other side…
First up, quit penalties will never fully work because this is not a place where people have no other life, this is a video game. If you can’t intellectually understand that then I suggest you buy a Wii and play Mario Kart. The community is made up in part of parents, firefighters and kids, people who don’t have unlimited and unfettered time. As a caregiver I’ll tell you that when a kid has an accident on the carpet, there’s no way that can sit for 25 minutes until the game ends. Sucks for you and your precious KD ratio, but true… When a volunteer paramedic or firefighter (I am the former) hears the call, there is no freaking way they are going to finish the game and then pull your butt out of the accident… And finally, there are a lot of gamers who don’t have full control over their lives, sometimes dinner is called, sometimes it’s the door, sometimes it’s a package, sometimes their dad is yelling about the dishes…
All of the above is a section of the quits, there is also a part of the player base which quits when losing, or when they get tired and just want out, this is the bad side of it. Unfortunately there really isn’t a way to separate them from the above group.
And then we have the disconnects, and there are a lot of them. All sorts of weird things interfere with connections and servers. In my house, it’s the heating and heavy appliances, because I run a powerline adapter so those things interfere when the washer is running. Wifi is screwed by microwaves, a lot of people are kicked because their sister decided to microwave some popcorn. Do they deserve a ban? No. And a large part of the time, 343i has server gremlins, just because you’re lucky in connections doesn’t mean others are, once again, sucks to be you and your KD ratio.
As as an alternative I’d like to see some incentives to stay, like increased req points and xp. This would not penalize people who are screwed over by life, and those who quit to another game lose out, simple self punishment. It’s like having a mental reflex to smack yourself every time you swear in front of grandma. But there is really no way to enforce a fair quitting ban system when this is a video game. Let’s have some positive incentives.
I agree with you partly… but if someone has to go to dinner for example, this should only be the 1st time they have quit that day… so they dont get banned anyway.
Without the ban I fear that the quitting situation could get worse.
But yeah I get where you are comming from.
Connection issues are the only acceptable DNF. Don’t put yourself in the position where you probably won’t have time to finish a game, it puts your teammates in a tough spot. Think about how quitters effect your games.
This argument has been tried dozens of times and has always been easily rebutted.
People do not get banned for occasional “real life happens” events. People get banned for habitual quitting. As long as you don’t play a round that you know beforehand you don’t have time to finish or quit every time things aren’t going your way, you are not going to be banned.
At OP, I understand most of the reasons that you have given can be quite legitimate for needing to quit a match.
But throughout my years of playing Halo since 2 the one thing that would alway put me off from playing MM was people always quiting, I am not a good player,
but I stick it out till the end even if I do get stomped on.
As for incentives to Not quit the game, there already is one, it’s called the completion bonus you get at the end of the match.
Maybe there could be an additional bonus for, say completing 10 matches in a row and no DNF/quiting, or getting a random REQ pack featuring armour/powerweapons/XP/RP points.
The above I feel would stop players quiting more than the Banhammer, but until 343i implement this type of reward system the bans are the only thing in place to stop players habitually quiting.
Set aside debates of the which reasons for quitting are legitimate and which are not, and you are still left with the fundamental truth that the banhammer is a failure. Swing it harder, swing it longer, swing it up players’ collective backsides, and you know what? It has no effect. Halo 3 banhammer = fail. Halo Reach banhammer = fail. Halo 4 banhammer = fail. MCC banhammer (bigger than ever before and coupled to xbox live rep smasher) = the single least effective tool for managing quitting ever created.
This is not an argument in favor of quitting. This is a statement of fact that it’s time to stop beating the dead banhammer horse and start looking at this problem with a fresh eye. Begging for a bigger banhammer is like asking for an umbrella in a hurricane. It’s pointless and only proves that people do not understand the first thing about what drives quitting or what can curb it.
I’m really tired of seeing some of the real life excuse for poor behavoir in the game. I see it in both the reasons why people don’t communicate and why they quit.
If you’re playing Halo and your kid spills their drink all over the floor - it’s YOUR FAULT. That’s your child you should have been caring for, not playing a video game instead. If you’re a volunteer paramedic - are you not ‘on call’? Surely they don’t expect you ready to go 24/7/365? When you’re day off? Just don’t play when you’re ‘on call’.
The killer point here is that you’re not banned for quitting once but multiple times.
I don’t play halo when my boys awake and home for reasons of giving him attention when he needs it. I only play if I have the time, if I was at work or had something that I would have to immediately drop the game for then I wouldn’t play as I clearly don’t have time. People trying to squeeze games in hoping they won’t have to quit are being selfish.
Game when you have time it’s not that difficult.
Server disconnect or actual unexpected life moments will not get you banned as they are one offs.
It’s sad that the ban hammer is needed but until people are willing to play the game the way it’s intended it will always be there.
For the record I have had 3 5 mins bans since the games been out
1 searching for a game went into xbox menu got distracted checked back to game ‘REMOVED for inactivity’ server lag out banned 5 mins
2 suicides on rig trying different map jumps ‘Removed for greifing’ server lag out again banned
3 suicides on colosseum in a 2 v 4 trying to hide get away banned
All were only for 5 mins and were my fault ex the disconnect.