Players should be disincentivized to just leave a match without forfeiting, as this costs the winner time and is just generally toxic behavior. I have a branch of the requested change checked out locally and would like to discuss its implementation. I have attached the tests.
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Pending Leaving without Forfeiting has a double penalty for the loser
- Thread starter TheHiddenBidoof
- Start date
It happens too often for it to be unintentional. Making the person who wins have to wait is anti-fun game design.
Some are intentional, some aren't. Among the intentional, some are intentionally trying to make you wait, and some aren't thinking about, or even knowing that, you'll wait extra. Any change to penalize DCs will penalize some unintentional, some intentionally hitting a button but non-toxic, and some intentionally toxic.
Punishing the unintentional for something outside their control, for something unrelated to their skill, is pretty unfortunate. Being penalized in your skill score for something outside your control is also anti-fun. If we're going to punish them, we'd like a pretty big reward to make up for it.
We're historically not convinced, and I'm presently not convinced, that the reward is worth it. How much does the user experience actually gain? What percentage of games end in an intentional leave-without-forfeit? Definitely a minority of them. Among these, not everyone would be dissuaded by the penalty, anyway. Some people will still rage leave despite a penalty. (In my experience, the better players who care about their skill score more are less likely to leave without forfeiting.) And the time waste just isn't that large in the minority of games it's relevant. Especially since, if the game is so over in your favor that the other person is leaving, it's often easy to start another match while you're waiting. In the unlikely event your opponent comes back, it's often pretty easy to wrap up the game, even while you're playing another one.
Punishing the unintentional for something outside their control, for something unrelated to their skill, is pretty unfortunate. Being penalized in your skill score for something outside your control is also anti-fun. If we're going to punish them, we'd like a pretty big reward to make up for it.
We're historically not convinced, and I'm presently not convinced, that the reward is worth it. How much does the user experience actually gain? What percentage of games end in an intentional leave-without-forfeit? Definitely a minority of them. Among these, not everyone would be dissuaded by the penalty, anyway. Some people will still rage leave despite a penalty. (In my experience, the better players who care about their skill score more are less likely to leave without forfeiting.) And the time waste just isn't that large in the minority of games it's relevant. Especially since, if the game is so over in your favor that the other person is leaving, it's often easy to start another match while you're waiting. In the unlikely event your opponent comes back, it's often pretty easy to wrap up the game, even while you're playing another one.
Ok, that's fair. My ideal implementation would not see the winner receive any additional points, but the loser would lose more points. I think if I disconnected and couldn't get back to a game in time to avoid the penalty, I would see that as an unfortunate side-effect of a game mechanic that, in MOST situations, would be there to help the players. I've seen this implemented in other games before, so I thought I'd suggest it.
I appreciate you taking my suggestion seriously either way.
I appreciate you taking my suggestion seriously either way.