Rage quitters will be getting their comeuppance with the release of Halo
Reach next month. Bungie community manager Brian Jarrard revealed
in an interview that Reach includes a feature that will punish those who
habitually rage quit out of online games.
Anyone who has played a videogame online for any extended period of
time, particularly a first-person shooter, has likely come across a rage
quitter. It's the term used to describe any player who quits or drops
out of a game in the middle of a session either out of frustration or
any number of other reasons. Doing so can lead to a lot of frustrating,
undeserved losses for the remaining members of the team the quitter was
on, as many games won't allow new players to join a match in-progress.
Rage quitting has largely been a sin that has gone unpunished in most
games, but after the implementation of the "A-Hole Button" in Halo 3
(which allowed players to easily mute other obnoxious or abusive
players), Bungie is now looking to punish those who would spoil online
games for others by quitting early.
Speaking with Xbox360Achievements.org, Jarrard explained, "I think one of the new things people
will be excited about too, is how we're going to be able to penalize
people who are habitually quitting out of games, which isn't exactly
cheating, but it creates a really negative experience for everybody else
in the game."
He continued, "We actually have new tools now to detect that and
eventually, people who do this habitually will actually be penalized. We
want to be able to remove them from the population so they can't make
everyone else keep having a bad time."
Jarrard didn't explain the extent of the punishment, but one obvious possibility would be a mandatory delay before being able to join another game after repeatedly quitting matches early. Would that be an appropriate punishment, or would something harsher be ideal? Let us know what you'd like to see Bungie do about rage quitters -- as well as what other woes of online gaming you'd like to see addressed -- in the comments below.
