Their final moments might be funny to some, but rage quitters throw off the dynamics of an online video game and ruin the experience, all in an effort to either flip a finger to other players or preserve their progress in accumulating experience points.
Players of Blizzard's Overwatch may notice considerably less occurrences of both raging and quitting. That's because once a player reaches a certain threshold for games abandoned, they'll receive a 75 percent hit to future EXP.
Blizzard Community Manager Lylirra described in detail Overwatch's "Leaver" policy, leaving little to no ambiguity with regard to what makes a player a "leaver" and what becomes of someone who earns this distinction.
While Lylirra didn't reveal the threshold, the community manager indicated that the player's percentage is based on his or her last 20 games. The game will issue warnings to players who are nearing the threshold for the ratio of games played versus the games finished.
"The threshold at which the 75 percent EXP penalty will activate is actually pretty high," the community manager wrote. "Not only that, but you will receive a very clear warning message on the main menu if you are getting close to that threshold before any penalty is applied."
Because the penalty is based on the completion percentage of the last 20 games, players with a dark cloud of -75 EXP over their heads can shake off the curse by finishing games they commit to play.
The community manager also explained what makes a "leaver" and what types of exits are fine. One such situation in which leaving is fine is when the player has no choice because the server dropped the connection, but client-side disconnections are still on the user.
"If your computer drops its connection to the game server (due to any number of potential issues or hiccups), and this disconnect occurs either a) after 'Assemble Your Team' has ended or b) before you see the Victory/Defeat screen, you will be considered a 'leaver,'" Lylirra wrote.
Players who leave before the "Assemble Your Team" stage concludes will avoid being branded a leaver because exiting that early doesn't count as a game played. Leaving after the match will, however, count as a game played, which means the player didn't leave early enough.
However, leaving before the match ends and after the "Assemble Your Team" stage will mark the player as a leaver and will count against his or her ratio for games played versus games finished.
