Let me start by saying I understand the Punative Que. It’s to discourage poor player behavior - and potentially require them to re-earn their right to play the game at the standard level.
However - I think the current punative que is a little draconic - and needs adjustment.
Story time:
I’ll be honest, several months ago I was having a bad week. Add in the current state of the game and it’s player base - and it resulted in me getting a disconnect punative que mark on my account.
For those that don’t know - if you leave about 3 games in short succession - usually within a one week time frame (disconnect, or game termination) - The Hots system flags your account and you get put in the punishment que.
The punishment que results in you only being able to join Quick Match or ARAM - and you can’t get out of the punishment que until you WIN (as in achieve a full game victory) a quick match or ARAM match.
Here is the kicker - they state they will only match you with other people in the punishment que.
Sounds reasonable right? You dumped out of too many games - and now you need to re-earn your right to play with normal people.
Functionally - thats not how it works. After I took a break from the game - solved the external thing that was causing the bad week - and come back to the game to play - I couldn’t get into any matches. Functionally this was a blacklist. I sat in que for 25 minutes in one streatch waiting for one of these magic redemption matches. The punative matches never materialized. It didn’t happen. So I uninstalled HOTS and went to play other games.
Sounds like the desired behavior right? Bad players being ostrasized from the game. But this level of punishment doesn’t quite fit - its a little too extreme.
I primarily play quick match and ARAM. I’ve done only about 6 or 7 competitive matches in my years of playing this game - I’m a dirty casual.
In ARAM and quick match (especially recently - and definitely during my ‘rough week’ - It seemed like I ran into an obsene level of toxic chat - blatant botters - and game trolls. You know what I’m talking about. The feeder yolo’ing to throw the quick match. The ARAM guys who refuse to take the only healer - or a group of people who go double murky with an illidan. Or in quick match - the bots.
This kind of poor game state can frustraite a player. And we have all seen the argument - “If your not going to play, or give up - please just leave so we can get an AI.” In quick match or ARAM there are so many times I wish a passive leaver would just leave - to give the illusion of a functional game alongside and AI you can ping to stay with an active player. But nope - they sit at hearth and spew toxic nonsense at you constantly - and the blame game goes around.
This game is supposed to be fun - why are we being angry at each other?
In response to this frustration on top of frustraition - of bad games, toxic peoples, and obvious bots - I would just leave the match. Give the team an AI - rather than engage in bullsh* toxicity - and try my luck on a reasonable attempt at utter defeat a few hours later or the next day.
But that week, it seemed like every game was toxic trolls or bots in my game. So I left game about 3 or 4 times over the course of a few days (somewhere around 2 or 3 days.)
Then my account gets flagged. First time I’ve ever been flagged and I’ve been playing this game off an on since launch. It wa a suprise - and it clued me into the fact that maybee I was a little to flustered overall with the poor state of the game (and maybee some other stuff) to really be engaged with this kind of game community.
So I put HOTS down, and gave it a two week break or so. I come back two weeks later - and the mark it still there. So I learn this flag has no natural experation on it.
I start queing. First - its a 45 minute wait for an ARAM game that never shows up. Then a 35 minute wait for a Quick match that never shows up. Another 25 minute wait for another ARAM that never shows up. Blizzard sends a very specific message “your blacklisted”. Whether its intentional or not - its a soft - indirect ban. And I spent money on my account.
I had a bad week - I was considerate of the general prefrence of people in QM and aram (leave and give us a bot if your frustrated) - I didn’t spew out profanities or dive into toxic conversations - I left my games. I got my slap on the wrist - and I was effectively banned for it - and not even given the opportunity to participate in the redemption arc or a redemption game.
So I just uninstalled hots.
Fast Forward a few months - I reinstall - to check it out - try to que up - and after 10 minutes, finally get an ARAM match. Seems it takes a few months to get off the unofficial blacklist.
The match itself - was horrible. I was opposite one other guy - with all slots filled with veteran AI’s. The match took close to 45 minutes, hit level 30, and the AI is the AI. Their potatoe’s (but we love them anyway). I won my match, and felt very very sorry for the guy on the other side. He just slogged through a 45 minute match comprised of each team running 2 tanks, a healer and a murky on each team - with the players grabbing the only DPS available (I was tracer, they were nova). That was my first and only redemption game so I don’t know if they are all like that - but if they are - that is ludacris.
That guy now has to wait another 10-45+ minutes to get into another singleton game - just for the chance / hope of getting the rights back to his account - potentially an account that we have paid for in cosmestics and hero unlocks - not to mention the hours upon hours of contributing to matches to grind gold.
So where am I going with this?
This is not a proportional response to the offense in question. I personalyl did not quit or leave in order to cycle matches. I left my matches during my ‘bad week’ so as not to contribute to toxic behavior. Can’t say anything nice - just put it down and walk away right? Rather than be an immature toxic gamer git - and throw a match or badmouth my opponents - or force them to 4v5 an entire qm as I idled at hearth - I left the game(s). I gave them the benifit of least having an AI they could ping to try and salvage the situation because I made an adult decision to disengage.
And blizzards automated policy here is to blacklist you for effectively weeks in a very obtuse indirect way. Its a soft ban. Honestly - it would be a lot better - if in this case for first offenses - just ban a player for 5 days or so. Just mark that on the popup. “Your account has been flagged for leaving games. You cannot play in public matches for the next 5 days - You are still eligable for private games and games VS the AI during this time.”
There, clear - consise communication. And your not potentially loosing a player in a de-facto manner. Because potentially - you could never get a match - or rather - never get a match you could win in - when you get hit with this punative que.
This has so much potential to deal harmful damage to Blizzards brand. It’s nearly malicious passive agressive - neener neener - you may never get your account back - type thing - because I did the mature thing and leave the game - rather than be toxic and deliberately contue to piss people off by spewing toxic nonsense - or throwing a match by idleing.
But I guess that explains why you get so many people in QM and ARAM that just sit at hearth and just spew nonsense. The worst they will get is a chat ban - they ensure everyone looses the game (4v5’s anyone?) - but they don’t risk the punative que. After years it now makes perfect sense why they don’t bail and just give the team AI teamates.
Quiting out of Quick Matches or ARAM in favor of not being ultra toxic should not risk nearly 1 week to two months of non-playtime. I can see the issue being severe for a ranked playmatch - but even then - throwing a ranked match by sitting idle is less severe than quitting QM. Am I right?
Your incentivizing people to stay in - troll - throw games, and be toxic. Just to improve their odds of not being put into the punishment que. Do you see how this is a negative feedback loop. A frustraited player stays in the game - and dials up the toxicity - leading other players to become frustraited - and further increases the level of toxicity - all in the eventual punative que where it honestly feels like you can’t get any matches - and lasts indefinately. This is how you get ragequit uninstalls. This is how you really damage a potentially recoverable customer - and damage your brand.
Take out the arbitration entirely. Whomever that poor guy was that I finally landed a match with - I hope he finds another match sometime this month. Quitting out of QM and ARAM to give your team a bot so you can disengage and be mentally healthy should not be THAT costly.