Endorsement system is great idea in general and it really brings a way of encouraging other players to show better behavior. But it has a number of flaws that were discussed on the forum a lot (some of them are really critical). And I’d like to point out something that is most important, but not mentioned usually enough (IMHO).
Endorsements system, especially endorsement level decrease, lacks explanation and are too cruel sometimes.
It’s hard to tell, why you were punished. It’s obvious when you loose endorsement level straight after leaving a match. But when you loose it after 3 good games (with 1-2 endorsements received in each) it frustrates a bit. The problem described in Endorsement Levels Actually Explained From a GM better then the official page. It says that it may be a result of individual report. But I don’t know for sure. It’s really necessary to explain what is wrong.
The cruel part I see is punishing for leaving. Maybe it’s just my incorrect opinion and misunderstand developers’ position here, but I believe that quick play is fun place without much responsibility, where I can play any hero in any way I want (play battle-only-mercy for example) and leave when I’m good to go. Wining or loosing here results only in additional 500 xp gained, and my leaving doesn’t really affect others in QP, because I’m replaced shortly. The only one who has drawbacks is me: I don’t receive any xp for the match.
That’s for QP only. In competitive play match leaving should be penalized. But there must be some limits too. As a programmer I know that:
- There is no code w/o mistakes, they just haven’t been found yet. I mean there are situations, when player are being dropped out because of something in game client.
- You can tell, when player left because of tech problems and when he did it intentionally (not 100%, but still)
I know that situation. Lately I suffered a lot of my notebook’s overheating (when I forget to plug in additional cooler) that leads to its turn off. So my first game of a day ended with shutdown to remind me about cooling. After that I fixed all problems and even reinstalled OS and the game on SSD, but I’m being dropped to game’s login screen w/o any cause. And it affects my endorsement level.
I understand, that’s my problem and you should somehow protect us from those players, who would plug out Ethernet cable if there wont be any punishment. What I suggest is some gap (1 leave per day for example) that doesn’t affect endorsement level.
Why it's so important?
One may say, that it’s just another number in your profile and some additional containers, don’t be so serious about that. Yes, you’re partly right. But.
Endorsement system is something the do really encourage players to behave better. Little example: “hi gl hf” and “gg” something I bring with me from StarCraft (“Old habits die hard”=). Just letters (that I see as prove of sportsmanship) meant nothing for my friend I usually play ow with. Endorsement system encouraged him to write it to opponents. And when he had got level decrease after a number of good games with received endorsements, it was like a betrayal. If it really was a report, why single report (that may be fake) can affect endorsement so much?
The one who is punished silently by endorsement system may not only stop trying to be better. He may start act even worse.
That’s the biggest threat I see here. And I hope it will be fixed soon with adding some warnings and explanation for endorsement level increasing and decreasing.
Thank you for reading and reply. Good Luck & Have Fun.