This isn’t for me, but for my friend who I try to play quick play with. He lives in a more rural area within the U.S, more specifically Michigan. Because of his geographic location and limited financial resources his internet access isn’t the best. I know that an internet connection is required in order to play any online functionality and he is able, some of the time. The issue is when his internet has a hiccup and he is dropped from the quick play session. When he is dropped he receives a “disconnect penalty”. I can understand the motivation in a competitive environment but why so strict in the more casual “quick play” atmosphere? He shouldn’t be punished for circumstances outside of his control in a game mode that doesn’t require any, if at all, such intensive commitment. He really likes the game too, he talks about how he has every Tracer skin in addition to a plethora of other hero skins. But when he is told he cant play with his friends or at all because the systems put in place are hard blocking him from playing, what motivation is there to even try. In turn it makes him/us want to play less because the game is more fun with friends. Asking him to play 20 rounds before the penalty is lifted is extreme, simply do to the fact that he can hardly get through one game, let alone two or three or twenty. These policies for quick play seem too extreme for a “free to play” game and I hope Development reconsider such harsh punishments for all spotty internet users. It’s not their fault. I’m not a game developer so I don’t know what goes into it besides “programing”. But software that can tell the difference between hitting Exit Game, Atl F4, an internet crash, and or unplugged system from power source in order to leave a match doesn’t sound too difficult to implement. I think punishing leavers is good, they need some form of repercussion, however not everyone is a leaver sometimes they’re just unlucky when it comes to their internet connection. Punishment based on luck isn’t justifiable it’s exclusionary. I couldn’t find any real support options about this in any official Blizzard help so i thought why not try here.
Tl:DR, my friend gets punished in quick play because his limited selection of internet providers, do to his more country settings, cause him to receive disconnect penalties when his internet spikes in latency.
But there’s the argument that those with unreliable internet connections make for unreliable teammates. Perhaps a different game would be better suited for your friend. One that doesn’t involve so many other people.
It is possible to determine if a client gracefully quits (e.g. presses the exit game button in the UI); however, all other forms of ungraceful disconnections are impossible to distinguish, nor be able to detect the intent of the disconnection. For example, it’s physically impossible for a remote server to determine the difference between your modem breaking, you unplugging your network cord, and your power going out. All three of these are simply seen as “The client is not responding.” It’s no different than if you are talking to someone on the phone and they suddenly drop. You as a person have no way to know why - did they lose cell signal? Phone run out of battery? All you know is that you cannot talk to the person anymore.
Unfortunately, because of this, you cannot distinguish between a legitimate issue, and someone abusing those unknown factors ot game the system. Therefore any loss of connection must be treated as malicious intent from the user’s end. Maybe your computer caught on fire, but maybe you also just unplugged your ethernet cable to avoid the penalty.
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All that said, I think the point is moot anyone. When you play an online PvP game with other people, you’re responsible for your connection. If it’s not stable, then you are having an impact on other people. I understand that in some parts of the country (or world) stable internet is not a given, but that does not make it okay for this to happen.
If your friend’s internet is so unstable that he’s dropping a considerable number of his games, then an online PvP game where people rely on you is probably not for him. But if he really wants to play that badly, there are other game modes that you can play that do not incur penalties, such as arcade or custom games.
Call me crazy, but I imagine your friend could make some changes and have less interrupts. Because I feel like if this was a Michigan problem, we would have seen more complaints of this flavor.
I’ve been having connectivity issues for upwards of a month now, so I just don’t play. Mainly because yeah it’s too laggy, but also, because if I get dropped… it’s inconveniencing everyone else.
I’m not saying your friend is a bad person or has ill intent, but if they’re aware issues like this might occur, and decide to continue playing, it’s kind of on them at the end of the day, right?
Last year, back when my computer was on it’s last leg before the PSU finally just died, it took me forever to load a map. And even when I did finally load in (usually just seconds before being auto ejected from the match), all of the character models were just blue/red glowing orbs until they loaded in a minute later. I decided to just stop playing this game until that was sorted.
They actually do just need an “OPEN” Q mode like it once was.
IDK. There are some people here that really do have a major competitive goal in Overwatch’s Quickplay. i get it. Some people want that level without having to go 3 rounds.
But im of the opinion im not too serious about QUickplay open Q being complete matches.
IDK though, serious gamers wont get on board with it ever and thats just why we all kinda dont get along anymore.
