I played a lot of Pokemon Unite over the holidays – something I do for a few weeks every year before I get bored of it again – and after just a couple of days I was already bored. The same thing worries me most about Unite always has bothered me about Unite since it launched three years ago: when people think they're losing, they leave the game, leaving their team with fewer players and no chance of winning.
If this happened once in a while it wouldn't be such a big deal, but it does happen constantly. Unite sends a message to your inbox whenever it detects a teammate has been caught idle (a coward's version of quitting) and since I started playing two days ago I've had 12 quits/idles . That's at least half the games I've played, if not more.
Forsaken is a video game epidemic
This isn't Pokemon Unite's problem (though it's certainly worse in Unite). I've had to deal with teammates dropping the game in Overwatch 2, Apex Legends, League of Legends, Destiny 2, and Heroes of the Storm. This has been a problem in every team game I've ever played, and I'm sure it's a problem in all the ones I haven't played. This nonsense has been around for decades and I really don't understand why.
Have you ever left a match before it was over? I'm sure this has happened to me before. I was probably stuck in a long game of Counter-Strike in high school and had to quit because lunch was ready. From time to time I had connection issues that caused me to quit the game. There are reasons why people accidentally or have no choice but to leave a game, so I understand why games have punishment systems for those who leave.
I don't understand why they are yes forgiving that people can constantly and freely leave games. There's a big difference between shutting down the Internet once or twice a year and logging off every time you're angry, but those things are treated the same.
Any penalty system confuses me, but let's use Unite as an example. Each player starts with 100 Fair Play points. If you leave the base or remain inactive, you will lose FP points depending on how long you are out of the game. Players usually lose five points, which is a two-minute penalty for AFKing. The maximum is eight, which you only lose if you idle the entire match. If a player is successfully reported, they may lose an additional ten points.
If you have less than 80 points, you cannot queue for ranked games, so each person can leave multiple games without any consequences. Players also earn two FP points for every match played, meaning you can simply drop two out of every seven games in the final stretch and you'll never be penalized. Of course, Pokemon Unite is free to play, so if you really get punished, you can just switch to a new account and continue terrorizing your teammates.
You can only earn five points per day, so you're limited by how much pain you can inflict on others.
I had to look it all up because the whole Fair Play system doesn't apply to me. I never leave the game. If the system changed to permanently block someone the first time they are inactive, it wouldn't affect me. I don't really think it should be that harsh, but why can't the developers see how close they can get to zero tolerance? Why are these systems so lenient?
Why are people leaving so lethargic?
People argue that you should be conservative with outlier penalties because some people often have problems with the internet and it's not fair to punish them for something that is out of their control. But they queued up for the game knowing they have bad internet so it's completely under their control. From the perspective of their teammates, it doesn't matter if they quit or left because their internet went out. Anyway, my match is messed up because of them, so I don't see why the penalty system would cater to this supposed group of gamers with bad internet. Especially if it allows all the bad actors to get a free pass.
People also argue that games can't liberally ban people because it's a loss of revenue. I understand that a banned account can't buy skins, but what about the other four people on that person's team who are having a bad time? I'm just not sure the math works out for that. If you give someone a break who is ruining the game for everyone else, everyone else loses interest in the game.
So, perma-ban descendents. Let's just try it. I know this will lead to complaints online. I saw how Overwatch 2 players reacted when Blizzard implemented the mildest penalties ever for leaving the game in unranked games. But hey, I still complain on the internet. We need a studio to be bold enough to say, “If you screw up your teammates' matches, you can no longer play our game.” It shouldn't be controversial, and if someone actually did, it would be the only game I would play.
Pokemon Unite is a free-to-play MOBA game in which two teams of five players compete to score as many points as possible before time runs out. From Pikachu to Greninja, use their signature moves and dominate the battlefield.
