The Destiny 2 PvP community is still coming to terms with the game's newly updated skill-based matchmaking, and now that Bungie's added quitter penalties to the quickplay Control playlist, the discourse is reaching biblical levels.
Bungie first discussed adding quitter protection to Control in a September 1 blog post, but at the time it only said that it was "going to be adding quitter protection to Control in a future patch." This change was positioned as a response to the rise in how many players were quitting – from 8% to 12% after the addition of skill-based matchmaking. Bungie also promised matchmaking tweaks which would give more weight to connection quality, as fans believed laggy opponents were part of the reason others quit more frequently.
This week, players quickly noticed that Control's quitter protection mirrors the penalties applied to Destiny 2's competitive playlist, temporarily barring players from the mode if they leave too many matches prematurely. If some sort of hardware or server failure drops you from a match, you can also be slapped with the same penalty.
The fallout from this change is multifaceted. PvP enthusiasts angered by the addition of quitter penalties have argued that Control, the go-to casual mode for most players, doesn't really feel that casual anymore between the double whammy of quitter penalties and skill-based matchmaking, making PvP more stressful as a whole.
Others have argued in favor of having the option to quit Control freely if they don't like a certain map, feel outclassed by their opponents (if they're a solo player facing a team of coordinated friends, for example), or are regularly losing fights due to lag. Likewise, some folks just want the option to drop the game if they need to tend to real-world problems (though you can still AFK for a few minutes in Control without being penalized).
In the other camp, players have pointed out that game modes like Gambit have had quitter protection for some time, and they welcome having it in Control because it should help reduce how many players leave matches early. As Bungie pointed out, quitting was on the rise and it was negatively impacting the experience of other players, so a response to this trend isn't unreasonable. And if you don't quit matches, you're obviously going to be bothered by players who do and leave your team shorthanded.
All that being said, penalizing quitting doesn't necessarily address the reasons people may want to quit, and this has reignited discussion over lobby balancing and map voting. Another recurring talking point is Destiny 2's unreliable mercy rule. This system is meant to end one-sided games early to spare the losing side some pain, but it often doesn't kick in until pretty late in a match – long after some players may have seen the writing on the wall and decided to quit.
Bungie hasn't really spoken about Control's new quitter penalties since September 1, but it did say that it hopes to discuss the change more in a future blog post. Here's hoping this week's update brings some context before the Crucible pot boils over – again.
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