Helldivers 2 director turns to community for advice on how to get meta-enthusiasts to stop kicking other players

Helldivers 2
(Image credit: Arrowhead Game Studios)

Helldivers 2's director has turned to its community for suggestions on how to stop meta-following players from kicking others.

Kicking players is a bit of a problem in Helldivers 2 at the moment. At the highest Helldivers 2 difficulties, players kick others if they aren't using a few Helldivers 2 meta weapons, such as the Breaker shotgun or the Railgun Stratagem. Helldivers 2's first balance patch last week attempted to knock both weapons off their pedestals, but apparently, it's been to little effect.

Now, Helldivers 2 game director Johan Pilestedt has turned to the game's player base to try and remedy the kicking issue. In the tweet below, Pilestedt asks the player for "design" suggestions for "how to improve this experience," and in the responses further down, there's no shortage of responses and suggestions from players. 

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"It would be helpful under 'recent teammates' to highlight the person who just kicked you, so you can block them in return and hopefully never get matched with them again," writes one user. "It's a good idea! I like it," responds Pilestedt with enthusiasm. 

"Under the cross-play option, have a toggle for preferred style. Either hardcore or fuck it we ball," adds another user. "Fuck it we ball" can be translated to a more relaxed play style here. "This is a good one, solve it before it's even a problem," responds the Helldivers 2 director.

"Would it be possible to apply a way to penalize someone for kicking x amount of times within a given timeframe, say someone has 10 kicks within 30 mins and gets flagged," proposes a player. Pilestedt also likes this, because it lets the game's team use in-game telemetry and data to solve the issue. 

"Thank you, everyone, for your suggestions! I will ask the team to look at this thread and draw inspiration," the director writes in response to the feedback. This is a pretty cool thing: the entire community coming together to discuss a hard-to-solve problem. Even though vote kick is the easiest, it has some downsides, and there is always a better solution," Pilestedt concludes.

Check out our Helldivers 2 Hunters guide for a look at how and where to kill the Terminid troopers. 

Hirun Cryer

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.