70 seconds makes all the difference under the new Marvel Rivals approach to rage-quitters

Techno-loving hollowtooth Blade has joined the playable cast of Marvel Rivals, but he’s not what I find most interesting about the free-to-play shooter’s latest update. Developers NetEase Games have introduced a new system of penalties for ragequitters, keyboard-away-frommers, and other craven scumbags who abandon a competitive mode match early on because the dishwasher’s overflowing, or similar.

I find all this interesting simply because it’s trying to automate Justice and determine a disconnecting player’s good or bad faith, based on a bunch of dumb numbers. You can read about the update in full on Steam, but here’s a quick overview with fewer number tables and fewer intervening remarks about *squints* “Panther & Wolverine’s Sneaky Sounds”.

If a player disconnects during match loading, the ban/pick phase, hero selection, or within the first 70 seconds of the match, the whole match will be deemed invalid, and the disconnecting player will receive a points penalty that scales with repeat offences.

If a player disconnects after 70 seconds, and doesn’t reconnect before the match ends, they’ll be Naughty Stepped as follows: 1) If the match ends within 90 seconds of their disconnection, there’s no points penalty 2) If their team loses 90-150 seconds after they disconnect, they get a points penalty and competitive matchmaking ban, which both scale with repeat offences, while other players on the losing team get ranked point compensation. 3) If the match ends over 150 seconds after they quit, they’ll get a larger point penalty and comp matchmaking ban.

If the player who quit does reconnect before the match ends, and their team wins, they won’t be penalised. But if they reconnect and the team loses, they’ll get a points penalty… but no competitive matchmaking ban. Fickle and winding are the conduits of karma.

Similar rules apply for players who are detected as being AFK in the first 70 seconds of a match. Softer wrist-slaps are being doled out to those who pull the plug early during quickmatch multiplayer.

The most severe punishments are reserved for those who both go AFK and disconnect early during competitive. Damned souls indeed. But what if, what if that player was only AFK because they had to go administer the kiss of life to a postman, after the latter keeled over while delivering a crateload of community service awards, and what if that player then quit the game because they had to google appropriate post-resuscitation care? How are you going to distinguish a virtuous soul like that from somebody who came back from the kitchen with a plate of pickles and decided they’d rather watch Grand Designs anyway?

I’d love to know what kind of audience or playtesting informs the time windows, here. Why is 70 seconds the cut-off point for distinguishing between a player who noped out because their house has caught fire, and a player who has yanked out the router in fury because they got sneakishly dog-piled by Wolverine and Panther?

I imagine one consideration is how long it takes players to reach certain objectives or chokepoints on average. Another consideration is possibly how long it takes them to charge their Ultimate abilities – heroes passively gain 12 points of Ultimate energy a second, with different Ultimates requiring different amounts of energy. Fiddly stuff. Anyway, you are welcome to disagree with me that all of this is more interesting than Blade.