Part of what makes battle royale games attractive in a way traditional multiplayer games aren’t is how casual winning and losing can feel.Call of Duty: Warzoneplayers can jump into a match, be eliminated immediately, and jump into a new match in a matter of seconds. This style of play is understandably quite comfortable, but also is contributing to other issues inCall of Duty: Warzone. Players have recently called onCall of Duty: Warzone’s developers to begin punishing teammates who leave a match early.
In aWarzone’s solo queue, being eliminated and leaving a match is a straightforward process. WhenCall of Duty: Warzoneplayers group into squads, however, there’s more than just a single player’s experience to be considered. If a teammate dies early, there’s every expectation that they stick around hoping their squad can bring them back. Except, for manyCall of Duty: Warzoneplayers, patience isn’t a virtue. It’s faster to leave the match and start a new one, to the detriment of the team they left behind.
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A thread on the CODWarzone subreddit called attention to what they see as an “absolute epidemic” of peopledropping out of games too early inCall of Duty: Warzone. The creator of the Reddit thread says that around two-thirds of their matches result in a teammate being eliminated and immediately dropping out of the match.
Responses in the Reddit thread largely agree that punishments need to be increased for those leavingCall of Duty: Warzonematches early. There’s mention ofCounter-Strike: Global Offensive’s system, which will lock players out of starting a match until the one they were in finishes. Others call for more drastic measures, sayingWarzoneplayers should be banned for leaving a match multiple times. Others say that punishment should only be implemented for ranked modes, where a player’s rating can be dropped for the behavior.
There isn’t universal support for changes, though. OneCall of Duty: Warzoneplayer says that they leave teams that are poorly organized, dropping in different areas of the map, and don’t use voice communication. Another player mentions that a lot ofWarzoneplayers deal with game crashes and disconnects. They don’t want to be punished forWarzonestill having technical issues.
Then there’s the fact that Activision andCall of Duty: Warzone’s developerslikely want the game to remain an accessible, casual experience to play. The number of quitters may be acceptable, so long as they keep playingWarzone. For that, and other reasons, it seems unlikely that any changes will actually happen.
Call of Duty: Warzoneis available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
