If there’ss one constant in playing fighting games online, it’s that there will always be those unwilling to lose with dignity. Whether it’s decrying an opponent who only jumped and used fireballs, losing to someone who hit you with the same set-up over and over, or even—gasp—the horror of losing to a skilled player, there will always be online players more than willing to cut and run than admit they lost fair and square. Popular anime fighter Dragon Ball FighterZ has had it worse than most games, with rage quitting becoming a rampant, almost unavoidable problem. Until today. It appears Bandai Namco has finally dropped the hammer. Dragon Ball FighterZ rage quitters will now suffer some pretty extreme, but needed penalties. Hope you have good internet and don’t get accidentally disconnected.
The new anti-rage quitting system came via a game update yesterday, detailed on the online bulletin system that pops up whenever you start DBFZ in online mode. These hyped-up punishments are far more than a slap on the wrist. Players who intentionally disconnect will be cut off from online lobbies for a full week; seven days. It doesn’t specify at what threshold this punishment will be enacted, whether it’s after a single disconnect or multiple repeated issues. The developers also hold the ability to make this ban permanent for any player that can’t keep from spontaneously pulling their ethernet cable out from their console.
“If a player is found to be repeatedly engaging in the above behavior, the restrictions mentioned above may become permanent for that player,” though there’s no indicator by the patch notes here as to how or when the developer will differential between an intentional disconnect and someone committing the cardinal sin of playing a fighting game on WiFi. Honestly, even with the threat of false positives potentially happening, it’s a move that is very much needed and I commend the folks at DBFZ for just going all-in on the penalties. There’s only one deterrent for scaring people from rage quitting and it’s by the threat of taking their toys away.
Keep an eye out for rage quitters looking to get on the straight and narrow as we approach the release of Master Roshi in Dragon Ball FighterZ in September. Roshi wouldn’t cheat and neither should you!
