BloodSquirrel said:
This discussion is not progressing as I already pointed out. My argument remains unchanged in spite of your perception. Your argument has done the same. Neither of us has brought sufficient evidence to the party to convince the other side. The reason is simple enough - my argument is based on the fear of potential punitive punishment for leaving a game and your argument is based off the (presumably common) experience of having players leave the game early. In both cases, it's an argument born for an emotional response to a problem. Of course, my fear may be unfounded - it isn't as if I'm going to rage quit a game and then hop right back into another one after all.
To put this as simply as possible, while I recognize the validity of your argument and can understand that this avenue overs a potential solution to the apparent problem of pandemic proportions, I do not think it even attempts to address the root cause of the problem. It may be as you say: that the root cause cannot be solved and damage mitigation is all we can hope for. Moreover, it may turn out that the number of quits allowed is on the order of one or so a day, in which case I can claim no issue. If a game makes me quit twice in a day, I probably don't need to be playing it.
It is precisely that threshold that concerns me. Beyond that, if the problem is as widespread as this thread would make it appear, then it is likely that the problem is not a relative minority that habituatally quit games time and again; instead, it suggests that the problem is that many people quit the game sometime. If this presumption is true, I would hope my concern is invalid for the reason I already pointed out as delivering regular bans to a significant portion of the player base is almost certainly not a winning strategy for the game.
When all is said and done, in spite of the unusual spite this argument has drawn, I respect your position. I just don't hold the entertainment of others any higher than my own. You're in the same position it would seem as your argument is based on your entertainment being diminished. I have never been in your position in Halo but it's happened plenty of times in Dawn of War 2 or Battlefield or even Tribes back in the dark ages of dial-up. In some games the problem self corrects: battlefield allows people to join a game in progress for example. In others, the loss of a team mate lasts the entire round - I assume as a byproduct of the ranked game system. Besides, if there are many potential solutions to such a problem, I hardly think reaching for the banhammer, the weapon of last resort of moderation of the internet, should be the first or only step.
