Guild Wars Mini-Interview #58
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Q: People who leave during cooperative missions and PvP battles are very common in Guild Wars. Will there be any penalties for this behavior, like loosing a certain amount of XP or fame?
A: The idea of penalizing (leavers) in some way, whether it's XP or Fame or Faction points, has been suggested from time to time. As a player (and non-leaver) I personally wouldn't mind seeing some sort of small penalty in place. The penalty wouldn't really hurt a player if he left just once in a while, but it would have an impact if he was a chronic leaver.
But then I remember back years ago, when I played every night with a really deadly combination: A horrible ISP (which timed me out for (idling) when I was in the middle of 4v4!) and an overclocked processor. I ended up getting disconnected many times a night. When I recall that, it seems that it might be sort of unfair for someone to rack up penalties when it's uncertain if his reasons for leaving are legitimate or not.
We've all run into the occasional player who takes off for silly reasons, like not caring for the party configuration, not having res when a team member dies, not liking someone's level of skill, etc. But as long as emergencies arise, doorbells and telephones ring, babies cry, or someone's connection is interrupted, then penalties will need to be viewed very critically before being put in place. I'm sure we'll be looking at this closely now and in the future.
