Nintendo's Genius Strategy To Punish Disconnects

[Smash Arena]

I personally think Nintendo's implementation of an anti-disconnection system is by far the worst in any game I've played. So, today, I've been practicing online for a tournament that's happening in a couple hours. My roommate is still asleep at 1:32 P.M. here, so I'm being quiet, and it seems he's out like a light. In the middle of a match, he suddenly gets up and startles me, so I drop the controller and it pulls up the For Glory pause menu. I begin the pick the controller up and accidentally tap the A button, disconnecting me from the match which I happened to be winning. To punish me for my accident, Nintendo decides to hand me a 10 minute ban. I know that's not much to complain about, but the way it's implemented is terrible. What if I have to answer the phone? What if my brother just got hurt and needs help? What if there's a thunderstorm outside and I need to turn off the power? Is it really fair to hand out an automatic ban for all that?

Now I could see a short ban being reasonable if someone exited several matches in a certain period of time, but for one match it's ridiculous. And the length of the ban doesn't fit the 'crime' either. I could understand 5 minutes for a disconnect, but ten is out of the question. Some people don't have hours of free time to play Smash. Many people may only have 20 minutes to sit down and play a quick game, and when an accident happens, then they only have 10 minutes. Is that really fair to them? A single disconnect should simply count as a loss for the person who disconnected, lowering their online rankings as the penalty. Also, the single disconnect ban also prevents you from playing with friends, which is completely unnecessary. Are people really going to disconnect on purpose with people they actually know? No, if they do, they're going to pay for it later when they have to confront their friends.

All in all, I can say Super Smash Bros for Wii U/3DS has one of the worst online penalty systems in existence, and I doubt Nintendo has any plans on fixing it.

 

[blue_flavored]

I personally don't see the problem. There's no perfect way to fix it. If you have to leave in a hurry then just SD until the march is over. Problem solved, you get a lose like you suggested and the match is over super quick.

 

[Doruge]

What if I have to answer the phone? What if my brother just got hurt and needs help? What if there's a thunderstorm outside and I need to turn off the power?

SD twice. And maybe be more careful about what buttons you press.

 

[Smash Arena]

I personally don't see the problem. There's no perfect way to fix it. If you have to leave in a hurry then just SD until the march is over. Problem solved, you get a lose like you suggested and the match is over super quick.

I thought you get banned if you SD too much. Thanks for the suggestion, I'll take that if I ever end up having to leave a match again. I still think the online penalty system needs work, especially the part preventing people from playing with their friends if they're banned. It makes sense for them not to be allowed to play with randoms, but refusing to let them play with their friends is taking it too far.

 

[YELLO]

Not just that, but when you leave because the game is glitching or doing something its not meant to do you are still penalized for leaving.

 

[dahuterschuter]

I don't see why they'd punish disconnects at all. It just replaces them with an AI anyway, not like it ends the game and you can't play anymore. I am not negatively impacted by someone disconnecting in any way.

 

[Doruge]

I don't see why they'd punish disconnects at all. It just replaces them with an AI anyway, not like it ends the game and you can't play anymore. I am not negatively impacted by someone disconnecting in any way.

Most of us don't enjoy fighting level 1 CPU's. The 10-minute timeout is necessary to prevent people from disconnecting every time they drop a stock.

 

[blue_flavored]

I still think the online penalty system needs work, especially the part preventing people from playing with their friends if they're banned. It makes sense for them not to be allowed to play with randoms, but refusing to let them play with their friends is taking it too far.

I do agree with you on that. I'm not too sure why its like that either, unless Nintendo thinks disconnecting is a mortal sin or something.

 

[aquaticpineapples]

By implementing the 10-minute penalty, people are less likely to rage quit after doing something stupid. If you know that you will be penalized for disconnecting, it encourages you to keep playing.

 

[One Tilt]

The online timeout is a joke regardless, considering that it doesn't actually stop those who wish to DC. On the 3ds, one can simply remove the cart, and on the Wii U, one can unplug the console, which allows those who care to quit to do so while others who might accidentally quit or the like cannot without fear of penalties. Penalties that catch everyone except their actual target-- not exactly a solid design choice.

I don't much know nor care how it might affect one's matchmaking rating, should one actually exist, but FG is honestly quite the last resort anyway if you're looking for any real practice-- I almost got DCed for AFKing after the day's tenth flowchart Link nearly put me to sleep. I'd certainly advice against haphazardly leaving games on a constant basis like such, as it certainly can't be good for your cart or your console respectively, to say nothing of the ethics of someone using such to leave just because they're losing... Then again, outside of team games, it's not like your really ruining anyone else's game, either, so I couldn't care much less what you do with that knowledge. Whether you're skipping a laggy game, ducking out after an SD, or just can't stand your foe, I'm not losing any sleep over people leaving in any 1v1 game. Hell, it doesn't even bother me in some half hour game of Starcraft to have a foe suddenly leave, so why would some random, no-communication game of smash wasting mere minutes be a bother?

If Nintendo wants people to stay in games, rewarding people who do (instantaneous wins, a rewarding 'ranked' system, et cetera) would get them much further anyway. Timeouts don't correct the non-problem of leavers, it just makes the game that much less convenient. You keep people in games by creating a sense of investment-- whether they're winning or losing, playing has to feel important to keep people involved. Between the inflexible stage select, the lack of structured ranking, the nonexistent rewards, and the format itself being 2 stock and killing the comeback game for clumsy SDs or the like... But, as it stands, FG feels less engaging than a game of solitaire, barring the rare instance where you get a lagless game against someone of similar skill who actually stays and plays in a friendly manner for multiple practice matches.

Instead, we get a FG where people hope for lag to cheese through, where they change their names to profanities and leave the second a game ends, where SDs are met with taunts, where there's not even a chance of practicing on any variety of stages... but this went from mentioning a flaw in the leaver system to ranting at such a system being lazily clueless design to begin with. Don't get me wrong, I love smash 4... but FG just barely scratches the surface of what it should have been...

tl;dr: You can skip the leaver penalties anyway, making Nintendo's approach of punishment is all the more laughable-- though punishment on a game mode that feels like Nintendo 'throwing us a bone', rather than any actual serious competitive format just seems like insult to injury regardless.

 

[Dre89]

I personally think Nintendo's implementation of an anti-disconnection system is by far the worst in any game I've played. So, today, I've been practicing online for a tournament that's happening in a couple hours. My roommate is still asleep at 1:32 P.M. here, so I'm being quiet, and it seems he's out like a light. In the middle of a match, he suddenly gets up and startles me, so I drop the controller and it pulls up the For Glory pause menu. I begin the pick the controller up and accidentally tap the A button, disconnecting me from the match which I happened to be winning. To punish me for my accident, Nintendo decides to hand me a 10 minute ban. I know that's not much to complain about, but the way it's implemented is terrible. What if I have to answer the phone? What if my brother just got hurt and needs help? What if there's a thunderstorm outside and I need to turn off the power? Is it really fair to hand out an automatic ban for all that?

Now I could see a short ban being reasonable if someone exited several matches in a certain period of time, but for one match it's ridiculous. And the length of the ban doesn't fit the 'crime' either. I could understand 5 minutes for a disconnect, but ten is out of the question. Some people don't have hours of free time to play Smash. Many people may only have 20 minutes to sit down and play a quick game, and when an accident happens, then they only have 10 minutes. Is that really fair to them? A single disconnect should simply count as a loss for the person who disconnected, lowering their online rankings as the penalty. Also, the single disconnect ban also prevents you from playing with friends, which is completely unnecessary. Are people really going to disconnect on purpose with people they actually know? No, if they do, they're going to pay for it later when they have to confront their friends.

All in all, I can say Super Smash Bros for Wii U/3DS has one of the worst online penalty systems in existence, and I doubt Nintendo has any plans on fixing it.

If you have to disconnect for legitimate reasons like that you probably won't care about a ten minute ban

 

[Deleted member]

The real question is why you get banned for 10 minutes for disconnecting on purpose during a (timed) match that you can count the hundredths of a second crawl by instead of, I don't know, getting a no contest because of a communication error? At least you save around 5 minutes for those matches even with the ban time.

 

[Kornaki]

The real question is why you get banned for 10 minutes for disconnecting on purpose during a (timed) match that you can count the hundredths of a second crawl by instead of, I don't know, getting a no contest because of a communication error? At least you save around 5 minutes for those matches even with the ban time.

There is no lag in Nintendo land.

 

[Deleted member 269706]

Does anyone know if the bans get longer over time? Like if you continuously dropped matches, would it always be a 10 minute ban, or would the value grow higher over time?

 

[123outerme]

Does anyone know if the bans get longer over time? Like if you continuously dropped matches, would it always be a 10 minute ban, or would the value grow higher over time?

I believe that on dropping the 3rd match within a certain time frame (hour? day? idk), you're hit with a 30 minute ban. I don't know about anything after that. So it goes 10,10, 30.

 

[PKBeam]

just turn off your internet.
you get like a 10 second ban after 3 or 5 DCs.

 

[theflaminggamer]

I personally think Nintendo's implementation of an anti-disconnection system is by far the worst in any game I've played. So, today, I've been practicing online for a tournament that's happening in a couple hours. My roommate is still asleep at 1:32 P.M. here, so I'm being quiet, and it seems he's out like a light. In the middle of a match, he suddenly gets up and startles me, so I drop the controller and it pulls up the For Glory pause menu. I begin the pick the controller up and accidentally tap the A button, disconnecting me from the match which I happened to be winning. To punish me for my accident, Nintendo decides to hand me a 10 minute ban. I know that's not much to complain about, but the way it's implemented is terrible. What if I have to answer the phone? What if my brother just got hurt and needs help? What if there's a thunderstorm outside and I need to turn off the power? Is it really fair to hand out an automatic ban for all that?

Now I could see a short ban being reasonable if someone exited several matches in a certain period of time, but for one match it's ridiculous. And the length of the ban doesn't fit the 'crime' either. I could understand 5 minutes for a disconnect, but ten is out of the question. Some people don't have hours of free time to play Smash. Many people may only have 20 minutes to sit down and play a quick game, and when an accident happens, then they only have 10 minutes. Is that really fair to them? A single disconnect should simply count as a loss for the person who disconnected, lowering their online rankings as the penalty. Also, the single disconnect ban also prevents you from playing with friends, which is completely unnecessary. Are people really going to disconnect on purpose with people they actually know? No, if they do, they're going to pay for it later when they have to confront their friends.

All in all, I can say Super Smash Bros for Wii U/3DS has one of the worst online penalty systems in existence, and I doubt Nintendo has any plans on fixing it.

I agree. I was trying to play a match yesterday with some friends, but I had a 30 min bans for disconecting from a match ONE MONTH AGO. I had to leave until 9:00 pm and we never got to have the match. They need to fix that.