Playing video games online is a bit like the Tale of Two Cities. It can be the best of times, getting together with friends and shooting at random people online while having a laugh. It can also be the worst of times because some people find it necessary to be absolute cockwombles once they put on a gaming headset. One of the most aggrieving aspects of this untoward online behaviour, especially in team games, is when one player just doesn’t hold their weight. I’m not talking about lower-skilled players either, but rather the absolute pillocks who join a game, then sit twiddling their thumbs or doing something else while the rest of the team has to do what they can with a player deficit.
It’s something that’s happening in Apex Legends enough that it’s become an issue. It’s probably got to do with Apex’s three-player-per-team limit, which often requires playing with random people on the internet. Apex’s next big patch is going to come down hard on people like that. Respawn’s community manager Jay Frechette has laid out a list of things that the team at Respawn is looking at fixing in the next patch, and one of those is the scourge of piggybacking.
Because Apex is a team game, and XP is doled out to the entire team, you have people who log in, join matches and then just don’t play, reaping undue rewards. Says Frechette:
“Piggy-backing is when a player drafts off other players in the squad to carry them to a good position and level up faster but doesn’t actually participate in the match [meaning they never collect a weapon, fire a shot, don’t deal any damage, etc]
We had been seeing some feedback from players around this and have been doing some internal investigations looking at game data to understand how many of the matches being played are affected by this behavior.
After looking at the data and internal discussions, we’ve decided that in the future we’ll start instituting temp bans for players that exhibit piggy-backing behavior and extreme cases could lead to a permanent ban. This change will not be immediate but wanted to give a heads up to players so you can adjust that behavior.”
It’s worth noting that players who try their best but aren’t very good at the game aren’t going to be hit with bans, instead, it’ll focus purely on those who’re just trying to cheat the system and ruin other people’s experiences. Of course, this all seems like something that’s easy to get around with a few well-placed elastic bands…
Last Updated: May 13, 2019
Kikmi
May 13, 2019 at 15:59
I dont like seeing games apply high level control when it comes to any aspect of the game. Dont get me wrong, I’ve played many a game where people just dont pull their weight, but surely that concept in its entirety is somewhat subjective? You can objectively say what the games end game state should be, but the process to reach that goal is emergent in so many situations.
I’ve given and gotten tons of shit playing dota where I ^feel^ that players aren’t pulling their weight (or vice versa) but in doing so theres generally an explanation or a valid point when reporting or berating players. Can you really objectively without any reasonable doubt say that the way you play is the ONLY and CORRECT way of playing?
Look, if its competitive I get there might be more stringent rules applied but surely in a casual scope this is moot?
If anything they could add a kick player from squad, with citing reasoning, lets say via a multiple answer bullet list giving multiple occurrences, including but not limited to “piggy-backing”, though I don’t think thats even a good solution. I believe players are a bit too subjective when handing out bans, reports or warnings and the system can be abused by those either out of malice or pure stupidity.
I just rate give the players options not ban hammers. Can’t be that hard, surely?
HvR
May 13, 2019 at 17:18
hehehe … cockwombles.
Geoff doesn’t let his journalistic artistry shine enough.
Matthew Holliday
May 13, 2019 at 14:41
Totally thought you Memed Speed o’ Sound Sonic from one punch man into the header image.
Then I realised it was just the Wraith.
Yondaime
May 13, 2019 at 16:37
I genuinely thought it was Sonic as well, took me a few mins to remember that the wraith girl exists
CrAiGiSh
May 13, 2019 at 16:28
My fucking god …
BlinkFan
May 14, 2019 at 07:34
Wouldn’t it be much less effort (code) to just distribute XP according to contribution (damage, kills, enemy pings, etc)?