Guild Wars 2

I will do my best to keep this brief, but given the fact that this happened to me simply because I do not have the best hardware for the game, I cannot guarantee brevity. I have read several forum posts on the dishonor penalty after it had happened to me in-game. From what I understand, dishonor timeouts are for those who afk or disconnect during matches (consecutively?), intentionally “desert” matches, fail to accept matches while in queue, or manipulate matches to their favor. I know that none of my “desertions” from matches were due to my own intentions of leaving a match. In fact, I do my best to return so that I can help those in my party win! It takes me an extra 3-5 mins to log-in, wait for the character selection, then return to the match, however by the time I arrive, the match is almost finished. Of course, all that my teammates see on-screen is my frozen “afk” avatar, when really I am NOT afk!!! And since that is what they see, they assume that I have “deserted” the match and as a result, they get penalized for it. Even if it is just a small penalty (whatever that may be). ANet, I cannot control disconnections. I am playing on a six-year-old laptop, and I do not have the best internet connection. And no, I do not have the money to purchase a brand new computer for gaming and install a brand new router for smoother internet connection. Bottom line: WHY must I be penalized for something I cannot control? And WHY must my teammates be penalized for MY absence? I know that the teammates I play with despise me for “afk-ing”. All they see is my “desertion” from the match and assume that I abandoned them. Then, any loss or penalty is suddenly my burden to bear, all because I have a potato computer and fickle internet connection! Is my account now “branded” as dishonorable? All I want to do is improve my PVP gameplay, ANet. Someone, please help me out here…

I will pretend OP is serious.

You ruin matches for other players because you cause extended 4v5 matches (regardless the reasons) and you expect no punishment for it? I mean you could just be driving broken car, cause accident, kill someone possibly and complain that this is not your fault because you don’t have enough money to fix the car.
Also players you team up with get punished because otherwise it would be abused (e.g. team up with other, if match doesn’t go well -> one logs off so other doesn’t lose rating -> this is match manipulation and is against ToS).

Actually it is literary within your control to upgrade your toaster and internet. If you don’t have money for it – stop gaming and go get a job, no offense, just a life advice (not to mention you can build a pc for like 400 euro, if not cheaper, depending on country, that can easily run gw2).

If you want to improve you pvp gameplay while still playing on toaster, i would suggest hot joins and dueling servers. You wouldn’t harm anyone there.

no one really cares why you DC from matches all the time, the system will penalise you all the same. as regardless of your intent the result is the same, you have made a 4v5 & ruined the match. anet isn’t going to block dishonour on your account, because the dishonour you are accruing is for legitimate disconnects. sure you’re not doing it on purpose, but the effect is identical.

also, to be honest since you know that you are going to DC it would be pretty easy to make the argument that it is on a level, intentional. as you know that you are going to DC, yet you continue to queue..

I will pretend that you were being objective and had time to think about your response first. I do not have a broken computer, just an old one. It is the internet connection that conks out, not my computer. A better analogy would be another car causing the accident while I try to maintain control of my own car, but end up flipping and crashing. When I come to, I’ve discovered that I have a bill to pay, for both the car and my medical bills. I understand why there is a penalty for afk or match manipulation, but for internet disconnect? That’s like punching someone in the face for losing or disabling a limb. I’m glad that you assume that I do not have a job and that I can build a PC, because all gamers have no jobs and can build PCs, right? And yup, I have a random $500 lying around the house to buy or build myself a new computer, I’m just using it for other things in my life like tuition and stuff. But, nah, the new computer is more important right now. My computer can run GW2, no problem, which is why I can play it. But, it does lose internet connection on occasion, at least once a day and sometimes, it is while I am in a PVP match. The penalty caught me off guard, yes, but it is still for something that myself (and many others) cannot control. Not all GW2 players have the luxury of smooth internet connection and fancy hardware. They probably share similar, if not the same, sentiments as I do in regards to the penalty. Since you were so charitable, I will take your suggestions and see what happens. Thank you so much for your kind response.

I have to agree with the other posters. You are doing your teammates a disservice entering unranked or rank pvp when you are clearly aware of your internet stability. Your internet stability is not Anet’s or your teammates’ responsibility. Your penalties are not only deserved, but should be sending you a clear warning sign that you are doing something wrong.

malisivo.5264:

I will pretend that you were being objective and had time to think about your response first. I do not have a broken computer, just an old one. It is the internet connection that conks out, not my computer. A better analogy would be another car causing the accident while I try to maintain control of my own car, but end up flipping and crashing. When I come to, I’ve discovered that I have a bill to pay, for both the car and my medical bills. I understand why there is a penalty for afk or match manipulation, but for internet disconnect? That’s like punching someone in the face for losing or disabling a limb. I’m glad that you assume that I do not have a job and that I can build a PC, because all gamers have no jobs and can build PCs, right? And yup, I have a random $500 lying around the house to buy or build myself a new computer, I’m just using it for other things in my life like tuition and stuff. But, nah, the new computer is more important right now. My computer can run GW2, no problem, which is why I can play it. But, it does lose internet connection on occasion, at least once a day and sometimes, it is while I am in a PVP match. The penalty caught me off guard, yes, but it is still for something that myself (and many others) cannot control. Not all GW2 players have the luxury of smooth internet connection and fancy hardware. They probably share similar, if not the same, sentiments as I do in regards to the penalty. Since you were so charitable, I will take your suggestions and see what happens. Thank you so much for your kind response.

Call up your ISP and tell them you are not getting the speed you paid for. If your connection is still kitten, switch ISPs like I did (made the very very poor decision of going with cricket for a little, got 30 kbp/s downloads before switching to cox and getting 6mb/s and a stable connection that doesn’t kitten up constantly)

By the way, if this issue is important enough for you to come on here and complain about it; its important enough for you to stick some of your hard earned money into fixing it. I bought this old thing for $400 in 2014 and I play gw2 on medium settings with a smooth framerate and never have issues such as yours.

The solutions have been laid out for you. Don’t expect sympathy if you refuse to take any of them.

Okay, so I took some time to think of a response because apparently my opinion isn’t popular here. Let me first restate my original stance. I was directing my inquiries to ANet, not anyone else, asking WHY my teammates were being penalized for MY absence(s). And also, there’s a distinct difference between disconnecting intentionally (rage quitting, trolling, etc.) and unintentionally (internet disconnect/crash). True, ANet may not be able to tell the difference between the two (even though they display a message to the players regarding the REASON for the disconnect), but other players are definitely able to. Believe it or not, DC players are getting a lot of flak for something they did not do themselves and for something they cannot control. This is something to be aware of, although it seems like most PVP players could care less. It’s okay to turn them into martyrs, so long as they refrain from inconveniencing gameplay, right?

My personal situation at home does not allow me to switch ISPs, buy new hardware, or make any other changes as freely as all of you suggest or as freely as I would like. Really, thank you for your suggestions; I am not at all seeking sympathy for my situation. I have already paid my penalty, long before I posted on this forum.

However, I do think that there has to be a way to “discipline” (why PUNISH those who simply want to play the game?) DC, AFK, and match-manipulating players (since they all MUST be lumped into the same dishonorable category) without penalizing their teammates as well. Why not add another player (waiting in queue) to replace the DC, AFK, or match-manipulating player so that the 4-man team isn’t left without a teammate? By all means, give the penalty to the player in question, if that will alert them to their wrongdoing, as you so aptly put, DaShi. But, allow the team to continue as a 5-man team, just with another player. It can work for Snowball Mayhem, so why not PVP? Or at least unranked PVP?

Now, I’m not asking for a free pass because I feel “wronged”. But, I want to bring awareness, however futile my attempt may be, to this situation since I’m not the ONLY ONE. Thank you, Cynz, choovanski, DaShi, and Gretzel for responding to my post. I apologize for any quips I made prior to this response. Please don’t take any of the comments personally.

Interpretor, please read before you make a comment. I’m not complaining about my internet connection. I’ve never queued in ranked PVP. I’m asking ANet if there’s any way to find a solution to PVP matches whenever players DC. Perhaps replacing the DC player with another in queue, then the match can continue. Why penalize the team with a loss? I’m not the only one with this “complaint”. It’s all over this forum, but since I write longer comments, it’s regarded as “complaining”. Grow up and think before responding insensitively.

Excelsior.

Why do you create all this mess? To be short: You do not meet the requirements of an online game: Staying online. Period. The system handing out penalties is automated and that’s the most objective way.

I play online games since 2007 and, apart from NEXON games, I do not disconnect with 2 different ISP. I always wonder what people do to frequently lose connection. Do you have contracts with phone companies that interrupt your calls frequently? Or your power supplier – two blackouts a day is okay? No?

Please, I have this in LoL enough: People play on UMTS or bad connections, bad PCs, whatever. Don’t. If you can’t play, don’t play. As simple as that. I even played from various hotels when I were on seminars all over Germany and said hotels had for example over 140 rooms and still fine connected over a far away router in the hallway 20 rooms away…

malisivo.5264:

Interpretor, please read before you make a comment. I’m not complaining about my internet connection. I’ve never queued in ranked PVP. I’m asking ANet if there’s any way to find a solution to PVP matches whenever players DC. Perhaps replacing the DC player with another in queue, then the match can continue. Why penalize the team with a loss? I’m not the only one with this “complaint”. It’s all over this forum, but since I write longer comments, it’s regarded as “complaining”. Grow up and think before responding insensitively.

But what if the person who dc’s can be back within a resonable time frame and it doesnt harm the team? Lets say theres a time limit of a couple min, well alot could happen in 2 min and chances are people dont want your spot at that point. And the team who lost shouldnt get penialized as long as your dced for for such a period of time.

DC and moving a centimeter to turn off your router can’t be identified as different things, and ruining a match still deserves punishment, so the only fix here is upgrading your toaster.
Btw no matter how long it takes for you to return, you’ll still be forcing at least a 1v2 for one teammate, which can end up turning into a turnaround victory for the enemy.

Kumouta.4985:

DC and moving a centimeter to turn off your router can’t be identified as different things, and ruining a match still deserves punishment, so the only fix here is upgrading your toaster [internet].

Agreed.

OP, you can’t blame Anet. Especially something that’s an issue on your end. If you know of a better way for game companies to distinguish customer actions to isp, computer, pet jumping on keyboards, please sell that info. You’d be a millionaire and a hero to all.

do you understand this concept:

you deserve to get stripped of the privilege to queue for games when you constantly ruin games. stop wasting the time of 9 other people. every time you dc, they get kittened. your time isnt worth 9x as much as everybody else.

the system is fair as is. its simply too bad that the ante costs something you dont have – real munny.

in the mean time, hotjoins dont give dishonor. if you want to get better at pvp, might i suggest looking in the custom arena list. as devoid as hotjoins generally are of skilled players, you can usually manage to find worthy opponents in 1v1 or king of the hill servers without the required time and hardware stability of ranked matches.

i honestly cant tell if this thread is a troll.

I can see that many of you haven’t been on the side of receiving a penalty for something you deem as unfair; this applies to anything, not just GW2. I wrote the original post because I thought the penalty was unfair, not just for me but also for my teammates. If most of you read the entire thread, you would know that I’m not blaming ANet for anything and neither am I lamenting the fact that I don’t have the greatest internet connection. I want to inform ANet that there are other people who feel that the penalty is unfair. For example, if a player DCs for more than two minutes, say, every other match, then the penalty would make sense and is much deserved. However, if a player DCs for less than that and tries to return to the match, then receives the penalty once logging back on, then the penalty is unreasonable, in my very honest opinion.

Like I said, I understand why the penalty is needed and enforced for the players who are AFK, who DC (consecutively and intentionally), and who manipulate matches. Something like that needs discipline, or in your words Kumouta and insanemaniac, punishment. However, there are a great deal of players who receive the penalty for something that is not within their control and their teammates also pay the price. There are ways to both discipline DC players and salvage their teams. I suggested replacing the DC player with a player in queue so that the team is not 4v5 for very long, for those of you who “complain” about being in a 4v5 match. Adding new players to a match happens in Snowball Mayhem, which is a much watered down version of PVP anyway.

Like I said, I am NOT the only one. Will you tell all of the players who DC to suck it up, get new computers, and switch ISPs? We all play in different conditions and enjoy PVP differently, but we are all treated the same by teammates after unfortunate things happen during a match. To say that every single one of those DC players deserved what they received is an elitist thing to say, really.

Now, most of you assume that I disconnect “all the time”, as choovanski mentioned above. I disconnect occasionally, but not always during PVP matches. Most of my matches are fine, it was only the last match that put me on timeout. At the time, I thought it was outrageous! I knew nothing about the penalty and to be hit with it (and now with all of these comments) shocked me. As I read about the dishonor timeout on forum threads and wiki, I understood why I was getting penalized, but NOT why my team got penalized as well.

Dragon Masher brought up another point that needs consideration. If a person DCs, but returns immediately (and doesn’t harm the team), then there’s no need for another person to fill the spot. But, I suggested having a replacement mainly because many PVP players are upset at DC players (regardless of why or how long they have DC’d) for ruining gameplay. I understand that being unevenly matched is not only bothersome, but infuriating. So, I suggested the replacement, but it seems like no one is too keen on that idea.

Like I said earlier, thank you for commenting on this post. I apologize if some things I wrote on this thread offended or upset some or all of you. I did not intend for this thread to provoke such a response from anyone.

OK, lets break this down…..

malisivo.5264:

I can see that many of you haven’t been on the side of receiving a penalty for something you deem as unfair; this applies to anything, not just GW2.

We all have… darn nearly every single one of us.

malisivo.5264:

I wrote the original post because I thought the penalty was unfair, not just for me but also for my teammates. If most of you read the entire thread, you would know that I’m not blaming ANet for anything and neither am I lamenting the fact that I don’t have the greatest internet connection. I want to inform ANet that there are other people who feel that the penalty is unfair. For example, if a player DCs for more than two minutes, say, every other match, then the penalty would make sense and is much deserved. However, if a player DCs for less than that and tries to return to the match, then receives the penalty once logging back on, then the penalty is unreasonable, in my very honest opinion.

If you come back before 30s, you don’t receive a penalty. What more are you asking?? Anything longer than 30s (almost equivalent to dying twice back to back) is 100% detrimental to your team.

malisivo.5264:

I suggested replacing the DC player with a player in queue so that the team is not 4v5 for very long, for those of you who “complain” about being in a 4v5 match. Adding new players to a match happens in Snowball Mayhem, which is a much watered down version of PVP anyway.

I’ll humor myself for a moment… So lets say Anet adds a function like,

“Accept DC queue for Extra rewards; You will never lose rating”

You’re still be waiting for Some One to accept that invitation. This Some One has to be a random “first come, first serve” player because matchmaking can’t afford the time to be picky. In other words, the time it takes for some one to DC (30s) and for MM to pick a player, is too great. This function isn’t something that Anet is going to invest in.

malisivo.5264:

Like I said, I am NOT the only one. Will you tell all of the players who DC to suck it up, get new computers, and switch ISPs? We all play in different conditions and enjoy PVP differently, but we are all treated the same by teammates after unfortunate things happen during a match. To say that every single one of those DC players deserved what they received is an elitist thing to say, really.

By The Beard of Zeus.. how is something that 90% of competitive players in every competitive game believes in… are suddenly “elitists”? These players are casual. The Elitists you’re refering to are the 1%.

malisivo.5264:

Now, most of you assume that I disconnect “all the time”, as choovanski mentioned above. I disconnect occasionally, but not always during PVP matches. Most of my matches are fine, it was only the last match that put me on timeout. At the time, I thought it was outrageous! I knew nothing about the penalty and to be hit with it (and now with all of these comments) shocked me. As I read about the dishonor timeout on forum threads and wiki, I understood why I was getting penalized, but NOT why my team got penalized as well.

Again, your team will not get penalized if you DC for longer than 30s.

malisivo.5264:

Like I said earlier, thank you for commenting on this post. I apologize if some things I wrote on this thread offended or upset some or all of you. I did not intend for this thread to provoke such a response from anyone.

We’re not so much offended (this is the internet and we’re all gamers), just only baffled by the idea that a person who, say, DC’s 1 once a week for 31s or longer thinks that they’re not 1) hurting the team any and/or 2) wants redemption.

You’re talking to a community that wants absolutely 0 disadvantages when they queue competitively. I’m not just speaking about GW2. This is how every competitive community, in my 15yrs of casual pvp gaming, feels. The 30x more popular game Overwatch has a more stricter system.

Saiyan, all points noted. Though I do want to say that I do not think the 90% are elitists. It’s just an elitist thing to say. Yes, I made a generalization, but so does the 90% in saying that DC players all deserve punishment, regardless of either intent or circumstances. Also, it is unfortunate for me to admit, but I cannot get back within 30 secs. The quickest I can return is 1 min or even 45 secs. The window of time is a bit to small for me. And I can see now that PVP is a much different community (almost entirely exclusive) from PVE. It’s likely I won’t last long, much to the delight of the PVP players on this thread. But, I’ll just do what I can for as long as I can.

You all could probably tell that I haven’t been in PVP very long, so experiencing the penalty, that treatment from team members, and now this discussion in the forum has been very… eye-opening to say the least. I do not want to stop PVP just because something like this happened, even though the comments here were quite discouraging. I will take this thread’s suggestions and try hotjoins.

malisivo.5264:

Saiyan, all points noted. Though I do want to say that I do not think the 90% are elitists. It’s just an elitist thing to say. Yes, I made a generalization, but so does the 90% in saying that DC players all deserve punishment, regardless of either intent or circumstances. Also, it is unfortunate for me to admit, but I cannot get back within 30 secs. The quickest I can return is 1 min or even 45 secs. The window of time is a bit to small for me. And I can see now that PVP is a much different community (almost entirely exclusive) from PVE. It’s likely I won’t last long, much to the delight of the PVP players on this thread. But, I’ll just do what I can for as long as I can.

You all could probably tell that I haven’t been in PVP very long, so experiencing the penalty, that treatment from team members, and now this discussion in the forum has been very… eye-opening to say the least. I do not want to stop PVP just because something like this happened, even though the comments here were quite discouraging. I will take this thread’s suggestions and try hotjoins.

May I also suggest upgrading your hardware. Get a Solid State Drive. This single product, assuming your motherboard can use it, is like night and day.

Once you plug a new SSD, reconfigure bios and reinstall window on the new drive, you can start any game within a couple seconds after a computer boot. It’s that fast. It also helps in screen loads within the game.

Any other program will be just as quick so it’s well worth the investment. SSD ranges between $50 to $150+ depending on brand and size.

I have to agree with others on this one….

At first I had a really cheap laptop when I bought this game but couldn’t play WvW properly so I updated my PC and played WvW for years until the server merger… Now my Wireless Hotspot connection through my Phone is not enough to account for the players since the server merger and I can’t WvW until the modem I ordered 3 weeks ago is delivered, have been in PvP for the last how ever long…. Point is, upgrade your stuff and play the modes you can play until you do upgrade.

If you want that car analogy (again) then you can actually get a ticket for driving too slow in a lot of places.

Perhaps I am unable to purchase a new computer (and I won’t until I have graduated from college and landed a full-time job), but upgrading a small part of my laptop doesn’t seem too bad. The SSD seems promising. Okay, more than promising. I’ve been looking at Toshiba SSDs, not sure if they are any good, but they have a 4.8 out of 5 rating and reasonable prices. I’ll research some more and see which SSD would be best for my laptop and wallet. Thank you, Saiyan. My worries are quelled.

sephiroth, I was under the impression that I needed to purchase a brand new… everything in order to enjoy PVP without interruptions (and penalties). The first few replies to this thread firmly suggested what I thought were elaborate upgrades, upgrades that my wallet cannot afford. However, if my potato computer can be upgraded by something as small as an SSD, then… I can’t really argue against getting one.

Konakona, true. Very true.

Try plugging an ethernet cable directly into your laptop, also, ssds are cool but it wont boost performance, only storage speeds

law.9410:

Try plugging an ethernet cable directly into your laptop, also, ssds are cool but it wont boost performance, only storage speeds

Ssd would cut down on loading time for him, might help with the dcs. I’ve got a 950 pro nvme m.2 and I can reboot and load gw2 in under 30 seconds. Can’t do that with an hdd.