Gears of War 5 developers are taking the quitting trend very seriously and have implemented strict measures in order to dissuade players who rage quit from continuing the practice.
The Xbox exclusive released last month and has proven to provide quite the experience. But many players have been left frustrated by other gamers quitting during the Escalation multiplayer mode.
As a result, The Coalition is handing out matchmaking bans which are based on the number of times a player quits during multiplayer sessions.
"Quitters have been receiving month to year long suspensions for prior behavior," they announced via Twitter recently. "This is how long you can be suspended for being a rampant quitter. Take heed.
"Over the next few hours, impacted users will be un-suspended, but 1 quit away from suspension. You have been warned."
One quitter has already been banned for nearly two years. The player, who goes by the name "NoLifeDGenerate," on Reddit, shared a photo showing he'd been handed a 640-day suspension, likely in a move to attract some sympathy from the community. He had difficulty finding someone to side with him after it was revealed he'd quit nearly 100 percent of his Escalation matches.
The user made it seem like he'd only quit a couple of times, which would have warranted some legitimate backlash if that had been the case. But Gears director of communications Dana Sissons called him out, letting everyone know that, out of his 21 matches played, he'd quit 18.
NoLifeDGenerate's ban is being upheld and he won't be making the multiplayer experience awful for anyone else. By the time his ban is over, people probably won't be playing Escalation anymore.
Other players have attempted feigning innocence to get their bans lifted but Dana is all about the data and has wasted no time exposing the consistent quitters.
The Coalition's announcement says that the lengthy bans are for players who are "rampant" quitters and they're being dished out after prior behavior is taken into consideration.
Players who have been impacted by the suspensions have probably had their bans lifted by now but they're all on their last strikes. Of course, one doesn't have to actually quit to leave a game as loss of power or poor internet could lead to an annoying exit too. We're hoping the game's devs could detect the cause as it would really be unfair to pick up a suspension that way.