52. are you a gaming jerk fond of the rage quit? your number's up, buddy.

original image from marvelvscapcom3.com

anyone who has spent any significant time gaming online, be it fighters on xbox live/PSN or any MMO has probably experienced a most infuriating behavior from strangers they play with.  executed in a most cowardly fashion by warcraft tanks that can't hold aggro and others that don't get the drops they want,  starcrafters whose build order is fail, and street fighters whose chun-li just can't take your deep ryu skills - the rage quit.

this practice is literally what it sounds like - a player gets so angry at game conditions and/or their inability to win that they just quit the match before it's over.  usually it's accompanied by an absolutely vile stream of profanity and/or racial slurs (man those are just my faaaaavorite) followed by the glowing phosphor on your screen spelling out that he or she has disconnected.  allow me to illustrate this experience through world of warcraft:

ass-hat: @#%# all my gear's all broken.
me: not good to hear when pulling a boss
ass-hat: &^#$% you you !%*$ing &*$%#.  say one more thing and you can find someone else.  go ahead, say it.  $%& dps and heals are $%@ing fail.
raid lead: dude, relax, let's just get this guy down
** ass-hat has left the raid group **

this was, of course, followed by 10 minutes of dumbass whispers that reminded me how useful the ability to silence players is.  and screw him anyway, we 9-manned that noise with dps to spare.

fighters online suffer a similar story.  i don't really play a lot of fighters online, mainly because my xbox is broken and i don't have any for the ps3 yet, but i have heard horror stories from friends of mine that frequently play soul calibur or street fighter online against other players.  they have identical rage quit experiences where a player will just drop connection in mid-match - literally pulling the plug - robbing them from a win in their stats and saving themselves from a loss.  not only is it an ass-hat move, if you experience it enough it can ruin the experience of online play.

but capcom has finally come up with a solution.  in their new fighter, marvel vs. capcom 3: fate of two worlds, if you gain a reputation as a rage quitter, you will pay consequences.  there will be a stat associated to your user that tracks how often and when you disconnect from the game.  once you earn a reputation as a rage quitter, whenever you queue up for matches you will be paired with other players with rage quit status,  while players who want to enjoy the game without you can play in peace.  effectively giving players that give others grief some of their own medicine and throwing them into their own sissy bracket is a novel idea, and i hope it catches on in other platforms

i know i've had my issues with capcom over the last couple of years, but this has given them a few points back in my book.