Respawn posted a ‘Check In’ on Reddit ahead of the next big patch for its popular battle royale game, Apex Legends, noting the studio was looking into banning ‘piggy-backers.’
According to the Reddit post, Respawn saw some feedback from players about users who piggy-backed on them to get more experience.
The problem appears to be that some players will join a game but not participate in the match. They won’t collect weapons or do any damage to other players. The piggy-backers are just along for the ride, hoping the other players will carry them to a high level.
As such, Respawn performed an internal investigation and looked at game data to see how many matches piggy-backing affected.
After doing so, the studio said that it plans to institute temporary bans for players who exhibit piggy-backing behaviour. In extreme cases, piggy-backing could lead to a permanent ban.
However, players quickly responded on Reddit saying the solution wasn’t optimal for the problem, and they have a point. According to Redditors, Apex Legends would need a user-centred redesign to solve the problem, as the game’s reward systems are time-based, not performance-based. In other words, the longer you spend in a game, the better.
Ultimately, Respawn should look to fix the thing making players pigg-back instead of instituting a system to punish them instead.
To see the full thread, head over to this Reddit thread.
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