World Cup producer on tackling quitters

By Tom Bramwell Published 9 February, 2010

Could incentivise people for staying course.

Update: Simon Humber has contacted Eurogamer to clarify the quotes below. "What I believe I said to Mr Minkley, when asked about quitting, was that there is another way to think about the problem," he wrote in an email.

"Namely, how do you design an experience where quitting is totally counterproductive to the metagame, where it actually holds you back more than it would to keep on playing the match and accepting you've been beaten? I explained that this is another way we're thinking when it comes to designing our online experiences for the future."

Humber is line producer on 2010 FIFA World Cup and wanted us to make it clear that he can't speak for the FIFA 11 team, and that we will have to wait for that game to be announced before we can find out how FIFA producer David Rutter and his team have chosen to address quitting.

Original Story: EA Canada has said it is working on ways to stop people quitting out of FIFA games online when they find themselves in a losing position.

2010 FIFA World Cup line producer Simon Humber told Eurogamer during a recent hands-on event that the FIFA 11 team was considering rewarding "people for completing matches rather than quitting out".

"It's a complex problem. We do have the five-minute rule: if you find your connection's poor you can drop out within the first five minutes.

"After that there should be a penalty; just in the online world there are complexities that mean by the time the data comes back to our servers, something there means it doesn't award the win to the right person. So we're always looking to improve that."

Speaking to Eurogamer on Twitter recently, FIFA lead producer David Rutter admitted the team had been "talking about 'rage quitting' a lot recently" as part of their preparation for FIFA 11, which is due out in Q3 this year.

Sadly, however, it doesn't sound like anything will be ready for World Cup. "We haven't done anything different for this game as far as I know," line producer Humber told us.

They have fixed the goalkeepers though! Among "over 100 enhancements to gameplay", apparently. Check out our 2010 FIFA World Cup hands-on today to find out what some of them are.

2010 FIFA World Cup is due out for PS3, PSP, Wii and Xbox 360 on 30th April.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (19) Latest comment 8 months ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • bad09 #1 2 years ago

    / rage quits article

  • kinky_mong #2 2 years ago

    I can just about understand why someone would buy an incremental update of a sport game each year, but if you buy FIFA World Cup as well you are a moron with too much money.

  • jambo74 #3 2 years ago

    Just show their quit stats before a game - if it is high, you choose not to play them.

  • RobotRocker #4 2 years ago

    There are two reasonable options.

    One. Use the Tatsunoko Vs Capcom method of only matching rage quitters with each unless they start completing matches. Once they have completed around 20 or so matches. Start matching them back in the main system.

    Two. Start withholding achievements and unlocks for rage quitters. Imagine if MW2 withheld killstreaks and weapon unlocks from rage quitting players. A lot of teeth gnashing but a lot of players will just realise they have to stick it out.

    Of course gamers are whiny so and sos so you will have a lot of resistance to it but new ideas are always welcome.

  • Rpt81 #5 2 years ago

    To be honest, so long as EA make victories earned when a player quits count towards an achievement, then these wimps can quit all they want.

  • Paulie_P #6 2 years ago

    This used to do my head in on Pro Evo 6 back in the day, esp if the quitters then froze the server forcing you to quit and give them the win.

  • mode7 #7 2 years ago

    This has been a problem I noticed since playing the FIFA 08 version. What has taken them so long?

  • butler` #8 2 years ago

    mode7, this is EA we're talking about...

    a very necessary change, especially for online/cash based tournaments where people get bitchy

  • Monkster1978 #9 2 years ago

    a good solution my friend came up.. Simply pair up quitters with other quitters depending on their current quit ratio. if you have 10% or less ratio then you should get paired up with other people who in general dont quit. Otherwise be prepared to face other quitters if your ratio is high.

  • tachometer #10 2 years ago

    What if they had system where if you quit the AI takes over your game and plays fairly badly but still updates your stats with the figures. That way your stats go down and the player who didn't quit still gets a game.

  • Jonny5Alive7 #11 2 years ago

    They need to find the balance between punishing people who quit because they're losing and people who quit because the lag is bad. The recent FIFA games are much better for lag but some of the older Pro Evo games were practically unplayable, leaving you no option but to quit.

  • Eraserhead #12 2 years ago

    Please never use the "word" incentivise again, EG.

  • Eraysor #13 2 years ago

    On Fifa World Cup 2010 in general...

    "We haven't done anything different for this game as far as I know."
    Edited by 1 at 09/02/10 @ 15:29

  • Rpt81 #14 2 years ago

    The worst example of FIFA quitters is when they play most of the game in the hope of getting an equaliser, leave it until the 89th or 90th minute when it looks like they won't get one back, and then quit. I mean, they just played nearly the whole game anyway!! Dicks.

    I'd counter that with the guys that go 4 or 5 down, make you think they're a good sport, and then quit out in the 89th minute.

  • man-of-steel #15 2 years ago

    I am sick of sore losers in FIFA. I was playing a guy and he beat me 5-1 and in a rematch i was 3-1 up and he QUIT. What a fucking loser

  • dahsif #16 2 years ago

    "Rage quitting really is the bane of Fifa 10. Many relaxing sessions have turned to sheer horror when people have quit on me after going a goal down in the 89th minute."

    Don't they get a 3-0 loss if that's the case?

    ---There's one issue no one has adressed so far, yesterday night my connection was OK during games but I got disconnected 3 or 4 times and "awarded" a 3-0 loss when I had done nothing wrong! can't they figure out a way to differenciiate between voluntary quits and random disconnections?
    Edited by 1 at 09/02/10 @ 20:08

  • nasanu #17 2 years ago

    Why dont they fix the 50+ bugs in manager mode of fifa10 which make it unplayable first. Spent $80 on a game I cant even play properly. Thanks EA Canada.

  • Chelseaboy82 #18 2 years ago

    I hate quitters this happens to me all the time on FIFA 10 and there's nothing you can do you get credited with the win but your 3-0 win doesn't show up on your player hub when you check your EA account page,I lost a match once 5-0 then in a re match was winning 4-0 and he quit,I also hate them quitters that quit right at the end like 89th minute when your clearly going to win,Today I was 2-0 up with Brazil vs Argentina on World cup and he quit as soon as the second goal went in,Then when I checked my player hub he got credit with the 3-0 win wtf??????????????????

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