There is one reason not to do a time penalty, even if it is a good idea, WoW uses a time penalty for the battlegrounds in it, and you'd have dozens of WoW fanboys here saying Blizzard invented the concept of time or something heh.
But in all honesty that'd probably be the most fair way to do it.
Petition for leaving-a-battle penalties
Lonk
Flapper McSparkles
First of all, keep in mind that people do drop for legitimate reasons too. My girlfriend had a problem with GW crashing pretty frequently a few months ago, and a penalty on top of that probably would have driven her away from the game for good.
I do think SOMETHING needs to be done, though. As for being able to kick afk players, I think that could be handled automatically. After, say, 2 minutes with no input from that player, they get kicked. For players who drop, I think there are too many idiots out there that aren't going to CARE about their K or L faction at all. Can't do it on gold either, PvP chars don't have any gold, and who's to say any of their characters do. I think some sort of time penalty is best. Dropping mid-match should just disconnect you from GW and ban you for a very short 5 minutes or so. This would keep people with legitimate problems (having to call the ISP or reboot their computer) from getting annoyed.
I do think SOMETHING needs to be done, though. As for being able to kick afk players, I think that could be handled automatically. After, say, 2 minutes with no input from that player, they get kicked. For players who drop, I think there are too many idiots out there that aren't going to CARE about their K or L faction at all. Can't do it on gold either, PvP chars don't have any gold, and who's to say any of their characters do. I think some sort of time penalty is best. Dropping mid-match should just disconnect you from GW and ban you for a very short 5 minutes or so. This would keep people with legitimate problems (having to call the ISP or reboot their computer) from getting annoyed.
Lady_Conija
Just a thought, leavers totally suck, but many a time I have been playing with friends who have lagged out, and it has happened many a time to myself... I think it is a good idea, as long as the penalties only apply to those who map out, vs. lagging out, or having to log out due to real life stuff that demands attention... (Like Fluffy peeing on the carpet, or kids needing attention.)
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