Why Deadlock Needs a Forfeit Button

[antoniorib65]

Deadlock is a great game with a lot of potential, but one critical feature is missing: a forfeit (FF) button.


Since leaving matches is punishable, players are effectively forced to stay in games no matter how bad the situation is. If quitting a match can result in bans or penalties, then a forfeit option shouldn’t be optional — it should be mandatory. You can’t punish players for leaving while also refusing to give them a clean, official way to end a hopeless match.

When a game is clearly lost, forcing everyone to stay only creates frustration, toxicity, and AFK behavior. Players stop trying, morale drops, and the match becomes a waste of time for all sides. A simple vote-based forfeit system would solve this in a fair and controlled way.

Valve has decades of experience with competitive multiplayer games, which makes this omission even harder to understand. This feels less like a deliberate design decision and more like a weakness in Valve’s approach to basic quality-of-life features. If penalties exist to keep matches fair, then proper tools must exist to respect players’ time as well.

If leaving is bannable, forfeiting must be allowed. Without an FF button, the system is incomplete.

 

[x9t5821]

This game does not need a forfeit button. Anyone that leaves should just be banned for 24-48 hours if not longer.

I have won several 5v6 and people need to stop giving up and bitching 10 minutes into the match.

There are so many comeback mechanics. Anyone that can't handle being behind in souls without "giving up" should go play a fucking single player game and seek mental assistance.

This clearly does not belong in the bug report forum either.

 

[nothingplease]

This is bug reports. Post in feedback. Why would a play test alpha that is about gathering data have a forfeit button?

 

[antoniorib65]

This is bug reports. Post in feedback. Why would a play test alpha that is about gathering data have a forfeit button?

Because if u leave matches you can get banned, the same way a FF button should be mandatory

 

[antoniorib65]

This game does not need a forfeit button. Anyone that leaves should just be banned for 24-48 hours if not longer.

I have won several 5v6 and people need to stop giving up and bitching 10 minutes into the match.

There are so many comeback mechanics. Anyone that can't handle being behind in souls without "giving up" should go play a fucking single player game and seek mental assistance.

This clearly does not belong in the bug report forum either.

Winning a 5v6 doesn’t invalidate the need for an FF button. Anecdotes aren’t game design.
If leaving matches is punishable, players must have a legitimate, vote-based way to end clearly uncompetitive games. Comeback mechanics don’t fix AFKs, griefers, or teams that have already mentally checked out.
A forfeit button doesn’t force anyone to give up it just respects players’ time. If leaving is bannable, forfeiting should be allowed.

 

[nothingplease]

Because if u leave matches you can get banned, the same way a FF button should be mandatory

Apples and oranges? Dno what logic this is.

 

[CDranzer]

The primary problem with the surrender feature is that it effectively incentivizes demoralizing your team.
The secondary problem is that people are notoriously incompetent at estimating when a game is truly lost.
The tertiary problem is that there is enjoyment to be gained where your opponents fight to the last breath.

I would consider an exception for a competitive team play mode featuring two full parties.

Edit: To reiterate the real issue.

If you give people a surrender feature, what you have effectively done is create a win condition in the form of demoralizing the enemy team. If you've ever been in a game of Dota where it's a 4v4 after two people have abandoned, and you realize that the match might come down to which team will cave in first and trigger an abandon cascade, imagine that's every game of deadlock for the rest of time.

There's this idea that you might miss out on the occasional comeback, but it's far worse than that. When you have an early out button, you can end up with entire phases of the game that simply don't get played. The "late game" would basically cease to exist, because how many matches would even last that long without one team perceiving an inevitable defeat?

Worst of all, this mentality becomes something that new players pick up on. So maybe you think, "I know that games can go to 50 minutes sometimes." But the newer players don't know that. As far as they're concerned, everybody knows things are decided by the 30 minute mark, because everybody always seems to agree that things are decided by the 30 minute mark.

What has happened here is a common tale: You had some miserable games that you felt were unwinnable. Even if you were right (which you probably weren't) and even if you didn't make it a self-fulfilling prophecy via your own sloppy demoralized play (which you probably did) the number of unwinnable games that people are forced to play pales in comparison to the number of winnable games that would be abandoned at the first sign of trouble.

MOBAs with surrender features are miserable in ways that most of their players do not even comprehend.

 

[antoniorib65]

If leaving a match is punishable, then forfeiting is the direct alternative. Both deal with ending a game early one is unstructured and toxic, the other is controlled and vote-based. That’s the same problem space

Apples and oranges? Dno what logic this is.

 

[antoniorib65]

The primary problem with the surrender feature is that it effectively incentivizes demoralizing your team.
The secondary problem is that people are notoriously incompetent at estimating when a game is truly lost.
The tertiary problem is that there is enjoyment to be gained where your opponents fight to the last breath.

I would consider an exception for a competitive team play mode featuring two full parties.

Edit: To reiterate the real issue.

If you give people a surrender feature, what you have effectively done is create a win condition in the form of demoralizing the enemy team. If you've ever been in a game of Dota where it's a 4v4 after two people have abandoned, and you realize that the match might come down to which team will cave in first and trigger an abandon cascade, imagine that's every game of deadlock for the rest of time.

There's this idea that you might miss out on the occasional comeback, but it's far worse than that. When you have an early out button, you can end up with entire phases of the game that simply don't get played. The "late game" would basically cease to exist, because how many matches would even last that long without one team perceiving an inevitable defeat?

Worst of all, this mentality becomes something that new players pick up on. So maybe you think, "I know that games can go to 50 minutes sometimes." But the newer players don't know that. As far as they're concerned, everybody knows things are decided by the 30 minute mark, because everybody always seems to agree that things are decided by the 30 minute mark.

What has happened here is a common tale: You had some miserable games that you felt were unwinnable. Even if you were right (which you probably weren't) and even if you didn't make it a self-fulfilling prophecy via your own sloppy demoralized play (which you probably did) the number of unwinnable games that people are forced to play pales in comparison to the number of winnable games that would be abandoned at the first sign of trouble.

MOBAs with surrender features are miserable in ways that most of their players do not even comprehend.

A surrender button doesn’t create demoralization, it formalizes what already happns

Right now, demoralization shows up as AFKs, soft-griefing, or people mentally checking out, because leaving is punishable and there’s no alternative, vote-based FF channels that frustration into a controlled system instead of letting it rot the match.

People being bad at judging lost games is exactly why surrender requires a team vote, not an individual decision, meaning one tilted player can’t end the game alone.

Late game wouldn’t “cease to exist”, games that are genuinely competitive will never reach a surrender vote, only matches that are already functionally dead end early, which already happens, just in worse ways.

The real win condition right now isn’t “demoralize the enemy team”, it’s “make the other team miserable enough that they stop playing properly”. An FF button reduces that, it doesn’t amplify it.

That was a great argument tho

 

[Playeroth]

can you guys stop posting these offtopics here. discord is there to discuss

 

[nothingplease]

If leaving a match is punishable, then forfeiting is the direct alternative. Both deal with ending a game early one is unstructured and toxic, the other is controlled and vote-based. That’s the same problem space

"Ok"

 

[Akasha]

In my experience (which has mostly been bad) with vote-based surrender is that it turns into one of two things:

1. The match is winnable but the vote is initiated by 1 or 2 people whoms lane is losing, other people might find that they don't want to play anymore or aren't feeling to well or otherwise demoralized so they also vote yes, and then you and your team mate is the only one that votes no, the chat and voice chat turns into absolute cancer and chaos because now you're the ACTIVE component in them not having a fun time and they will make your life miserable. Don't even tell me this shit doesn't happen because League of Legends is the primary example i cite here for how bad that can get.

And the opposite:

2. The match is clearly lost, all lanes lost, bad words have already been exchanged because of incompetence or maybe just real life issues people are having idk, and one or 2 people decide to be petty and vote no just to keep the people they dissagree with in the match and in turn also keeping you in the match.

And i will happily take no surrender over constant surrenders or one of the top 2 examples it is the LESSER of two evils. You will never get to 'good' late-game if you surrender on the first 10 to 15% difference in souls. or 1 or 2 lanes lost.

The amount of times you have had people in League or other MOBA games say "gg ff at 15" on the first few deaths of a lane, will demoralize the game more than trying to turn it around through real effort and becoming better.

I've turned games around that were absolute despair for the first 15 minutes. I've had games where i've done really well and ended up losing.

No, No, NO absolutely no surrender votes. i will die on this hill and i hope Valve does too.

 

[pikokino]

This is more fit for Feedback, but i dont think a forfeit button is a good idea simply because the amount of forfeits that would happen, like, five minutes into the match, would be absolutely unreal. Someone could get steamrolled during lane and then realize that the enemy team has a lead because they got destroyed in lane, then just give up and call a forfeit vote. That's not fun for either side.

 

[vexxjacobs]

I would like to upvote a forfeit button.

there is nothing worse than being low elo and being stuck in a game that is definitely unwinnable and the enemy team either doesnt know how to end, or chooses not to end.

either way its 30 minutes of the worst possible gaming experience, and almost every game i have played people in the game agree.


if people want to play the game out, they wouldn't forfeit. if people do not want to play the game, it should be allowed.

if the majority of the team doesnt want to play the game, why is the only true option is somebody has to accept a penalty.


remakes are for sure annoying, and forfeit games are sometimes less satisfying, but when the game is going to take 1 hour to play, it should be reasonable to decide 30 minutes into the game that the enemy team comp is better and we won't win.

most games i lose, i feel like its very obvious that we will not win by 30 mins

i feel like its not even a luxury to have a forfeit button, it should just be a mandatory option, in case the game is unplayable.


for example, when wrecker was in the game, and he would abuse the spawn camp ult and just delete people off spawn. why can i not forfeit off that game. its an extreme example for sure, but the fact that there is none, means that i have to wait until wrecker and his friends have clip farmed enough, or accept a leaver penalty.


i think most games in my elo, for an average player, teamfights are often lost 10+ times before the game finally ends. nobody is dying for the 8th time and thinking, alright next time surely this will go differently.

 

[evsthphvalah]

Winning a 5v6 doesn’t invalidate the need for an FF button. Anecdotes aren’t game design.
If leaving matches is punishable, players must have a legitimate, vote-based way to end clearly uncompetitive games. Comeback mechanics don’t fix AFKs, griefers, or teams that have already mentally checked out.
A forfeit button doesn’t force anyone to give up it just respects players’ time. If leaving is bannable, forfeiting should be allowed.

just ban the people who aren't respecting the time of others. problem solved.

 

[zecrozep]

This game does not need a forfeit button. Anyone that leaves should just be banned for 24-48 hours if not longer.

I have won several 5v6 and people need to stop giving up and bitching 10 minutes into the match.

There are so many comeback mechanics. Anyone that can't handle being behind in souls without "giving up" should go play a fucking single player game and seek mental assistance.

This clearly does not belong in the bug report forum either.

I would say for another reason FF should be a thing. How long the matches can go. I have had a match go 1 hour and 20 minutes before and tend to find they average 35-45 min. I have had a friend have a match go 2 hours long. This game has the capacity to take up crazy amounts of time. someone can confidently say "ya i got 30 minutes" in other games and maybe at worst the game goes 10 over. depending on team comps and player skills match stalemates can take hours of peoples time. The average can be not even half of what a match has the capacity to take with the right mixture of players and characters. other games have stuff like Sudden Death or Zones to force a end to a game. this game is completely player driven. FF would allow people to at least vote to save their time. Time is precious and with a game with this many variables where you cannot guess how long a match might truly take id say its not owed to other players either. in other games this is solved by having more mercy with leavers but valve does not do that.

 

[barlakopofai]

I would say for another reason FF should be a thing. How long the matches can go. I have had a match go 1 hour and 20 minutes before and tend to find they average 35-45 min. I have had a friend have a match go 2 hours long. This game has the capacity to take up crazy amounts of time. someone can confidently say "ya i got 30 minutes" in other games and maybe at worst the game goes 10 over. depending on team comps and player skills match stalemates can take hours of peoples time. The average can be not even half of what a match has the capacity to take with the right mixture of players and characters. other games have stuff like Sudden Death or Zones to force a end to a game. this game is completely player driven. FF would allow people to at least vote to save their time. Time is precious and with a game with this many variables where you cannot guess how long a match might truly take id say its not owed to other players either. in other games this is solved by having more mercy with leavers but valve does not do that.

What region could you possibly be in whee that's a thing? The thing that forces the game to end is the mid boss, I've never seen mid boss get ignored for more than 30 minutes.

 

[dutralucas515]

Please add a Surrender button or ff, its painful to play games that drag on cause when a lane fails the other two either leaves, troll around, or not care. To make it better just let a surrender happen at a time like 30 mins or something. Its worse when people say we can still win when where 40k Behind and 3 teammates are just goofing. if anything its force staying is more toxic then leaving.

 

[yakkanikki]

I don't think this is the right time for a forfeit button to be implemented. At least not in the early development build. When the game matures enough into OB then yeah

 

[zecrozep]

What region could you possibly be in whee that's a thing? The thing that forces the game to end is the mid boss, I've never seen mid boss get ignored for more than 30 minutes.

Dude most matches i get in midboss does not get touched

just not worth the effort if you can dissolve the enemy guardian first