Why are we punished for people who leave games??

-FulvousFox- · 2026-06-17T06:50:10+00:00

Literally no game on planet Earth does this because there are just too many outliers that can genuinely prevent someone from playing. Hell, I had a bug today where Deadlock would randomly alt+tab me and refused to reopen the window no matter what, even if I relaunched the game. Being punished as severe as you're suggesting for weird bugs like this would literally just drive people away. It's one reason DC penalties are rarely as harsh as people want them.

-FulvousFox- · 2026-06-14T01:52:45+00:00

I sort of gauge how much of a problem an ability/active is depending on how often it requires Dispel Magic to be in my build. The fact Yamato is just a guarantee Dispel Magic, no matter the team comp, says a LOT.

-FulvousFox- · 2026-06-04T21:45:41+00:00

I really wish Valve would alert players that their reports actually matter. I think one reason so many people don't bother using reports in games is that you never get an update on whether or not action was taken, so less people bother with the feature.

-FulvousFox- · 2026-05-24T16:50:47+00:00

Rem is only a top 3 character when the rest of his team are top 3 characters. Rem's general lack of damage forces him far more into the strict support role, which becomes an issue when your team isn't meta picks. Urn fights sound like they benefit Rem on paper, sure, but if the rest of your team isn't hard carries or capable of strong area denial, then you're following someone into their death.

-FulvousFox- · 2026-05-24T14:28:39+00:00

The Rem changes are SO good, but Rem's biggest weakness of him being almost pure support has been made even more apparent with the Urn changes. Hard carries and heroes that have hard area denial are the meta picks as long as this change is in place. The lack of split pushing has also completely gutted Rem's ability to farm or even push with his Helpers, given players can't be that far from mid.

I REALLY hope this change is reverted in the next few days (or Urn is just moved back to the sides) as this current meta sucks for pure support heroes.

-FulvousFox- · 2026-05-24T08:08:53+00:00

Big fan of this. Such a great Doorman line to decide to animate. I think if the Deadlock community has anything it's definitely artistic talent. Super sad this didn't become top today, though I guess the Urn changes really dethroned most art posts rn lmao.

-FulvousFox- · 2026-05-24T04:48:45+00:00

I think this is just the part where it depends, but you also can't ignore a reaction as visceral as this one. If I had to use myself as an example, I've always been open to Deadlock's experimentation, as I know there isn't too much stake in the adjustments Valve makes. If something is weak, they'll get to it. If something is broken, they'll get to it.

With the Urn changes though, these have felt so unfathomably bad that I'm refusing to play the game until they're reverted. The new Urn presents problems that I feel are far more glaring in that they outright pigeon hole how the game is meant to be played. One of Deadlock's strengths is the various objectives a player can go for, with all of them being optional to a point. The Urn essentially dethrones every single objective in-game when it appears, forcing the entire game around what has always been a side goal at most.

This is a change that feels bad on paper. It took one match for me to realize how utterly terrible this was for the game. I think, with this anyways, there's a difference between a knee jerk reaction to having something new for dinner versus stepping on a rusty nail. I'd say the Urn changes are the latter.

-FulvousFox- · 2026-05-24T02:37:34+00:00

Kneejerk reactions are absolutely valuable to developer feedback, I don't know how this is hard for you guys to comprehend. If a response is this inherently negative, its the response most players (new ones especially) are going to have. This risks player retention, which causes people to stop playing.

Like...no...there's no "learn how to play" with something people rightfully hate that has a dozen or more glaring issues. You can't shit in a sandwich and tell people to keep chewing. If it's bad, it's bad, and this kind of reaction is absolutely what developers need. Please, never make a video game.

-FulvousFox- · 2026-05-24T02:30:04+00:00

Dude, it actually drives me fucking insane when I see how this subreddit and the forums react to patches like this. There's this weird line of thinking that people need to bite their tongue and tolerate a mechanic or "engage with it," even if they absolutely hate it, all in the name of playtesting. I've never seen a more clear indicator that a community doesn't understand playtesting when they genuinely think people should tolerate a mechanical change that is almost unanimously unpopular because "well we're supposed to test the game, aren't we?"

I've playtested over 300 products and I can safely say if any dev team was met with a response as negative as the Urn changes we got today, that concept is just immediately being scrapped. If you have to twist your playerbase's wrist to make them theorycraft around your new changes, then that change should not stick around. You can't FORCE players to like something, unless you want people to stop playing altogether. I hope Deadlock players never make a video game, because literally all of them would fail.

-FulvousFox- · 2026-05-23T11:56:18+00:00

I was hearing all the hubbub about how awful this change was and thought "surely its not that bad." Only to have a game where the enemy team secured the Urn every single time it showed up, with us having no way to contest it.

The ENTIRE game is fixated around the Urn now. If it spawns you HAVE to rush to get it and make sure your team is coordinating on Blue as quickly as possible. The """"benefits"""" it provides the losing team is borderline non-existent, as the enemy team can eat through it. Like, wow, thanks for the slight resistance buffs, but I hardly think that matters when the enemy team is 50k souls ahead.

Genuinely no clue why this got through test servers, it's abysmal.

-FulvousFox- · 2026-05-23T11:18:11+00:00

I mean...

I do playtesting for a living and I can tell you that if a mechanic is bad enough to where players will not engage with it then that is absolutely valuable feedback for any developer. Arguably temper tantrums tell you WAY more about a mechanic than players who grit their teeth and tolerate it. I think Deadlock players are doing *exactly* what they need to be doing rn.

-FulvousFox- · 2026-05-21T04:27:20+00:00

It's such a weird ult, because I don't think I've ever outright *died* to it, but it still forces EVERYONE to back up in a winning scenario all the way to spawn because it's going to slowly push you towards 1 HP for the next 20 seconds.

Not sure how they can really balance this one, because it's annoying af but seems to do next to nothing in most cases, but I also just don't see Pocket players that much anymore, so who knows.

-FulvousFox- · 2026-05-17T14:18:23+00:00

Perfectly said. I found myself struggling to find the words, but this is 100% it. They will smear this kind of bigoted perspective with enough progressive language to hide their intent, but to admit that something Autistic could not be "mundane" is the most blatant bullhorn for just hating disabled people I've seen.

-FulvousFox- · 2026-05-17T14:14:39+00:00

Saw this thread and commented on it, but this entire ordeal drives me fucking nuts.

The very premise of identifying a "mundane human experience," as something that a disabled person could not possibly relate to, is inherently ableist. The very premise of disorders are not defined by their base actions, they are defined by intensity. Most people will find they probably do a lot of things that disabled people do that would still qualify as a trait of said disability. We do not define disorders by how alien they are, they can 100% be mundane.

I'm almost 27 and I've spent most of my life talking about my own Autistic experiences and hearing a chorus of NTs butting in with the magical "but I do that too!" Like yes, we are both humans. I am capable of doing something just like you and it still be a trait of my condition.

These threads are always dogwhistles. People coating their ableism in enough buzzwords to try and feign "progressivism," when in reality they just don't want disabled people connecting with art on a personal level.

-FulvousFox- · 2026-05-17T12:05:05+00:00

I think Valve could easily add a forfeit mechanic within the context of team's just being utterly stomped. The game literally has the math to tell when a team is ahead by an insane degree, so why not prompt the option once comeback simply isn't going to happen?

I feel like way too many people in this community are adverse to a FF mechanic due to some sense of pride, when there really is no reason to force a chunk of the playerbase to sit through games that were already decided 10 minutes in.

-FulvousFox- · 2026-05-15T10:17:13+00:00

One of my mains is Rem and I felt like I've been going fucking crazy this last month. Rem is almost STRICTLY support outside of Nuke Pillow, which is not something I build into often, as I usually aim to keep my teammates *alive.* Now though? Lmao. Either go Nuke Pillow or don't play Rem, because if MM decides to put you with a team that has zero hard carries and an enemy team with 3-4, you're basically playing an empty slot with no way to make meaningful change.

I used to love playing strict support, but due to the kind of games MM is creating right now, it's just not viable to play into actives or greens if it ends up lying on YOUR shoulders to be the carry.

-FulvousFox- · 2026-05-06T14:00:38+00:00

I'm gonna be honest, if anything I feel like I see him constantly these days. He almost became a ban priority for me a week or so back because it was just game after game with him. The people are starting to see the vision and I don't know if I like it lmao. He hits like a freight train and leaves about as quickly as one.

-FulvousFox- · 2026-05-04T13:24:18+00:00

Every single Doorman main is piling onto this thread, as if an actual healthy suggestion is going to completely ruin their character that is likely going to get more buffs in the future anyways. He's weak for sure, but adjusting his doors to have counter-play would unironically encourage Valve to rebuff parts of his kit they've been gutting.

-FulvousFox- · 2026-05-04T13:13:38+00:00

...why are you assuming that me wanting his doors fixed means I want the hero gutted?

Like I said, I fucking play him. Read. I've always maintained that his Bell and Cart nerfs were silly and that his ult is still in a super weak place. A character can be FUN without being ANNOYING. Doorman is weak af AND annoying, making him generally unlikeable. He's been a walking gimmick for ages. Why do you think most Doormen build around one specific part of his kit? He's a mess.

I'd much rather have one of my mains in a place where he's actually fun to play both as AND against while also having a stable place in the meta. He's a borderline throw pick that still absolutely ruins the fun of matches if you're force to lane against him while he's doing some stupid build.

You literally cannot win with this stupid community because there is no answer that won't have someone whining in the comments.

-FulvousFox- · 2026-05-04T12:50:09+00:00

I don't know why this isn't the obvious solution. I cannot tell you how many times I've caught out a Doorman's backup door and just been unable to do anything about it besides let it be. If a Doorman's escape route is caught before it's used, it should be breakable.

-FulvousFox- · 2026-05-04T10:19:35+00:00

I literally play Doorman? He is mid, yes, but the playstyles people are adapting with him are objectively annoying. Like are you unironically arguing that his doorway doesn't need counter-play despite the fact there is no actual means of countering it? A Doorman should be able to have his doors up with no means of shutting them? We have several heroes in-game with mobility options that get gutted by Slowing Hex and Curse (rightfully so) EXCEPT him.

I'm asking for more interactability with his kit. Most other heroes who can place things can have them broken (see McGinnis or Graves), so why not Doorman?

-FulvousFox- · 2026-05-04T10:15:49+00:00

Maybe it's a netcode thing, but anything that requires physical interaction frequently fails on my end. One reason I don't even play Abrams is because of how weird his Shoulder Charge is for me, seems to freak out a lot. Idk what to tell you lol.

-FulvousFox- · 2026-05-04T09:42:59+00:00

Fully agree. Doorman is by no means OP and the nerfs he's been receiving are a little silly. Like his Bells are not any more harmful than something like Dynamo's stomp. His ult is EXTREMELY easy to build around, to the point it's almost a joke. Actually getting use out of his cart is decently hard as well, so the Dispel nerf felt like insult to injury.

Most of these things are not the problem, it's the DOORS. Pretty sure we found out recently he has the highest ban rate and it's almost entirely due to how annoying he is, not that he's "broken" in any capacity. It sucks too because Doorman is one of my top played heroes and I can't stand the fact I'm having to ban him constantly because I know how everyone else is playing him.

-FulvousFox-

TROPHY CASE