Season 6 of Marvel Rivals launched final week, lastly introducing Deadpool to the hero roster, in addition to a brand new battle go and numerous gameplay tweaks. A part of the replace features a main transforming of the hero proficiency system. It added new rewards for gamers to earn however unintentionally promoted a brand new epidemic of “lord farming” within the course of.
The up to date system modifications how gamers earn proficiency. Fairly than a tiered system the place gamers earn proficiency by way of common and hero-specific challenges, there may be now a linear system that gamers progress by way of by way of solely common challenges, so every hero progresses identically no matter position. There at the moment are 70 ranges for gamers to progress by way of, with rewards throughout numerous milestones. Gamers now additionally earn extra proficiency per minute spent enjoying. You’ll find a full breakdown of the modifications here.
The overhaul has led to a spike in gamers farming for cosmetics by staying in spawn and spamming skills with a purpose to shortly progress by way of the up to date system. Gamers who interact on this conduct are sometimes referred to as lord farmers, who create deeply unbalanced matches by basically being AFK the entire time.
The phenomenon calls to thoughts Civilization designer Soren Johnson’s 2011 blog post, the place he writes, “Many players cannot help approaching a game as an optimization puzzle. What gives the most reward for the least risk? What strategy provides the highest chance—or even a guaranteed chance—of success? Given the opportunity, players will optimize the fun out of a game.”
A brand new conduct detection system is on the best way
Happily, NetEase is conscious of the conduct and already working to handle it. “Recently, we’ve noticed that some players are exploiting matches by remaining stationary and repeatedly farming stats to gain hero proficiency points. This behavior disrupts normal gameplay and seriously affects the match experience of other players,” the Marvel Rivals workforce wrote on X on January 19. “To address this, we are planning to introduce a combat behavior detection system. Players found engaging in such behavior may face penalties including, but not limited to: warnings, short-term suspensions, long-term suspensions, or permanent account bans.”
NetEase has not but acknowledged when the countermeasure will go dwell, or if any efforts can be made to stop lord farmers from creating new accounts within the free-to-play recreation as soon as the outdated ones are banned. Within the meantime, some vigilante players are messing with lord farmers.
Whereas a fight conduct detection system will hopefully assist deter lord farming going ahead, it doesn’t handle the basic recreation design selections which might be encouraging the conduct within the first place. Solely time will inform if the hero proficiency system receives further transforming.
