Marvel Rivals has seen a significant increase in its player base recently, largely thanks to the highly anticipated arrival of Deadpool. However, this surge in popularity has also brought some negative behavior to the forefront, with certain players ruining the experience for others. The good news is that the development team is fully aware of these issues and is preparing to take strong action against the offenders.
On January 19th, the official Marvel Rivals account on X (formerly Twitter) addressed the frustrating situations players often encounter. The problem involves “farmers” who deliberately stand still during matches to farm the necessary statistics needed to progress quickly through the hero proficiency system. This behavior disrupts the game for everyone else who is trying to play normally.
To combat this issue, the developers plan to introduce a “combat behavior detection system.” This system will identify and punish players who engage in such activities. Penalties will range from warnings and short-term suspensions to longer time-offs from the game. For the most severe offenders, the developers are considering permanent account bans. While this might not seem like a huge punishment since the game is free-to-play, it will certainly upset anyone dedicated to leveling up their heroes.
The current wave of farming has been partly enabled by Marvel Rivals’ somewhat complex hero proficiency system and the challenges tied to cosmetic rewards. However, this online shooter is not the only game affected by exploiters who prefer to mindlessly farm for hours rather than play the game as intended. Unfortunately, this is a common issue in many online games, but NetEase developers have so far acted quickly on negative feedback regarding the game’s health and environment. We hope to see this new system implemented in the game soon.
Currently, players on the game’s community subreddit are celebrating the news. The most upvoted comment suggests that the banhammer “might actually help some of these lord farmers touch grass.” For those wondering, “lord farmers” are described as players who farm on dead regional servers during late hours. When they queue at the same time, they often face each other and simply go AFK while their characters take turns playing DPS, tank, and healer roles. Since proficiency is tied to excelling in these roles, it is easy to see where these boosts are coming from.
Another user in the same thread commented, “Great, now do something about throwers.” This is a more widespread issue in competitive online games, but anyone who has spent enough time playing ranked Marvel Rivals matches knows it is easy to run into players who abandon the match as soon as things start going poorly. This is an entirely different problem that NetEase has not properly addressed yet, so players should not get their hopes up for an immediate solution to that specific issue.
