Like its main competition, Overwatchi would say the worst part about Marvel Rivals is her community. While you can certainly run into friendly and funny teammates from time to time, toxicity is rampant in NetEase's hero shooter. I've personally seen people dump a match purely because one of my teammates picked Jeff the Land Shark, I've seen players try to quit after one bad fight, and I've lost more than a few competitive matches due to quitters. Problem gamblers regularly do Marvel Rivals less enjoyable than it should be, so I can see why the idea of vengeful players wanting to punish them is so appealing. However, the reality is that it only makes things worse.
Marvel Rivals Bounty hunting website intlist has recently gone viral as it allows players to earn real money by destroying the games of targeted players. If a frustrated player sends a bounty to a griefer or thrower, the nasty player's name will be added to the intlist website and the bounty hunters will be tasked with bringing them back or throwing the match if they get them on their team. In the days since this story broke, I saw Marvel Rivals gamers celebrating the idea of bounty hunting probably just read headlines about mourners grieving and take that as a positive. However, intlist is anything but good for games like Marvel Rivalsbecause it doesn't take long to recognize the huge flaws in the system.
intlist doesn't just offer rewards for Marvel Rivalsbut a number of competitive games, incl Counter-Strike 2, Blockage, League of Legends, Overwatchand Valiant.
Marvel Rivals' Bounty Hunting only punishes regular players
When you think about the type of player who is willing to throw a match Marvel Rivalsit should be immediately clear that trolling them back is unlikely to have much impact. These unsavory players tend to play for hours on end, with a loss not as significant to them as it is to those who only play once in a while. They also probably have alternate accounts, so any attempt to troll them back seems even more pointless, as they can simply switch to one of those if their SR drops too low. If they're willing to quit the moment they see something they don't like in a tag team competition, it's hard to imagine them caring if a teammate throws them in to “punish” them. They'll just shrug it off and continue being their rude selves in another match.
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If the mourner doesn't care about being grieved back in the end, then the only players who really suffer are the four random teammates left with the original troll and the intlist paid troll who want to fulfill the bounty. It's all the more frustrating that intlist seems to be well aware of this problem. According to IGN, the social media account for intlist has already stated that “collateral damage is the unfortunate price of war.” Ultimately, however, this logic breaks down due to the sheer amount of collateral damage. Only the one who takes the reward profits, receives 80% of the stated payout, and even suffers a loss. Everyone else on the team – not just the griefer, but all four Marvel Rivals players who had no choice in who they stayed with — suffer.
Intlist's Bounty Hunting creates a slippery slope and only Intlist can overcome it
Intlist replacement hunts are problematic not only because they create more casters, but also because there clearly aren't enough steps in place to prevent good players from being wrongly targeted by bounty hunters. Known Marvel Rivals Twitch streamer Jay3, who never throws his matches, was listed as a bounty on the site, presumably by a troll who wanted to mess with the streamer. This is an obvious red flag because there is so much evidence against Jay3 being problematic and it opens the door for any player to get the bounty that real toxic players put on them. Then there's the fact that the players performing these bounties themselves become sad and can be added to the bounties list by one of the four teammates who had their match ruined due to the drama. This creates an endless loop where only the intlist profits, with 20% taken from each reward as more and more are added and the matches get progressively worse.
Temporarily removing Intlist is a chance for a moment of clarity
This bounty hunting website briefly stopped being profitable Marvel RivalFighting with the community over security issues that forced its removal, it is said to be in the middle of a rebuilding process so that email addresses cannot be leaked online. Before intlist comes back or is replaced by another bounty hunting website, I thought I would do my part to warn anyone who supports these bounty hunts of the problems they can cause. Maybe I'm just a regular Diamond Vanguard, but I've seen my fair share of casters before this nonsense started, so I cringe at the thought of that number going up because of some pointless rewards.
…the classic phrase “two wrongs don't make a right” applies when it comes to video game bounty hunting.
Grieving is unlikely to make a griefer less toxic; you are just becoming part of the problem for a few extra dollars. Bounty hunting sites like intlist hope for accurate player reactions to headlines about this concept, because it's easy to see griefers being punished as a win if players don't actually research what the punishment entails. However, with a little thought, one realizes why users on social networks like Reddit are desperate for NetEase to step in and shut down intlist. After all, there is a reason the reporting system exists. It's not instant, and it's not perfect, and it relies on NetEase cracking down on problematic users, but it's infinitely better than adding to the problem.
Even in a perfect world where skilled players were just picking on griefers in spawn instead of actively ending or discarding games, there is a case where intlist would still be problematic. Even better, these kinds of rewards would just keep spinning Marvel Rivals matches to 5v5s, preventing the game from playing the way it was supposed to. At the end of the day, the classic phrase “two wrongs don't make a right” applies when it comes to video game bounty hunting. As someone who adores and wants the game Marvel Rivals to be successful in the years to come, please don't be part of the problem by supporting or participating in Marvel Rivals“absurd bounty hunts.”
- Released
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December 6, 2024
- ESRB
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T For Teen // Violence
- Developers
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NetEase Games
- Publishers
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NetEase Games
