Back 4 Blood is now doing what the developers have been resisting for months. A beloved feature, but one that can be toxic.
As Back 4 Blood nears its one-year anniversary, some players find it inconceivable that the game has gone so long without an essential feature. Because until a few days ago it was impossible to exclude disruptive players from a game. Now, finally, there’s a “kick feature” that fixes that exact problem—at least a little.
Why wasn’t there a kick feature before? The ability to kick players out of one game has been exploited time and again in other games in the past. Especially in Left 4 Dead or the sequel Left 4 Dead 2, the kick function was something that caused problems. Often times, players have been banned for a single mistake or, just to troll them, removed near the end of the game.
A kicking function can not only be used against disruptive players, but also by them.
What does the kick feature look like in Back 4 Blood? The kicking function cannot be selected manually by the players. It is automatically offered as an action when the game identifies “problematic behavior”. There are currently two main conditions:
If one of the conditions is met, the rest of the team can decide to kick. However, it requires the consent of all three remaining players for the kick to be carried out.
Incidentally, the developers are not yet sure whether they want to leave the feature in the game. This is now a first “test” on the running game and you want to make changes in the future because you know about the dangers of a kick function.
Back 4 Blood’s first major DLC came out a while ago:
Back 4 Blood: Today the long-awaited DLC “Tunnels of Terror” starts
Community is dissatisfied: The players are not really happy with the kick feature yet. While it’s good to finally have a handle against the most obvious trolls, the new Kick feature still allows for far too many toxic playstyles. For example, you could easily bypass “being idle” by simply holding down a key or placing something on that key. The “Friendly Fire” can also be abused by toxic players, for example by deliberately running in front of the gun of the sniper player.
The desire for a more comprehensive kick feature is great.
How is Back 4 Blood doing right now? That’s probably hard to judge. If you only go by the number of players on Steam, then you can probably assume “moderate”. In May, for example, the average concurrent player on Valve’s platform was 3,268 (via Steamcharts.com).
However, the fact that the developers continue to release free and, above all, quite extensive patches like the latest one should at least make it clear that they have planned Back 4 Blood for the long term. In addition, the release of several DLCs, which should bring new content, is also pending.
It’s also important to remember that player counts on other platforms aren’t as accurate or public. Since Back 4 Blood is also in Xbox Game Pass, PC and Xbox players can play the game for relatively little money without buying it on Steam, for example.
It is therefore difficult to name the exact number of players.
Do you still watch Back 4 Blood from time to time? Have you already written off the shooter again? Or are you waiting for all the announced DLCs to be released before checking back?