Why it matters: Multiplayer games, with all the joy they provide by allowing us to play with friends and strangers online, do have their downsides. Quitting, for instance, out of rage or to annoy other people in a session can ruin the experience for everyone. That's why developers have increasingly become conscious of the player communities who carry their game's image and greatly influence its multiplayer life cycle. The Coalition, folks behind Gears 5, have taken rather strict measures towards ensuring a fair environment for their multiplayer community by banning several gamers with nearly two-year bans over frequent quitting.

Leaving a multiplayer game, with or without a reason, is certainly an unpleasant experience for other players in a match. Though acceptable once in a blue moon, players who make it a frequent habit need to be taught a lesson, one which Gears 5 is teaching rather strictly with its 640-day ban penalty.

Gamerevolution reports that the developers of the game confirmed handing out a couple of bans to players who were penalized for frequent quitting. Dana Sissons, the game's director of communications, also tweeted a warning last week. "Gears 5 quit penalties are active. You've been warned," he said.

One Gears 5 player who recently received the 640 days ban took to Reddit to share his frustration. Upon further investigation, he was found to have quit 18 out of 21 escalation matches in a single day. A similar instance was reported of another player in a tweet to whom Sisson responded that "he is a chronic quitter - in fact, he quit 18 of 21 matches today alone," adding that "His quitting ruins the game for the other 9 people he was playing with."

The game's heavy ban penalty has received mixed reactions from players. Some are welcoming the measures considering the negative effect of quitters on other players' ranks, for which they have to work extra hard in scoring points in light of an insufficient number of players in rival teams. Others would rather have Gears 5 use an incremental penalty system like CS:GO's to deal with the quitting issue.

The Coalition did throw the suspended players one last lifeline with a tweet that announced the un-suspending of their accounts and that they are one quit away from being penalized again.