Popular indie game Among Us has started to ban players who deliberately disconnect from the gameplay, although no one really noticed until recently despite it being enforced for a while now. Among Us became an unexpected hit of 2020 thanks to streamers and vloggers online. Despite originally releasing in 2018, it saw its popularity skyrocket when most of society became forced to stay at home due to COVID-19. The social deduction game became a lockdown party must have, connecting people across the ether when it was not safe to meet up in person.
As with a lot games though, Among Us has been met with players whose soul intent seems to be spoiling the fun for others. Hackers started using cheats in Among Us to enable them to do things such as see who the Impostor in each round was and utilize long range kills. Developers at IndieSloth were quick to put an end to this deceitful gameplay, by ejecting those who were cheating from the round with a polite notice requesting that the hacker “please stop.” It has now come to light that IndieSloth has put another tool in place to keep rounds of Among Us even fairer for those who want to play the game in the good spirit that it was originally intended.
It became apparent to the developers that a lot of players were deliberately quitting a round of Among Us if they were not chosen to play the pivotal role of the Impostor. While being the Impostor is undeniably a lot of fun, with it adding a whole extra element of gameplay to the experience, the inclusion of crewmates for each round is vital for the game to actually work. Reddit user PickledKoolaid shared a screen shot from Sportskeeda, which reports that a "new" 5-minute ban message appears for players who purposefully leave matches early. The short but punchy text informs aspiring strategists that they will be unable to join another game of Among Us for 5 minutes, due to their intentional disconnection from the round. This method of exclusion has been around for a while now, but it has only become more widely recognized recently, perhaps alluding to an upsurge in Impostor desperados out there.
5 minutes does not seem a lot of time to teach deserters a true lesson, but multiple sets of 5 minutes will quickly add up. Hopefully the message will soon get through to those that are so desperate to play as the savage Impostor that it is easier, and a lot more fun, to just play some rounds as a crewmate until their time as an Impostor comes round organically.
Unlike other games that reward wins with incentives and trophies, Among Us does not do this, making the desire to cheat some what difficult to comprehend. Instead, the sense of achievement at unmasking the elusive Impostor before the crewmates are all assassinated (or indeed being the one to successfully remain unknown in the shadows just waiting for the right time to strike) is the biggest reward gamers will get from Among Us. And really, that should be enough.
Among Us is available on iOS, Android, and PC.
Source: PickledKoolaid, Sportskeeda