"Mercy Rule" Coming to Destiny's Multiplayer Mode

Major changes are coming to Destiny very soon via Destiny 2.0 and the The Taken King. One of those is the addition of a "Mercy Rule" for Destiny's multiplayer mode, Crucible. Senior designer Andrew Weldon explains on Bungie.net that the Mercy Rule will work as it does in traditional sports--when one team is so far behind that they have no chance to come back and the game is no longer fun, the match will be called off.

"When the Mercy Rule hits, Shaxx will call out the end of the match," Weldon said. "We immediately disable join in progress to prevent any additional players from joining the game (if anyone has dropped already) and reset the game clock to :10 seconds. After those 10 seconds, the match will end normally. All players will receive their end of match rewards and return to matchmaking."

The Mercy Rule comes to Destiny on September 8 through the Destiny 2.0 update and will be enabled for all team playlists except Elimination and Trials of Osiris. Weldon went on to promise that Bungie will listen to player feedback and adjust the Mercy Rule as needed in the future.

"The 2.0 Mercy Rule check is a very simple query that is good at identifying games that get out of hand early, but not necessarily games that pull away late," he explained. "You may in some cases still find yourself in games where you feel like it should have triggered. We will, as always, continue monitoring our UR data as well as player feedback to determine how we can continue to improve it and make it more accurate in the future."

Overall, the Mercy Rule is being implemented to "improve the quality of life for players caught on the receiving end of a massive blowout." But the winning team isn't being forgotten. "We don't want to leave out the winners, who still have to accomplish an impressive feat to end a game early," Weldon said. "For you, a new gold tier medal to chase: 'No Mercy.'" Take a look at that medal below.

What do you make of Destiny's new Mercy Rule? Share your thoughts in the comments below. A deeper breakout of the rule, featuring player statistics and more insight from Weldon, is available here. For more on Destiny 2.0 and The Taken King, check out this roundup.