Marvel Rivals Promises Major Crackdown On Lord Farming

"The updated system changes how players earn proficiency. Rather than a tiered system where players earn proficiency through universal and hero-specific challenges, there is now a linear system that players progress through via solely universal challenges, so each hero progresses identically regardless of role. There are now 70 levels for players to progress through, with rewards across various milestones. Players now also earn more proficiency per minute spent playing."

"Players who engage in this behavior are sometimes referred to as lord farmers, who create deeply unbalanced matches by essentially being AFK the whole time. The phenomenon calls to mind Civilization designer Soren Johnson's 2011 blog post, where he writes, "Many players cannot help approaching a game as an optimization puzzle. What gives the most reward for the least risk? What strategy provides the highest chance-or even a guaranteed chance-of success?""

Season 6 of Marvel Rivals introduced new heroes, a battle pass, and gameplay tweaks alongside a major overhaul of the hero proficiency system. The proficiency system changed from tiered universal and hero-specific challenges to a single linear progression of 70 levels driven solely by universal challenges. Players now earn more proficiency per minute and encounter milestone rewards throughout the progression. The change increased cosmetic and proficiency rewards but created an exploit where players stay in spawn and spam abilities to farm proficiency (lord farming), causing unbalanced matches and AFK teammates. NetEase has acknowledged the issue and is implementing behavior-detection measures to reduce exploitation.

Read at Kotaku