Helldivers 2 devs turn to community for solutions to ‘broken’ kick system

Arrowhead Games chief executive Johan Pilestedt has turned to the Helldivers 2 community once more, taking suggestions from frustrated fans who have fallen victim to those who abuse the lobby kick system.

Pilestedt responded to a player on X (formerly Twitter) on March 10 who said they had been kicked and removed from matches for trivial reasons, like using a weapon or Stratagem the host does not like. “This is so shitty, [but] also hard to solve,” Pilestedt replied, adding the Helldivers team has a few ideas of their own they could deploy but first wanted to consult fans.

Many Helldivers players were quick to contribute: One suggested a feature in the shooter’s lobby screen that let you queue up with like-minded players. If you wanted to play “hardcore” and pick the most ideal Stratagem, or simply wanted to do what you wanted and change it up, the player said an option to let players find others who shared that particular sentiment would go a long way to align interest in the mission.

Another player proposed a block list whereby you could block someone who kicked you from a recent party without a good reason, thereby ensuring you couldn’t queue with them again. It’s a feature tried in other multiplayer titles like Dota 2 before with some success.

At the moment, Helldivers 2 lobbies can be controlled by the host, who can kick players who are acting out for reasons such as excessive team killing or communication abuse. However, some hosts are abusing the kick system for smaller faults or simply because they don’t like how others play the game—and Pilestedt believed that’s just not fair.

Many jumped aboard the suggestion to implement a vote-kick feature, a common system in place across many titles. Pilestedt said it didn’t make the cut in the Helldivers 2 release believing there is a better solution and that vote-kick has downsides, but compared to the current host-kick system, it’s arguably fairer that the entire party has a say.

Between the addition of mechs, new weapons, and numerous patches (even if some aren’t huge fans of the changes), it’s refreshing to see the Helldivers 2 devs take a proactive and all-encompassing approach to community issues. Here’s hoping Arrowhead lands on a solution for the kick abuse problem in the coming weeks.