Helldivers 2 director turns to community for advice on how to get meta-enthusiasts to stop kicking other players

gamesradar.com:

Helldivers 2's director has turned to its community for suggestions on how to stop meta-following players from kicking others.

Kicking players is a bit of a problem in Helldivers 2 at the moment. On the game's higher difficulties, players kick others if they aren't using a few weapons, such as the Breaker shotgun or the Railgun Stratagem. Helldivers 2's first balance patch last week attempted to knock both weapons off their pedestals, but apparently, it's been to little effect.

Now, Helldivers 2 game director Johan Pilestedt has turned to the game's player base to try and remedy the kicking issue. In the tweet below, Pilestedt asks the player for "design" suggestions for "how to improve this experience," and in the responses further down, there's no shortage of responses and suggestions from players. 

This is so shitty. Also very hard to solve - we have some ideas but no conclusion.You know what, let's try this: Hive Mind - do you have a design suggestion for how to improve this experience? https://t.co/HgUlV80fP4March 9, 2024

"It would be helpful under 'recent teammates' to highlight the person who just kicked you, so you can block them in return and hopefully never get matched with them again," writes one user. "It's a good idea! I like it," responds Pilestedt with enthusiasm. 

"Under the cross-play option, have a toggle for preferred style. Either hardcore or fuck it we ball," adds another user. "Fuck it we ball" can be translated to a more relaxed play style here. "This is a good one, solve it before it's even a problem," responds the Helldivers 2 director.

"Would it be possible to apply a way to penalize someone for kicking x amount of times within a given timeframe, say someone has 10 kicks within 30 mins and gets flagged," proposes a player. Pilestedt also likes this, because it lets the game's team use in-game telemetry and data to solve the issue. 

"Thank you, everyone, for your suggestions! I will ask the team to look at this thread and draw inspiration,"