Overwatch

[Beebo]

Whole thing of OW2 being actually OW1.5 is the natural conclusion of the fact that OW2 was originally started by Jeff Kaplan with the aim of being much more Coop PvE focused game that would exist alongside PvP OW1, suits at Blizzard didn't approve of this, so he left. Problem was that Kaplan leaving happened after OW2 marketing had already started, so they had to stick with the name.
New people were hired, others promoted to senior positions and they were told to drop all the design work done for OG Kaplan OW2 and do more PvP content, and after release make some PvE content. This current iteration of OW2 had like a year's worth of work actually done to it at release.

In my opinion it's the ranked comp mode that ruined the game.
Early weeks/months of OW were great, as no one truly got butthurt mad over losing the game to the point that they would gnash their teeth in anger in the voice/text chat if their rank points went down due to someone doing something retarded. Entirety of the player base played in the same pool, so you had the trolls, the stoners, the normies and the tryhards still in the same queue. After Comp and QP separated, it just made it so that the people wanting to try to win went to play Comp to be mad in, and the rest stayed in QP, filtering out the lifeblood.

I might be too much of a boomer by now, but in my opinion just being good at the game and being able to carry games is reward enough in itself, and there's no need for some arbitrary rank. Soft MMR might had been the perfect solution here as well, like it exists in QP. If you are good, you won't get some epic flashy ranks, but you will get placed with better and better players regardless.

 

[74164978231]

In my opinion it's the ranked comp mode that ruined the game.
Early weeks/months of OW were great, as no one truly got butthurt mad over losing the game to the point that they would gnash their teeth in anger in the voice/text chat if their rank points went down due to someone doing something retarded. Entirety of the player base played in the same pool, so you had the trolls, the stoners, the normies and the tryhards still in the same queue. After Comp and QP separated, it just made it so that the people wanting to try to win went to play Comp to be mad in, and the rest stayed in QP, filtering out the lifeblood.

The nature of MOBAs and the complete lack of accountability for being a bad actor is the whole reason why the genre is known for "toxicity".

 

[Beebo]

The nature of MOBAs and the complete lack of accountability for being a bad actor is the whole reason why the genre is known for "toxicity".

There wasn't any accountability during the "good old days" either. Even less so than today, as many of the multiplayer games of old were just random servers hosted by whoever. Like the TF2/BF2 etc servers of old, where in some you could yell nigger all day long, using every glitch imaginable was allowed or whatever the fuck. There was no central authority or rules. Everything was fine, as long as the admin of the server didn't ban you. Servers with shit rules faded away, and the ones with a good balance of rules stayed around.

What has changed regarding to cooperative ranked play within centralized game servers, are the stakes regarding to performance with all these arbitrary ranking systems.
In ranked systems every time you lose, you are basically losing everything you got from your previous win, which means you are wasting your time because of whatever reason that caused you to lose. This leads to frustration, which leads to gigamad.

I believe this cycle to be the core issue why everyone is miserable and hates their lives in modern comp random queue games.
"Is only game, why you have to be mad?" has been forgotten along the way, as point based random queue ranked modes became more prevalent. Now every somewhat above average player sees themselves as some temporarily embarrassed future E-sports star in their fucking diamond games, if it only weren't for that fucking Genji feeding.

 

[Gravityqueen4life]

decided to play a few games. got board after 30 minutes. fuck.

 

[gaystoner]

Whole thing of OW2 being actually OW1.5 is the natural conclusion of the fact that OW2 was originally started by Jeff Kaplan with the aim of being much more Coop PvE focused game that would exist alongside PvP OW1, suits at Blizzard didn't approve of this, so he left. Problem was that Kaplan leaving happened after OW2 marketing had already started, so they had to stick with the name.
New people were hired, others promoted to senior positions and they were told to drop all the design work done for OG Kaplan OW2 and do more PvP content, and after release make some PvE content. This current iteration of OW2 had like a year's worth of work actually done to it at release.

In my opinion it's the ranked comp mode that ruined the game.
Early weeks/months of OW were great, as no one truly got butthurt mad over losing the game to the point that they would gnash their teeth in anger in the voice/text chat if their rank points went down due to someone doing something retarded. Entirety of the player base played in the same pool, so you had the trolls, the stoners, the normies and the tryhards still in the same queue. After Comp and QP separated, it just made it so that the people wanting to try to win went to play Comp to be mad in, and the rest stayed in QP, filtering out the lifeblood.

I might be too much of a boomer by now, but in my opinion just being good at the game and being able to carry games is reward enough in itself, and there's no need for some arbitrary rank. Soft MMR might had been the perfect solution here as well, like it exists in QP. If you are good, you won't get some epic flashy ranks, but you will get placed with better and better players regardless.

Agreed...the game was fun and you saw more 'plays' because of it. Now it's comp has the 'one shot' widows everywhere or perfect genjis and QP has the AFKs

 

[I don't swear]

Agreed...the game was fun and you saw more 'plays' because of it. Now it's comp has the 'one shot' widows everywhere or perfect genjis and QP has the AFKs

Surely this game dies faster than 1, surely? PvE would only be extending its lease on life for a couple of months.

 

[gaystoner]

Surely this game dies faster than 1, surely? PvE would only be extending its lease on life for a couple of months.

PvE would actually extend what the game "is". The basis of overwatch was for more PvE situations instead you have weird battles of the same hero's vs eachother.

 

[Tanner Glass]

Surely this game dies faster than 1, surely? PvE would only be extending its lease on life for a couple of months.

PvE would be massive - there's a huge market segment of people who want to play shooters in a co-operative environment and not a competitive one and not a lot of games that do it. (Division 2, Destiny 2, and Borderlands come to mind).

If Blizzard was able to make a compelling and fun PvE experience - Overwatch 2 would go absolutely fucking gangbusters in sales and popularity as it's a genre IMO that hasn't really been "done right" before (akin to MMOs before World of Warcraft). It would be something that even Team Fortress 2 wasn't able to do (MvM is OK, but, no one cares).

That said - that's assuming that PvE even comes out. The idea of current Blizzard putting out a "Blizzard Magic"-level game ever again is laughable.

 

[ZMOT]

There wasn't any accountability during the "good old days" either.

there was, but it was more direct and personal, thus "toxic". either you played on some random "official" server with no admin and community, where it's just a bunch of retards shooting at each other, or a community server with it's own rules and vibe. the latter was much more likely to call you shit (and anyone else who wants to talk shit, which would also keep the sweatlords in line), at which point you either had to git gud or find a server more fitting.

the problem is these days companies want to be in full control of "the experience", so you can't have admins banning people on their own or people having to look for the "right" server, let alone rightfully called gamer words when they suck. a decentralized system also prevents any proper ranking carrot on a stick way too many retards constantly fall for.

PvE would be massive - there's a huge market segment of people who want to play shooters in a co-operative environment and not a competitive one and not a lot of games that do it. (Division 2, Destiny 2, and Borderlands come to mind).

If Blizzard was able to make a compelling and fun PvE experience - Overwatch 2 would go absolutely fucking gangbusters in sales and popularity as it's a genre IMO that hasn't really been "done right" before (akin to MMOs before World of Warcraft). It would be something that even Team Fortress 2 wasn't able to do (MvM is OK, but, no one cares).

That said - that's assuming that PvE even comes out. The idea of current Blizzard putting out a "Blizzard Magic"-level game ever again is laughable.

they already tried that, after titan didn't go anywhere for years (under MUH KAPLAN, dunno why people suck that guy's cock so much when he fucked up WoW AND OW) guess what we ended up with.

it also needs to be just right, and as you said nu-blizz won't be able to pull that off - not to mention PVE requires constant drops of content so people have something to grind through constantly, which is much more expensive than pvp where the other players are "the content".

 

[Tanner Glass]

they already tried that, after titan didn't go anywhere for years (under MUH KAPLAN, dunno why people suck that guy's cock so much when he fucked up WoW AND OW) guess what we ended up with.

Because Kaplan at least seemed to give a shit about the game and was a lead dev who seemed to have a vision of his own and understood what OW fans wanted in some capacity - even if he never got corporate to buy into his vision.

Everyone after has just been literal toadies making complete garbage at the behest of ABK leadership.

Was Kaplan the best lead dev ever anywhere? No
Was he the best lead dev Overwatch could have had? No
Was he the best lead dev overwatch actually had? Yes
Is Blizzard ever going to do better? Not a chance

 

[74164978231]

they already tried that, after titan didn't go anywhere for years (under MUH KAPLAN, dunno why people suck that guy's cock so much when he fucked up WoW AND OW) guess what we ended up with.

Eh there is something in the DNA of blizzard that makes them utterly incapable of producing content at a remotely acceptable pace and outright failing to bring projects to completion.

They canceled lord of the clans when it was mostly complete
They canceled SC Ghost after significant amounts of dev time
They scrapped entire portions of WoW expansions; Cata, WoD, SL etc.
Theyve had to reuse major assets multiple times in big content updates; Cata's dragon soul raid, BFA's 8.3 patch

Theres just something wrong with the company and no amount of changing of management fixes that.

There wasn't any accountability during the "good old days" either. Even less so than today, as many of the multiplayer games of old were just random servers hosted by whoever. Like the TF2/BF2 etc servers of old, where in some you could yell nigger all day long, using every glitch imaginable was allowed or whatever the fuck. There was no central authority or rules. Everything was fine, as long as the admin of the server didn't ban you. Servers with shit rules faded away, and the ones with a good balance of rules stayed around.

You didnt need accountability pre MOBA because the game mechanics didnt require it. Matches where 2-3 minutes tops in CS, if someone was being a trolling asshole in your TF match you could leave with zero penalty and hop into another match right away. Also community servers did a lot to police retards, something which doesnt exist at all in the modern era of gaming.

At the end of the day Blizzard will keep swirling the drain until whoever buys ATVI finally buys it and revitalizes Blizzard's IPs. Until then they will continue to shutter service after service will further monetizing what properties are still running.

 

[Airbrushed Van Art]

So a follow-up about my impressions of Mercy.

I’m pretty good at that character, prioritizing heals and damage boosts over everything else.

Somehow, I STILL get out-healed by other support, who still manage to dish out plenty of damage. I switched around, playing other support characters and compared my performance with other Mercy players. Out healed her every single time.

Sooooo… they totally did something bad to my girl Mercy. Not sure what, but she just doesn’t compare to the others. What the hell?

Edit: last time, I spent the entire match playing healing whackamole. No wasted time, helping weaker characters before slowly healing tanks. Topping everyone else up constantly. Still got out healed by a Zenyatta. What in the fuck?

 

[I don't swear]

So a follow-up about my impressions of Mercy.

I’m pretty good at that character, prioritizing heals and damage boosts over everything else.

Somehow, I STILL get out-healed by other support, who still manage to dish out plenty of damage. I switched around, playing other support characters and compared my performance with other Mercy players. Out healed her every single time.

Sooooo… they totally did something bad to my girl Mercy. Not sure what, but she just doesn’t compare to the others. What the hell?

Edit: last time, I spent the entire match playing healing whackamole. No wasted time, helping weaker characters before slowly healing tanks. Topping everyone else up constantly. Still got out healed by a Zenyatta. What in the fuck?

If you are playing Brig, and you're getting out healed by Zen, then you're doing something wrong. If you play Brig right, you can easily have main heals numbers with her. Especially with this buff they gave her.

 

[Airbrushed Van Art]

I’m starting to find Kiriko far more fun to play. Constant aim-free heals, incredible mobility and fun damage. She feels like everything Mercy is and more.

 

[Hammr2]

So a follow-up about my impressions of Mercy.

I’m pretty good at that character, prioritizing heals and damage boosts over everything else.

Somehow, I STILL get out-healed by other support, who still manage to dish out plenty of damage. I switched around, playing other support characters and compared my performance with other Mercy players. Out healed her every single time.

Sooooo… they totally did something bad to my girl Mercy. Not sure what, but she just doesn’t compare to the others. What the hell?

Edit: last time, I spent the entire match playing healing whackamole. No wasted time, helping weaker characters before slowly healing tanks. Topping everyone else up constantly. Still got out healed by a Zenyatta. What in the fuck?

Assuming this is a forced role-queue, not the other queue.
Mercy is a pocket healer, you pick a dps (not Tracer, Genji and Sombra), pocket healing them for most of the time. Don't wishy washy panicking swapping healing targets, your co-healer should be healing other teammates. As in if your pocket dps is dueling, dont even switch to heal other teammate, even if other teammate is taking damage.
Playing Mercy is actually quite restrictive on healing target priority more than you thought comparing to other healers. You should tweak Guardian Angel option to find which one you prefer more, for your own survivability.

Also, no amount of healing can save a target if they are being focused or one-shot mechanic, don't take it too personally. It's not really a big deal if you're out heal by other healers, except Zen or Brig. Zen may outheal you because he uses his ult at the right moment for your whole team. Like maybe you could have also using your ult at the time, but Zen did it first.

If the target you're pocketing not really taking any damage so overall healing wouldn't be high. Good dps means they aren't taking much damage and actually killing enemies, also considering your tank is probably doing their job, taking most of the damage.

Heavily recommend checking replay. You'll see if your healing being wasted on full-health character for a long time instead of healing the ones in need (more so on other healers rather than Mercy), or teammates make mistake die too quickly or teammates are way too good without much healing need. You'll learn a lot more to see what else you can do with checking replay.
Don't sweat on numbers too much, as long as your team stays alive longer and actually kills enemy team, it's good enough. Numbers can mean anything. Although, if you want to be toxic, go make fun of DPS having less damage overall to your tank.

 

[74164978231]

Mercy is about consistency, ease of use and boosting a good dps. Pretty much every healer has much higher hps potential than her, but arent as easy to use or more vulnerable.

 

[The Fair Lady]

I’m starting to find Kiriko far more fun to play. Constant aim-free heals, incredible mobility and fun damage. She feels like everything Mercy is and more.

Kiriko is fun unless your teammates are too far away to teleport to or they die immediately when you do. I try not to use her as a solo healer because sometimes she just can't dish out heals fast enough when her ofuda are low, that and she works better when playing off another support. She does generally feel better than Mercy though.

 

[Leaf Wage Slave Jr]

Mercy is about consistency, ease of use and boosting a good dps. Pretty much every healer has much higher hps potential than her, but arent as easy to use or more vulnerable.

I feel like the easiest Supports to use as far as Heals are still the Og Trio of Mercy-Lucio-Zen. Mercy is arguably the most consistent and easy to pick up, Lucio you just need to exist within LoS and know when to swap between Heals and Speed, Zen you can just throw a Ball on someone and forget but needs actual aim.

The rest of the Supports?
-Ana is a Sniper, with the skill floor that requires with how stupid player movement can be. She’s part of the reason Tank Meta was so strong, but if you can’t aim you’re fucked.
-Baptiste is a good Middle of the Road option. Decent weapon damage, decent range on his Healing Grenade - which Splash Heals so you don’t need exact aim - the Immortality Field and AoE Heal can be clutch if Grav’d, Ult Combo’d, or being incessantly dived. Also he has Super Jump for some reason, the Basketball Jokes go here.
-Brigitte was nerfed into the fucking ground because people were pissy she dared have CC in her kit. They didn’t give her anything to offset that, and her playstyle is very map dependent. I say this as they’ve removed 2CP, arguably her best Map Type due to Choke Points existing where she could just Brawl away. If you’re somehow able to coordinate a Death Ball, she’s probably decent there though…
-Kiriko I didn’t use much before peacing out, so I can’t judge too much. If you’re good with her you’re good with her, but god help you if you tele to a diving teammate and they insta die.
-Moira is a DPS. Change my mind.

 

[Airbrushed Van Art]

Is the latest comp season over or something? Quick Play was flooded with incredibly talented players last night (not one or two, but every game was full of crazy OP teams that steamrolled my side 5-6 games in a row). It was weird. It’s usually more casual than that. Noticeably brutal.

 

[TIMECUBE 2.0]

Is the latest comp season over or something? Quick Play was flooded with incredibly talented players last night (not one or two, but every game was full of crazy OP teams that steamrolled my side 5-6 games in a row). It was weird. It’s usually more casual than that. Noticeably brutal.

Play against any decent Wrecking Balls?