Blizzard's Overwatch Catch-All

EvilHomer3k wrote:
EriktheRed wrote:

You can use legacy credits (OW1 currency) to pay for a few new skins for the new heroes and some of the old skins, but many of them are locked down, requiring you to get them in the store with real money.

And I thought my 60,000 OW1 credits were going to be useful.

Worth as much as my 110,000 OW1 credits.

bhchrist wrote:
EvilHomer3k wrote:
EriktheRed wrote:

You can use legacy credits (OW1 currency) to pay for a few new skins for the new heroes and some of the old skins, but many of them are locked down, requiring you to get them in the store with real money.

And I thought my 60,000 OW1 credits were going to be useful.

Worth as much as my 110,000 OW1 credits.

They’re actually worth a lot. They’re 1:1 ratio in value for OW2 currency so you can buy the legendary Sojourn and Kiriko skins for 1900 legacy coins which is $20 each. There are some store or BP exclusive skins (I think they have an stylized superman S next to them on the hero customization screens). The new doomfist Epic is a store exclusive.

staygold wrote:
bhchrist wrote:
EvilHomer3k wrote:
EriktheRed wrote:

You can use legacy credits (OW1 currency) to pay for a few new skins for the new heroes and some of the old skins, but many of them are locked down, requiring you to get them in the store with real money.

And I thought my 60,000 OW1 credits were going to be useful.

Worth as much as my 110,000 OW1 credits.

They’re actually worth a lot. They’re 1:1 ratio in value for OW2 currency so you can buy the legendary Sojourn and Kiriko skins for 1900 legacy coins which is $20 each. There are some store or BP exclusive skins (I think they have an stylized superman S next to them on the hero customization screens). The new doomfist Epic is a store exclusive.

Huh. I thought they could only be used for legacy OW1 items, which I pretty much have.

I wasn't too concerned about this game but ended up downloading it and getting in a few matches over the last couple days - and yeah that old Overwatch fun is still here, though I am definitely rusty. I realized that I don't even need to pay attention to xp, the battlepass, challenges etc. because I already have cool skins for my preferred characters - it's nice not to worry about any of that stuff and just jump in and play a few rounds when the mood strikes.

I feel similarly. But the inflection point will come when the next hero launches and OW1 players don't get them for free - when it's likely a choice whether to grind for a few weeks or pony up, since facing off against a character you can't use will feel icky.

Eh, I've found that I stick to rotating through about five characters, so if I wanted to venture into new territory there's a bunch I've barely played, and I think about six I've never tried at all - last I played Ashe was the newest hero and I only played like two rounds as her - so a new character isn't a huge draw for me.

A lot depends on how they make characters from previous seasons available. If they aren't, or it's a huge season of grind for each still, you'll never catch up.

With Tanks having only single queues, the selection of playable characters makes sense. It would still be nice to get more tank and support characters when they start adding more to the roster. if support is as boosted as it seems it would be nice to have a wider selection of characters to pick from for them, especially since they make up as much of the comp as dps but have like half as many characters. I love playing aggro support but I'm kind of bored of all of them.

This is the first game I've played that has a battle pass*. I'm having fun with it now but can tell it's only a matter of time until I look at playing as a chore yet won't stop due a combination of FOMO and OCD.

One effect of this is that the first time I miss completing a battle pass, I'll probably never play the game again no matter what cool things they add. Why? Because it will always stick in my craw that some item is forever lost to me. Does it matter that it's a skin for a character I never play as and don't even see outside the loading screens? Nope. Does it matter that I already have better skin? Nope again.

I know this is stupid. I should just keep playing until I'm not having fun, then stop, then play again if I feel like it... but that's how my brain works.

Also stupid- the prices in the item store.

*Technically not true because I played DRG, but I was late to that game and mainly played with friends, so I was able to successfully ignore it.

My understanding was that Battlepass cosmetics will show up again later in the shop to be purchased for actual money, should you fail to complete the pass in time. The skins you really want will probably be more expensive than the price of the battlepass but at least you can complete your collection.

This was pretty funny. The Starring portion of the video was hilarious.

I've been noticing my YT feed had be flooded with these kind of videos recently, and they're all doing very well viewcount wise.

With the slow falling Twitch viewcount (excluding boosts by XQC which I'd consider an outlier), it makes me wonder about the future of the franchise. Microsoft is buying Activision-Blizzard-King not for Overwatch, or Call of Duty, or WoW, but for King's Candycrush. With mobile gaming being such a cash cow, I wonder if Microsoft will start chopping off what they may consider dead-weight

I'm enjoying getting back to it again, been popping in and playing a couple games almost daily for the last few weeks. I guess cosmetics issues don't really bother me, if they did I might not like it so much, sure. However the gameplay is still there, it feels better at five players per team and enough people are playing wait times are negligible. I'm sure I can guess what the problems the YouTubers have with the game and some of it isn't great but I'm probably not going to watch any, I'd rather just play the game instead and enjoy it for what it is, I'll fall off it soon enough if things bug me too much.

Axel wrote:

With the slow falling Twitch viewcount (excluding boosts by XQC which I'd consider an outlier), it makes me wonder about the future of the franchise. Microsoft is buying Activision-Blizzard-King not for Overwatch, or Call of Duty, or WoW, but for King's Candycrush. With mobile gaming being such a cash cow, I wonder if Microsoft will start chopping off what they may consider dead-weight

You're very wrong about some of this. CoD Mobile made over 1 billion dollars (probably 2 at this point) for ABK, and they're about to launch WarZone Mobile which will be even crazier. MW2 just had an opening weekend of 800$ million. Blowing away all past record sales. The bulk of the negative press for OW has no bearing on the actual state of the game. It's people getting their hits in to make them money. People who like it, are playing. We'll see in a year where they stand money wise and if they're 'dead weight'

I hope OW continues along as a franchise, but it will not be making CoD money anytime soon. Partially, the current gaming culture and a lot of Blizzard just isn't making it happen.

Also, while CoD is making amazing money, it still isn't the flat out money faucet that King is.

lunchbox12682 wrote:

Also, while CoD is making amazing money, it still isn't the flat out money faucet that King is.

Candy Crush is a beast! Not much will come close here in the west.

I haven't played OW in a while-- moved a year and a half ago to a rural area where the Internet service is such that online shooters are not a fun experience-- but the main thing I remember* about my time being deep in that world and following the meta and reading patch notes and watching a lot of OW YouTubers is that if you listen to YouTubers, you'd be under the impression that the game is perpetually on the cusp of dying, and yet it persisted in never actually doing so.

*other than getting into a six-stack with Goodjers and hitting that perfect balance between trying to win and not getting TOO butt-hurt if we lost, or getting into a 12-person voice chat and playing dumb arcadey workshop modes, that's the stuff I actually miss

hbi2k wrote:

if you listen to YouTubers, you'd be under the impression that the game is perpetually on the cusp of dying, and yet it persisted in never actually doing so.

I think the hate feels a bit different this time around with all of the fundamental changes of the game. The gaming community generally perceives Overwatch to be a lazy cashgrab and Overwatch players themselves to be somewhat pathetic simps. It saddens me to think about it

Axel wrote:
hbi2k wrote:

if you listen to YouTubers, you'd be under the impression that the game is perpetually on the cusp of dying, and yet it persisted in never actually doing so.

I think the hate feels a bit different this time around with all of the fundamental changes of the game. The gaming community generally perceives Overwatch to be a lazy cashgrab and Overwatch players themselves to be somewhat pathetic simps. It saddens me to think about it

Sorry but you're wrong. You forget that these content creators are NOT the general community. It matters about 1 or 2 f*cks what they think and that's because people will believe what they're told. Otherwise it's 0.

Axel wrote:
hbi2k wrote:

if you listen to YouTubers, you'd be under the impression that the game is perpetually on the cusp of dying, and yet it persisted in never actually doing so.

The gaming community generally perceives... Overwatch players themselves to be somewhat pathetic simps.

Wow. I had no idea, thanks gaming community

Ah the famously reasonable gaming community

Personally I don't get people dunking on OW2 at all - it's 95% the same game it was a few months ago, and everything that's changed has changed for the better. It's free, 5v5 plays better, removal of barriers plays better, and for me queue times are down by literally an order of magnitude.

I mean if someone hated the game two months ago and still hates it today, that's obviously fair enough, plenty of good reasons to feel that way. But "a new low in gaming"? Sure Jan...

fenomas wrote:

Ah the famously reasonable gaming community

Personally I don't get people dunking on OW2 at all - it's 95% the same game it was a few months ago, and everything that's changed has changed for the better.

This is the problem a lot of people have with the game. It's basically the same game but without a tank. I don't think the game is better with one tank. It's better with fewer shields but having one character that is much more important than everyone else isn't good. And with one tank you're stuck with them and whatever they do. If you have a timid tank that never pushes you're screwed. If you have an overly agressive tank that charges into a 1v5 and expects support to keep them alive while the other team focuses them down you're screwed. Want to play tank because most tanks aren't good? Well, guess what, now your que time is terrible. Sure, they made some things better but they also made some things worse.

The things that they really needed to work on; making supports more fun to play, improving matchmaking, actually doing something about toxicity/leavers/smurfs hasn't changed at all. It's very much a team based game and one person can now more easily ruin a match. In fact they've removed one of the only ways to find a decent game that they had by taking out the ability to find a team within the game. Now it makes it even more important to que with people you know outside of the game and make solo que even more frustrating. That's absolutely not better.

They spent all their time and effort monetizing the game and not enough time making the game better or adding PvE. They promised a new game and gave us a new monetization scheme. Sure, if you liked OW before you probably still like it but there's plenty of things that they said they'd do but did little to nothing.

EvilHomer3k wrote:
fenomas wrote:

Ah the famously reasonable gaming community

Personally I don't get people dunking on OW2 at all - it's 95% the same game it was a few months ago, and everything that's changed has changed for the better.

This is the problem a lot of people have with the game. It's basically the same game but without a tank. I don't think the game is better with one tank. It's better with fewer shields but having one character that is much more important than everyone else isn't good. And with one tank you're stuck with them and whatever they do. If you have a timid tank that never pushes you're screwed. If you have an overly agressive tank that charges into a 1v5 and expects support to keep them alive while the other team focuses them down you're screwed. Want to play tank because most tanks aren't good? Well, guess what, now your que time is terrible. Sure, they made some things better but they also made some things worse.

The things that they really needed to work on; making supports more fun to play, improving matchmaking, actually doing something about toxicity/leavers/smurfs hasn't changed at all. It's very much a team based game and one person can now more easily ruin a match. In fact they've removed one of the only ways to find a decent game that they had by taking out the ability to find a team within the game. Now it makes it even more important to que with people you know outside of the game and make solo que even more frustrating. That's absolutely not better.

They spent all their time and effort monetizing the game and not enough time making the game better or adding PvE. They promised a new game and gave us a new monetization scheme. Sure, if you liked OW before you probably still like it but there's plenty of things that they said they'd do but did little to nothing.

With nearly 2,000 hours in OW1 + OW2, it is loads better from both design and playstyle. I cannot image ever wanting to play two tank again, similar to when role locks became a thing. This coming from someone who has 99%+ of those hours on tanks and supports. Just my opinion, but I haven't run into the majority of the things you take issue with. Loads times have been fine, including tank, even in solo of duo queue. JMO.

I think I play solo que a lot more than you do. Most of these are a solo que issue. It's especially annoying that they took away the find a group option as that usually lead to a decently fun game with teammates who play together.

I don't think it's more fun to play supports. Mercy has some nice movement abilities but damage boosting a bad dps is pretty unsatisfying. Moira can be more fun as they've amped up her jump during fade. So you can move a really long way with fade now and can do u-turns pretty well. I find that, especially in solo que, there is no peel for supports so if the enemy has a dva or winston and you're playing Ana/zen they can jump in for free and kill you. The movement speed boost for DPS combined with the lack of peel and numerous ways to flank also make it much less fun. I almost never play anyone besides Lucio and Moira (with a little bit of Kiriko) now because anyone else you spend the entire game running away from the enemy tank or dps. Most of this is mitigated by playing with a team.

Matchmaking is just as bad as it was before. Still way too many games that are just ridiculously lopsided where one team gets people who have played the bare minimum of hours to get into comp and the other has experienced players if not outright smurfs. I played half a dozen games last night and there were leavers in 3 (that left before the game started) and leavers in 3 of the 6 I was able to play. They were, thankfully, all on the other team but it's still an issue.

With only one tank it really makes that tank the most important player on the team. In solo que it's a pretty random if they'll be decent but with two tanks at least one of them was probably good. Having two tends to average the tanks out a bit. If your tank is the worst player on your team and their tank is the best you lose most of those games. Sure, when the tanks are evenly matched the game plays better but my point is that it's less likely to have even tanks with one tank and it's more important that they're even since tanks are so strong.

If you play mostly with a group I would say it is a better game. It's just a worse game if you spend most of your time in solo que comp.

Iunno, I've literally never played anything except solo queue - not once - and matchmaking feels better to me. But I assume that's just having more people in the player pool. Back in late OW1 the game was down its last diehard holdout players, and I think a lot of them trolled or griefed just out of boredom. They played 24/7 and nothing had changed in ages, so throwing was just something to do. Having a lot more casual players in the mix, who are just popping in to hit the daily challenge and try new heroes, hugely alleviates that.

But to me all that is spillikins in the parlor compared to queue times. I used to see 30min+ queues for DPS, and 5min+ for flex, constantly. Since OW2, flex is instant and DPS has been 2-5 minutes flat. Issues like having leavers on your team, or working around bad teammates - those are people problems that one can't realistically expect blizzard to fix. But queue times was a (huge) feature problem, and it seems to be fixed now, and for me that by itself makes OW2 a massive improvement.

Side note: been trying out the new Roadhog, and it says a lot about his design that he's significantly buffed by being able to turn off his ult.

With Overwatch & other Blizzard games soon to be unavailable in mainland China, it puts in jeopardy a major revenue stream for ABK. When selling games in China, all foreign game companies must operate with a joint-venture with a local Chinese company, in this case NetEase. All new JV's must also get approved by the Chinese government itself, which in itself is a long and difficult process.

With China being a large portion of the Blizzard games playerbase (including OW), if they get cut off for the foreseeable future, one could think Microsoft may consider pivoting after the ABK acquisition. Move resources from the now much less profitable PC/console franchises such as OW to the mobile ones owned by King, perhaps even sunsetting them.

Would the death of the Overwatch franchise considered to be good thing? Although many would argue it would be, it's difficult to say. The only thing known for now is that 2023 will be full of uncertainty both the game & what little remains of the OW community

With that Blizz/China news I am more curios if it would impact OWL league teams based in China.

I do not think this will impact OW in the immediate future. It will chug along as it has the last few years.

Great video about OW2 from a former member of the OW community

I'd say he's not wrong on anything, really. Well, except maybe the number of people who don't want to play it any more. I'm not unhappy with the game even if I'm disappointed in the fact that it's a money grab balance patch and not in any way Overwatch 2.