The current playerbase is not big enough, not for balance, not for queue times, and definitely not enough for Actibli$$ion’s insatiable greed. One need only play at 5am to see this, and sources tell me that OCE or switch overall has the same problem.
The simple truth is that blizz is gambling that they’ll get more new players or get back people that quit than they’ll lose people who are playing right now. If you assume that they need to take that gamble, then the scale of the risks they’re taking and the amount of existing players that they’re willing to throw under the bus makes sense.
FWIW, I’m not saying that 5v5 is good or bad, just that blizz isn’t gonna value my opinion as an active player over the collective opinions of my 20 or so IRL friends that all quit.
Well yeah, you’re 100% correct OP, but these forums don’t wanna hear that
“What if half the tank players quit !!” they say. WHAT tank players? The ones who give DPS 40 min queues because there are so few?
OW2 will be bringing tons of returning and NEW players, these forums aren’t representative of the what the general playerbase is going to look like at all.
And I think this video by SVB sums up the reality pretty well on why 5v5 probably will end up working in Blizz’s favor for OW2:
If what blizzard showed on stream is the best they can come up for tanks this is what’s going to happen: new player buys overwatch 2, decides to try out a tank, gets hammered into the ground by snipers, sombra, reaper, ana and tank hardcounters, then simply switches to the easiest role in the game aka DPS.
I like 222 RQ, I really do - but to make it continue to work, they’ve had to loosen QP’s matchmaking to the point where match quality has suffered. There was a time when QP stomps happened for sure, but it might have been something like one in five games. Now, there are entire days where almost every QP I play is a boring stomp. And this is on EU, I can’t imagine what it’s like for OCE. I can’t say I’m surprised at solo tanking at all, although I didn’t know whether it’d be 132 or 122.
On another level, 5v5 was clearly designed to, shall we say, streamline the rosters in Overwatch League. Being able to terminate half of your tank players is one way to get payroll under control, I suppose.
The issue with my friends that quit is they are all ow vets who have no interest in going 5v5. (For all that they would play paladins with a larger tank roster)
So I am curious at who this targets and is their plan to poach paladins/fortnight players.
OW2 isn’t just intended for us, they are trying to get the attention of all gamers. Despite role queue being good, queue times is a problem and tanks are currently also a problem which 5v5 can deal with if balance is done well.
How do you mean? 5v5 will hopefully lower DPS queue times, which is great news for casual players like myself. Long DPS queue times are bad for player retention, both directly and for their knock-on effects (lowering matchmaker standards to improve queue times, “ticket farmers” playing tank just to get their priority passes).
I assure you it won’t. You all are going to lose A LOT of Tank players when this goes through, they won’t be replaced much. And the higher population of new players will likely split along the same dps vs tank lines. The ratio is about to get worse with new people and worse off tanklines
Blizzard haven’t added any significant updates to the game in over two years, so they’re already gambling their current player base to get back old players and more new players into the game. But they have to do it if they want Overwatch to live longer then a few years. Personally I’m excited about big changes to this game, it had become stale long before we got Echo, and not even new events would have changed that. OW2 is a gamble that will pay off.
Well, it might pan out like that. But at this point, it seems clear to me that current, 222 RQ is unsustainable. It was a shame that 132 only lasted for a long weekend, really, because while the queue times were nice and short for everyone until the end of that, it’s possible that it was only the effect of a honeymoon period. Oh well.
The alternative to 122 is going back to OQ, maybe with role limits, and hoping that it works out this time. I can see why they weren’t wild about that.
Ah this change will in fact increase que times, do to the fact that where effectively doubling the amount of games tank players can be spread into.
Also I would like to state that most of OW balance issue were do to overwhelming tank synergies. So much so their was a point where the meta didn’t even touch the DPS role.
Every update attracts new people and brings back old players. That you know this isn’t a new patch, but OW2; there are going to be many changes to the game and I don’t think they intend this one to be a major mover of bringing in new people or old people back. I forgot how many new people tried OW in the 2020, but it was millions.
It is also silly to say that OW is not big enough. 15 years ago how many multiplayer PC shooters had a population the size OW has now? Probably none. You don’t need supermassive populations.
Like every publisher, Blizzard is trying to increase profits and bring more people in. It isn’t that they need to do it, but that they want to.
I’m mostly annoyed that while providing reasons for the change they pretended the obvious reason of a tank shortage didn’t exist. It doesn’t bode well for honesty and transparency in the future. In Aaron’s first big announcement since his promotion.
“WHY WONT YOU THINK ABOUT THE PEOPLE WHO DON’T PLAY THE GAME? SHUT UP THIS GAME ISN’T FOR YOU”
do you even listen to yourselves when you write this? You think we don’t know the reason they make this change is because they consider tanks expendable?
This is a lie that people convinced themselves. Up until 2-2-2 all metas were mostly healer driven.
Triple and quad tanks existed due to ana-lucio
dive was a synergy between many heroes and that was the time of moth mercy
goats was due to brig being busted.
The first meta that was tank driven was Bunker, while double barrier only exist cause of Sigma, not barriers themselves being too strong.
