How do you feel about the direction of the game and do you think he’s a good leader that understands this community like Jeff Kaplan or is he just out of touch with reality at this point and causing people to lose interest in the game with his vision of what OW should be?
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he is a lot better than jeff… jeff want a ow2 more based on pve than pvp. anyway the should be better and get a better team balance.
jeff and geoff were big problems on ow1.
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What is it about Aaron that you like?
He’s either the one green lighting all the predatory game ruining decisions
Or he’s the guy that just says ok to higher ups that want all the predatory game ruining things in game
Either way….he’s terrible
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Kaplan was one of a kind in the gaming industry and his engagement with the community was always very enjoyable.
Keller is kinda forgettable. Just my personal taste.
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The goodman balancing never left, it just jumped bodies. Thats the problem.
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After the first dev video he appeared in, i really thought he would do more. But he hasn’t.
We should be fair and reasonable. How much of what we see in OW2 is purely Aaron Keller? This isn’t an indie studio where the lead can just do whatever they want. Do any one of us here have any facts as to what liberties he can take with hero balance, design, content that isn’t behind paywall, etc? No.
I have a endless posts bashing blizz but I don’t put any one individual at fault. I think its a structural problem at blizz. Keller or Kaplan, wouldn’t have mattered.
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Only thing that clearly distinguishes Jeff and Aaron to me is the developer updates. Jeff was ALWAYS the one speaking through EVERY developer update. Each event occurrence ALWAYS had him speaking about it. Now its just Twitter posts for news. Aaron does developer updates too but… barely. I’ve seen more of the man telling us about Ramattra lore than Aaron since OW2 released.
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The only things I know about him:
He was in a TV show, a very cringe one and it makes him sound like a simp or just a really good friend to this OnlyFans girl/neighbour. Drinking wine and interviewing her about her transformation. Also that he was at this year’s GOTY awards event, I was told.
From Pastor To Adult Model I BRAND NEW ME
[Can watch this on YouTube]
Based on his takeover, he’s very quiet compared to Jeff like the communication isn’t there unless it’s an upcoming patch then he would go on Twitter.
Aaron has a personal life too, and his friend has nothing to do with his field of employment. Why would you even bring this up on the forum? Leave her alone.
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I think people look back on Mr. Kaplan’s reign with rose-tinted glasses. I’m always surprised with what people attribute to him. Back in the run-up to release, there’d be comments on these forums along the lines of “we wouldn’t be getting solo tank if Jeff was in charge!” even though he was the guy who pushed for the solo tanking 132 experimental.
I think a narrative of “Aaron sucks, Jeff rules!!” is really weird.
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Aaron doesn’t have as much influence as Jeff had. He isn’t a VP of Blizzard. Additionally, there is an Overwatch commercial team and they’re the ones in charge of monetization. The leader of that, Jon Spector, is a VP. I’d blame him before I’d blame Aaron.
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yeah that would’ve been soo horrible
right?
Eh, under Jeff, I feel like the game never really figured out how its monetisation system should work, which is why development on the game sorta stopped. We also saw far worse design and balance decisions with Jeff/Geoff, and the game never really recovered after Brig tbh.
We haven’t seen enough from Aaron to really say anything for certain, but in principle, OW2’s new maps, balance and heroes have been far more passable than most OW1 releases were. I doubt OW2 will ever reach the heights OW1 did, but perhaps it says more that Jeff was in charge of such a massive game and managed to let it die.
Kinda depends.
But I’m not going to make a judgment call now. But probably around this time next year then I could make a reasonable assessment.
If anything, my guess, that a lot of the things right now that involve firing or scaring away top talent, squandering budget, or just not having enough budget in the first place. As well as the cash shop pricing, and shenanigans with the Battle Pass not having enough currency to unlock the next battle pass, and locking new heroes behind a 2 month grindwall.
A lot of that, probably has nothing to do with Aaron Keller, and more to do with ActiBliz Corporate upper-middle management. Or the Kotick himself.
lol! Yeah I was about to ask the same. I see people often bring up entirely unrelated things but it still blows my mind why non pertinent details get brought up and what the thought process behind that is.
uh, gonna add a source to that?
What jeff wanted was everything to be complete before launch
Sure they involved the 3+ year content drought, but jeff was really passionate about this game…I remember he was the one pushed so that cosmetics unlocked would be brought over to ow2, and even cross platform
as opposed to possibly losing his job?
I think he’s probably somewhat forced to be a corporate puppet who pushes heavy monetization wether he likes it or not.
Aaron literally does nothing for the game. Opposed to Jeff hes just a yesman for the OW team.