I don’t know how many layers of facetiousness and misdirection you’re giving here, given that you posted a picture of Yakko while there’s a leak/rumor going around that says one of the heroes that has yet to be revealed is named Yako.
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I wonder. If you did it by mass vote, all the bias would get washed out. I’m curious what would change if everybody had a say.
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They are probably balancing it better for a better viewer experience for the cup. It would maybe have been a worse watch imo.
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I’d say both, fun in the means of everyone goes crazy, but attempts at balance by trying new things that could even have the potential of pushing ideas like it to Live
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This. Overwatch is a dump and getting worse lmao
The guidance we provide is over the top, and wacky. Something different from the live game, not another iteration of it.
This is probably a good lesson for us to learn: over the top is completely subjective based on your perspective. Also, I think that each of the creators try to work some things they’d like to actually see make it, in addition to the more outlandish changes. That’s fine, and isn’t something I’d like to start discouraging.
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Big Man can I ask, is it possible to have the Experimental Cards be a permanent addition until the next iteration from other content creators? I really like playing the unbalanced fun in ExC and it’s always a shame when it’s removed
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It’s just the first thing I thought of when I saw that name being floated around.
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Especially if what is probably gonna be an entire week of its runtime is with the extremely bad tank changes.
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Thank you for the answer! Much appreciated!!
I have one more question, a bit related to the experimental, but how important do you consider fun changes to be relative to balanced changes?
A lot of my friends I know in game personally love the more fun changes, rather than flat number changes such as an ult charge reduction. An example of a “fun” change brought in was the d.va remech buff, as me and my friends have done a lot of grav remech combos for example in QP.
So basically, would you consider it more important for the user to have fun? Or for the user to have a balanced experience?
And how much consideration do you take “fun” into when balancing real patches? Does the balance team consider “fun” at all when making balance patches?
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I feel like tanks feel very tanky and can soak up a lot of damage. That part I like. You really feel like a tank in this patch. Unfortunately the damage reduction feels bad, and it feels like brawling another tank is pointless. An interesting change could be to increase the ultimate charge rates of tanks considerably, so when a winston jumps into your back line and struggles to kill the healers that are peeling for each other, Winston will gain something from that interaction instead of waste time and feed healer ultimate charge.
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Andy, may I humbly suggest that for one of these ExC’s we go outside the rather insular and hiveminded creator Discord and their buddies for one of these? It would expand the number of creators you work with, and offer different views on how balance is achieved. If nothing else, an ExC where Orisa and Mei receive actual fun changes rather than be dumpstered just because a certain player doesn’t like them or doesn’t know how to play them.
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I’m honestly really surprised it wasn’t pointed out at any point during the development process that changing tank damage so drastically would also drastically reduce ult charge. It’s fine if tanks had changed Ults to be more impactful or if all the heroes got reduced ult charge but that’s just not the case.
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I agree, Lemon had a really cool idea for a unique direction to take tanks in, it’s just sad none of it could be playtested beforehand so they could see the slight damage issues before they released it
It would be cool if they did like a massive community poll on certain community topics.
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In many ways swapping damage for survability is very different from the live game, which I guess makes it contentious over whether that is a swap people want as even these forums swing wildly on that opinion.
Same, lol, I want it to be true so I can see Yako Warner memes.
But the real question is: did you see this name floated around from the rumors or from internal OW2 builds?! 
(I’m assuming you’re not legally allowed to deny the leak even if it is false, honestly).
I want to see that experimental! I feel like it would bring to play/complain non-stop. Either way is a win.
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I mean Mei from the last card and Orissa on this one (damage aside) are 2 of my favorite sets of changes. The tether is just hilarious and the Mei speed boosts from last time were fun.
Could it also be blamed on the fact it completely changes people’s playstyles? I feel like a big factor for people not being happy with these tank designs is because they’re not super brawly bruisers anymore like what they’re used to
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