…OW was the beta and OW2 is what the developers wanted? Think about it, the game was originally salvaged from the remains of an MMO called “Project Titan” and became the game we have today.
Now, this isn’t a rant about how OW2 is “ruining” the franchise, but rather a contemplation of sorts:
We (the playerbase) have grown accustomed to the charm Overwatch has/had (6v6, tactics over aim, whatever it was/is for you).
With OW2 changing so much the community loved/loves, it would make sense that there would be…discontent from them, but here’s my theory:
I think OW2 is a changing-of-the-guard of sorts. The new game isn’t made for the players that found enjoyment in the precursor, but rather, the “new era” of players that Activision anticipates to join the new iteration.
This is merely a theory, something I’ve pondered for a while, but perhaps it’s not for the worse that some users might be typing in the reply…
Supposedly, new hero shooters are on the horizon (something much needed) so there’s a hope that with new variety comes options for the older players to find that fills the void of losing the old OW some (such as myself) once knew.
I know this is a solemn idea, but I think it’s the most plausible. At the very least, I’m curious to see what comes from the future of the franchise, and hero shooters as a whole. Whether it be for the better…or the worst.
Quite the opposite. I think that Titan was the game that they wanted, but the funding got pulled and the devs were given instructions to make something out of what assets had already been completed. It is a large part of the reason that I think the game as been so rudderless.
I think they wanted to make a Starcraft game where you picked “classes”, not specific “heroes” like we’ve got now. Like, Symmetra had a class name, but I can’t recall what it was now. When you look at the heroes then you can see parallels with Starcraft units.
Widow is a Ghost.
Reaper is a… Reaper.
Tire is a Baneling.
So I think the idea was to pick a class and then go shoot stuff. I actually suspect they were trying to make something Borderlandsish because that was popular for a long time and has elements Blizz usually like to add into their games, since Borderlands was itself inspired by Diablo with the loot and that.
Also:
Then they got told off for taking too long and had to release something and an FPS team shooter is a lot easier and quicker to do than a sprawling exploration RPG shooter dealydoo.
Oh, but none of that matters now because they change their approach as they go. What they’re making now is what makes sense to the Overwatch franchise, not whatever ideas they had for Titan.
Something along those lines. It was supposed to be a game where players held down day jobs, but at night got to be superheroes. The characters we see were the classes that were being developed. Tracer was the “jumper” class. The other names elude me for now.
It doesn’t correlate nicely because there really is no correlation to be had. Overwatch was largely cobbled together on the fly, and I think it shows. I don’t mean that to impugn the game – I had a great time playing it all of these years – but in quitting the game I’m generally giving a postmortem.
Overwatch doesn’t really have a direction other than the suits at Blizzard wanting it to be a profitable esport. So if you’re looking for some sort of order or meaning to the way the game has changed or is going to change then I think you’re going come away empty handed.
it doesnt matter what blizz does the community will still find something to cry about
there are two types of forum users, those that find something to complain about no matter how miniscule or stupid and then there are people like me who make fun of those that find something to complain about
True, but the amount of discontent from the 5v5 announcement was A LOT more than something like balance patches or events. Even people outside of Overwatch had a mostly negative reception to the stream.
I’m an adamant believer that you can’t please everyone, but in business, to have a product that has a mostly negative reception isn’t exactly a good business practice…
I think there is no question they learned (and didn’t learn) many things with OW 1. They are so caught up with greed for an eSport they are mangling the game to do anything to try to create one. After three years on OW 2 where OWL again fails, they will accept what OW really is…
The question now is, “did they learn the RIGHT thing?”
As for OWL, I always felt like it should’ve developed naturally, but the amount of rules and regulations Blizzard implemented on any OW tournaments not made by them, and the supposed out-of-cost expenses pro players have to pay for travel, it makes sense that an e-sports wouldn’t be as popular as anticipated. Additionally, as an e-sport, OW has too many particle effects to be watchable by a larger audience: it’s why games like Valorant, CoD, and League of Legends work, they’re easy to spectate…to most at least.
I’ve long argued that OW needs two game levels - Overwatch Prime - the main game that supports all characters and modes, and Overwatch Pro - a subset of characters, maps, etc. where characters and maps are “initiated” in after review and consensus. It would also support (and require) SMS authentication per account and be what OWL is built off of.
That’s kind of similar to how Valorant e-sports works, although it’s more natural than artificial: they pick “agents” that are better suited for maps and synergize with one another, sounds like what Overwatch should be, right?
In Valorant every agent (barring Yoru) is pretty balanced, or are in need of minor tweaks. Even when they release a new agent, it usual doesn’t break gameplay for months on end (two months tops).
Project Titan, as I understand, was originally a Starcraft FPS featuring Kerrigan as the protagonist.
Clearly Blizz has wanted to make an FPS for a looong time, they just never figured out the correct formula. I assume it wasn’t until they sold out to Activision that an FPS got put back on the front burner.
