They are considering changes to arcade and I’ve seen a few threads with ideas for a rework so I thought I’d throw out my own
Balance
Arcade doesn’t need too much balance, but even in a casual mode something too far over the line can ruin the experience, and arcade’s focus on free-roaming gameplay and KDR mattering more have led to two things being consistently annoying in almost every arcade mode
The first is tank spam. It was the optimal strategy in every arcade mode even in OW1. But now with 5v5 tank reworks it’s truly unbearable. A simple limit will fix things
- 1 player per team = 0 tank limit
- 2-5 players = 1 tank limit
- 6 players = 2 tank limit
The second is highly survivable heroes. A global flat nerf to the power of self-healing abilities could work, but I think just some simple targetted nerfs to the worst offenders, namely roadhog, mauga, and moira, would get the job done
Trust me, there are more people who don’t play arcade because of minmaxers spamming these cheese heroes than there are people who would be upset by a tank limit or these nerfs
Fewer cards
7 cards is too many and the queues are spread too thin, it’s like close to 10 minutes to get into some of these modes. For the current number of modes, I think 3 cards is appropriate (some of the other ideas in this list would add new modes that may call for additional cards). 2 cards would only contain popular modes (tdm, ffa, elimination, total mayhem, 2cp) and the 3rd would be a wild-card for weirder modes. The nice thing with this number is that you can all have the cards be in the main menu rather than having to click on the arcade submenu to see what’s on offer today.
Things like new maps and seasonal events can potentially get their own card separate from the arcade so that they don’t infringe on the limited number of slots.
They can also consider rotating the modes multiple times per day to make up for fewer cards, though that does increase the risk of cutting people off from what they were playing mid-session
Weekly Brawl Return
The weekly brawl was a short-lived feature in Overwatch 1 where every week would bring about a new chaotic set of rules. Whether it be supports only, no swapping, or illios well with lucio+hog only. These aren’t groundbreaking modes but they’re dumb-fun that’s worth playing once or twice for the novelty.
It shouldn’t be too hard to produce a new ruleset each week, most of the legacy brawls were things you could put together in 15 minutes with the game’s current custom-games tools, and you could also rerun popular ones ocassionally, and you could also open it up to community submissions now that the game does have those custom-games tools. Way I see it, it’s an easy nostalgic callback that gives people a little reason to log-in each week and can produce some whacky social media clips for the game. Even if they only brought it back for say 6 months it can be a positive addition
Workshop curation
The majority of custom games users come from the while-you-wait button while queuing, and as a result the custom games browser has mostly been flooded with spammy disposable modes that you don’t care about getting booted out of once finding a real match.
But there are some really fun workshop modes out there. Like there’s one that used to be popular where you build a “base” and upgrade it to produce money until you get enough money for the upgrade that wins you the match, but you can also kill other players to steal from them or find money around the map. So each match the map has its own unique feeling of regions based on where people build and what heroes they play. Like oh this little cubby on Nepal I didn’t know existed feels like my “home” now and it genuinely feels like exploration when you venture to the other half of the map from your home.
There are plenty of great and unique experiences like this in workshop but most people don’t know they exist. Newgen gamers are intimidated by server browsers to begin with (yes really), casual players might not even know that workshop is a thing that exists, and hardcore players have been conditioned not to check custom games since the browser is usually full of the same slop
So why not just curate them and put some “community featured” modes in the arcade occasionally? You’ve done it before and it worked fine so I don’t see why not do more of it. The modes already exist. And if this is a success you can drum up some new interest in the workshop and finally have a reason to update it again
Incentives
Player motivations are weird. I enjoy myself every time I play arcade, but I rarely feel the urge to click on the arcade tab. A little nudge could help get players through the gate. I think they could do one of the following 2 things
- add 1 weekly lootbox that can be earned by playing 5 games of arcade (wins count double)
- Make a mini event similar to Junkrat’s Loot Hunt, call it something like “D.va’s arcade night” that pops up every season and gives you a handful of lootboxes for playing arcade modes
And another small thing that’d help: change the arcade daily challenge to simply “play 1 game of arcade” and make it appear more often (similar to the stadium one). It’d turn this into a challenge you usually ignore to an easy layup one
These are small things that would get people over the gate into playing arcade every now and again and hopefully having a good time doing so
New Content
Making new content for arcade is risky since there is a chance it gets abandoned quickly anyway. But let’s face it they haven’t added a new arcade map since before OW2 came out and the only new permanent mode in the rotation since OW2 is 2CP. It’s just too stagnant no wonder all the interest had died
Even if you don’t want to invest in modeling whole new maps and modes maybe you can turn some OW2 maps into deathmatch maps like you’ve done with King’s Row and Hollywood. Maybe leverage some features like stadium upgrades into new modes (example I suggested in a separate thread: 3 rounds version of stadium, start with all 4 powers + infinite cash, swap heroes between rounds) Maybe re-run some events that you haven’t ran in years like Olympus or the kill confirmed mode. Just don’t have an identical arcade experience for a fourth year in a row