So Asmongold (World of Warcraft streamer and youtuber) posted a video “The State of Battle for Azeroth” that I can’t link here. Basically he breaks down a lot of the issues currently impacting the World of Warcraft expansion BFA.
However I think that there also is a lot of truth in his statements that can be applied to Overwatch
I think this is extremely true, especially for people like myself in the Mercy community. Megathread after megathread after megathread of feedback and we’re still at the same point (if not worse after even more nerfs) where it feels like we are literally just yelling into the abyss.
There are multiple youtubers (Aria isn’t the only one in spite of what this forum often memes), twitter users, redditors, off-official forums posters and the like chanting the same thing.
Yet where does that feedback go? It feels like into the abyss.
And lately you can tell through the entire community (twitter, youtube, here, reddit, etc) that there is certainly a mounting feeling of “us” vs. “them”.
And no I don’t even mean DPS vs. healers. I mean the community vs. developers.
Lots of people want Bridgette nerfed. Lots of people want Mercy changed. Lots of people want Hanzo and Doomfist nerfed. So many cases can be listed I don’t even want to get into it here. Outside of balance this includes game features like matchmaking, better LFG where LFG seems like it’s dying out, more relevant events and the like.
100% exactly how I feel. Yet the open dialogue here is one sided. Relate it to the quote above and it feels like it’s a one way conversation with a person who isn’t even sitting in the chair opposite.
Overwatch also feels like it’s taken this angle. It feels like OWL and “epic OWL potg” heroes have been cocooned at present.
What makes fancy plays? Doomfist getting a 1 shot and leaping into the fray. Genji doing a huge dragonblade, Zarya + Hanzo ult combo wiping a team.
Certain playstyles seem heavily enforced and encouraged and others flat out dismissed or altered.
(Symmetra, Torbjorn and Mercy who can all be argued to be “not interesting to watch” have received reworks that fundamentally altered their kits.)
And lemme add this: I feel this even more with these topics.
1: Rampant smurfing where an account bought for $12 on a humble bundle deal is more valuable than retaining their current playerbase.
Where smurfs tank their MMR to silver/gold/platinum and run rampant. I’ve personally in competitive hit a smurf probably in 50% or so of my competitive games. Either they are on my team making me feel like a Christmas ornament or the enemy team making me regret even launching the game.
2: Events are little more than lootbox “limited time BUY BUY BUY!” events.
Junkenstein has been rehashed for like the 3rd time now. It was cool back then, but now it’s way way way way too old.
3: A new hero every 4 months is abysmally slow. And the quality of them in terms of game balance is really questionable.
Orisa: Never has been amazing.
Sombra: Was widely considered a throw pick for a year.
Hammond: ATM widely considered a troll pick compared to D’va and Rein.
Doomfist: He was considered a troll pick until he was considered outright flagrantly broken at present.
Ana: She was OP and caused the season 3 tank meta, then was made into a throw pick.
Honestly a lot of how the game has gone feels opposing to what players want.
-Each new map is met with more and more disdain. I think Horizon Lunar Colony is one of the least liked maps in the entire game.
-New heroes are released that overall damage the current pool of heroes while ignoring the blatantly in need current heroes (Bastion, Symmetra, Mei, etc).
-The events boil down to being “get your limited time skins now or never!”
And I’m just so fatigued to even try and list more, as anyone who plays this game and visits this forum knows: there is more.
I think that one need not look further than the Mercy rework to see that there is clearly no lack of evidence that this rework should be reverted or yet another rework done.
And yet there are so many claims of it being a “success” followed by 10 or so nerfs even after that claim of it being “balanced”. So balanced it warranted 10 or so nerfs?
I think this point is absolutely a huge one for the Mercy community and the rest of us.
