I can’t think of a time I’ve genuinely had fun in comp. Most of my fond memories were when Overwatch first started when everything was broken.
Was day 1 Roadhog balanced? Hell no, but he was fun nonetheless. Was Mercy mass rez balanced? Hell no, but it felt good to use. Was McCree fan the fire and delete a tank on day one balanced? You guessed it: nope, but it didn’t matter: it was fun, something that this game has lacked for years. When everything is broken, its fun to play because anything can happen.
The competitive aspect has since then neutered or nerfed almost every single hero on the roster, constantly nerfing the “strongest” hero that hasn’t been touched and repeating over the years, all for the sake of turning a party shooter into a bastardized esport.
This isn’t a game anymore: its an abusive relationship.
Fun fact: Most hardcore competitive games remain niche and generally avoided because of how unfun they are for the general population. Competitive modes in general in less hardcore games similarly, don’t see the majority of its playerbase regularly participating because (you guessed it!) they’re not enjoyable.
This is usually true across several different genres of games. From shooters to real time strategy.
The goal in comp is not “having fun”….it’s just a potential outcome (and usually an unlikely one at that)….so…many people finding the game unfun in that type of environment is very unsurprising
If competitive never existed there would still be people complaining about balance and balance patches. People would have still found the meta and best synergies to use. Without a comp mode the game could have ended up the exact same it is today just without a comp mode. Comp gave the game more longevity. I definitely wouldn’t have stuck around without a comp mode and I think the community would be way smaller if it never existed. Comp mode is pretty much a requirement for all modern shooters. Name one other shooter that’s came out without one and is successful?
Well TF2 didn’t get an in game comp mode until 9 years after launch and it did pretty well throughout that time (funnily enough the game went downhill after that). Because really all you need is a passionate community and they’ll organize comp games themselves. Like old fighting games and the competitive communities that they formed.
Ah, the good ol’ days. Where you stayed on one server for your whole session, players switched teams to balance the match, and cheaters and trolls were banned by human admins. I dunno, man… I think we lost something here.
Everyone started demanding hero picks once when comp became a thing and the toxicity just skyrocketed with it in a community that was very friendly from the start.
Pretty much everyone was copying what OW did and not because comp was essential for the success of the game.
They used to build houses with actual wood and not plywood, too.
Not every new idea is a successful one, and it’s an idea that, while it has a strong niche, it also doesn’t grow the playerbase, as the last few years have shown us.
Just because you CAN make an esport out of something doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. See Heroes of the Storm for a good example.
I don’t think that comp itself is the issue, it was Blizzard deciding that only comp mattered. In record time, Blizzard saw the community making tournaments on their own, freaked out, and decided to make it their sole focus for OW because they were still salty over DotA existing. Literally every disastrous change that Blizzard has made to OW has been a result of them trying to cater solely towards OWL or T500 players.
The game would probably be alive and well if Blizzard instead focused on what brought people into the game in the first place. Maybe the continuous decline of stream views will force them into actually re-evaluating their approach.
I see the battle royale genre that spawned over the last 6 or so years as successor of that TF2 concept. It had a massive success without being overly competitive, with fortnite breaking records and the gameplay being the opposite of what OW makes feel frustrating at times. I tried these games and the freedom they give is very appealing, compared to the very streamlined and heavily teambased 6v6 gameplay of OW, where a 2cp map can be over in just under 3 minutes with 2 lost fights. I would compare OW more to a moba like league anyway.
I’ve said it a million times. Competitive gaming in general as well as esports in general are some of the worst things to happen for the game industry. None of these things add anything for anyone in the end and really end up making most games horrible, boring, or just not fun. Too bad the entire game industry is full of psychos and will never change their outlook on anything.
