I think back on this game, the changes they’ve made over the years. I remember this game as the ultimate party game. We used to log on and play game after game after game until the sun came up. Had a lot of players on my friends list. Everyone seemed so excited about it. It was a blast.
Now… it’s dead.
I can’t help but think back, and the biggest nail in the coffin was Role Queue. It really seems like the game died within three weeks of Role Queue.
On top of that, Map Pools have made it even more restrictive and, frankly, boring.
If i were Blizzard, i’d be trying hard to bring back the FUN to millions of players. Looks like their focus is on the pro scene though. To me, Map Pools and especially Hero Pools are the exact opposite of FUN. And as for Role Queue, i don’t find the games to be any better than they were before. The only difference is that i now play about 4 games a night instead of 14.
I like role queue, but has made it harder for good players to get out of bad ranks, and just carry bad teams in general. Before, I could switch roles and make up for bad dps, one tricks etc. Now some games feel truly uncarriable. I wish blizzard would tone down that team aspect, but still keep roleq. Playing tank in particular has been a chore for me ever since the shield nerfs, there’s literally nothing I can do to carry bad teams anymore since I’m just a big fat target.
Well, just looking at the forum here, i can scroll down a half page and see posts from 12 hours ago. Used to be you could scroll quite a bit and it’d still be very recent posts.
Seeing silvers and plats in gold games? Never seen that before Role Queue. The games used to be people of SR within a couple hundred at most.
I don’t know. Still seems like Role Queue killed it to me.
What killed the game for me were the horrible new heroes. But Role Queue was the nail in the coffin. Why would I wait 6-10 minutes to play a game I probably won’t enjoy? I still hop on for some workshop casual fun.
Be careful when calling any game dead though, because you will always be met with some lifeless jerk who takes it literally and tells you that the game is only dead if it has zero players on it. Which is silly because it’s a simple fact that Overwatch’s relevancy is steadily declining, and it’s “dead” to many people because they are just no longer making good memories and having fun in the game.
Agree. I used to play comp only rarely. After role Q I almost only play comp. It’s good to be able to Q for the role I want to play and to know that I wont have to deal with a bad role composition.
I think the system puts a larger variance on tank and healer SR for quicker DD pops.
Games naturally lose players over time as they stop being the big new thing. A lot of players stopped because of the entire 4 DPS thing before role queue, then some dps players left during goats. I think it just phased out and they brought back role queue too late. Match quality has definitely improved though.
Well 90% is a bit of a stretch, but I’d argue that “constantly updated” wasn’t often enough. I remember Jeff talking about their “crawl, walk, run” philosophy but they spent way too long in the first two stages and are really only getting into it now. Too late imo, the game could’ve been much better.
Hero pools might make it take yet another big hit.
But people will haunt the game for a while yet. It isn’t what it used to be in popularity and probably won’t be again, is all. Maybe that carries into OW 2
I certainly enjoy role queue although I was fully against it when they first came out. I will admit that before I was annoyed as a flex player that I couldn’t flex when and since this just happened to me, a moira player as soon as the map starts goes, “I play DPS, don’t expect heals.”
Now if I could flex I would immediately swap to a healer and try to keep the rest of my team alive during this. Role queue doesn’t allow this and I think the matchmaking and the players who would flex normally have suffered for it. I find myself in games where I am just banging my head on the desk as my team starts to get toxic and shout at one another over things.
However I know that is not always the case, I know the main tanks and supports usually had those four dps games and I had them too. Although if I wasn’t putting out the best damage in that game I swapped, I know not everyone is like that. So honestly if I could say one thing I would love for them to add a flex role to role q. I honestly thing that would help out role q a lot.
You’ll find many a post saying “This >insert one single thing here< killed Overwatch.”
A couple things to that.
The game isn’t ‘Dead’ in the typical definition.
The game is most certainly ‘on the decline’. It’s undeniable.
The reasons for the decline among players, is many, and varied. Off the dome, I’ve 8 that stand out. Leaver issue in ranks under GM/High Masters, trolls, griefers, no counterpicks, limpwrist punishments, too few bringing their A game to comp, too few being focused on teamwork, VC being a cesspool, Role Lock, Hero Bans, all dev attention being tossed to OWL and ignoring the issues where the bulk of the playerbase resides, SR/MMR.
Fact is, the issues that have plagued this game since launch are compounded by new issues. All the while, alternative FPS games (and other games in general) continue to show up, which in turn drains the playerbase.
‘Good. We don’t need those players anyway!’
Actually, we do. A lot. Otherwise, the game turns into things like other games that were touted as the next big thing, and are now forgotten entirely. Some under Blizzards watch I might add.
The games not dead, but it’s most certainly shrinking. Faster than people think. Deny it. Rail against it. Doesn’t change that without some big changes to long standing issues, it’s going to go the way of Battleborn.
Yea, I can certainly agree, the games where I don’t have tanks or healers doing their jobs (since I main DPS) I usually just go soldier or Reaper so I can self heal and just post up and do the best I can. Because if your team won’t listen when you ask them to rally up and stop charging in alone or constantly getting ignored for heals when both your tanks and you are saying it, then the game is pretty much going to be a loss.
What I have learned in this game is you will lose, probably more with this new role Q since you can’t swap as I mentioned to something to pick up the slack. Just shake it off and get ready for your next game with a new attitude. SR is just a number anyway, no point in ruining your mental state over.
I can explain how to fix the game in a brief sum up.
Remove MMR. Makes matchmaking longer. Six gold’s match. Ridiculous to see bronze in gold. Masters in plat etc. Just accept MMR is a failure for matchmaking in trying to use stats to determine a fair match.
Hero bans.
More serious bans. Throwing,cheating perma ban. By throwing I mean repeatedly throwing yourself off the ledge and determined after review.