Director’s Take: Cultivating the Game

Director’s Take: Cultivating the Game

Game development isn’t always about flashy new content. Associate game director Alec Dawson explains the team’s philosophy of maintenance, growth, and solid foundations.

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Each season should include a compelling reason for you to play Overwatch, such as new Heroes, new gameplay systems like Perks, or even a brand-new mode like Stadium.

Or another Overwatch Classic event.
Or better yet, give us back Overwatch 1.

Take a look at some profiles and their game time. I’m sure I’m not the only one that do not play Overwatch 2.

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An interesting read. The shake up to the perk system can’t come fast enough. Too many characters have only one viable choice.

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For Season 17 as Map Voting goes live are there any thoughts on potentially bringing back Assault/[Competitive]Clash?!

Many of us do/did enjoy those maps!

Please give us mouse and keyboard support on consoles now that all of the modern current generation consoles (including Nintendo Switch 2) support it!

:pleading_face: :+1:

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oh lord. Do not. I repeat. Do not use ban rates as a justification for destroying the power fantasy of Sombra or Widow or any other hero with a sharp design. The fact that each hero has a unique playstyle is what keeps me coming back.

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polling data would also tell you a lot about the game without the need for bans or voting systems which inevitably restrict the game to the point where some things are never allowed to be played

there are certain things the the public should not directly play a hand in

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What good does an existing ‘fantasy’ do for a hero if you’re never able to play that hero/never play against them in any of your games?

I hear where you’re coming from if you’ve already adapted to and found you enjoy a heroes existing kit. It sucks thinking it might change. But again, if a heroes current fantasy lends that hero to always being banned, something has to give.

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What should ‘give’ is the hero banning. Anyone with a pulse would have told the devs this would happen. These bans are emotional and not strategic, and add nothing the to the depth of the game.

I personally play Quickplay so this currently doesn’t affect me. However, if they kill hero design because people can’t let go of their 8 year old hatred of a character, then it affects everyone.

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Your feedback guides us towards parts of the game that need more attention, whether they’re fresh-out-of-the-box or an endemic part of the Overwatch experience.

Lore needs more attention. There’s my feedback.

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Oh I hear you completely, I also only play QP… but judging from what I read here in the forums, there definitely seems to be a ‘witch hunt’ of sorts going on when it comes to Sombra.

When it’s to the point where people lose their minds and start throwing on the rare occasion that Sombra does make it into a game, all because “how did you guys let this happen? I must be playing with bozos!”… yeah people are a bit too in their feels, I agree with you.

My hope is that Blizz will have tests and numbers they can glean to help determine whether a hero is being banned out of spite, or because they’re truly overpowered (or in this case, a nuisance), but time will tell.

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Could not agree more. Bring back Cinematics!!

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Then bring bans and mape vote to quickplay already…

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How about banning the banning?

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Start reworking heroes, that’s my feedback

I can say with total honesty that I’m neither for or against banning. I just haven’t played enough games (read: none at all) that feature a ban system to be able to comment.

OW is the only title I play that features a ban system and I’ve legitimately not used it once, yet. I’m not avoiding it, I just dont enjoy any of the modes that currently feature it.

Actually… that’s a lie… I am sort of avoiding it because I’m a Zarya main :sweat_smile: but if it was implemented into all modes, I’d likely just pick up a few other ‘back up’ heroes and play them all horribly rather than just playing one hero semi-decently :man_shrugging:

they help most people feel like they have more agency and freedom playing the game so it improves their experience and they keep logging in to play more. I think if the number of players dropped a lot because of bans then they would revert it. Myself and I hear a lot of others have returned to the game or playing different roles (especially tank) because of bans.

I understand strategic banning if you care about your rank more than anything, or if there’s money on the line or something. Most people play overwatch because they want to have fun, so emotional banning of the anti-fun heroes like sombra makes loads of sense

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I agree, but I’m afraid they’ll start reworking heroes who aren’t banned that often at all. Majority of players would rather play with Ana, but people may try to use snakey words to say “She’s banned THE MOST out of the supports, which means she’s unhealthy and needs to be reworked!”

And then, predictably, all of Overwatch’s balance is thrown into chaos for no reason. To be clear, reworking any hero could throw the balance out of wack; this isn’t an Ana issues specifically, but one could argue Sombra deserves it seeing as Sombra players can never play as Sombra, while Ana players get to play her more often than not.

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Yeah honestly I’m not sure where I stand at the moment, because I agree with what you’re saying, too.

I’m convinced if they do some how ‘fix’ Sombra (or at least get her to the point where she’s no longer banned in every match) that within a few weeks to a month, a different hero will start being banned every match and Blizz will think “oh look, re work needed!” when that may not be the case and will throw many other heroes out of whack as a result, like you’re saying.

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Getting them to rework arguably their most successful hero design ever, Ana, would be a huge feat. People on the forums whine about anti heal, but blizz have the stats and they know that a huge number of players just LOVE her gameplay. Reworking her would be a very strange choice. I get that this was just an arbitrary example tho soz I didn’t read your comment properly.

Hard agree sombra needs a rework. I think I lowkey trust the dev team now after the positive changes theyve made enough to do things like this.

To use the same example, if ana is meta and hating on her actually becomes mainstream, I hope that they would have the sense to just nerf her or introduce more counterplay rather than radically rework her kit. Then, if people still hate her, maybe a rework would be warranted

Like the problem with sombra isn’t 1 cooldown or a numbers thing it’s her whole kit, it’s everything she does except for her gun, so it makes sense to just give her another rework thats more radical than the ones she’s had before because its clearly just a majorly core element of her kit that is :peach:

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Please give doomfist new major perks. 3 out of 4 of his perks are just empowered punch buffs, i want actual transformative gameplay. Make a major perk that removes block and gives him uppercut. Please.

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