In the spirit of experiment I think it would be neat for players to suggest what direction of the game they would like to see tested. Obviously with the Experimental Card there is no commitment to making changes as has been the case with the PTR. Thus constructive creativity gets an opportunity to see the light of day.
My idea revolves around expanding hero compositions, bringing restrictions more in line with player preferences (allowing 3 DPS), making critical minority roles more fun to play, and removing the ballooning queue times without further decreasing the matchmaking SR spreads and thus match quality. I also made a few suggestions on how to deal with problematic combinations of heroes - e.g. GOATS.
I found these recent quotes fascinating. In essence, it is entirely the players’ fault that GOATS persisted. “The meta” is not a sentient being nor an independent entity - it’s determined by player behavior and balance. The only way an essentially false meta can persist is if counter-balance isn’t there or if player behavior lags behind balance changes. It doesn’t take much to demonstrate a superior or counter composition to a meta one, which would naturally spread rather rapidly I’d say. Needless to say all the incentive in the world was there for people who play this game non-stop and have private audiences in the thousands and tournament audiences in the hundreds of thousands to crack GOATS, which few enjoyed. Likewise, the average player did not want to play GOATS an awful lot. Indeed, in the competitive mode most avoided GOATS despite it being a superior composition. I’m not sure what history Kaplan is referring to but what I recall are swift meta changes following adequate balance changes. If balance isn’t to blame, then the players have to be blamed.
But in Overwatch arguing doesn’t get far. Jeff Kaplan has found a way to blame the meta on the meta, which is so nonsensical it can’t even be called an oxymoron. According to Kaplan the meta was neither the fault of “player creativity” nor balance. The meta was its own fault - no one’s fault. How can you argue with this?
This is where the Experimental Card or whatever it is comes into play and where perhaps the community can have a more direct influence. The developers are now waving the white flag on balance:
First they restricted compositions to 2-2-2, now they are restricting the hero pool itself. In other words, as opposed to achieving the community’s aims through balance the devs have decided they are going to force these aims. Reminds me a little of different types of governments, but I digress. The game being in a dynamic state where naturally multiple compositions are effective has become a pipe dream. In the process, you now sit in dramatically longer queues to play 2-2-2 under looser SR spreads/worse matchmaking due to having common preferences and soon you’ll participate in an experiment where heroes will plainly not be playable. So much for this:
I don’t believe this is the demise of the game. For all we know the coming experiment may not last, and it could even be an enhancement. But it does signal that the developers have run out of ideas. Jeffrey Kaplan is clearly saying things that make no sense at this point. Some might now justifiably say that the developers simply can’t balance this game, thus they are now wielding the sledgehammer.
I think that the Experimental Card also signals their willingness to try different things. Hence the need for more creative ideas than those lazily reinforcing the current tendencies.
Blizzard blames everything on the players. 2016 loot box fiasco? Players are entitled, no one plays PTR because the devs don’t listen, well they don’t listen because not enough players on PTR. They didn’t put in a working(or on console existing) report function? Players are too mean. Because obviously Blizzard had nothing to do with these problems./s
What he was trying to do there was literally blame no one. He blamed the meta on the meta, which of course makes no sense. Note how he complimented players by referring to them as creative. Yet at the same time, despite sufficient balance changes to move past GOATS, the players in their creativity kept playing the same thing seemingly everyone despised and didn’t want to keep playing.
Never said all of his statements were logically consistent, but he is basically saying in that one part that players weren’t creative enough to find a way around GOATS, despite many major game changes. It’s more of a backhanded compliment if it can be called a compliment at all.
He’s trying to say that both the players and balance weren’t to blame for GOATS. Somehow the meta is the meta’s fault - it would have moved on its own. But because this makes no sense as the meta is merely the product of balance and player creativity, and with balance presumably not being at fault, the fault for the persistence of GOATS would lie with the Overwatch players, starting with professional players, coaches, and high level players who tend to be most influential.
I think it is poor wording on his part, but I see it as him saying player creativity wasn’t fast enough to move the meta, which would have happened given more time. Just not fast enough to satisfy the community.
I see it as his attempt at both trying to blame the players for not coming up with creative solutions to the meta, and trying to not look like he’s directly blaming anyone.
I would love to test out a Bastion rework with him being a Tank. I have an idea for the big guy.
Bastion 400 hp in total: 200 health, 200 armor
Ironclad: When in recon mode everyone in a 5 meter range will gain a 20% damage reduction. When in Sentry form, Bastion has 20% damage reduction towards himself.
Sentry mode: Now will have that when Bastion is heading into Sentry mode will now slide with in this configuration. By shooting you gain gain momentum. Regular speed. 5.5 mps. Closer to a wall to push off. 7 mps. Ammo now has been decreased from 300 to 200. Damage decreased from 7.5 dmg to 15 dmg to 6 dmg to 12 dmg.
(While in Sentry) Space Bar: Anchor- With Bastions gliding ability added you can still stay still with this ability to anchor down to more damage or unanchor to escape.
Q: Juggernaut Mode- Bastion Sentry mode gun switches out for his Sentry weapon on his right arm and gains the tank cannon on his left arm. Loses the ability to heal during ult, but walking speed increases to 6.5. Lasts 8 seconds
RMB= Sentry Gun- Same
LMB=Tank Cannon- 100 damage per shot.
Maybe even trying different buffs or changes to characters to tweak them. Maybe trying giving Sombra damaging health pack?
He’s repeatedly done so in the past, both directly and indirectly. He’s not as up front about how mean he is like he used to be, but he’s shown how nasty he can be.
Yes his role is to provide a unique kind of shielding, area denial, to this form having the team an advantage to move up. The recon form also provides shielding towards allies in the form of damage reduction. I also had the idea that in sentry form that to get his own damage reduction that he has to stay within a current radius and for every ally he gains 4% reduction. Thats could be how he receives his damage reduction so it gives him the incentive to stay with the team and not overextend. Thoughts?
His damage would need to be drastically lowered. I guess he could be made into a tank depending on the numbers but 1) why 2) the flavor for the area of effect damage reduction isn’t there. He wasn’t intended to be a tank, the most he had appears to have been a personal shield in sentry form. He was intended to be a stationary high-power DPS.
So I just had an idea to change how objectives work, after having multiple times where an enemy team will contest for multiple minutes because it’s too hard to kill them before the next one comes, losing even after killing the entire enemy team over and over.
What if, instead of having the point be fully contested by a single defender, they would only reduce the capture rate by 1? This way, if we kill almost the entire enemy team, and then they all get on to contest one by one, instead of stopping us from capping, it only makes it slower because they’re alone. If 3+ enemies get on point, it will stop it from capping at all.
Another change to compliment this one is for the capture rates to be changed to be more drastic, having 1 capture rate be slower, and 3 be faster, meaning getting one person on point still is helpful somewhat.
He would never insult the players.