FACTS & RUMORS - Discussion of Hero Bans (updated)

[GrossGamer-1129]

We do a have a solution in mind – an actual system – that we’ll talk about (next week’s dev update) but it is not hero bans.

It’s difficult to imagine a full system that will encourage/force players to play different heroes and shift the meta outside of a ban system of some sort, but I’m sure we’ll be surprised by next week’s update.

[kaMMakaZZi9-1674]

They could lock out certain heroes entirely for a week or two at a time to encourage a certain play style one week, and another play style the next? That’s my only guess…

[Taichi-21321]

Wow always clear and right explanations on your side.
Thanks to come quickly and confirm that’s not and team don’t want hero ban.
And I’m more hype with the new dev video now.

[RobotWizard-116887]

Damn that was a good post.

I am SUPER looking forward to the future.

[ThousandFold-11445]

We’ve been really pushing for faster match times (there’s a lot going on under the hood on this one). Our philosophy is the game is better if you have quicker matches. The sting of defeat is much less if the match took less time.

Honestly, I kind of don’t like the sound of this. I like the length the matches are at now and it’s one of the reasons why I only play comp. Every other game mode is too quick and gimmicky. And I can’t imagine this being very fun for DPS queue to wait ten minutes for an even FASTER match. It can only work with faster queue times.

[ytieDijneG-1755]

What about the 57 doomfist bugs that are still not fixed

[CrazyPlays54-1506]

So,

Can I just say 1 thing?

You know what? YOU KNOW WHAT?

I’m saying it isn’t hero bans that is the big feature. I’m saying it isn’t. Yeah I said it. ‘But but overwatch youtuber said so!’ You do realize nothing has been confirmed? Metro said himself that the leak wasn’t 100% trustworthy, Emongg didn’t even say anything specific about it. YouTubers are just content thirsting as usual. So Emongg said there was a big update coming to comp. So that could be anything ranging from a new balance patch to a new hero to a new map to the push game mode. NOTHIN…

Yeah that’s right

I TOLD YOU SO
I TOLD YOU SO
I TOLD YOU SO

[RobotWizard-116887]

Honestly, I kind of don’t like the sound of this. I like the length the matches are at now and it’s one of the reasons why I only play comp.

He means faster time between matches.

If they get you playing again faster then you stew over your last loss less.

[Rocktopus-11683]

the way we plan to address this is with more frequent balance updates. The upcoming dev update will go in depth into the plan and shed light on how we’re going to accomplish this

This is so exciting!

[GrossGamer-1129]

That still feels like banning, but it’s in Blizzard’s hands instead of our own. That would honestly feel worse, in my opinion.

[Caspar-22363]

Oh, Jeff was faster
I was about to open a thread (I already made a post about it in the German forums) where I would link the Seagull interview with Jeff, since a lot of things he said here about hero bans where already said there and that he is strongly against it, but one of the “crazy ideas” (I don’t remember the exact wording) was hero rotation
That’s actually a way of shifting the meta fast

Three things about Metro:

• He was not always right (not again)
• He even “secured” himself this time by saying that he got it from another source
• Even if his source was correct, maybe it was just an experiment like 1-3-2

[NighthAwk-13514]

Thanks Jeff. Glad to get it from the source.

[Eclipse-1391]

Jeff, this is the second big boat you’ve given us in a short period of time. I just wanted to thank you for taking the time and sharing the devs insights with us. As a former game designer, it’s always very interesting to hear what the team’s process is.

[VoltaireAro-1283]

The other reason I listed was that people do not like playing against certain heroes. To this, I am going to give an answer that is not going to be very popular. Basically, it’s a PvP game. You don’t get to pick what the enemy team does. The challenge is overcoming the enemy team with teamwork, ingenuity and skill. It feels really off to me that the other team dictates how or what I play. So if your reason is that you don’t want to play against certain heroes, I think we’ll agree to disagree on this point. We’ve changed out minds in the past. But that’s where we’re at for now.

I enjoy this. Thank you.

[ThousandFold-11445]

I hope that’s what he means. His line of “the sting of defeat would be less if the match took less time” sounds like he’s talking about the match time itself and not inbetween.

[Toast-22632]

Thank you for the in depth explanation and for clearing up all of this Jeff

[Hyphen-21921]

Thanks for the comment Jeff, glad to see it was not hero bans.

We don’t expect you to master them all, but you should play a few of the characters. Now, we don’t explicitly prevent you from only playing one hero. But we also don’t encourage it. We think the game is more fun for everyone involved if you play at least a handful of the heroes. That’s how the game is designed.

This part hurts me personally because due to all the ingame mechanics ( performance SR bonus due to stats and losing ultimate on switching heroes ) seems that Flexing and being versatile is not only not good but discouraged. If that is truly the design direction, it seems you guys are going the opposite way.
In fact, RQ encourages one tricking, since only CP gains are slightly better if you “flex” and do the 3 roles.

OTPs should get “diminishing returns” on SR gains. RQ actually favors One Tricks since only 1 other player will be able to take that hero from them. It would be great if something or some mechanic is added to recognize and add value to those players who have the versatility to play all roles at the same level or really close.

PS: Theres also a lot of misinformation about what comps where actually more used before 222 was forced. Like 4-5 DPS being the most rare or Triple DPS being legit and really close to 222. Would be great if you guys have some data to share.

[MagyTheMage-1534]

jeff literally represented my exact thoughts, thank you

[Bombz-1611]

Honestly, I kind of don’t like the sound of this. I like the length the matches are at now and it’s one of the reasons why I only play comp.

The sentiment is less about the length of the match and more about how much of your time is spent playing rather than waiting to play.

For example, right now, even after queueing and joining a match, you spend (and I might be getting some of these numbers wrong) 30 seconds “selecting a hero,” then another 45 seconds doing nothing on offense or walking across the map on defense before the round starts, and then repeat this process for each subsequent round. That can add up to a lot of extra time not playing Overwatch while you’re in a match.

[johnnydaboss-11378]

It could be guilds. Guilds would make a lot of sense, especially if done properly. I think the team may have changed their minds on guilds the same way they did on RQ, especially because the only reason against it was “It wouldn’t be big enough”. Guilds would solve a lot of problems on ladder, as it would do what LFG was supposed to do: let people play the game the way it was supposed to be played, with coordination and communication.