As a way to help improve match quality in Overwatch, which would you prefer?
A) HWID bans: Instead of banning just accounts, HWID bans target a player’s hardware (PC or console), making it much harder for cheaters/trolls/bots/boosters/griefers to simply create a new account and get back into the game. This system is used in Valorant.
B) Prime: A one-time payment that turns a free account into a “Prime” account. Prime accounts are placed in a separate matchmaking pool from free accounts (meaning Prime players only queue with other Prime players). This creates a payment barrier that discourages bad actors. It’s the system used in Counter-Strike.
C) None: Keep the current system (Defense Matrix), which requires a phone number.
Personally, I think HWID bans are more effective overall and avoid the downside of splitting the player base like Prime does. However, given how poor Blizzard’s CS is right now, I’m not sure I’d trust them with something as sensitive as HWID bans—so I’d lean toward Prime.
The idea is that a payment barrier helps discourage bad actors, which in turn can improve match quality. Right now, if someone gets banned in OW, they can just create a new account for around $0.25 using an online phone number.
In Counter-Strike, where this system is used, Prime costs about $15 (if I’m not mistaken). It still keeps the game free-to-play but separates the matchmaking pools—Prime players only queue with other Prime players.
Payment didn’t stop anything when the game was 30 to 40 bucks. Smurfs and cheaters still existed. That’s my point. And regular people aren’t going to pay a fee either. The game already has monetization. Let’s not encourage companies further to charge for basic things.
It won’t stop cheaters or smurfs—nothing will. But as I said in the OP, systems like HWID bans and Prime can help reduce the problem and improve match quality (which OW desperately needs, IMO).
In an F2P game like OW, where there are basically no real consequences for cheating/botting/smurfing/griefing, match quality will never improve. It’s like locking your front door but leaving all the windows wide open and pretending your house is safe.
If your point is that a payment barrier has zero effect on bad actors, then I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree.
Fine by me. This fee isnt supposed to be forced at all. But I know I’d pay a $15 prime fee to only get matched with people that are theoretically as serious about the game as I am. This prime better work though, and actually filter out the garbage as much as possible.
Won’t stop the cheaters and trollers but will help reduce them. Specially if its expensive price.
R6Siege will do this, will become free2play, and to access ranked/unranked (same as ranked but without rank change, used for practice ranked ruleset) mode will need pay for prime status, free mode will be only casual mode.
The difference is that the accounts that existed before the Prime system existed got it for free. More specifically, people who paid for the game before it was free got it automatically and the rest were given about one month to farm it by reaching a certain account level. It still fails to stop bad actors there, anyhow.
People pay monthly fees for hacks. Having an account banned once every two months is just another fee.
Altough it does filter out some of the worst people. Non-Prime CS is absolute garbage.
That’s going to be a very small pool and I highly doubt they’ll implement something that’ll affect MM even more. People can be serious and not want to spend money when they could use it on food. Because how much will this fee be?
A 5 dollar barrier is not better than a phone number.
At least getting a phone number can be a headache. But getting a few bucks one time is not going to solve anything.
No… I think that they will pay. That’s the whole point. Right now, they pay nothing—there’s zero consequence for cheating, smurfing, botting, boosting, griefing, etc.
Think about how bad OW is now. Multiply it by 20. It’s even worse.
Believe me, It’s something that could be tought of (if they implement it right), but in the end, what it essentially does is separate the paying audience from the free audience, and the free audience is full of burn account hackers, kids and toxic people that couldn’t afford to buy it again.
In the end Prime gets to be so-so in exchange for free being utter hell. So-so is better than bad? Yes, I agree. But that’s the tradeoff. It’s something to be considered. Personally I’d be pro-prime if I didn’t need to buy it for my acccount.
All things considered, the only thing I think could punish hackers is HWID bans, but that too would need to be well implemented.
It’s not $5—it’s $15 in CS, as far as I know. And that’s $15 every time an account gets banned. A phone number, on the other hand, costs less than a dollar. There’s no headache at all.
I agree. That’s exactly it.
Prime is a so-so, partial solution, but still better than what we currently have. The trade-off is that it splits the player base.
I also prefer HWID bans, but I wouldn’t trust Blizzard with it.
Honestly I’m kinda fine as is.
I’d only employ HWID bans in cases of known cheating, like 1000% certainty that the person being banned was cheating. Anything less and I don’t think it’d end well.
As far as Prime, cheats are usually like a subscription service so adding another fee won’t detract them unless it’s absurd and then it’d chase off just as many legit players. You might filter out some abusive chat or serial cheaters who can no longer justify the cost, but open up a whole new garden to trolls. If some nerd gets their jollies by messing up other people’s games purposely, giving them the opportunity to ruin games limited to people paying for better games is like giving me Jeff Bezo’s credit card and telling me to go ham.
Certainly both or either could reduce the problem, but by how much and what problems they introduce are the trade-offs.
Do I wish Blizz was a bit more proactive in banning cheaters and regularly disruptive players? Yes. Do I wish it was harder for previously banned individuals to return to OW? Yes. Do I think either of these is a sparkling one and done bandaid that addresses either of those points? Based on your description of Prime, no.
…but paying was the ONLY way you could play OW1. In CS2 you can play for free, or you can pay $15 to play with other people that also pay $15.
Where do you think the cheaters are going to go? In the free mode where it won’t matter if they are banned, or do you think they are going to pay $15 and when they get banned have to pay another $15?