My mindset towards OW nowadays (plus some ideas for thought)

I was sitting in my chair pondering what exactly about Overwatch i still enjoy since when i played it on release.

QP is alright, i spend a majority of my time here because i just am not really involved into competitive. Don’t get me wrong i enjoy competitive; it can be a very satisfying experience, but to be honest i don’t really care at all about my rank anymore. I’ve been diamond my entire Overwatch career (except one bad season, but we don’t talk about that) and I’ve come to the terms that i am a diamond level player, and I’m alright with that. I have lost interest in becoming better at the game and now i try to focus on having fun with the game, but i feel like its a disservice to the ones on my team that are actively trying to improve both their skills and their rank, while I’m not serious about it anymore.

The only two things that really attract me to comp is the golden weapons and the greater experience gain.
1.) Golden weapons are a meh to me at this point. I have 3 golden weapons, and for my level its kinda mediocre, but like i said i mainly play QP nowadays. Its not like i really pay attention to the skins/weapons as much as used to (ive even went as far as playing every hero with their Classic skins now). I play OW now for the thrills and fun it gives me, not so much the cosmetics anymore. Even the events are somewhat mediocre to me at this point. The event items/gamemodes are cool at first, but that quickly fades. Why bother getting excited for the cosmetics if the game is still lackluster in balancing? Its still the same game, even if you are wearing a new skin, so lately I have removed the cosmetics part of my gaming experience with OW because its one reason why this game irritates me (Although there are those who are complete opposites from me. I realize there are people that love the cosmetics, but this is my testimony with OW); so much cosmetic updates but scarcely any balance changes. Right now i am trying to enjoy and salvage the feelings for the game that i fell in love with from its gameplay, and not its cosmetics. I will admit that the dev team spoils us with cosmetics tho, which is something that i admire about Blizzard. They care about their game and community, even tho at times it doesnt seem like it. And also i believe they are getting better at putting balance changes up faster.

2.) The Experience gain in comp tho is drastically greater than Arcade and QP. This is a big reason that i play comp, for the EXP. You may think its a stupid reason, but i am a casual now, so i have to be trying to obtain something at least if im playing comp, right? Better than me being a thrower or using comp like QP. Right now my current goal is lootboxes and borders. I want to get lootboxes so that i can get all the cosmetics for my mains as well as gold for events (I know i said i am not using cosmetics, but i dont hate cosmetics, i actually love them. Just right now i am doing some soul searching and experimenting in different ways to love this game again like i used too. This really is my favorite game, and is the reason why i still play it, even if it has its ups and downs from time to time). The second reason i want exp is to get my next border. I am less than 100 levels from getting my silver border, and i got an idea from a good friend of mine (:fist_right::fist_left: shoutout to the anonymous friend of mine; you know who you are :stuck_out_tongue: ) that i should change my name every time i get a new border. Right now i am Mudkip, and she gave me the idea that i should change my names based off the next evolution for Mudkips evolution chain in Pokemon. So Silver border will be Marshtomp, and Gold border will be Swampert (dont know about Platinum border tho :thinking: )

So what is the conclusion to this long post?

1.) From the first part of my post, I think the balancing sucks. Changes dont come frequently enough and PTR isnt being used for what it was intended for. I’ll admit that i dont PTR as much either, and that is because there is no incentive to. One, I’d rather play on live servers, than to switch to another “game” to do the same things there that i can on live. Two, its just troublesome to be switching back and forth between live and PTR. Thus my idea is merging the two. The inconvenience of it basically being another game would be gone, and you would have the playerbase at the click of the button to try the changes. How would i suggest going about this? Make it a gamemode. Obv the changes will only be in the PTR gamemode, and nowhere else in the game. I would make it like the game browser where you click on it, and it gives you options on what to play like QP and No Limits.

2.) My second suggestion is making a new QP mixed with comp settings. I like QP, but i dont like grinding my levels there because you get close to nothing in exp as compared to comp. Making a new QP with the settings of comp, just without the leaving penalty (suspension) and the SR. QP would be what i should be designed to do, playing a quick match and having fun. Its good for practicing a new hero or just to relax. This new gamemode however would be different; it will be more engaging environment for not only the grinding casuals like myself by having similar EXP gains, but it could potential be a solution to the new wait time for new maps/characters for comp. I will use Brigitte as an example. Since she will not be able to play in comp, many people think QP will be a useless environment to see her footing in this game in terms of balance and synergy (and I mainly agree with this) . I feel like with a game mode like this (I’ll refer to as Unranked for now on) you can have a better potential to play to near optimal settings to see her value. Now it will not be perfect, since there will people there to play for fun and goof around, but I feel Unranked could be a good change for this game because it will be a more involving gamemode than QP. I feel like QP is you play and 10 sec later its over; its too quick (pun intended of course :stuck_out_tongue: ).

These are suggestions (and yes this long fudging post is just for me to say i’ve thought of a gamemode XD ) i have just come up with on the top of my head from pondering my experiences in OW up to this point, so everything is not %100 thought out. Thoughts and opinions would be appreciated :slight_smile:

…for a price :stuck_out_tongue: