New Aaron Keller Interview

Thoughts?

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So what you’re saying is we shouldn’t expect to find you sitting in front of a fireplace for nine hours come December.

Oh my God. I think we can expect for the process to be a little organic and I hope that our community is open to it, and that they’re willing to go along on this ride with us because at the end of the day, what we really care about is making them the best possible game that they can play.

Yule log Aaron 2021 pls.

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In the actual blog post, the announcement was made, there was a line that says new features are coming into the live game very soon.
Yes.

:eyes: :eyes: :eyes:

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Well, If he wants to make “power plays”. :sunglasses:

1 ) Mass Rez Mercy.
2 ) SMURFFS placed in their OWN pool.
3 ) Rework of the SR system, so throwers don’t ruin everyone else’s match.
4 ) Pink Mercy should be a YEARLY fund raiser for cancer research.
5 ) Widow Reverts.
6) Balance of teams (no more Pugs vs Solo).
7 ) Monthly Overwatch Team youtube videos
8 ) December 2021 Yule Log.
9) Summer Games, NEW event (lucio ball is not the answer)


Future things I could agree to in this game.

1 ) Yes, I am okay with Cosmetics being BEHIND a paywall. With Boot lockers REMOVED.

2 ) Yes, Map packs behind a paywall. Okay so the game MAKES money. VS using league sponsorships.

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Mass rez Mercy deserves to be gone forever and it will never come back

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People still clinging to mass rezz. It’s gone! Get over it already. The rest of the world has.

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He gets directly asked if he’s gonna protect the game from Actibli$$ion’s grubby fingers and he dodges the question. Really inspires confidence about the profitability future of the game.

At the very least I trust him with everything else I guess but I’m still gonna have an exit strategy on standby.

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He basically didn’t say anything but posture about how excited and passionate the team is.

Which is pretty much par for the course. I wasn’t expecting anything more than that, but it just means the interview has no real value.

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I think he says all the things you would want to hear from someone taking over the mantle of director (big shoes to fill but he’s not Jeff…though he’s confident…more stuff coming…etc)

But the one part I really care about right now is keeping activision out of the game…like for example the monetization…and though the interviewer lobbed him the question like 3 times …he dodged it every single time…which doesn’t give me confidence that they can

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This…

There is worryingly little actual information in this interview.

How long has Jeff [Kaplan]'s departure been something that you as a team knew about, how has that been factored into your development, and what has the impact of that been?

And then… nattering on about how the whole team contributes yadda yadda.

Still not a huge reason to panic but this didn’t assuage any concerns the community had.

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Activision bought Blizzard in 2008, 8 years before Overwatch went live. There has never been a time where Activision was not part of the process.

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Coming into a position like I’m in right now–we’re mid-cycle on Overwatch 2

MID-cycle?! :fearful: I hope he did not mean that literally. 5 years is too long already… :sweat:

a few specifics that caught my eye:

“Jeff and myself–there are a few ways to look at the position–but one of them is we do the least amount of things for this game”

implying things shouldnt be impacted too much

“we’re mid-cycle on Overwatch 2”

if i take that literally…not quite near the end…

the middle of the process is 2 years after announcement…eeek

and

https://gamespot1.cbsistatic.com/uploads/scale_super/1593/15930215/3599716-ow2_blizzcon_2019_screenshot_items_gameplay_01.jpg

is this a new torb turret???

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That’s probably the turret item you can pick up in the PvE missions.

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not bad. not bad.

1 more year! :crossed_fingers:

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Overwatch 2, coming in 2023-2024.

This would be the best time for a company to make a successful hero shooter, if they could perfect the formula first, before Activision, it would not only be a devastating blow to Activision, but a marginal success for whatever company. Looking at you Bungie!

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Actually the item system in Overwatch 2 PvE missions got scrapped completely.

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I wouldn’t get your hopes up. Have you ever seen the “soon” meme before? It’s based off Blizzard’s “soon” which could be next week or next year.

No.

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I like how you snuck that in there hopin people wouldn’t notice it =P

From what I’ve seen the game often does put even premades up against other premades. The problem is if one of them leaves it will just quickly backfill people and it’s always going to be solo queue people. BAM solo players vs. premade. I’ve seen that happen a lot in QP (when you could see people grouped) and still see it happen in arcade where you can see people grouped.