That happens with an upvote/downvote system. People are worried about getting downvoted so they tend to follow the group think.
I believe that’s the reason they actually nuked the old forums (that had the up/down system) and instead created this forum.
They got what the want…honest feedback.
Yep.
r/Overwatch - pretty much PotG.
r/Competitiveoverwatch - is just pro league.
r/OverwatchUniversity - is where players get help from GMs and Top500s.
Either thru reviews, coaching, or from discussions on how to play a hero vs different comps.
It’s easy to get free reviews there from GMs & Top500s.
I don’t blame them but they also do communicate with the forums a lot more recently. Lots of posts from Andy that Reddit has not gotten. 
It’s also easier to facilitate the AMA’s through Reddit.
I’d say it’s closer to 0.000000001%.
the overwatch forum is a toxic shthole why would devs go on here also more people use reddit
There’s a general rule of thumb that’s known by most community professionals:
Less than 10% of all players will ever even look at your forums or owned channels
Of that 10%, less than 10% will ever be an active participant in the conversation on these owned channels
It’s important to understand that this in no way diminishes the usefulness of community discussion hubs (like forums). Forums serve as a microcosm of the larger OW community, representing viewpoints from many different segments of players; casual, what we call “Core Players”, competitive players, representation from marginalized groups such as BIPOC or LGBTQIA+, the list goes on.
Like I said previously in other threads, the current state and sentiment of the boards is our responsibility, and improving the general tone and tenor of dialog here is one of my top current priorities.
To be clear: as a community professional, I have a responsibility to both the development team and the players to ensure that any conversation we’re facilitating is productive and as free from hostility as possible. While I understand the sentiment that we should “rise above” vitriol and toxic comments, I will not knowingly put developers in a situation where they could be exposed to high amounts of toxicity that ultimately ends up muddying the original message and conversation, just as I would not knowingly impose such a conversation upon any of you.
I think most of you know this about me, but I love the Overwatch community. This game has held a special place for me since before launch. It’s a game I play regularly with my kids, and like many of you, it’s where I spend time with friends and loved ones. I believe that the OW community is an amazing, supportive, and passionate group of players. Players who want to feel better informed about the development of the game they love so much.
As a Community Manager, I’ve spent my career managing the rigors of player sentiment and conversation. I understand the toll that this works takes on the mental health and well being of those who spend any amount of time interfacing directly with community.
I think most people that have been in a situation where they’ve had to create something will understand this but…
Companies are just a collection of assets, processes and (
)… people.
I would love to have an engaging conversation with developers here but I just know it’s not possible at the moment because even constructive comments are barbed with personal insults.
Expecting a person to NOT be affected by that is inhumane.
Reddit is only called an echo chamber of positivity because it functions essentially like real life - if you say something that people don’t like in real life, there are consequences.
The lack of consequences here lead people to say things that they never would in real life unless they plan to never have a job/friends/family.
I hate to he rude but have you seen the takes on here? Brig would be unbelievably busted if they listened to the fourms and Ana would be unbelievably trash. Tanks would also be busted and dps would be trash
I don’t even think that’s the problem though. Even the “worst take” is rooted in personal experience and should be contextualized and listened to in my opinion.
Of course a brand new player in bronze will see Brig differently to an OWL player so all feedback should be contextualized.
However, low ranked people that are for Brig buffs will not simply say:
“Brig feels underpowered after all her nerfs”
They will say:
“Brig is trash now. Are you guys stupid? You’ve ruined the game. I have no faith in OW2 after you failed to balance…. Blah blah blah”
This is the problem.
Oh Andy I don’t envy you…. 
It’s amazing to me how often stuff gets said that shouldn’t have to be said….
On the other hand Mccree and Ashe would have been nerfed before they dominated for 6 months each.
I figure as long as DPS can reliably 1v1 Tanks, and have an edge over DPS vs Support 1v1s. That’s all the “balance between roles” you need.
People need to let go of the idea that we need to balance roles to have equal “objective capture influence”.
We don’t need to balance the game as if role limits doesn’t exist.
That’s outdated thinking.
Furthermore, the only way (outside of something like 5v5), that you equalize queue times, is to have not-equal “objective capture influence” between roles.
Because those roles aren’t going to have equal fun otherwise.
This absolutely great to hear, hope this happens sooner than later.
Well, maybe try posting targeted “brain storming” posts.
Like “We are looking for ideas to implement Doomfist as a Tank. We’d like to ask the community to suggest some ideas that would fit well. If it’s a really great idea, it might even end up in the game, or inspire an even better version of that idea.”
I know there’s a lot of problematic design puzzles out there right now. Like Symmetra, Mei, and how do you make heroes like Pharah/Junkrat less annoying at low tier but more impactful at high tier.
Heck, how do you make it so Widow/Earthshatter/Bionade don’t dramatically limit tank choices.
Or how about the magic blend of rules to implement a ban system, or some sort of mechanic for more hero usage variety at high tier, outside of rebalancing the entire game.
Heck, or even something like “What voice lines do you think should be in the game”
Now that’s true as well
So many heroes would get overtuned and some many would get gutted as well.
Every Hitscan would be F Tier besides Soldier. Every Main Healer Would Be Awful. Every off healer would get buffed to main heals + strong utility. I don’t even wanna know how Stong D.va would be and how awful Rein would be.
You guys removed downvotes and then praise reddit where discussion is heavily biased towards popular opinion / less-harsh criticism because of…
Downvotes!
Doesn’t seem right. Neither the forums nor reddit are “right” in terms of balance and every player has heavy biases so its disingenuous to pretend one community is better than the other.
Just delete the forums and direct players to reddit to have discussions in all honesty. There’s no real point to have these without better structure. For example: bug reports. How hard is it to simply have the ability for a dev to mark posts as “need more info” or “known and in progress” etc.
The forums, esp bug reports, often feel like screaming into the void which is extremely frustrating, no matter how well - structured the post.
I kind of ranted there a bit. Sorry.
I often times find that the things that shouldn’t have to be said need to be said more frequently, if only to effectively manage expectations.
the forums are only used by a very narrow demographic of players. just look at all the repetitive posts and complaints. they prob want to reach a wider more realistic demographic of ow players.
maybe if certain people didn’t use false flagging as a downvote to everything they disagree with more people would actually use the forums.
This is actually the least useful kind of feedback for almost any development process. Jumping straight to the solution without having a thorough understanding of the root cause of friction minimizes the role of designers and can often lead to “fixes” that don’t take in the full width and breadth of a given area of frustration.
We do love to see player inspired designs and ideas. We tend to contextualize them in the same way we do fanart or cosplay.