Do you remember experimental mode from OW 1, where we got to test random things? First, it was about fun things, latter it was only about balance things.
This mode never made it to the OW 2 and maybe because this game became one big experimental mode. At least that´s how I feel for a while now.
- First we get all this promises about PVE - than it´s canceled. So, we get this PVE missions - than that is gone too probably
- Same for BP - first new heroes are locked up there, than they release them. Also, BP seems to be more and more filled with slots with trash, instead of something good. Also mythic skins in BP changed into a currency instead latter.
- Shop and their experimenting with prices and different currencies…
- weird hero reworks, canceling random stuff like open “mystery heroes” or automatic requeue, slowly changing/canceling succesful events or reducing them to nothing, adding more recoloured skins, than original,…
- and recently - going back to 6 vs 6 after they forced us to play in 5 vs 5
Just lot of random changes, promises that get canceled, things that are added and than scratched…is this game one big experimental mode now?
They are trying to see how low they can go until they lose a critical amount of revenue, so they can save ‘unnecessary’ time, work and workers.
You could bury the bar and they’d still find a way to get lower, as long as the cash flows. When it comes to monetization, the gaming industry has become such a shame lately.
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you’d be technically right… but didn’t that apply to Overwatch 1 too, somehow?
- we had double pick before, removed after Overwatch season 1;
- Gibraltar had completely different checkpoints, then they changed them;
- defender class removed because it was too anonymous in its role;
- 2-2-2 first imposed for everyone, then hero ban and finally two types of competitive (open and role q);
- Symmetra was a support and actually sombra was also meant to be a support not healer, you know?
- Rework of horizon and withdrawal of assault maps from competitive;
- Even the lootbox management was different in its first year, with recolors in the first events and then a general change on the legendary drops;
- Even access was changing: game keys GIVEAWAY from Blizzard and first signs of crossgaming.
I could go on with many little examples. Generally this is the exact identity of a live service game: it changes and will change again based on the addition, withdrawal and modification of features. the only reason we have in saying that “overwatch 1 didn’t change that much in itss 6 years” is that they simply stopped developing it seriously after the announcement of ow2 in 2019, because “OW2 the messiah” would have come to change everything.
I don’t see anything wrong with continuous experimentation. In fact, it’s a sign of active technological development, even if it’s sometimes very messy. We clearly see this sense of disorder in the monetization and re-proposition of events, but we still see a lot of technology that slowly inserts itself into the quality of life of small details like a UI modification or a feature designed for a hero but then passed on to another concept hero.
You can see that it is exactly from January 2024 that we have seen the wildest changes in experimental modes. and there is nothing wrong with that. but unfortunately there is really a long way to go from the marketing point of view, which has gotten worse. and they don’t even know how to pretend that they are making good offers for the user anymore, with this spam of waifus (mercy or kiriko) and recolors.
I played OW 1 since 2019 and during those last years, it didn´t feel as chaotic as OW2 to me.
Also, I would say that this is understandable for a "new"game, that OW1 was in early years when I was not there, not in mode 2, that is somehow more chaotic, than first one.
But Again - I only played OW1 last 2 - 3 years of it´s existance.
Indeed, I don´t say it´s wrong. I just feel like we went from this “mostly stable” game into the world of chaos, because major plans for OW2 were canceled.
right, and here it’s more a blizzard production’s opinion on the idea with which they released OW2: it was clearly an E-sport machine born for esports and considered too rushed for home use (remember the unacceptable bugs of their “”“early access”“” period?). basically the whole first year of OW2 was a general reset of some features that should have been there all along, while fixing others that were worsened in the skeleton of the revamped game. and this worsened the actual perception of OW2 in its “buff” compared to ow1 in the first year.
ah ok. then I can reassure you on this: ow1 in its early years (2016-2019) was modified at least as much as ow2 is now. the only difference is that there was always a margin of enthusiasm that today is covered by the disappointments that have occurred, and people tend to forget them or not want to admit them. 
aand… yeah, also in balancing heroes. people were quick to forget about the real Ana 1.0 or the bayblade reaper, or Cassidy’s secondary fire, I guess.
EDIT
an ironical video from 2017 (ow born in 2016):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb6Ng-NsqTs
Ok, but as I said before: is not that natural for “new” game of this format?
not for a live service game that promises new heroes and maps every year. the types of arenas, effects, influences, countering change. ow1 stopped offering maps and heroes around 2019-20, so there was little to note in the change.
other moba / hero shooter games also live by this logic, with the only difference that no one has had the pretension of putting an undeserved “2” on the title to do their job as a live service game. it’s also one of the reasons why I frankly find it much more stupid to see a “2” in the title than to see some awkward Streisand effect on what the cowboy’s name is.
OW is my only shooter I play, but I heard many times, that it´s one of a kind among shooters, so I would expect first years to be very unstable. But year, around that time I started to play, where there was no maps, nor heroes released.
OW1, despite all the bad changes, still had a solid foundation that was just unfinished and not allowed to grow and solidify before AKB corporate enforced their e-sport centric policies upon the game.
OW2, however, did not. OW2 is just the continuation of the despoiling of Overwatch. Its a game whose base is bad decisions and corporate turmoil.
OW2 feels so much more chaotic because the bases of the game been eroded and nothing can stand well in said eroded bases.
The balance and design changes they have been pushing forward to try to fix their most recent fires end up creating more fires to fix 1 week later.
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