Idk if this is just me, but ever since they switched to overwatch 2 but especially since the release of Mauga, the game feels so…empty. Nothing inside the actual game keeps me wanting to play, even after I take a break. The balance is so unengaging, the new heroes are not getting anywhere near the same love as the old heroes, ranked feels like a sh*tshow and the players seem so…uninterested whether the game is actually good or not. Everyone just queues into a game, does not interact in any way with anyone, nobody talks and the game ends just to do the same thing over and over. I cant remember a single game from OW2 with good memories, all i do remember are players telling me to “go back into the kitchen” and being insanely rude and hypocritical (entire team counter switches me on tank, I switch from ball to Orisa to be told to off myself). Meanwhile I have so many games from OW1 that happened in 2017 that I still remember. The game used to be fun and engaging, people cared about actually playing and not everyone giving up after 1 minute, pushing ranked and just being there for the fun interactions.
I do truly believe that the only good thing we got from OW2 was the game becoming F2P meaning more players. everything else feels either like a downgrade or VERY poorly executed. And yes, maybe all those memories are extremely influenced by nostalgia or I simply grew out of it, which is what i used to think and even with all that I wish for the game to get better because I do think the concept behind it is one of the best games on the market.
But then you try out Marvel Rivals and everything just feels…good…ITS FUN. We’ll see what the future holds for that game but damn, the Overwatch devs could learn one or two things from them and its so sad to see to just see everyone cry that “Rivals copied OW and stole everything (widow lol)”
This is my first time posting here, sorry for the rant, but I wanted to get my thoughts out somewhere that gives me the chances to read others opinions and see if Im alone on this or not…
Honestly this was a downgrade for me too because the new monetization system that came attached to being a F2P game is complete garbage compared to loot boxes.
Which I can’t believe I’m saying I’d rather have loot boxes, but here we are.
I agree that the report system is one reason for it but even the banter that we used to have during and at the end of the game is gone. And that was even when OW2 came out. They removed the upvote cards and the loading time between entering the game, POTG, winning screen, etc is shorter so whenever you even TRY to chat you have no time
Also it feels like in many games people are just waiting in spawn the last seconds in the leave screen so they can leave the moment the match is over…
The game’s soul was purged from it when Overwatch league was introduced. But 2 just solidified its on life support with nothing really left at the helm.
it use to be a very cheerful inclusive and very welcoming game.
The hostilities manifested when the whole cash grab for League came about and they butchered the game every other month for viewership for league.
The groups of players it attracted to the game weren’t healthy for it either. Since you have blood thirsty players that Blizzard wanted here. The group that was driven for savage wins, and blood sacrifice pledged on a table to this game.
It pretty much was “casuals gtfo, timmys go play minecraft” overnight.
We were fine with that player type in Competitive, but once they took over Quickplay it was pretty much the end of the game. Never gonna really see a fun game of Overwatch ever again.
I dont mind shops, but it sucks that they keep promoting old content for the new players and then whenever there are twitch drops, etc old players get nothing, which adds to it. All the items in the shop are WAY to expensive and most of them are LITERALLY just recolors or useless (souvenirs). And the mythic skins are a whole other mess…Not of them is better then the legendary OW1 skins we used to get.
Would have been fun if they keep lootboxes as a reward that you cant buy and just put old stuff in there…aint no way anyone is buying blue rarity skins in the shop…
The main issue I have is that I basically went from “I can get almost anything I want if I grind enough, or I can skip the grind by just paying” to “screw you give us money every few months or barely get anything”.
and it’s not like loot boxes weren’t making bank, either. The only thing I’d probably change is people should have been able to buy currency directly rather than buying loot boxes, to remove the randomness of buying something with real money.
i knew 100% game was dead to me as soon as they promised new heros every 6months. Overwatch cant be good with all these new abilities. It peaked in ow1 and has gone downhill ever since. Its just not overwatch anymore. Less is more.
You can thank the toxic positivity mindset they have at Blizzard. No one speaks in fear of being banned.
No one is excited to play because there is nothing to get from playing. The monetization requires you to play 8 months for a single skin. We used to get three free skins in between every event just for playing 12 games.
No one looks forward to getting another level on the battlepass. It disappears after the season is done and nobody other than you can see how much effort you put into the season. Not only that, but for grinding hours every day of the season (2 months), you’re rewarded with half a battlepass worth of coins, which is so little that you can’t even buy weapon charms with it.
Worst of all, they abandoned the story entirely thanks to the PvE being canceled. Nothing to get excited for if your favorite heroes story is nothing more than a few quips in the spawn room (bonus points if you’re favorite character is one of the unlucky few that’s just used as a punching bag to make other characters look cool).
its the same reason people hate blue players and net deckers in MtG (except for the net deckers and blue players lol)
it’s because it’s uninspired and lacking healthy interaction.
every time you do something, it’s nope
you are forced to only do XYZ, for each rank, so players ideas are last
but all that aside, what i can’t forgive, is that instead of identifying problem and fixing them directly, they just keep adding layers of the above to counter problems, without realizing the previous problems still exist when not dealt with, so now we just have 789246 problems
OW2 is just a highly monetized OW1 mod. It took away everything that made OW1 feel like magic. My chief complaints:
My friends (casual players) no longer play because every time they do, it’s such a horrible steamroll that they just go back to Marvel Rivals or Fortnite. We always get matched up against enemies who are sweating hard enough to fill a swimming pool. Probably something about big group MMR penalties in matchmaking or w/e.
OW2, unlike OW1, shows stats for all players, making it possible for casual players to get trashed on by teammates. How many times do you hear, “gg our support has 2000 less healing, support diff” or “gg our tank is 5-8”? Casual players made the game FUN. They added banter and humor to the game. Now, many casual players have moved on (ever since OW1 started catering more to e-sports pros), and banter has been replaced with toxicity and sweat.
OW2 took away the surprise and excitement from rewards; no more loot boxes and wondering if you’ll get that epic skin (or at least the coins to buy it). Everyone knows what you get when, and you have to grind the battle pass (which costs money). Some skins are only paywalled and cost as much as entire triple AAA video games! For a SKIN!
Giga-buffed tanks can easily take on 2 or 3 people at once. In OW1, as a DPS, you still had a chance to out-skill the tanks.
In OW1, it was common to average 20-30 elims. It was FUN. In OW2, nothing seems to die. If you’re highly mechanically and positionally talented, you’ll manage elims, but for casual players, it feels like a brawl-fest that never ends.
Supports have turned into miniature DPS. Original supports had trade-offs, for example, with Ana you had greater burst healing potential but had to aim and had less mobility, whereas with Mercy you didn’t have to aim (can just focus on healing and staying alive) but your damage potential was less, etc. Today’s supports have everything from damage potential to mobility.
Tanks press right click and they basically have what FEELS like infinite HP with their block.
No player cards or upvoting, no time at the end of the game to chat (or rant), heck OW2 did not originally even have the “I’m on fire!” effect.
Making this game free-to-play has made it a paradise for aimbotters and hackers.
The community demographics changed, where casual play shifted to sweaty play. It’s less about having fun and more about winning now. It’s all about getting in as many sweaty games as you can in order to grind some battle pass or challenge.
5v5 made the balance issues FEEL worse (in my opinion). They don’t have a clue on how to balance this game. How about balancing for FUN and not just a 50% win rate? Can I also mention that 5v5 means one less FRIEND to play with? I had a group of 6 that I always used to play with, then with OW2 invariably one or the other of us would always get left out, and now none of my friends play. It’s lonely. I would give anything to have some routine friends to play with, for FUN, not to win.
Developers take 900000 years to implement changes. We waited years for an epic OW2 experience that never manifested. All we got was an OW1 mod called OW2. Heck, they sit there and collect data for months before rolling out a “mid-season patch” when they should be making faster and incremental improvements.
It certainly made for a good retention system as events felt more exciting simply for being rewarding when you played. IIRC, it took about 40 hours of matches were needed to be guaranteed to earn everything that was offered inside them during a 3-week season, which is about 2 hours/day during the season played without lapses—and that was assuming you had bad luck with the drops. Earning OW1 loot box rewards made the game somewhat grindy, but it wasn’t that bad, and everyone should understand that a game like this needs to be a bit grindy to ensure players consistently play in order to keep those lobbies filled!
All Blizzard had to do was stop selling loot boxes and start selling the cosmetics contained within them for the current prices as they do now, while continuing to offer the very same free loot boxes for playing over time.
Of course, loot box rewards for playing weren’t the only thing that made OW1 great though. There is plenty more wrong with OW2 that OW1 got right.