July 30th Overwatch Reddit AMA - All developer responses here!

The Reddit AMA for the Overwatch completed yesterday. Find the full discussion on Reddit here:

However, this forum thread has all of the developer responses in a single easy-to-view place.

Questions answered by Game Director Jeff Kaplan:

How's the Lore coming (New Creative writer revealed)
What changes to Assault (2CP) have you tried?
Team production on OW and OW2
Summer Games Returning
Explore more lore about each hero
How much do you listen to pros over casuals?
What are the dev team priorities right now? Assault Map Changes
What is Torbjörn’s favourite food?
How much do you guys play the games these days?
Overwatch into other media like movies?
Crossplay in Overwatch?
More ticks of percentage on Assault maps?
Testing process for new maps
About Level-XP/Border Shaming
Possiblity of skipping Assault/2CP maps
Possiblity of guilds and a scoreboard system
Possiblity of crossovers into other games/media
Questions about Paris/HLC Reworks, spending excess gold currency, alternate life skins, deciding skins on mini-events, solo-queue only, level borders
Who was the most fun hero to develop/design?
Overwatch hero in Super Smash Bros.
How has working been home been like, Team 4 office moving on the Blizzard Campus
Alternate UI's as cosmetics
Can you give Sigma shoes please, or even socks
Characters in story becoming heroes?
Dealing with unconstructive comments
About Reporting Abusive Chat
Most difficult maps to implement, most special map
Cross progression in Overwatch?
Any regrets in development? Regret combining Offense/Defense classes, Sombra ARG
Powercreep?
Providing feedback
Thank you Jeff
Process of making new heroes?

Questions answered by Principal Designer Geoff Goodman:

Why is Sombra not a support?
Future characters as heroes
Unused concepts as heroes
Most difficult hero to fine tune
What is your best 'not a bug, its a feature' for Overwatch?
What are the most commonly-requested hero changes that never made it to live? Role Rework for heroes?
Symmetra as Support?
How much do you guys play the games these days?
Would Ashe be in the Offense or Defense hero class of the old 4-class system?
Will Jeff Kaplan be a playable hero in Overwatch 2?
Why can Moira fade but Tracer not recall out of Grav?
Hardest ability that you thought would be easy to build?
Tanks becoming more brawly
Overwatch hero in Super Smash Bros.
Balancing out the roles in the hero roster
Regret hero reworks?
Frequency of Ultimate Usage
TTK Powercreep

Questions answered by Technical Director John Lafleur:

Echo's duplicate is the hardest ability to implement
What does a typical day look like for the Overwatch team?
Can we get a Devs vs. Pros/Casters exhibition match?
Hardest ability that you thought would be easy to build?
What is is like working during the COVID pandemic
Asking about Map Editor
About applying for Blizzard

Questions answered by Lead Engineer Bill Warnnecke:

Audio occlusion bug question
Can the matchmaking tell the difference in level experience?
Confirms the matchmaker is more confident in your MMR the more you play
Which hero makes the best scrambled eggs?
What is is like working during the COVID pandemic
How much do you guys play the games these days?
12 versus BOSS PVE?
Favorite user-created workshop mode?
Biggest challenge with Overwatch to date?
What are the challenges of audio production?
Public Bug Tracker
Technical presentations in conventions/conferences coming up?
About choosing server/datacenter preference in matchmaking
What is it like working for Team 4?

Questions answered by Lead Character Technical Art Dylan Jones:

How much do you guys play the games these days?
Making other themed events?
Whats new in Overwatch?
What is your best 'not a bug, its a feature' for Overwatch?
Why can't certain heroes have golden parts like Ashe's Bob?
Can we have a fan-made skin contest?
Hardest ability that you thought would be easy to build?
Process of making new heroes?
Funniest Bug?

Questions answered by Principal Designer Scott Mercer

How will balance changes consider achievements?
Remove the medal system?
Stricter penalties for leavers? Community moderation system?
Why did Competitive stop planning for the 6-stack requirement in beta?
Hard reset for Competitive SR/MMR
More action against disruptive behavior?
103 Likes

Thanks for the heads up.

7 Likes

Honestly I only have questions about the future of the game, so I guess its a dud for me

3 Likes

Yeah, I think was the first to ask a Question about Sym
 but have not seen Devs respond yet
 so don’t know if this is real or fake AMA yet. (Would not be surprised if I was Trolled)

Do they plan on making both the Tank and Support Role more alluring to the player base? I have some ideas, but I want to see what the Overwatch team has in store first.

Well I have to head to that VP meeting bbeen talking about soon


Please inform me, if another Sym related post was answered on Reddit.

Jeff Kaplan has confirmed that Michael Chu’s old post has been fulfilled:

11 Likes

Just noticed they added “no future” questions rule


But Sym😓 and all my preparation

Well, if it’s like any other AMA, pointless joke questions are going to be upvoted to the top and people answer these low risk questions whereas questions that require actual input are largely ignored. Cue the devs answering how many jars of peanut butter Winston eats in a day.

8 Likes

Wonder what their stance on power creep is.

Plz ask if exclusive or limited time event skins will ever return?

1 Like

They have hidden scores I think.

Lol first question I see: “Why don’t you think Brigitte needs a nerf?”

They are pouring in like crazy:

Geoff Goodman on why Sombra not being a support:

Goodman confirms characters mentioned in lore could become heroes

Jeff confirms that Summer games is coming back (no details on content)

3 Likes

Starting to look like it


Now seriously depressed

Why are they ignoring all the interesting and serious questions ??? i don’t get it

8 Likes

The amount of people who call Jeff Kaplan “daddy” makes me super uncomfortable.

5 Likes

They are ignoring the future questions

They should make an OW2 AMA someday

1 Like

Please somebody ask when the Zenyatta Soon :tm: lore is coming out. ._.

Just a confirmation if it’s OW2 or do we actually got something in store before OW2 would be nice to know.