Taking notes from Seagulls “State of Overwatch” video, a lot of what he said 2 years ago about the start of the games decline, still applies now. However one aspect I want to highlight is the idea of “normalising games, so they don’t feel like a coinflip”.
This is indeed the direction the devs went, implementing 2/2/2 and so on, but to me it has greatly reduced the variety. Seagull also points out “good games feel REALLY good, bad games feel REALLY bad”, and I’m gonna be honest I would love it if I could go back to when the game was completely bi polar. We sacrificed fun for consistency, that’s why the game stopped in its tracks.
I would’ve loved them to try out other options first, rather than implementing a forced team comp structure. For starters, sort out the matchmaking. I should never be getting someone on my team I could not personally queue up with. E.g. >500sr gap. Especially with priority passes now, my tanks could be dps/support mains, who have placed at the same rank as their main role, on tank, and will through no fault of their own, be making my game unwinnable because they have been placed in a rank outside their comfort zone on the role they are solely playing to get tickets to go play their main role.
I do feel like a lot of my frustrations with this game stem from the introduction of role queue, limiting the options of comps, counters, playstyles to the point where most heroes are now one dimensional and boring.
Yes, yes it was. No doubt about that. Roll cue defenders will tell you about “consistency” but one thing I have noticed is that my games were consistently boring in r queue
The experience of Overwatch is quite different based on whether you plan to play solo or with a known team of friends. That was just even more evident before 222.
Was it more evident before? I had different experience tbh, with now being worse to play solo, with how people act, but also how balance in heroes and match maker works.
As role q roll in, my solo gameplay turn in to arcade only tbh. But had some fun in qp and few ranked games before 222, if my teammates were not throwing at each other. After it… even in duo (what i played most of, who have full team of friends to play with?) it was just… meh.
I think the 5 dps everywhere else was more common for most people as they played dps themself.
As tank player, the 2-4 dps seemed the main way to play. With 5 dps being rare occasion in qp or ranked.
At least that was my experience with it.
Consistency is important if you want to consider your environment competitive. If half my hockey games have no goalie then half my games aren’t worth scoring. This is what you get from ‘coin flip’ games. At the end of the day it’s a bunch of noise for the matchmaker to try and sort out.
Beyond this, there’s are now classic modes in both comp and QP - so go play those ?
You’re not ok with people playing roles they’re not comfortable with. But you are ok with giving them the ability to switch between any roles at will during the match. You are poking holes in your own argument.
They could very well tighten the SR window but doing so would affect queue times, likely DPS getting hit hardest here.
It sounds like a lot of your frustrations are based off stories you tell yourself to rationalize losses in RQ vs OQ.
Regardless of game mode the only play you can really control is your own, worrying about who might be playing an off role is pointless especially since it happens constantly in OQ.
You have game modes that work in the manner you seek, why are you not just playing those instead of complaining other modes exist?
edit: typos - adjusting to a very new/different keyboard has been interesting
This is what seagull really meant “winning games feel REALLY good, losing games feel REALLY bad”
Games that rely on random people to team up will always be a coin flip. run a 6 stack if you don’t want a coinflip…
2-2-2 is lame Open queue is where fun is.
I mean you can defend role queue all you want, the real question to ask is, “Has the popularity of the game plummeted since the introduction of role queue?”
The answer is yes.
Role Queue removed that incentive to play with friends and work together, and just gave you an even less varied version of rock paper scissors, with cookie cutter comps, that you must play otherwise you lose. Mate its boring, and I don’t see how you don’t see that?
Your game is tank diff? And there’s nothing you can do about it because you can’t swap to an additional tank to help out? Welcome to role queue. Your dps is getting destroyed by the enemy Mcree and there’s nothing you can do seeing as you are stuck on Mercy? Welcome to role queue. The enemy widow is killing everyone? And you can’t run triple/quad tank to reduce her one shotting rate? Welcome to role queue.
SO many balance issues that occur because you can’t solo carry games with your game knowledge of heroes, comps and counters. Double Shields wouldn’t have been so dominant in an era of non role queue.
4-5 DPS was most ofy games as a tank/support main because i refused to solo tank or support so if i was the only one i would switch to DPS untill someone else switched
What this translated to most of the time was our Rein swapping to Widow after their first death, and then our team doing even worse than it was before. I don’t miss it in the least.
Boring is a subjective term. Not everyone has the same likes/dislikes.
For the most part (because I do play the ranked open mode from time to time) I don’t enjoy this game as much in it’s open format. This isn’t a statement you can debate, anymore than I can debate your preferences.
There are more ways to influence the course of a match than swapping to whatever the role you perceive as underperforming. It is a team game though and provided you’re competing with people of similar skill levels - you’re not gonna win 'em all.
I’m still not certain why you’re up in arms about role queue though. There are open game modes for both QP and comp. We can both play with our preferred rulesets.
Besides the “my favorite gamemode is better than yours!”, I have asked this myself too.
Difference actual OQ and pre-RQ OQ?
What I can think of:
RQ and OQ has somewhat split the playerbase
Tankmains (allready rare) possibly prefere RQ because they get a tankpartner and 2 supports (Who can’t switch to DPS after the first teamfight ). Thus less tankplayer in OQ (if you need (better: want?) a tank when 3+ dps don’t work. )?
at each other. After it… even in duo (what i played most of, who have full team of friends to play with?) it was just… meh.
, I have asked this myself too. 
). Thus less tankplayer in OQ (if you need (better: want?) a tank when 3+ dps don’t work. 
)?