Quick Play Needs Better Optimization

General Discussion
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Overwatch 2’s quick play is a weak option for casual players and a stronger one is needed to keep a sustainable player base. I want to start by saying that my criticism of the current layout of those game modes doesn’t impede on your fun, I am not asking for anything to be removed but for things to be better placed so that you can customize your experience so that you can continue having fun and have fewer optical in your way.

Overwatch 2’s casual experience is plentiful but colorless. It has a lot of options for players to start to have fun with but poorly uses those options and forces players to either hunker down at times with parts they might not deem fun. This is a huge issue in the most common game mode, quick play.

The fact is, not everyone is going to like Push or Control or even Payload. Take me for example. I am not a huge fan of Push or Control maps. Sometimes I find myself getting a Control map, then a Push map, then a Control map. If I am not a huge fan of those game modes that is 20-30 minutes of me not playing the game at its best for me and I am still waiting for a game that I like. It may not be a lot but if I only have an hour a day on video games why would I waste it on a game that wastes my time instead of one that doesn’t like Valorant or Apex Legends?

Arcade tries to fix this issue by offering the solo game modes once in a while but if the normal quick play actually had optimization this wouldn’t be needed. The solution would be to allow the player to pick the game modes they want to play. Team Fortress 2’s system allows players to pick multiple game modes and exclude game modes as well to help optimize the player’s game so they hopefully get into a match they like. It’s an easy fix with this game to have Payload, Control, Push, and Hybrid maps automatically selected but the player can unselect them and you can even add back Assault and add in CTF as selectable options that the player would have to go out of their way to select. It would keep the best game modes in for new players and those rare players that actually miss Assault can have their fun 24/7 as well.

The big issue with what I have suggested is the role queue. Having players queue up for a role queue and then a map queue would make the wait time too long. The suggestion would be to remove the role queue but have another solution for those that actually want a role queue in a casual setting. In casual, if for the worst have a soft role lock that makes it so there is a minimum and maximum on how many players can play a role. For example, the maximum and minimum would look like this.

Tank: 1-2
DPS: 1-3
Support: 1-2

It customizes the game and is big enough to allow players to play what they want. I understand the downsides of this and there is a huge chance a player will have to play a hero they may not like so I rather go with an open queue format for the casual game modes like in the Arcade. That means the balancing team really needs to start pulling their weight and actually understand how the game is being played and what is causing issues. I am in Silver and I don’t need a chart telling me that Mei would fit better as a tank than Doomfist. I actually play the game.

But what about the people that want a role queue and don’t want the competitive feeling? Just make it how the current unrated quick play is but instead just call it unrated. It would be a bridge game mode from casual to competitive and you can also make it with competitive rules so both teams attack and defend. It would be a reward with longer play sessions and a safe place to have the same competitive mindset that is already in our current quick play.

Last but not least, no forced map pools. Even though it’s a bad idea for competitive, forcing it on every casual game mode is one of the dumbest things I have seen from a development team. Imagine if Hollywood is your favorite map and now your favorite place in the game is no longer accessible until 40 more days. That is also a maybe because we don’t know if the maps are coming back because we don’t know what happened with Havana and Nubani.

That is my suggestion, it’s very flawed but still, something I feel needs a big improvement if this game wants the same longevity and greatness other games have. Put some power in the player’s hand that doesn’t really affect others and they will be happy.

2 Likes
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Aside from some matchmaking adjustments which are in the works the only other issue that needs attention is the forcing solo players to share lobbys with partys…

It seems harmless till your a half decent solo queue player

I would estimate that anywhere between 50-75% of my matches in QP are me and 2+ bad players using the party system to try and compensate for their being bad. … getting matched against parties of 3+ cordinated players

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So does CSGO, and just look at all those maps that are impossible to find a match in due to low player counts.

I happen to be a massive fan of Vertigo and Aztec, but guess who doesn’t?

If you guessed “literally everyone else” you’d be correct!

If everyone got to choose what maps/modes they didn’t want to play, then you’d have vacant map pools. I loved 2cp, and I do enjoy Push (although there are major inherent flaws with this mode) and I wouldn’t/don’t want them taken out of easy rotation just because they’re despised.

Maybe if tickets were implemented back in and used for either priority requeue or singular map preference/avoidance that could work? But not an unfettered a-la-carte option.

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I don’t think it’s correct to compare TF2’s map system to CSGO’s. Reason is that Aztec is removed and Vertigo is still an active map in the game. There is a lot of fault to CSGO’s system and I am not a fan of it at all which is why I wanted to go with a more universal approach that more games have done for their casual options. I don’t think Overwatch’s community is small enough to siphon 1 out of 6 gamemodes that would be offered in this new option.

I am interested in this option though, but instead of a map avoidance a game mode avoidance? It wouldn’t work well if I didn’t like Push and I got rid of Collosso and got New Queen Street.

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Yeah, I’m kind of amazed at how uncustomizable the gameplay experience is. Like you can’t pick maps, not choose maps, not pick game modes you don’t want to do, etc.

Like, imagine you queued up in Apex and you had a random chance to be put in an Arena game, or a duos game, or the winter mode currently happening. You instead pick what you want and then play it.

or look at Halo: The Master Chief Collection. You can pick a bunch of modes, choose which games you don’t want to queue for, etc. Seems like a very basic feature.

Although frankly, a lot of my issues would just be solved with a dedicated “unranked” mode. QP’s real issue is that it exists both for some dudes who are high off their behinds to jump into a game and for people who want to practice for comp, which often leads to one sided games where either you sweep the entire enemy team or they sweep you. Having unranked would mean that people who want to practice comp can just go there, a more rigid environment for that attitude. QP should be the “I have 25-30 minutes before I need to head to work/school/etc and just wanna play a fun game” mode.

2 Likes
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They should just have a vote system like oh mw2 where player vote between two maps.

It would also give. Blizzard a better idea of which maps are unfun and possibly lead to changes within those maps

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Tf2 is also a drastically less complex game than overwatch…

The more complex the game, the more players will struggle to comprehend it…

I dont know what kind of history you have with tf2, but “casual servers” and matchmaking did not benefit the game, infact each were major contributions to whats lead the game to become the cesspit, or fortnite of steam, it has become…

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Overwatch isn’t an overly-complex game and I only used TF2 has a launchpad because of the similarities between the games. We can talk about other video games, CoD, Halo, Paladins, Titanfall 2, etc, etc. The point is more about bringing choice for a casual player through optimization of game modes. It’s to keep retention in a casual community.

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Overwatch is like playing chess compared to most of those games being closer to checkers…

When you use the term “casual player” i think its only fair you explain your definition of the term, as im certain you consider yourself as one, as i consider myself one as well, and im fiarly certain we have diffrent definitions of the term…

I mean based on what i see anymore, putting any effort into learning growing and becoming a better player seems to mean your a “tryhard” now, oh and if your actually truing to win your a sweaty tryhard…

Point is people try to use being a casual player as a means to justify not learning or growing as a player…

I wont lie, blizzard has always done a terrible job of accommodating the playerbase, but the playerbase generally speaking is extremely selfish which is messed up considering this is a team based game

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I mean Overwatch is like every other game in the sense it’s simple to get started but has a lot of mechanics that make it complex and interesting. The same goes for chess and droughts (checkers). That is not my point of this post and I don’t believe furthering this conversation gets us anywhere.

A casual player is when you play the game casually. It’s not a very glorious title that you need to do a lot to get. You can be playing your first game or Overwatch or an Overwatch League player playing your yearly casual match. The moment you are playing the game and relaxing and having fun you are a casual player. It’s simple and complex at the same time.

I am also not going to quote your next part as it’s a conversation I don’t really know how to approach as it feels like you have an anger of something currently in the game that I sadly can’t resolve. But here is what I will say.

If I am not wrong you value improving and a huge reason for playing the game is a self fulfillment in improving. If that is true that is 100% valid reason to play quick play and it’s 100% valid reason not to play competitive. You are not wrong for “tryharding” in anything and as someone who has season tryhards in dozens of video games you are not uncommon. You have a reason to play and that is what you find fun. My reason is I like that the game has 36 heroes and I like playing the game differently every match I get. We both have the same validation there.

But what if you used a system where you can improve on the gamemodes you want to improve? Say you were struggling on Zenyatta with Push and maybe Control? You could queue only that and have a fulfilling day just improving your gameplay. It gives you power and gives you another excuse to play the game instead of finding it uninteresting. It keeps you retention.

I may be wrong on all of my assumptions and if I am, I apologize. However I do hope that if I am right there is an understanding we can find to improve the current system we have.