Seems like this game is becoming harder and harder to balance.
I remember back during the content drought of OW1 towards the end of it’s life that many players were saying the game was in the best state of balance it had ever had (despite some glaring issues).
Makes me wonder if perhaps OW2 could benefit from them pumping the brakes on the release of new heroes A) To give them more time to plan new heroes and make sure they mesh well with the rest of the cast and B) give the meta more time to settle before mixing things up again with a new hero.
I disagree. I think the more there are the easier it is to balance and make the game more fun. I’ve always been a huge proponent of batch-releasing heroes for exactly this reason. A little bit of chaos is good for balance, and figuring out the right combinations and what counters what is some of the most fun these types of games can offer.
Remember that feeling when you first booted up the game and saw all these characters, and had no idea what most of them did? And then slowly, over time, figured them all out and which ones you loved? Well that will never happen again unless you take a huge break from the game, whereas other games recreate that feeling constantly - think of large expansions to card games, etc.
The only reason imo to really drip-feed heroes is to keep engagement consistent which has little to do with balance and is the worst of both worlds.
Btw this is entirely different from things like MAPS where I think less but higher quality is more.
Personally, I’m against content updates entirely. There’s a ton of truth in “you either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” Overwatch’s potential for good basically died in 2017, and it’s only gotten worse with time.
There’s a lot to it that is particular to overwatch, and there’s a lot to it that goes for basically any game altogether, but at the end of the day, a game developed with good senses of identity and dignity will be remembered fondly forever, and not unlikely played all the while. Halo, TF2, older Sonic games, DOOM? All great stuff. Overwatch, fortnite, league of legends, skit like that? Updates all the time, never hear a single positive thing about 'em.
Maybe I’m extra sore because I’ve seen some games come and go, especially because of content updates that kept straying the games’ philosophies more and more, but nonetheless, it never turns out good.
Oh I 100% agree with you, if it was a choice for me between adding more heroes or not adding any more heroes, I’d pick no more heroes. Those last 3 years of OW that many called the content drought were some of the most fun years I’ve had playing since 2016-2017. Not a single hero released after Ana except for Ashe is a hero I felt was good for the game. Sombra, Doom, Moira, Brig, Sigma, Ball… Just utterly horrendous choices. And the OW2 heroes haven’t been much better.
I understand people’s need for variety, I understand that some people get bored and want new, shiny things, I’m just not one of those people. I would have been happy playing OW1 with no new content ever for the rest of eternity. But I am not the norm.
Absolutely yeah. Balance was superb towards the end of the game. It was so great in fact that those glaring problems were about certain heroes just being blatantly weaker than the rest of the top cast. That all pretty much went down the drains with the format change
But they can’t just stop releases. New maps and heroes are needed to keep the game going because apparently they’re not either capable or willing to make any other kind of relevant content for the game, since nobody cares about cosmetics anymore. Illari was and is broken for sure, but the game has way bigger balance issues that can about never be fixed with the 5v5 format so it’s not like these types of releases matter
Unpopular opinion, OW balance is actually not as bad as people make it out to be. No it’s not great and is far from perfect but most heroes are playable and able to find success. The main issues are Widow/Hanzo, and some supports.
League is almost 15 years old and about 1/4 of its champion pool is literally unplayable. With the other 2/4 being not worth playing and the final 1/4 being broken for years.
League just doesn’t have a forums page where people can complain whereas OW does, making it seem like OW has a bigger balance issue than every other game.
Yeah this is basically what I’m getting at… I’d rather OW take a “less is more” approach so that as many heroes as possible can be viable (even if some of them are only “somewhat” viable) then have a glut of them that just aren’t worth playing at all.
Because I agree with you… I’ve never had an issue with balance what-so-ever. That doesn’t mean I think the game has always been as perfectly balanced as it could be, but at the same time, if I’m struggling in a match… 99% of the time its because I’m mad, or sleepy or distracted etc, and not because of some perceived imbalance.
Please nerf the queen in Chess.
