The door is shut

General Discussion
1

I don’t think the devs, or most people are aware how impossible it is to start playing OW as a new player currently.

I bought the game for my room mate, who had previously played destiny and borderlands with me over the course of 3 years.

She was really excited to start playing OW, but has just had the life smacked out of her over and over again.

Initially I helped her find some settings and key binds she liked, and just let her run wild in quickplay/ arcade.

I wanted her to learn at her own pace.

Later she comes to me “I think I’m doing something wrong. I’m trying to stay with my dudes, like you said, but we all just keep dying together?”

So I watched two of her games in a row.

Her team, everyone below level 100. Not a single star or rank badge to be seen.

Enemy team, silver, gold borders. 4 stack.
Two gold badges.
That particular game, the stacked Soldier and Ana managed to flank behind her team THREE TIMES for a nano visor.

A miserable game.

So, I told her to queue dodge and sent her over to the arcade.
Wherein she proceeded to have the exact same experience.

Now, she only plays customs with me, and she feels guilty about it, like I’m doing her a favour.

She likes the game and just wants to play, but feels like she can’t.

The door is shut.
OW isn’t accepting new players.

[edited by Forum Moderator: Please review the Code of Conduct we have available as a guide for forum use to prevent any future action. This post was edited to remove the edit on here that discussed a penalty.]

108 Likes
2

That’s every competitive game after being open for a while. You either accept that for the first couple months you are literally going to be a walking target dummy, or you don’t buy it after the initial launch.

9 Likes
3

Level means nothing in this game. People have alt accounts. Until the MMR balances them out, people are placed in weird games for about their first 30+ levels.

This game has also been out for years so new players are at a disadvantage because the playerbase already has way more knowledge and in a game like OW, you’ll get walked all over for lack of knowledge. Knowledge that can only be learned by making mistakes and continuing to play the game until things even out.

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4

I have a similar issue, where i got the game for my friend and we only play customs, but he wont even TRY quickplay or arcade. Hes too scared that people will bully him for picking the wrong hero and being bad, because im a toxic turd and get triggered when i play the game. He claims the community is toxic yet has never even tried to play the game in a 6v6 mode.

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5

It isn’t just OW. It’s every Blizzard game. And its terrible.

If you didn’t start playing within the first year you’re practically screwed.

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6

Yepp… I remember that I came in late into Battlefield 3… Now those are real good memories. ;D

7

It’s just sad, I’ve supported this game against so much hate, but a brand new player can’t even find a decent match.

It literally doesn’t even function properly, and it made my room mate actually miserable.

I can’t defend that, that’s disgusting design.

I had to respond to you here because I talk too much apparently.

It’s not like you can tell him he’s wrong though…

That’s something I haven’t even told my room mate about.
Widow ended up being her favourite.
I don’t want to tell her she’s going to get abused because she likes that hero.

That makes me feel depressed.

Edit: God damn I really miss being able to talk.

Edit 2: Yo, Panggwin, are you getting notifications for this?

Edit 3: Can someone please tell Sensualspud I play on PS4 and my name is Mono-pop.

I almost made a friend :c

3 Likes
8

It should put you in a game against other newbies, against other target dummies.
Not Hardcores 1500H+
That is bad.
You are going to be better with 1500 hours then somone who played 1.
No matter how much you throw ‘‘Lvl doesn’t matter’’ around.

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9

Started a new account, and I barely had this issue arise, and the silvers / gold level players were pretty mediocre in skill.

10

Also this isn’t the case. Levels, or level badges in this case… Really do not mean anything, I have seen several plat borders that have been Bronze players… And bronze borders grandmasters. What matters is teamwork. I, along with my OW team can beat diamonds if we put our backs into it. So mostly a teamwork failure.

11

I dont see how the matchmaker can do that. A brand new account? Like I made smurfs on psn and never had THAT bad matchmaking. My transition from console to pc was torture, i was the living embodiment of a potato. But it still didnt sound as bad as this. I played primarily deathmatch, so i highly reccomend that to your friend.

12

Yeah, but how is the game supposed to detect that someone isn’t just playing on their level 4 alt account? It doesn’t pick that up until several games have been completed. And by several, I mean like 25+ levels of games.

13

Actually if she is any good widow is meta. And in my experinces, i was a huge fan of widow, as soon as i got 30 hours on her and still couldnt hit a headshot consistently i just put her away.

14

This game has an initial learning curve like a lot of games. It’s like every time I want to play Gears of War I need to go through a 2 week period where I just get killed constantly before that game starts to click again.

15

Simple, put them against 40-110 Or other.
It makes sure, that smufs that want to smurf in comp, have allready reached 25 and can.
And only the actuall 40-110 will be 40-110.
If you have a smurf, you aren’t going to be playing QP with him longer than you have to.

16

It’s not so much design as it is a normal dynamic.

Biggest sales jump happens at launch of a title. Everyone is new and learning together. Time passes and the rate of new players joining slows. The playerbase as a whole has spent more time playing and is getting better at the game. Even your bottom tier players have lots of play time now and a true newcomer can’t be expected to match fairly against them.

It’s not Blizzard’s fault and there isn’t much they can do about it. That’s just how the life cycle of pvp games goes. Best advice I can give to new players is to join a gaming/discord community and play with friends in customs/vs AI and such to learn the ropes. It’s work, and the situation can be frustrating, but it’s been this way for all time.

17

The problem is that there isn’t really a workaround as people are abusing alternate accounts.

Your friend will just have to earn her stripes.

Best advice I can give is to get her to 25 and into competitive ASAP. Placements may or may not be rough still, but once she’s placed she’ll have a more level playing field.

3 Likes
18

Stay in customs/vs AI to learn basic stuff.
Levels don’t mean much.

19

Smurf is different than an alt account, though. Level doesn’t matter in this game. People are level 1100 and still are in Silver.

People can also be level 100 and place in Diamond. So the level solution wouldn’t fix the problem. It simply comes down to the fact that all new players jumping into a game that has been out several years are always at a disadvantage. It’s like that for every game, like CoD, Battlefield, Gears of War, etc.

20

As games get older, the number of target dummies available shrinks. It likely simply can’t find enough of them playing at the same time, in close enough regions to not have horrible ping, in a reasonable enough time to build a match without the players getting frustrated by wait times.

1 Like