hewwo, ps4 pleb here
uwu im gonna read and take notes as I do so if thats chill (this is from PS4 perspective btw idk if its exactly the same for XBOX or whatever)
1 - Console PTR - the reason we don’t have a console PTR is probably because companies need to pay to put through updates and patches into Playstation. blah blah multimillion dollar company blah theyre being cheap, but it’s still a reasonable reason.
Not to mention the PTR is a joke anyway. It’s a pit stop for updates, everything that goes to PTR goes live. It doesn’t matter if we get to test it or not. (example, every friggin Mercy change ever. Straight to live.) If we had one for console it would be useless anway.
2 - The game does play a bit differently on console, one example would be the Pharah changes. It rewarded good Pharah players is all I will say on the matter lmao. The thing is console is literally… harder to play. While we have an advantage with movement thanks to the controller, the aiming is atrocious in comparison to a mouse (hence aim assist) therefore the balancing will naturally be off when comparing console to PC. This is also why Mouse and Keyboard is a cheat, a mechanical advantage for those absolute a-holes who use them with console (don’t argue with me, its a precision advantage along with quick flick advantage resulting in movements that are physically impossible to do with such precision on a controller).
Separating balancing for console and PC while a good option would demand much more effort on Blizzard’s behalf, and do you really see that happening anytime soon lmao
3 - When the report system was implemented into console I was overjoyed. Naturally, as a girl, I get harassed a whole lot, and naturally, as a Symmetra main, I get harassed even more. I will report someone without a second thought. However claiming that the report system doesn’t work I think is a bit false. Almost every time I log into my Overwatch I am greeted with the pop-up that my reports have led to them taking action against a player. The only problem I have with this is the fact that you don’t know if that action was a suspension, a ban, what have you. I’ve had tons of bad games where I’ll be like “just report (x) for throwing/abusive chat” and the response is “reports don’t even work anyway, why bother” and that’s probably a big chunk of the reason people assume reports don’t work.
The report system in general has a very inherent flaw, and that’s the fact that it’s borderline entirely automated. This is why people on PC who one-trick a character are punished for it.
I’m a borderline Symmetra one trick (you can’t tell from my hours but shhh), I have the mentality of one, and I don’t give a crap about what map we’re on or what the team wants, I will always lock in Symmetra. (but if its not working I switch. I digress). I have never been punished for that, I’ve never been told “you’re being reported” or something just for picking Symmetra, however I know tons of stories about people on PC getting suspended just for playing her when they don’t even main her. This is a problem with the ban system, as it gives players a full pass to get people banned for things that are completely unreasonable, things that Blizzard themselves have stated are not bannable, yet since the reports are not dealt with by actual humans, chaos ensues. Like I’d even be willing to look at reports myself (#joblesslyfe) for free just to help reports be taken care of without the automated system.
5 - This is such a prevalent problem. I have multiple overwatch accounts, I have my main account (attached to this forum account) which is silver border, but I also have a Moira/filling main account, and a DPS one trick account (and I also have an account purely for the username). Since you’re chucked into games with low levels when you yourself are a low level (atleast for the beginning) you usually expect to be chucked in the mid-range of skill or something like that however on console there’s a 50/50 chance of either team having one or more diamond+ smurfs who have just made a new account for no reason other than to trash on lower players. This is a much more prevalent problem on console due to fact that we can create endless accounts without having to pay for it (if you say ‘smurfing isnt that bad’ ur probs a pc player ) This problem isn’t helped by the automated ban system, and is not really easily provable, to my knowledge, without probably actually checking accounts linked to that players IP address so I really don’t think it’ll ever be fixed because again, blizz, lazy.
6 - I report M+KB users, plain and simple. I’m in mid plat so I play with anyone from gold to masters (feelsbad for them who get stuck in my games lol) so I’ve seen my fair share of keyboard and mouse. Blizzard states it is an unfair advantage, which is 100% true (as stated in my previous m+kb rant above lmao). Plain and simple people reported for it should be immediately first of all, checked by a real life human for actual use of M+KB (which is ridiculously easy to spot btw, you’re not friggin fooling anyone) and then banned immediately. It is using a third party system (e.g xim) to gain a mechanical advantage over the other players in the game.
I’ve give one of my personal examples from both viewpoints. Had a game with a Mouse and Keyboard Widowmaker on our team (they literally said it when we all joined VC), proved it within about 5 seconds after the game began (it also was clear in the POTG he got), and because it was so obvious he was M+KB and wrecking, both our healers pocketed him while our tanks pushed the payload. Needless to say, we won.
Another game I had, we were versing a M+KB Tracer. This is, quite possibly, the worst experience of my life. I can outplay a M+KB Widow with Sombra pretty easily. Even with Brigitte, on console it is borderline impossible for you to beat a M+KB Tracer (in plat below, I’ll state incase someone wants to fight) unless they’re absolutely brain dead. You cannot turn your view 180 in less than 0.5 seconds if you’re using a controller, and you walk like a nonce with a keyboard. you’re not fooling anyone. Luck is all you have. I mean Tracer herself is an unbalanced mess but anyway. M+KB makes it impossible.
It should be 100% bannable, is that I’m saying. lol.
7 - There’s literally zero excuse for us not being given a FOV slider. Like every goshdarn game I play has one. All of these QOL are inexcusable for being on PC and not console.
However, text chat… I feel like while sure, it would be cool for those people who don’t talk to be given a way to communicate. But no one is a speed demon using the automatic keyboard interface of a console. Maybe you’ve got one of those attachable keyboards for the controller but not everyone has those. The amount of time it would take away from the game. Imagine your Reinhardt is standing in a corner for 30 seconds and you find out later its because he was typing (what if you’re typing and you get kicked for afk? lol). Just be in the voice chat. You don’t have to talk, you just have to listen. If VC is full of toxic a-holes then just leave. And text chat wouldn’t help you in that situation anyway so there’s no point having it.
also I’m very angry I can’t have my game in Korean. I once spent like an hour searching trying to find how to make it that way, eventually I tweeted to Blizz CS and there response was basically ¯\(ツ)/¯ go screw yourself.
in summary I think I’ve just accepted that they’re not going to be fixing console anytime soon. I have the same transgressions with the game as Ragtagg does (DEAR BLIZZARD - OVERWATCH SUCKS!) and it’s only intensified with the serious lack of care for console overwatch in comparison to Pc overwatch.