We need to have a discussion about this.
It seems there’s a lot of mixed signals, with both Visor and Pursuit being partnered with OWL organizations, and also simultaneously being completely misunderstood in how these programs operate, that everyone is quick to come to a conclusion about these programs.
As someone who signed up for the Visor beta just to see what all the fuss was about, I never thought Visor would become this polarizing.
The app didn’t work. The notifications that supposedly gave me an advantage were just flat out wrong most of the time. They were more of a distraction than help, and the software itself was taxing on my computer making it difficult to run and play the game at the same time.
The aggregate stats, however, were impressive and something that Blizzard themselves should be offering (but currently do not). It’s to my understanding that Pursuit also has similar stat databases and collection.
So let’s talk about this. Even though I know people will inevitably start crying “cheater” “I hope you get banned” and all of the normal obscenities, we do need to have a civil discussion about this. This has the potential to snowball into a very pressing matter.
Continuing the discussion from Unauthorized Third-party Software:
The names of the applications are not re-iterated in the forum blue post. So far, the only mention of unauthorized third party program names comes from the warning emails sent out en masse.
We’re talking about Pursuit and Visor. But more so than that, we’re talking about third party programs as a whole. Because it’s not just Pursuit and Visor that violate the rules they lay out.
Due to this wording, I’m going to be evaluating both Visor and Pursuit, but also additional programs that technically count as “unauthorized third party software”.
This is the criteria that Blizzard has given. Let’s go through these one-by-one.
- Enemy position is not revealed by using Visor or Pursuit.
- Enemy health is not revealed by using Visor or Pursuit.
- Pursuit does not have ultimate readiness tracking.
- Visor has two ultimate readiness strikes against it that people cite as “cheating”… however most people operate on inaccurate, preconceived notions of how the software works to form their opinion.
- On both accounts, Visor shares more in common with an egg timer than it does automated tracking.
- Visor has two ultimate readiness strikes against it that people cite as “cheating”… however most people operate on inaccurate, preconceived notions of how the software works to form their opinion.
- "Enemy ___ ultimate in 10 seconds" / "Enemy ___ might have their ultimate"
According to official Discord of Visor, a dev explained that their ultimate notifications operate very differently than what people believe;
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Passive ultimate generation timers are public knowledge – this is the amount of time it takes for you to go from 0% to 100% without dealing any damage or healing.
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Visor starts 28 egg timers (one per hero) based on those passive ult generation timers, and using image recognition by process of elimination dismisses all of the irrelevant timers until only 6 (based on the enemy team comp) remain
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Because Visor is just a streaming app hooked up to an image recognition system, it’s restricted to only your viewpoint. It can’t know how much ultimate charge is earned from just killfeed presence alone – your screen does not have access to damages and healing except your own. Any timer changes are inaccurate because of this.
- It’s unknown if Visor devs also use their own aggregate stats to subtract time away from the egg timer to accelerate and increase reliability. If they’ve determined within their own statistic database that Platinum Genjis get their ultimate an average of 80 seconds earlier than the passive timer, they can subtract those 80 seconds but it’s still only an approximation. It doesn’t accurately represent their ultimate status.
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The base functionality of ultimate tracking can literally be done by anyone who has access to Google and an egg timer (or a phone).
- "Enemy ___ used their ult X seconds ago"
Knowing when someone just spent their ultimate is valuable information, but is also something that’s communicated by default at every skill level.
As a skill that players pick up, the game itself often actually prevents people from using that skill. Heroes can die before their ultimate voice line is broadcasted (especially with event skin ultimate callouts), other loud sound effects can interrupt the stream of audio causing some ultimate callouts to be completely silent, and whether or not a hero used an ultimate can be completely masked by a killcam playing.
So yes, Visor does know this specific event of Ultimate un-readiness, but that comes from as a symptom of the game mismanaging ultimate cues, rather than a way to get the upper hand on an enemy.
As it stands, Visor can remove this, but Blizzard can also (and needs to) improve this.
Small note, MLG popularized the practice of printing game timers to tape to the side of screens. Keeping track of timers is not, by itself, cheating.
- Pursuit definitely is not a cheat, bot, or hack.
- Visor, with notifications off, is also not a cheat, bot, or hack.
- Visor, with notifications on, is not a bot or hack.
- Whether it is a cheat depends on whether you view live coaching cheating, to which Visor ends up being an equalizer to the expensive coaching sessions that some players cannot afford.
In fact, that last point is actually in direct contention with Blizzard’s main intention;
Not everyone is equally equipped to compete against one another.
PC gaming has always had a weird competition that constantly topples that “level playing field”.
- input lag (monitor, mouse, keyboard)
- framerates (graphics cards, CPUs)
- refresh rates (monitors)
- networking gear (wired/wireless router connections, networking switches)
- networking protocols (port forwarding)
In other eSports circles, there are constant discussions about whether or not certain hardware/software should be allowed. CS:GO is currently in the middle of evaluating an pressure-sensitive keyswitches on a keyboard that could theoretically give a player an unfair advantage by allowing them analog inputs and the ability to move at speeds normally inaccessible from a regular keyboard input.
So, let’s compare Visor to other third-party programs.
Twitch Streams
Twitch streams actually violate a lot more of these rules than Pursuit and Visor.
- Chat can be utilized to get live notifications where viewers can stream snipe for the streamer
- Streams can be weaponized and used to gain an advantage against players in the form of stream sniping
Using Twitch;
- enemy positions are revealed (on a 1-10 second delay)
- enemy health is revealed (on a 1-10 second delay)
- enemy Ultimate readiness is known and trackable (on a 1-10 second delay)
In this situation Twitch itself, which is a third party program, can be used to cheat to greater, more precise degrees than Visor ever could… yet no one would ever consider using Twitch alongside playing Overwatch to be a bannable offense.
Voice Chat
These past two seasons, I’ve had the displeasure of encountering players that were on my friends list on the opposing team. It was certainly within our ability to jump onto Discord. Discord channels can facilitate the same kind of cheating that stream sniping would, with even greater confidence in information. The same goes for Teamspeak, Mumble, Curse voice, and even phone calls.
The point is, Discord can facilitate cheating, with more accuracy than Visor can, but no one would think that using Discord would be a bannable offense.
There’s a bug in Overwatch that sorts you into the enemy’s voice chat channel… where you can do the exact same thing and facilitate cheating through a service provided by Overwatch itself.
Notifications are completely optional in Visor, and typically play second fiddle to Visor’s stat tracking. Pursuit is just pure stat tracking.
Do they deserve to automatically be bannable offenses.
Mouse & Keyboard software
Razer Synapse, Logitech Options, Logitech Gaming Software, and Corsair iCUE are all third party programs that can give players the ability to do things that are normally impossible and thus create an unfair advantage situation.
Razer Synapse itself is technically on the approve software list, as Razer is one of Blizzard’s partners to create first-party accessories. It is the only brand to have approved software… all other mouse and keyboard softwares technically aren’t approved.
Regardless of approved or not, you can automate the entirety of the game using these software macros made possible by these software packages.
Streaming software
OBS is open source software of which Visor (and presumably Pursuit) are forks of. This means that they use the underlying technology of OBS in order to facilitate their stat collection.
They don’t tap into Blizzard’s servers, they don’t steal data by peering into the game as it runs.
They stream gameplay to a web server that is configured for image-learning and send out the same exact sort of notifications as Twitch users get when they receive a subscription/donation… just with different words. The technology is the same, but the triggers are different.
Which begs a question… if Visor isn’t allowed, but Visor is technically OBS, is OBS still allowed?
If you can get the same services through file upload, does it really matter?
Food for Thought
If you’re the one being stream sniped, you’re technically the one supplying the enemy with information. It’s through your stream that they know the your position, health, and Ultimate status.
Whether voluntary or not, you’re contributing to their stream sniping. Are you at fault for supplying them information?
Stat Tracking
At this point it’s not really understood why Visor’s stat tracking features (and all of Pursuit) is suddenly in the crosshairs of this targeted software ban. Especially since OWL orgs are using the service and promoting it…
As someone who came from Halo 3’s comprehensive statistic tracking back in 2007, I assure you that Overwatch’s stat tracking is abysmal and very indigestible. If the game cannot provide good enough statistics, why are these services being disallowed?
Coaching, and Integrity
Coaching is not software, but it is the exact service that Visor’s notifications are trying to emulate. There are people that pay for coaching, live coaching, where an experienced player can give both words of encouragement and insight, and live commentate things that a player should watch for.
A coach can tell a player with reasonable suspicion that an enemy has ultimate, that enemies are getting hard countered, that your healers are dying and need peel. And it’s completely untraceable.
If live coaching is permissible and people can make quite a pretty penny from it, that to me seems more unfair and violating a competitive spirit than a free service than everyone is able to use.
So much of this comes down to competitive spirit and integrity, but both of those are heavily influenced on personal taste.
We’re sidestepping the actual discussion. Think about the slippery slope that this introduces, which may push your favorite mouse software or voice channel into danger.
Think about what is being lost by disallowing these programs.
- Visor and Pursuit offer comprehensive and digestible stat tracking that outclasses Blizzard’s first party stats.
Overwatch’s stat tracking is quite literally a decade behind established FPS titles. There is a big demand for stat tracking. We should neither disallow a stat tracker just because it’s third party software, nor accept the fact that Blizzard is discontinuing it without offering equivalent tools.
- Visor offers coaching at (currently) no cost, offsetting the benefits of being wealthy and being able to buy a wealth of information and insight.
There will always be an unlevel playing field that will always be supplemented by a monetary gap – having a higher internet tier and service, paying for a coach, having better hardware, having different play conditions (OWL LAN servers).
Dismissing this software despite it equalizing some of the above, purchased advantages, does the exact opposite of keeping a level playing field.
- Live image recognition tracking is valuable and necessary.
These tools are going to be necessary in the future. This is how eSports will produce comprehensive stat tracking equivalent to that of broadcast sports programming.
This echoes my thoughts exactly.
This was my two cents. What are yours?
Keep it civil.