What can they actually do to change up the game?

General Discussion
1

So the first season of 2025 is coming in a little more than a month, and with it comes the possibility of it bringing the yearly shakeup to the game as they’ve said with the release of S9. I’m excited for it, because I’ve started to see why people think this game is getting dry, and I think the main point I agree with is that 3 heroes a year isn’t really enough for a lot of players.

I used to think it sounded crazy, but then Hazard released. I’ve been having a LOT of fun playing Hazard. And it made me realize that the only other OW2 hero I look forward to playing is Sojourn. That’s 2 out of the 10 heroes that have been released since Oct 4, 2022. Sure, I might just have really specific tastes, but I think most players do considering Aaron has said in the past that a majority of the people that play this game have most of their playtime on two or less heroes.

So I’m not really surprised anymore when I hear people say that 3 heroes a year isn’t enough, because I think what they really mean is that they basically don’t change the game for them a majority of the time. In 2024 for example, we got 1 new hero for each role. This sounds good, right? Each role has a new toy to play with, players from all 3 roles are happy. But a lot of the time, these heroes are competing with with heroes people are already attached to, and the playstyles may not mesh. For instance, is someone who mains Ashe/Widow gonna be keen on picking up Venture? Maybe, but I think it’s way less likely than someone who mains projectile, so the Ashe/Widow player basically got nothing new to play with this year. Same thing with the other roles: I don’t think every support player likes Juno, and I don’t think every tank player likes Hazard. And when you think about how most players only play one or two heroes, I think it’s more common that not that new hero releases aren’t as exciting as they should be, especially if they become a victim or perpetrator of counterwatch.

And the team has said this as well that adding new heroes/maps/modes doesn’t really change much and that they want to do more. Season 9 was probably their first attempt at that, since I don’t think it was a ‘the game desperately needs this or else it will die’ type of patch but more of a ‘lets try something new’ type of thing. But IMO, Season 9 didn’t change much in the grand scheme of things. It had a discovery period of like two weeks, but the game settled and we went back to the familiar old cycle of Overwatch.

And the cycle goes kind of like this: New patch comes out, people figure out the meta in ranked in like 3 days, and nothing really changes in QP because people just play whatever. Sure, there have times where it’s different in ranked like people sleeping on Juno for weeks and then realizing she’s really good, but people usually solve the game fast.

So then, where do we go from here? I’ve heard some people say talents because Junkenstein’s Lab was a success (I’d be down for it ngl), and other people are obviously gonna say 6v6, but how else can the game change?

3 Likes
2

I’m not sure tbh. All i can think of is either 6v6 or some form of hero bans but these would likely take some time for them to do and I don’t think it would be ready for next season. Maybe they have some REALLY big balance patch planned? Or a hero rework?

That would certainly shake things up. I’d like to try it but that would be a massive change to the game and I have no idea the ramification if would cause down the road :woozy_face:

2 Likes
3

I think it needs a brand new mode unlike any other mode it has. My suggestion is a single player (or teams of 3) PVE roguelike mode like The Binding of Isaac where you go from room to room (“room” in this case just means an area where things are generated in, we can have outdoor stage) and fight enemies while collecting items to make your character stronger.

You’d fight a boss at the end of each stage, until you reach the final boss and win.

6v6 came in clutch because it’s different enough to feel unique when compared to 5v5. I play both and each time it feels like I’m getting a fresh OW experience.

6 Likes
4

What about talents/perks/skill trees? I know I’m not the first to mention these, but something to make heroes distinct from each other, even if they’re the same hero.

And, I don’t like the idea of hero bans.

2 Likes
5

Realese ow3 and make it exact the same like ow1 was before ow2 came

1 Like
6

After so much PvP, it’d be nice to have a campaign or other mode that continued exploring the lore and world of OW.

1 Like
7

Theres been some experimentation recently with this with Junkenstein’s Lab and Kingmaker.

I think its safe to say there will be more of this type of gameplay in the near future.

1 Like
8

Honestly the overall gameplay is in a good spot. With a few exceptions most characters are fairly balanced and for a live service game, there are remarkably few bugs and the game runs smooth even on lower end platforms. The biggest problem is lack of rewards. All gamers, both casual and competitive, like having something to grind for. The battlepass is fine and definitely a good value compared to the rest of the shop, but just playing 3-4 times a week is enough to finish it by mid season and the competetive guns lost their appeal years ago. Yes they replaced gold with emerald last year and are doing a new color this year, but its a fairly boring reward. They need to branch out to more unique rewards, maybe season specific skins you can earn by winning games, or emotes showing win streaks, etc… but needs to be more for people to be able to grind for both in comp and QP.

2 Likes
9

There’s so much outside of gameplay that could freshen things up.

Revamp the battlepass, update the progress system, give better more engaging rewards, overhaul the shop, update the menus, bring back some ow1 QoL features (medals, post match voting, borders), introduce map voting and so on and so on.

I think a big update with lots of the above alone would re-engage many and potentially hook them back in. I don’t think many are particularly enthralled with the current out-of-game experience in its current state. Nothing to lose surely?

Oh and wishful thinking but ow1 quality animated shorts. Give the heroes and the world more life even if you’ve definitely closed the door on PvE.

10

Short answer is nothing.

They are so creatively bankrupt it’s astounding. The game really did need a new game mode outside of PVP gameplay(such as a PVE mode). Oh well, y’all were fine to let OW die though.

11

making the game worst whith changes nobody asked and only proved once more 5vs5 sucks is the best they can do?

they can ruin the balance as much as they want, this will not make people come back to play, what we want is actual content, pve, story, events, free stuff, and even then is too late

12

this happens when you game is outdated and the new engine thing is a lie

oh buddy, this game have more serious problems than lack of rewards

cof cof talent trees cof

lol you work for blizzard pr? battle pass is a constant complain, lack of good rewards, not enough coins, and not so long ago pay to win, the good skins are on the shop, even mythic skins are trash, they only putt effort on the collab skins

what a surprise you dont praise the green weapons

13

I’d personally like to see 6v6 become permanent, get a guild system in place to level up and unlock new rewards with, and an idea I’ve had for a while now would be to give tanks different ability loadouts (DPS Doom moveset and Tank form Doom moveset). You could probably do the same with Roadhog with Pig Pen, too.

14

revert back to ow1 and forget ow2 ever happened

1 Like
15

“What can they actually do to change up the game?”

I wish they would just turn the game into a giant arcade, and bring back all the removed content, so I could pick what I wanted to play when I wanted to play it, as long as I wanted to play it.

Just me here, but I’m soooo tired of seeing the same maps/modes I just played a round or two ago, over and over and over and over again. Heck, I’ll backfill into the map I just finished, and then get it again a round or two later…I just log off at that point.

I know the other maps and modes are there, but for the life of me, the system just insists I want to play the same 3-5 maps again and again and again.

16

Balance.

They need to put out hard hitting balance, and buffs for other lower performing hero. Even a PTR mode would be appreciated where they just test hero changes.

17

For starters:

Get an actual functioning anticheat, at the very minimum do weekly ban waves. No warnings perma bans on hwid and IPs.

Scrap current MM entirely and create a new one from scratch that prioritizes making matches as fair and balanced as possible instead of player engagement and retention at all costs. Make it performance based instead of win/loss bs.

Make all previous battlepasses avaible.

Give players more agency to choose the maps/gamemodes they want to play.

18

Lol interesting theory. Its kinda funny that weve reached the point where saying anything positive about blizzard makes the trolls come running. Since you took the time to break down every sentence i wrote without actually contributing to the OP question for this thread, i guess you just wanted to complain, but there is nothing wrong with giving credit where its due. It was definitely a bad idea to have heroes locked behind BP in earlier seasons, but other than thats theyve done a good job with it. 5-6 skins including a mythic plus dozens of other emotes/cosmetics for barely 1/2 the price of a new shop skin? Yet people still want to whine about not enough coins… just sad.

19

This is the normal typical things they do and likely continue to do.
Routinely:

  • Add new heroes
  • Add new maps
  • Cosmetics & Collaborations
  • General Balance
  • Seasonal Events

These are things they’re trying or could do to spice things up.
Ongoing Experimental:

  • 6v6 modes
  • Ban systems for competitive
  • Extreme balance changes (like S9)
  • Hero & Map, Mode Reworks
  • Shop changes

Unlikely things they could do that would raise eyebrows.
Crazy things:

  • PVE stuff
  • New game modes
  • Larger scale PVP
  • Integrated gameplay systems like Junkenstein’s Laboratory
  • System changes to game (like how things actually function)
  • A new game (overhaul look or literal)

And an option for players is try to accept that this is the game and they should either try to enjoy it, or grit their teeth as they play, give feedback on/for changes, or move on to something else.

20

This. People talk about balance changes and hero bans etc. but overall the story is what matters most. The characters pulled everyone into this game first before anything else

1 Like