overwatch lost its mainstream popularity the moment blizzard refused to properly nuke tracer, winston and dva and instead released the massive tumor that brig 1.0 was
sure, they fixed it, but the damage is already done
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I think, for me personally, after Retribution is when the game fell off for me. Less shorts, less lore, poor reworks, less frequent dev updates and communication…ofc, the golden age is different for everyone. But after Retribution is when I think it did.
The game has been on a steady recovery, though echo plus all these interview’s have really killed that momentum.
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I think ashe is fine
but aside from her and ana, all the other new heroes were cancer in one way or another
When all the streamers stopped streaming. When we lost people like muselk, dpstanky, and all the number one hero streamers stopped mattering.
Role queue.
The moment you remove the soul of the game (that being hero swapping and comp diversity) is the moment it became stale.
Role tribalism escalated as well.
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I’d say before Moira 
Or during the Moira ban
When they refused to nerf dive as a whole and introduced brig instead.
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Season 10, when they released Brig, and most of the balance choices were about slowing down the game.
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Sigma. His release ruined the game for hitscan players so everyone started playing greasy annoying heroes
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Balance is “if you don’t have Reinhardt you lose.” That’s terrible balance.
Kinda terrible in the weeks that they ban the only worthwhile tanks and supports.
Get super stale and it’s only a matter of time until you’re playing Paris every other game.
With no release date, no info on what’s happening, and the devs admitting they won’t give any progress updates until at least blizzcon. That’s a really stale, terrible place to be in, especially when the playerbase knows that content is being held off for a game we don’t even know will be worth the wait.
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Personally, I saw the downfall happen after the Mercy rework. Maybe towards the end of OWL’s first season too.
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I only recently started enjoying the game less. I’ve never been a hardcore player, I play in the lower ranks and only a couple days a week. But in my opinion, the game has become too homogenized and stale.
I have always felt like OWL was ultimately responsible for this.
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I have difficulties remembering for I had such long hiatuses from the game (due to being so frustrated with it) but I think this is the time for me as well. Aside from all random reworks, nerfs and buffs, it did not help that they really came to a sudden stop with any good lore etc.
I do recall that the time period before the introduction of roleQ was the all time low for me (I did not even bother to do any Summer Games stuff besides one weekly challenge and that was only because I had “BeerWatch” session with a friend). 2-2-2 actually brought me back and I really enjoyed the game… for a while. They then started slapping on new changes which just have steadily been making the game less enjoyable for me.
Echo I find like the final middle finger in the current times and after she’s actually released we’ll see whether I’ll find the game even worse than before roleQ. Fyi: NOT because she specifically is DPS (I personally did not even want her to be support, too cliche), but because of the hilariously bad timing and that instead of helping with any current issues she’s actually amplifying them, part of which is because of how her kit is designed. (I.e. Flying tank buster who even directly counters already underperforming tanks like Sigma while also giving underperforming DPS like Symmetra/Pharah a middle finger. Yay!)
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Actually, it’s pretty good balance. In fact, we’re in a better balance state then probably ever before. There will always be a “best” pick. Just a couple months ago it was Orisa/Sigma or lose. Now with hero pools the best heroes only last a week instead of entire seasons.
I guess it depends on what you consider worthwhile…I enjoy the entire roster so I never really feel like I’m not playing anyone worthwhile
Hasn’t happened yet! I prefer map pools, at least people are actually learning the maps now. I’ve definitely noticed better map usage since map pools.
That’s no issue for me. I’m in no rush & I look forward to what OW2 brings. OW will keep my attention until then, especially with the addition of Echo.
Is it really so terrible to have to wait for free content? 
Shoot…the OW team could’ve just released OW with the original 21 heroes (that number might be wrong) and left it alone. Instead, they’ve been giving us free content for 4 years & are going to drop us another 5+ heroes for free when OW2 comes out, as well as several new maps & a new game mode. I’m not sure how you can complain getting free stuff…
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When they changed the report/banning system to be completely automated so you can get people banned just by false reporting them.
Season 6, I have replies on Reddit for people saying that the game is dying. They were beginning to cycle events so the stream of new content had dried up. That’s when some of the biggest variety streamers dropped overwatch and they reworked mercy into the Moth. It definitely forced a lot of players out and created huge resentment for a long time. The nail in the coffin was definitely brig tho. They should’ve just bitten the bullet and nerfed the overloaded tracer. A little before brig people were beginning to play slambulance. Moira Lucio hog rein zarya dva, even on maps like Gibraltar it was dominating gm… they didn’t need to unleash brig but they did. Tracer definitely needed nerfs tho, she was the real tumour.
I think overwatch has matured into a stable and healthy place now. It’s more balanced than it’s ever been. I can’t wait for OW2 to revive the new feeling, bring in loads of new players and get the wow factor back. I want OW to be a meme for how popular it is again even for people who don’t game
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Hmm its weird. Most people will say when Brig was put in the game, and I tend to agree, but at the same time OW was stuck in the dive meta for a year and a half basically.
People were tired of dive, and if you think Blizz was failing to nerf GOATS, you should have seen how many nerfs Winston, Dva, Mercy, and Zen went through to get rid of dive. None of it worked. Then Brig came into the game and effectively threw each of the dive heroes in the trash can instantly.
It wasn’t in a great spot before Dive, so I’ll say when Moira was introduced to the game was the last “golden age” hero. But Brig’s launch was the most broken new hero at launch in OW history and probably will never be topped.
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Hmmm. I feel like the game never really had a “Golden Age”,there have ALWAYS been problems,but it’s just that some things didn’t feel as bad.
For me,the “downfall” of Overwatch happened when Brigitte was added. She was busted and she changed the game for the worse. But in the very same patch she was added in,Sombra also had her Hack gutted which then resulted in it becoming an incredibly buggy ability,which took months for Blizzard to fix. But even then,it can still act really weird as far as I know.
I feel like Brig should’ve remained as a lore-only character. But even then,she doesn’t really add much to the whole story. We found out she’s Reinhardt’s squire and Torbjörn’s daughter,but…that’s really it. Cool?
And then we got Hammond,Ashe and Sigma. Who don’t really add anything to the lore/story either. And as a mentally ill person,Sigma’s origin story was just…very uncomfortable to watch.
The first two are fine when it comes to gameplay,but then Sigma had Brigitte levels of impact on the game/meta. Which was not good.
Then there’s Baptiste. And I gotta say,he is a FANTASTIC addition to the roster and the lore,but the devs went OVERBOARD with his nerfs,which I’m still annoyed about.
Symmetra was reworked and I loved 3.0 for a long while but then Blizz overnerfed her and to this day,they refuse to listen to her mains on how the hero can be fixed WITHOUT another rework…
We’re getting Echo soon. But as of right now,she adds nothing to the lore either. And OW2 won’t be a thing for god knows how long. And of course,she’s a DPS even though DPS queue times are already awful and we need more tank and support heroes.
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When Blizzard had to start trying to balance 30 characters with over a hundred abilities.
Everyone started bumping heads, hating every opinion, crying about every single change.
Wouldn’t have matter what Blizzard did. OW was gonna end up with the hate it gets no matter what.