Short post, but something I’ve pondered over for a while.
I just can’t truly get invested in OW2, like I could in OW1. The “loss of its soul” that some refer to, the softening of the edges, the diverge from teamplay towards solo carry (and throw) potential.
We can discuss format changes and hero additions and gamemode bloat all we want. At the end of the day, if I boil the OW2 experience down to its most fundamental sensation, it is this:
The games I win more often than not feel insignificant and unsatisfying.
The games I lose more often than not feel cheesy and like chaotic death match.
How do you feel about your overall experience with OW2?
I prefer regular balance updates and a little bit of new content (heroes are content) semi-regularly over going two years without any relevant updates. 6v6 vs 5v5 doesn’t matter in the face of that reality.
removal of after game cards, the UI looks like some corporate project compared to the very artistic style of OW1, removal of the identity of many characters by changing their kit, less intense gameplay moments due to 5v5, less big teamwork plays, a worse engine, new sound effects designed to sound more like COD
it’s just a complete downgrade across the board.
we had a fully functional and good game in OW1 and the devs threw it away to use us as guinea pigs while they unsuccessfully tried to get valorant and apex players to come here
The best part… was how it brought everyone together… if someone performed an amazing play of the game everyone would vote the card up and a legendary animation and ding would appear… signifying that everyone in the match acknowledged… that player… it didnt happen often but when it did he made your day.
Indeed, I swear overwatch 2 has leaned into the idea of personal progress over communal progress which works in games like COD/counterstrike due to soloing nature of the game…
But overwatch was suppose to always be community first, and personal glory is the cherry on top, if you have the skills. AKA the rienhardt cinematic explaining what it means to be a tank…heck even soldiers cinematic he is wrecking people trying to protect someone … as if dps are suppose to protect the supports.
If you try to appease people who dont want to be apart of a team… you are fighting a war you can never win… for they will flock to games that align with their interests…
I haven’t really played much since Overwatch 1, tried getting back now. Overwatch 2, the community feels a lot more aggressive, overly competitive, and for lack of better words… they hate fun?
The game appeals to a more singleplayer crowd who’s only there for their own benefit.
They think they’re gonna be the diff between the win/loss, and as a result, condescend to everyone else on the team.
I’m going to be brutally honest and I hope it does not offend… Its easier to farm young adults who falsely equate skill level in a game to personal standing in society.
Many people are so emotional due to a sense of self being connected to characters/how well they play and the insidious thing about competitive online games is that it primes those who are not the most socially cognizant to buy more due to them having higher levels of malignant social interactions.
AKA friend has a skin and he is a good player… if i buy this skin im a good player… or Yay I just started playing kiriko and I rock with her… im getting gold gun and buying all her skins cause she is my main now… 2 months later gets nerfed.
Sadly ow2 really pushed the skinnerbox mentality of game design which is why I have not spent money personally on myself since ow.
Overwatch 2 is missing a lot of the heart that the original game had. The push to move away from teamwork definitely hurt. And I can speak from personal observation here. My friends list had 400+ Overwatch players in 2018. Now it’s down to a half dozen, many of whom don’t play regularly anymore.
I think the move to an overly expensive monetization system really hurt too. I don’t think any of the long term players had an issue with jettisoning lootboxes for a battle pass and cash shop. But the prices are just ridiculous for this, or any, economy.
Very much agree. Taste and opinions is one thing, but content drought and lack of meaningful balance change can undermine any game if left to its own demise for long enough.
Actually yes I should have mentioned this aspect too. I’ve never ONCE wanted to look at those load screens. I just want to skip them permanently. Not only did they remove a genuinely great end-of-game feature with the cards, but then they went and added this load of bloat that no one ever asked for.
Agreed. The entire sense of community has seemingly been abandoned for no reason, and this push for COD-esque solo death match environment has, to no one’s surprise, created an equal COD-esque environment where players don’t want to interact, and mostly speak to flame or be casually toxic cus that’s all the system really nurtures.
Might be a hot take, but while in a literal way the Ping system is great for gameplay, I think it’s equally detrimental to community sentiment because it has made it so convenient to mark enemies that no one ever feels the need to talk anymore.
This is a bit deeper on the psychological nudging aspect (which I happen to partly work with professionally), and it may very well cause a ripple effect where genuinely positive comms fall out of favor, thus there’s nothing to balance the negative comms / chat talk. So while you also had negativity in OW1, at least players were still incentivized to sometimes add constructive comms and form mid-match cooperation that way, which contributed to those higher highs. It helped build the sense of actual people on your team, rather than just random assigned bots with no personality and no interactivity.
at the end of the day the difference comes down to a format change and a continuation of content.
I wouldn’t really agree with this, even as tank your primary goal is to get to get to the fight and kill things. If your can do the first thing, it’s not hard to do the next thing on any role.
Like your positioning, skill, match up understanding is actually important. But at the same time. But at the same time I can turn my brain off and still go 50/50 in qp.
Meh thats not specific to 5v5, that just how OW broke down as people kind of just didn’t want to engage with rando’s. And mostly have their friend group outside of the game in a discord or something.
their mostly engaging with fan feed back, you all wanted to be heard and for them to update the game more frequently. This is the result.
Two things here, game is made with and balanced around counters in mind. Every hero is OP, just some have better or worst interactions with each other to keep everyone in line. 6v6 kind of had the issue where those stopped working because you could RPG build out these weaknesses entirely, and made teams that were just better everything else.
secondly, you can play around coutners in a few different ways. Usually by forcing out key cooldowns and cycling around a bit of terrian and or saving a cooldown for that interactions specifically depending on the given hero. While at the same you can always just engage a different hero and win by having the numbers advantage. Outside of that team building is still a thing, just not as strong but good enough to get you over whatever 1v1 interaction your having issues with.
Uhm people are still making those, this isn’t really a blizz thing because it’s something you have to go out of you way to fine.
Like their is a whole host of things out their for you to try, including but not limited to custom PVP styled mission, 6v6 servers, and character specific chalanges for basically every hero.
I mean loot boxes were expensive to buy, and didn’t actually mean you would get what you want.
The difference being you will have to grind out bing if you want free stuff.
That’s not new, seasonal events that had a limited uptime and lock content out for a year already did that.
Pfft, ahaha like we all have preference but like they inverted the colors and made that chunk of the screen a little easier to see around.
i’m up for a toggle for either or, but like your acting like they stole your soul or something.
Higher pressure isn’t a matter of agreeing or disagreeing, it’s a fact. When the base game is designed for 6v6, and you take 1 player away from each team, while not modifying the terrain on which the games are played, and not massively overhauling each hero to suit the new game format, the pressure is going to be heightened.
Didn’t claim that it was due to 5v5.
I forgot buffing Mauga and tanks to miniboss level was fan feedback. (ps: if you’re going to lie, don’t be so blatant.)
And I didn’t claim that it was a blizz thing.
However, when you look at the workshop, it’s overwhelmingly the same gamemodes as during the end of ow1. Nothing has changed, nothing is new.
Lootboxes could be earned by grinding, as you stated.
While the battlepass system requires purchasing premium status to have access to everything.
Also, coins could be earned during 6v6 rq, so you could always grind towards a desirable skin. Today, you can no longer earn currency by simply playing a role you wanted.
Let’s not even begin to pretend that the fomo from events back in OW1 is somehow equal, or even more predatory than that of ow2.
They removed the artistic elements and did a classic “streamlining” where all the individuality and human expression from the previous UI was replaced by a stale, cold, and boring looking UI.
The UI communicated so much artistry from the devs. This one does not.
So yes, they did in fact steal someone’s soul. Not mine though…
there are three things that make this game incredibly fun for me
strangers in chat
friends in group
hampter
the randoms that say random crap in chat, even if its toxic, just reminds me that im playing with real people, not ai bots, and it helps the game to feel a lot more social. especially when people start doing voicelines or you can play with their emotions when you jumpscare them with a fat hamster
playing with friends objectively makes the game a lot better. now, sometimes your friends may not be very good at the game and thats whatever, but regardless its fun to just talk about random crap and also to play together as unit in ranked or quickplay. helps give you more things to focus on than winning, and definitely beats the eerily dead silence of most QP matches. it also means i have to worry far less about playing with people who have no clue how my hero works
i will die by the statement that hammond is the most unique form of hero design in any shooter game, and the developers absolutely peaked with his balancing and mechanics. love the little guy, he is my favorite hero to play, and his skill ceiling is so high that he has incredible potential with and against many, many comps
