'I love the game, but the other players ruin it for me'

[WindKnight]

So, the new PvE Event in Overwatch gave me a major headache with the 'all heroes' mode, and the 'the replacements' Achievement. In short, you have to complete it with 8 different heroes... Which was all fine and dandy, except there's only four healer heroes... and if I didn't pick a healer, no-one else would, which basically meant I got a lot of failed runs because we had no healer.

I just can't help feeling this sums up my experience with online games - Pretty much everyone I've played, I've enjoyed the underlying mechanics, but having to deal with crappy, selfish and nasty players has sucked a lot of the fun out of it for me.

 

[CaitSeith]

That's one reason why I'm not a fan of multiplayer-only games. Other players is to the MO game experience like sex life in a marriage: when it's good, it feels like it helps to ease about 10% of the problems; and when it's bad, it worsens about 90% of them.

 

[Secondhand Revenant]

So, the new PvE Event in Overwatch gave me a major headache with the 'all heroes' mode, and the 'the replacements' Achievement. In short, you have to complete it with 8 different heroes... Which was all fine and dandy, except there's only four healer heroes... and if I didn't pick a healer, no-one else would, which basically meant I got a lot of failed runs because we had no healer.

I just can't help feeling this sums up my experience with online games - Pretty much everyone I've played, I've enjoyed the underlying mechanics, but having to deal with crappy, selfish and nasty players has sucked a lot of the fun out of it for me.

Helps if you've got enough friends to play with. Without that then yeah I can easily see people quickly making selfish choices

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

But is the achievement necessary for your enjoyment of the game? If so, is there a way of communicating a deal with another player for it? Or are they consistently against playing healers? I know nothing about the game or its' community, so is just an idiot's curious view here.

 

[WindKnight]

But is the achievement necessary for your enjoyment of the game? If so, is there a way of communicating a deal with another player for it? Or are they consistently against playing healers? I know nothing about the game or its' community, so is just an idiot's curious view here.

In short, it should be a fairly easy achievement to pop, as playing the event on the easiest setting should be a cakewalk... IF you have a balanced team with a healer, tank, and a couple of damage dealers. I actively chose to be healer on the runs I picked a healer (as in I was the first to pick, and I picked a healer) but every other time the healer was either the last to pick, or else the last to pick sat there waiting for someone else to change, quit, or picked a damage dealer anyway. (In one case, the last pick went damage dealer, and moaned at us for not picking healer)

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

To me this is basically every game. Haven't found one I thought was improved with other players. If I could play an MMORPG on a completely dead server, that'd be awesome!
Other players always ruin games.

 

[Secondhand Revenant]

To me this is basically every game. Haven't found one I thought was improved with other players. If I could play an MMORPG on a completely dead server, that'd be awesome!
Other players always ruin games.

The problem for MMORPGs then is content meant for parties. Can actually do a pretty decent job of ignoring everyone in an MMORPG until endgame content sometimes

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

In short, it should be a fairly easy achievement to pop, as playing the event on the easiest setting should be a cakewalk... IF you have a balanced team with a healer, tank, and a couple of damage dealers. I actively chose to be healer on the runs I picked a healer (as in I was the first to pick, and I picked a healer) but every other time the healer was either the last to pick, or else the last to pick sat there waiting for someone else to change, quit, or picked a damage dealer anyway. (In one case, the last pick went damage dealer, and moaned at us for not picking healer)

It may be worth relying on the laws of probability there, as in keep sticking to your choices, dig your heels while remaining as calm and as patient as one could be. Eventually some player will drop in who isn't so averse to flexibility in their style. Do not give in to the pressure! It is only for a temporary period after all.
Does it require victory or just participation? I would've thought the latter should be slightly less of a problem enticing others to cooperate, though could be quite wrong in this regard.

 

[Mcgeezaks]

Sums up my experience with every competitive MP game I've played.

 

[Zhukov]

While I'm all for branding a ton of online gamers as childish, mean-spirited dumbfucks, this sounds like a game design problem.

If a game has a vital role that hardly anybody wants to play then the developer has done something wrong.

 

[Dalisclock]

Pretty much why I've never bothered with MP-only games. I've tried, plus a few MMO's. None have done it for me. Also one of the things I despised about DS2 was the "Always on" invasion mechanic, which didn't help that the first time I got invaded was by a guy who was clearly cheating, which killed my patience for he PVP thing immediately.

 

[WindKnight]

While I'm all for branding a ton of online gamers as childish, mean-spirited dumbfucks, this sounds like a game design problem.

If a game has a vital role that hardly anybody wants to play then the developer has done something wrong.

The problem with that is I've never really found healing in Overwatch all that onerous, whether in the new event or in general play (beyond getting That Team who make it suicidal to heal them and whine their not getting healed when you're dead because of them).

Though maybe I'm weird for being ok with not killing everything all the time.

 

[DeliveryGodNoah_v1legacy]

There's several problems I have with the new PVE event.

Firstly, there's nothing to track who you have and haven't played. Yes, this is a very petty complaint, since you only need to remember 8 characters, but myself and the friends I played with forgot a few times who we did and didn't play, mostly because there were a couple times we failed.

Second, there's no timer for choosing a character to play as. If you "take too long" the game will just kick you for being "AFK".

And finally, yes, it's hard to convince someone to play as a healer because most of your efforts don't really get in-game recognition and they are less fun to play since all you're doing is jumping from person to person and then ending up with a 50/50 chance of your team blaming you for the failure. So business as usual for healers there I guess.

 

[Neverhoodian]

I agree. The main reason why I'm a Support main in the first place is because nobody else will play them most of the time. It's frustrating, especially if you want to play as something else. Sometimes you can get someone else to switch by adopting an "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" mindset and play selfishly as well, but I tend to feel like an asshole when I do.

That said, this event isn't super hard to finish on the easiest difficulty, even without a healer (unless everyone goes pure DPS/sniper). You could play selfishly for a few rounds on Normal and pick heroes with self-heal abilities, like Roadhog, Bastion or Soldier 76 (not Mei though, her attacks are bugged right now and don't slow enemies like they should). The stakes won't be particularly high that way, and you should be able to do it within an hour or two.

While I'm all for branding a ton of online gamers as childish, mean-spirited dumbfucks, this sounds like a game design problem.

If a game has a vital role that hardly anybody wants to play then the developer has done something wrong.

I don't know, Blizzard's provided a wide selection of healers for a variety of play styles. You've got a dedicated healer with super-fast heals and laughable damage output (Mercy), an AoE healer with high mobility and the freedom to focus on shooting things (Lucio), a healer/DPS combo (Zenyatta) and even a freaking sniper (Ana). That's not counting other heroes that can heal/buff others in a pinch as well, like Soldier 76's biotic field, Torbjorn's armor packs or Symmetra's shield generator. Yet the healers are almost always picked last (if at all), and the heroes that can off-heal are almost never utilized in such a way (at least when you're playing with randoms).

I think it's deeper than game design, it's actively trying to fight human nature. The only team-based class game that I've seen healers get picked first is Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, and that's only because the Medic was so overpowered that it was objectively better in a firefight than the combat-oriented classes. You'd have five Medics running around gunning everybody down on the front lines, yet they wouldn't take half a second to turn around and toss a health pack to their teammates.

The sad truth is that most people want to hurt things rather than than heal...at least in video games. I don't think you can ever change that.

 

[Kajin]

I'm glad I enjoy, and am good at, playing healer type characters. When I played FF14 people treated me like I was a god.

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

But is the achievement necessary for your enjoyment of the game? If so, is there a way of communicating a deal with another player for it? Or are they consistently against playing healers? I know nothing about the game or its' community, so is just an idiot's curious view here.

I know this question was already answered, but there are a lot of people out in the gaming community that are collectors: Who love to have those rare acknowledgements and those rare skins. That's what makes multiplayer achievements so sucky for some. What if you got into a game when the multiplayer aspect died? I shudder to think about things like Mass Effect 3 who's actual ENDING can be affected by multiplayer.

While I'm all for branding a ton of online gamers as childish, mean-spirited dumbfucks, this sounds like a game design problem.

If a game has a vital role that hardly anybody wants to play then the developer has done something wrong.

I don't blame the developer. The roles are clearly defined. It's like those matches you get where two people want to run Hanzo and there's a Widowmaker when you're supposed to be attacking and no one wants to run tank.

A lot of gamers don't define winning by completing the objective, but k/d ratios. I remember always having to mute when I played Halo 3 because there was always someone complaining that they got the sucky team because they had so many no-scopes that we should have won the game... when it wasn't a deathmatch at all, and them staying in one place actually meant we had one less person helping to push the objective.

 

[Zhukov]

The problem with that is I've never really found healing in Overwatch all that onerous, whether in the new event or in general play (beyond getting That Team who make it suicidal to heal them and whine their not getting healed when you're dead because of them).

Though maybe I'm weird for being ok with not killing everything all the time.

Oh sure, I'm aware that there are people out there who like playing healer. Such people should be cherished and showered with bubble shields and upvotes.

But it's still consistently the hardest role to fill.

I can see why too, I'm not a huge fan of the role myself. Tends to feel like herding cats. Cats who constantly walk into traffic and fail to realize that they're only one of several who need to be attended to.

The sad truth is that most people want to hurt things rather than than heal...at least in video games. I don't think you can ever change that.

While that may be true, if a little mawkish, I don't think it's the core problem.

Developers keep trying to stick healer roles in combat-oriented games. If I'm playing an online shooter then there's a good chance that I'm there because I wanna, y'know, shoot stuff. As opposed to playing Retard Roundup with a band of wannabe Rambos.

It's like if you made a XCOM-style turn-based strategy game then forced the player to solve a Sudoku puzzle at the start of every third mission. Chances are players wouldn't care for it because it's not what they're there for, except for the players who happen to enjoy Sudoku puzzles.

I don't blame the developer. The roles are clearly defined. It's like those matches you get where two people want to run Hanzo and there's a Widowmaker when you're supposed to be attacking and no one wants to run tank.

Umm... okay.

I'm not saying the roles are poorly defined. I'm saying that a vital role is demonstrably unappealing to what seems to be a majority of the audience.

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

I don't blame the developer. The roles are clearly defined. It's like those matches you get where two people want to run Hanzo and there's a Widowmaker when you're supposed to be attacking and no one wants to run tank.

Umm... okay.

I'm not saying the roles are poorly defined. I'm saying that a vital role is demonstrably unappealing to what seems to be a majority of the audience.

Excuse me on two parts. A.) I felt like being silly and B.) I didn't explain myself clearly. I thought my Halo bit would have given more insight on where I was going with this.

I know you know the roles are well defined. I've seen you play. What I meant to say that I feel people are more likely to just feel like killing than really helping the team. They want to get their sick sniper shots and let others do the victory for them, like my two Hanzos and a Widowmaker reference.

There's never been a second that Healers haven't been known to be important. I just think the majority of casual players don't care and just want a win while increasing their K/D, which is the only thing important to them.

Sidebar, I've fallen on the wayside due to other games and a whole bunch of life getting in the way, but if anyone in this thread wants a out of practice Lucio/Zen/Mercy/D.Va main, I'll be happy to knock off the dust and do my part.

 

[Elijin]

But....what?

If you want the achievement play on normal. Im not even sure its possible to lose. I picked up the achievement playing alone with zero communication with the randoms in matchmaking. Someone picked a healer maybe 3/8 games.

 

[Bilious Green_v1legacy]

You have to find some good people to play with, otherwise your experience is at the mercy of whichever random douchenozzles the matchmaking system pairs you up with. If I didn't have friends to play online with, I would stick to single player games. The average online gamer is either a sociopath, or an immature brat (or both).