Overwatch recently got pulled down off Beta for the next month or so in order for Blizzard to make some improvements to the game.
Now I expressed concerned on the Beta forums for Overwatch. I like Blizzard and I genuinely want Overwatch to be a good game. As it was prior to the 12/10/15 pull, it was not a good game. Let me explain. Overwatch has a lot of promise, and fantastic core gameplay mechanics, but it has a strong lack of any real....well anything.
Look at Battlefront, a game which has release for a full price tag plus 50 extra fuck you dollars. Battlefront is a mess, and players have already expressed concerns for a declining player base. There simply isn't enough on offer to hold people's interest for very long. But, like Overwatch, it is a multiplayer only shooter (even though there is a single player tiny portion). And unlike Overwatch, Battlefront has 9 game modes, and a progression system.
That bothers me. I fear that Overwatch doesn't have enough to keep players around. There are only 2 game modes, which you might argue is 4 modes if you count attacking and defending as different modes of the same game type. But really there are only two modes, and NO progression system. But a bigger problem is the lack of feedback the game gives.
When playing Overwatch you have no idea how well you are doing, no way to tell if you are improving from match to match. Sure there are brief career stats at the end of a given game, but because you might use any combination of the 21 characters in a given match, the career stats don't really say much except that you might linger on one hero over others.
Then Overwatch has nothing to offer players who continue to play the game. No account leveling, no badges, skin unlocks, different guns for characters you play a lot. Nothing to work towards. And with only two modes and no reason to continue to play the game, why would people play Overwatch over any other multiplayer game.
Fun? Fun alone I fear is not a good enough reason. Especially since Team Fortress 2 is free and has progression. Even other paid multiplayer titles, like Rainbow 6, and (ugh) Battlefront, at least provide players something to personally work towards.
Now there is no way to know what Blizzard is doing to Overwatch over the next 5 or 6 weeks it will be gone. But I can only hope that they look at the shaky grounds the past wave of multiplayer arena shooters have launched on, and realize that they have to do something to not only stand out, but excel Overwatch above the competition.
What do you guys think?
Now I expressed concerned on the Beta forums for Overwatch. I like Blizzard and I genuinely want Overwatch to be a good game. As it was prior to the 12/10/15 pull, it was not a good game. Let me explain. Overwatch has a lot of promise, and fantastic core gameplay mechanics, but it has a strong lack of any real....well anything.
Look at Battlefront, a game which has release for a full price tag plus 50 extra fuck you dollars. Battlefront is a mess, and players have already expressed concerns for a declining player base. There simply isn't enough on offer to hold people's interest for very long. But, like Overwatch, it is a multiplayer only shooter (even though there is a single player tiny portion). And unlike Overwatch, Battlefront has 9 game modes, and a progression system.
That bothers me. I fear that Overwatch doesn't have enough to keep players around. There are only 2 game modes, which you might argue is 4 modes if you count attacking and defending as different modes of the same game type. But really there are only two modes, and NO progression system. But a bigger problem is the lack of feedback the game gives.
When playing Overwatch you have no idea how well you are doing, no way to tell if you are improving from match to match. Sure there are brief career stats at the end of a given game, but because you might use any combination of the 21 characters in a given match, the career stats don't really say much except that you might linger on one hero over others.
Then Overwatch has nothing to offer players who continue to play the game. No account leveling, no badges, skin unlocks, different guns for characters you play a lot. Nothing to work towards. And with only two modes and no reason to continue to play the game, why would people play Overwatch over any other multiplayer game.
Fun? Fun alone I fear is not a good enough reason. Especially since Team Fortress 2 is free and has progression. Even other paid multiplayer titles, like Rainbow 6, and (ugh) Battlefront, at least provide players something to personally work towards.
Now there is no way to know what Blizzard is doing to Overwatch over the next 5 or 6 weeks it will be gone. But I can only hope that they look at the shaky grounds the past wave of multiplayer arena shooters have launched on, and realize that they have to do something to not only stand out, but excel Overwatch above the competition.
What do you guys think?
