4 ms·

Blizzard = equal part casual and competitive. Works for neither. Hearth Stone, Heroes of the Storm , Overwatch. All extremely boring to watch, but HS takes a bi

by baldfat 10y ago

Blizzard = equal part casual and competitive. Works for neither. Hearth Stone, Heroes of the Storm , Overwatch. All extremely boring to watch, but HS takes a bit to understand the RNG > Tactics of that game and grow tired of the unbelievable happening for and against.

mattbettinson 10y ago
I wouldn't call overwatch boring to watch
- baldfat 10y ago
  Has it not dropped off in number on Twitch?
  - Sidetalker 10y ago
    It seems more like there was an unusual spike that wore off quickly [1]. Still, an order of magnitude fewer viewers than LoL [2]. [1] http://sullygnome.com/temp/bd061c88-c4f9-4f70-9231-a5089bbd74f0_chart.png http://sullygnome.com/temp/bd061c88-c4f9-4f70-9231-a5089bbd7... [2] http://sullygnome.com/temp/d49580c6-7a16-4601-915b-df42bc752b89_chart.png http://sullygnome.com/temp/d49580c6-7a16-4601-915b-df42bc752...
  - Neeek 10y ago
    I find Starcraft2 fun to watch but it's not like I hang out on twitch to watch each day. Usually if a tourney lines up with a weekend where I can stay up until 3am is where I indulge :) Dwindling twitch numbers doesn't always mean a game isn't fun to watch.
Cyph0n 10y ago
Pretty boring imo. I prefer watching TF2 even though it has much fewer viewers. It's not a fair comparison, I know. The TF2 comp community has been active for almost a decade now. I'm hopeful that OW will improve in the future. Regarding OW, a lot of what made TF2 attractive has been scrapped in the name of making the game "accessible" to casual players. That's fine of course, but it unfortunately makes the game less fun to watch at a high level. For example, there is almost zero skill required for advanced map traversal (save for Lucio). In TF2 on the other hand, rocket jumping and sticky jumping are non-trivial, and are critical for map dominance. Another thing I find weird is character caps. The goal (in theory) was to ensure that there was variety int the meta, but it doesn't look like it's working tbh. It also shows that Blizzard doesn't really trust the comp community to independently minmax strategies for team comp. Let's not even start talking about the collectible system. TF2 does this masterfully through the trading and crafting systems. I can get every single item in the game without spending a cent, including cosmetics - without relying on RNG of course. Blizzard on the other hand is in it for the $$$. Have you ever heard of a card game where you can't trade cards? An absolute joke! But Blizzard is doing quite a few things damn well. Most prominently, their approach to openly communicating changes and stuff that's in progress is very refreshing imo. I hope other devs learn from this approach.
Dzugaru 10y ago
If you don't HS because of RNG, try DireWolf games, namely Eternal.
Kiro 10y ago
> All extremely boring to watch What? I've watched Hearthstone and Overwatch on Twitch several hours a day since launch and I will probably never be bored. They are by far the best streaming games out there IMO.
Asooka 10y ago
In fairness Hearthstone was never meant to be competitive and I wish Blizzard would just have a separate "competitive" bracket where they ban all the RNG cards. Trying to make a game that fills both niches of casual rng-based play and competitive tournaments leads to a less good product.

by baldfat 10y ago

mattbettinson 10y ago

I wouldn't call overwatch boring to watch

baldfat 10y ago
Has it not dropped off in number on Twitch?
- Sidetalker 10y ago
  It seems more like there was an unusual spike that wore off quickly [1]. Still, an order of magnitude fewer viewers than LoL [2]. [1] http://sullygnome.com/temp/bd061c88-c4f9-4f70-9231-a5089bbd74f0_chart.png http://sullygnome.com/temp/bd061c88-c4f9-4f70-9231-a5089bbd7... [2] http://sullygnome.com/temp/d49580c6-7a16-4601-915b-df42bc752b89_chart.png http://sullygnome.com/temp/d49580c6-7a16-4601-915b-df42bc752...
- Neeek 10y ago
  I find Starcraft2 fun to watch but it's not like I hang out on twitch to watch each day. Usually if a tourney lines up with a weekend where I can stay up until 3am is where I indulge :) Dwindling twitch numbers doesn't always mean a game isn't fun to watch.

Cyph0n 10y ago

Pretty boring imo. I prefer watching TF2 even though it has much fewer viewers. It's not a fair comparison, I know. The TF2 comp community has been active for almost a decade now. I'm hopeful that OW will improve in the future. Regarding OW, a lot of what made TF2 attractive has been scrapped in the name of making the game "accessible" to casual players. That's fine of course, but it unfortunately makes the game less fun to watch at a high level. For example, there is almost zero skill required for advanced map traversal (save for Lucio). In TF2 on the other hand, rocket jumping and sticky jumping are non-trivial, and are critical for map dominance. Another thing I find weird is character caps. The goal (in theory) was to ensure that there was variety int the meta, but it doesn't look like it's working tbh. It also shows that Blizzard doesn't really trust the comp community to independently minmax strategies for team comp. Let's not even start talking about the collectible system. TF2 does this masterfully through the trading and crafting systems. I can get every single item in the game without spending a cent, including cosmetics - without relying on RNG of course. Blizzard on the other hand is in it for the $$$. Have you ever heard of a card game where you can't trade cards? An absolute joke! But Blizzard is doing quite a few things damn well. Most prominently, their approach to openly communicating changes and stuff that's in progress is very refreshing imo. I hope other devs learn from this approach.

Dzugaru 10y ago

If you don't HS because of RNG, try DireWolf games, namely Eternal.

Kiro 10y ago

> All extremely boring to watch What? I've watched Hearthstone and Overwatch on Twitch several hours a day since launch and I will probably never be bored. They are by far the best streaming games out there IMO.

Asooka 10y ago

In fairness Hearthstone was never meant to be competitive and I wish Blizzard would just have a separate "competitive" bracket where they ban all the RNG cards. Trying to make a game that fills both niches of casual rng-based play and competitive tournaments leads to a less good product.