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Yeah. I can tell from playing OW2 that there are literally 0 "old Blizzard" employees left. Even ignoring the things that players really hate like monetizatio

Yeah. I can tell from playing OW2 that there are literally 0 "old Blizzard" employees left. Even ignoring the things that players really hate like monetization strategies, you can tell the culture is gone. New characters say their own name wrong for months after release ("Hey, it's Keiko!" did get fixed). New characters have identical silhouettes to existing characters (try identifying Nemesis Ramattra versus Sigma through a wall). It's just little things like that where they've given presentations and written blog posts on how it's so important to not mess things like that up, and then you watch them mess it up and charge you $10 a month to play a game you already bought. It's sad to watch because the figureheads go off to start their own companies, and the games just aren't as good. Blizzard spent way more money on game design (mythology, iteration after iteration of characters before release) than any startup could ever afford to, and they really reaped the rewards. Then Activision buys them, decides they should focus on Candy Crush, the employees all sexually harass each other, and it's over! (To be fair, I think a lot of people left because they made more than enough money over their career. Who wouldn't leave when you have enough to retire.) It's sad because it will be a long time before we see a similar game studio appear again. If you like their games, pray and take up a hobby like fishing. It will be a while before we're having the same kind of fun that we used to have.

bob1029 4y ago
> If you like their games, pray and take up a hobby like fishing. It will be a while before we're having the same kind of fun that we used to have. No. I will take to my keyboard and begin work. Someone has to actually do this or it will never happen. I can't sit idly by anymore. What they did to OW1 was unforgivable to me. I intend to build my own arena shooter at this point. We need to learn to work within our new constraints. You are right - Getting as much original capital involved would be impossible. Doesn't mean we can't do it a different way. There are other ways to have fun that don't require 8 figure art budgets or selling our souls to the various platform vendors.
- jrockway 4y ago
  That's fair. I have had the same thought, but I really don't have the skills to make a gaming startup successful; no network, no experience, etc. The code is do-able. Everything else is hard. Have a good plan (or people that you can trust) for that part. The one change I'd make to Overwatch is to just balance each rank separately. Let the bronzes run around doing 300 damage railgun shots. Don't let pro play make the game less fun for casual players that just want to meme for a couple hours a week, but do have some progression so people can outgrow that. I've watched a lot of videos of new players trying OW2 for the first time, and the game is just impossible for them. The next FPS/MOBA hybrid should be as approachable as Overwatch was in 2016.
  - bob1029 4y ago
    > The next FPS/MOBA hybrid should be as approachable as Overwatch was in 2016. Absolutely agree. I feel like the reason OW1 was so damn good in 2016 was a combination of a few things. The biggest being that there were no "professional" scene or related expectations around how to play the game. Everyone did what they wanted and the strategies were totally bonkers. Once the esports crap leaked in, SBMM and meta became a huge sticking point for the average player. League of legends did the exact same kind of thing to the player base over time. Item stacking and other wackiness was removed in favor of the grays and browns of a more broadly-marketable, competitive balance patch. I would never offer a vendor-sponsored e-sports program, nor would I pander to any sort of efforts to construct one. Competitive is good, but there is a point where you have totally jumped the shark. Having clear progression of skill is critical, but we also cannot make it the entire point of the experience. I would actually make efforts to "patch-out" certain competitive scenes if they were to become problematic for the average player. I think TF2 did a fantastic job of this with a light sprinkle of RNG via critical shots. You can instantly bifurcate your audience and put the monsters into their own pen with this kind of feature.
    - jrockway 4y ago
      You are reading my mind. Send me an email and keep me updated on your progress, your take on game design sounds awesome :)
whywhywhywhy 4y ago
> OW2 Played about 10 hours of this the month of release, honestly can't tell what the team was doing these past few years as Overwatch 1 gathered dust. Just feels like the exact same game with slightly worse mechanics and a more exhausting reward loop. Even the graphics look previous gen.

bob1029 4y ago

> If you like their games, pray and take up a hobby like fishing. It will be a while before we're having the same kind of fun that we used to have. No. I will take to my keyboard and begin work. Someone has to actually do this or it will never happen. I can't sit idly by anymore. What they did to OW1 was unforgivable to me. I intend to build my own arena shooter at this point. We need to learn to work within our new constraints. You are right - Getting as much original capital involved would be impossible. Doesn't mean we can't do it a different way. There are other ways to have fun that don't require 8 figure art budgets or selling our souls to the various platform vendors.

jrockway 4y ago
That's fair. I have had the same thought, but I really don't have the skills to make a gaming startup successful; no network, no experience, etc. The code is do-able. Everything else is hard. Have a good plan (or people that you can trust) for that part. The one change I'd make to Overwatch is to just balance each rank separately. Let the bronzes run around doing 300 damage railgun shots. Don't let pro play make the game less fun for casual players that just want to meme for a couple hours a week, but do have some progression so people can outgrow that. I've watched a lot of videos of new players trying OW2 for the first time, and the game is just impossible for them. The next FPS/MOBA hybrid should be as approachable as Overwatch was in 2016.
- bob1029 4y ago
  > The next FPS/MOBA hybrid should be as approachable as Overwatch was in 2016. Absolutely agree. I feel like the reason OW1 was so damn good in 2016 was a combination of a few things. The biggest being that there were no "professional" scene or related expectations around how to play the game. Everyone did what they wanted and the strategies were totally bonkers. Once the esports crap leaked in, SBMM and meta became a huge sticking point for the average player. League of legends did the exact same kind of thing to the player base over time. Item stacking and other wackiness was removed in favor of the grays and browns of a more broadly-marketable, competitive balance patch. I would never offer a vendor-sponsored e-sports program, nor would I pander to any sort of efforts to construct one. Competitive is good, but there is a point where you have totally jumped the shark. Having clear progression of skill is critical, but we also cannot make it the entire point of the experience. I would actually make efforts to "patch-out" certain competitive scenes if they were to become problematic for the average player. I think TF2 did a fantastic job of this with a light sprinkle of RNG via critical shots. You can instantly bifurcate your audience and put the monsters into their own pen with this kind of feature.
  - jrockway 4y ago
    You are reading my mind. Send me an email and keep me updated on your progress, your take on game design sounds awesome :)

whywhywhywhy 4y ago

> OW2 Played about 10 hours of this the month of release, honestly can't tell what the team was doing these past few years as Overwatch 1 gathered dust. Just feels like the exact same game with slightly worse mechanics and a more exhausting reward loop. Even the graphics look previous gen.