Almighty Game Designer Chapter 417: Advantages and problems co-exist in "Overwatch"

After deciding on the next ga, Chen Mo started writing the design concept for Overwatch.

As a competitive ga, Overwatch itself did not have much ga content. Whether it was the number of heroes, skill chanisms, map elents, or other aspects, it was far inferior to those real big productions.

In Chen Mos plan, the first expansion of the Overwatch was as follows.

In terms of heroes, the first 22 heroes would be released, and new heroes would be added in after the shadow.

In terms of maps, 12 maps will be available, and the maps beyond echeinwald will not be available for the ti being.

This was mainly to ensure that the players had the most basic gaming experience. If the content of the ga was cut down further, it would be too little, which would greatly affect the gaplay.

In addition, so more important systems had to be done, such as training mode, hero skins, box opening, outstanding performance, social interaction, career overview, choice settings, and so on.

The other changes were to the ga, and the biggest change was mainly in the ga mode.

Chen Zhao had considered this a lot.

Strictly speaking, Overwatch wasnt a particularly successful competitive ga. From the perspective of ga balance, player data, match enjoynt, popularity, and many other aspects, Overwatch was much worse than DOTA, LOL, and CSGO.

...

Apart from the competition, just the gaming experience of the players alone, Overwatch had many flaws.

One of the core problems was that this was a ga that tried to eliminate negative feedback, but the players received more negative feedback than most other gas.

When players first ca into contact with the ga, they were very excited and felt that everything was perfect. However, after playing for a long ti, they would feel a deep sense of powerlessness.

For many players, there was a very puzzling question. What should I do to win when my teammates are not strong enough?

What should I do to beco stronger?

In terms of playstyle, Overwatch had inherited the playstyle of Legion Fortress 2, but it faced problems that Legion Fortress 2 had never faced.

If it was just a niche ga, both Legion Fortress 2 and Overwatch would be doing well. However, what if they wanted to replace MOBA gas and promote this brand new ga mode to the whole world and beco one of the mainstream gas?

It was too difficult.

There were many reasons for this, but the core reason was that Overwatch wasnt a mature ga model, and Blizzard wasnt able to make it perfect.

As an FPS ga with skills, Overwatch had the playstyle of both MOBA and FPS gas. However, it also created many new problems.

Due to the different positions and skills of the heroes, the restraint between different heroes was too obvious. For example, the yuan family was naturally restrained by Winston. This kind of restraint was basically impossible to make up for with skills, which was completely contrary to the habits of FPS players.

In an FPS ga, as long as ones marksmanship was good enough, one could solve most problems. However, this was not the case in Overwatch.

At the sa ti, since Overwatchs main gaplay was FPS, any slight change in the numbers would cause extrely serious consequences. Therefore, the balance of the heroes was more difficult than MOBA gas, which directly led to problems such as slow updates of new heroes and rigid lineup in high-end gas.

At the sa ti, Blizzards preferred warrior, mage, and priest Iron Triangle mode also reduced the fun of the ga itself.

Overwatch was a ga that was extrely dependent on teams. Therefore, so heroes that could provide a lot of benefits to the team, such as Reinhardt, Anna, and Lucio, were very popular. As for the heroes that could not provide any benefits to the team, such as Black Lily, Hanzo, and so on, they would not be accepted by the team even if the players skill level was high.

In simple terms, it was the sa 6V6, and all the heroes were given 1 point each. So of the heroes added up to 6 points, while others added up to 100 points.

At the sa ti, the competitive mode accelerated the players exploration and developnt of this ga mode. In order to win, most players would force their own side to choose the best lineup, causing hero discrimination to appear even before the ga began.

You choose to rebuild the Empire? I dont care if youre good at it or not, Ill spray you first.

(Rebuild the Empire refers to the Easter egg that was triggered when Hanzo and black Lily chose it at the sa ti. These two heroes were similar to snipers and had almost zero bonus to the team, so many players thought that they would not win as long as they were chosen.)

That was why 303 and 402 were so popular, making the ga lose the fun of MOBA gas and FPS gas. In addition, the ga update was slow, the single-purchase system caused a low number of players, and the competitive mode was unreasonable. All of this made the ga lose its popularity quickly.

What Chen Mo wanted to do was to take over the advantages of Overwatch while avoiding these flaws, allowing the ga to last longer in VR.

The core idea of the change was to completely abandon the competitive route and make Overwatch a ga that leaned more towards entertainnt.

The specific approach was to not open the stairway system and not hold any related competitions.

This might seem absurd, but it was the result of Chen Zhaos careful consideration. While making Warcraft and League of Legends, Chen Mo was well aware of how the ladder and ranking system would help with competitive gas. It could be said that high-end competitions were an important addition to League of Legends, and only an idiot wouldnt make it.

However, for Overwatch, the stairway tree system and related events would not have much of an impact. Instead, it would have a certain negative impact on the ga environnt.

In Chen Mos previous life, the competition for Overwatch was also very popular, but there were two problems that couldnt be solved.

The first was the viewing pleasure. Like all FPS gas, this was a small problem that could not be solved.

The second problem was the lineup. As the pro players continued to explore, they would discover that under the current ga chanics, 222 or 303 was the best lineup. So heroes were just not good, and so heroes were basically useless.

This trend would quickly spread from the competition to the high-end gas, and then to the fish pond, affecting all the players evaluation of the heroes. In the end, it would inevitably lead to a situation where rebuilding the Empire combination would lead to abuse.

Limited by the nature of the ga, these two problems were unsolvable. Since they couldnt be solved, they might as well not do it. If they forced it, it would only overdraft the gas lifespan and have the opposite effect.