Blizzard Apologizes for Mei's Lackluster Winter Wonderland Skin

[Steven Bogos]

Blizzard Apologizes for Mei's Lackluster Winter Wonderland Skin

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Blizzard assures its Mei fans that Mei will be getting another legendary skin "early next year".

Overwatch got itself a winter event [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/169039-Overwatch-Christmas-Event-Live] earlier in the week, showering players with plenty of seasonal goodies for their favorite characters. Except Mei, apparently. Fans were disappointed that the character's first new Legendary skin to be added since the game launched, wasn't particularly legendary, and appears to be a mere re-color of her standard parka with the addition of a Santa hat. Blizzard has noted this, and apologized, saying it was "off" on the coolness factor this time, but not to fret, as they have something special in store for Mei early next year.

Game Director Jeff Kaplan had this to say:

"Hi there. Sorry you are disappointed with Mei's winter skin. We don't have a specific rule for what makes something Legendary or Epic. We just sort of make a gut call based off of what we think is cool. Coolness is very subjective, and based off of the community reaction it seems like our gauge was off on this one. Our reasoning for it being Legendary was that we completely redid the visual effects for Cryo-Freeze (we turned the ice block into a snowman). We thought that was pretty special and we had done it specifically based on community suggestions from months ago when people were speculating that we might have a winter event. Apparently, lots of people don't agree with us and that's ok. It's all good feedback and we're learning something for future events.

For people concerned that Mei is not going to get another Legendary for a long time, you need not worry. We have something pretty awesome for her early next year.

Apologies that our "cool meter" was off from yours on this one. We'll try to align better on future content."

Like Kalpan said, the snowman Cryo-Freeze is certainly a cool addition, but doesn't really justify the rest of the skin being so plain.

Source: Battle.net [https://us.battle.net/forums/en/overwatch/topic/20752566215?page=4#post-69]

Permalink

 

[Weresquirrel]

Honestly, I think part of the problem is that they had a really good showing for Halloween. There were a lot of really cool and detailed skins on show, a neat PvE mode and just an all around fun event. They set the standards pretty high with that.

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

Why should they have to apologize for their free content not quite being as interesting as people wanted? It was free after all. Of course it isn't too surprising based on my experiences with players on OW, they are the most easily set off people on the planet. Then again, I guess that goes for a lot of team games based on what I have heard from MOBAs.

 

[Erttheking]

Wow, the backlash against her skin was that bad? Usually developers save apologizing for when they make a reference to Arrow to the Knee.

 

[bjj hero]

Sounds like Blizzard. Look at how they reacted with the complaints over not being able to purchase the summer games skins.

They almost seem afraid of their player base. They release constant free content and their seasonal events are great.

 

[Naqel]

Wow, the backlash against her skin was that bad?

They have set themselves a standard up for skins that are only "recolors with a hat" being in the purple/unique category, then they violated that on account of an ability effect.

Had RIOT or Valve done something like this in their MOBA's, they would put the skin in the lower tier and apologized for past skins in that tier not having unique ability effects, then added those effects in over time.

People are justly upset, because of those two things: a violation of an established standard that's disadvantageous to the users(you always err on the side of the user) and a higher standard being held by competing companies.

 

[Cowabungaa]

I actually really like those more subtle redesigns. Oh well. I'd be happy to actually get a holiday event skin at this point...

 

[Revolutionary]

Who cares? It's a Mei skin. The only people who play may are sociopaths anyway.

 

[Naqel]

But really, when Riot were criticized for similar in the past, they discontinued all recolours after giving them a 'limited edition' run. Another time, they created a new pricing bracket above 975, being 1325rp.

This is all good things though.
When ancient, by industry standards, items no longer reflect the quality expected from goods of at their price range they are retired and eventually updated to better match the modern standards as the same happens to the base champion. The price range being introduced creates more flexibility on what they want to do for a given skin without removing anything from, or enforcing additions to, existing skins.

RIOT is improving it's standards and takes actions to keep them consistent, Blizzard just pulled the rug from under people by overpricing an underwhelming item.

 

[SirSullymore]

Another event, another group of Overwatch fans piss and moan. Though Mei fans had my sympathy (much more so than the people complaining that Mercy didn't get ANOTHER costume) due to the fact this was likely to be Mei's only new legendary for while. Luckily that doesn't seem to be the case.

 

[OldNewNewOld]

Could they also apologize for the lackluster Winter event for Hearthstone? And by lackluster I mean non-existing.

 

[RJ 17]

Seriously...the Lucio skin was just a recolor with a Santa hat and that one was only 750...charging 3k for a Mei recolor is just absurd. "But she changes into a snowman!"


Seriously, the snowman's a cute gimmick...but not worth 3k credits. "We don't really have any rules on what makes a skin legendary or epic, we just go with our gut." Well cut that crap out and have at least one rule: "A skin can only be considered Legendary if it's base form involves a redesign." Then you can go with "is this a legendary design or just an epic one?" based on your own internal "cool meter".

 

[Petter Jonsson]

I'd much rather have them apologize for Roadhog's christmas skin, that color scheme is straight-up disgusting.

 

[LostCrusader]

Why should they have to apologize for their free content not quite being as interesting as people wanted? It was free after all. Of course it isn't too surprising based on my experiences with players on OW, they are the most easily set off people on the planet. Then again, I guess that goes for a lot of team games based on what I have heard from MOBAs.

How is the skin free? You either buy or grind loot boxes, I wouldn't call that free. Very right about the community though. The community is getting very similar to MOBAs in a bad way.

 

[StatusNil]

Wow, the backlash against her skin was that bad? Usually developers save apologizing for when they make a reference to Arrow to the Knee.

This is Kaplan, he apologized because one guy didn't think it was appropriate for Tracer to have an ass. And fixed it!



Maybe I should apologize for continuing to milk that old nontroversy. But it was all so hilarious.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

They shouldn't have made it Legendary. But this is still such a weak thing to complain about and on of the reasons I don't play Overwatch as much these days.

 

[WindKnight]

Wow, the backlash against her skin was that bad? Usually developers save apologizing for when they make a reference to Arrow to the Knee.

This is Kaplan, he apologized because one guy didn't think it was appropriate for Tracer to have an ass. And fixed it!



Maybe I should apologize for continuing to milk that old nontroversy. But it was all so hilarious.

Yeah, it was hilarious watching the 'Censorship' crowd acting like it was the end of days because they got one less arse to stare at, then when the new pose came out started pretending it was a victory for them, and not a case of them making a fuss about nothing.

On topic, I can understand frustration given the comparative values of event Epic and Legendary skins (750 vs 3000 creds), not to mention the artificial scarcity of the drops, and the lvling change to stop people using a prestige to pump out a quick burst of loot boxes leaves some at least feeling like Blizzard is going overboard in upping the temptation factor on lootbox purchases.

 

[Charli]

I think it's exactly the point that it's legendary and got the same attention to detail that Lucio's Purple (epic) skin did. Hat, colouring, minor detail changes.

Visually I agree, it's on par with a purple. Not a Legendary.

However the turning into a snowman is fun and a really 'cool' idea as they say, but could just have easily been an emote, I just lament that I had SO MANY IDEAS for a great winter themed mei legendary skin and this is what came out of the pot. Someone in Blizzard isn't a Mei fan, and that's sad, she's a great character.

Honestly if it were me, my prime idea for a Mei legendary skin in winter was more along the lines of a snowman onesie or a snow queen lich, ala' Blizzards own WoW IP. Scary or Cute. Mei can pull off both.