Overwatch Now Has 10 Million Players

[Lightspeaker]

I wish I could understand what keeps all those people actually entertained by the game. Then again I never got why CoD entertained people, so I guess I'm oblivious to the whatever the latest trends are.

Because like TF2 pre-2011 the game is just about fun. Finding ways to complete your objective in a hectic MP situation is fun for a lot of people. Plus the lack of paying for stuff that affects the game is a fresh throwback to when shooters were good enough to not charge players more money and risk splitting the community.

People like COD because of its skinner box progression system. Granted they have changed mechanics a decent bit since I last played, but it mechanically is set up against team gameplay and incentives solo performance.

I like Overwatch because it plays like TF2 before the cash shop drove how the game played. Its a fun MP shooter with an evolving meta that allows for visually spectacular plays.

I'm not a fan of COD, but that's mainly because I don't feel like buying a new one plus DLC every years. ANd the PC version is always the worst.

Literally all of this. Overwatch harks back to the days before TF2 massively jumped the shark.

TF2 on launch was an excellent, reasonably well-balanced and well designed team-based, class-based shooter. The replayability was entirely based on the fact that the game was fun. Not a progression system. Not drops. Not goddamn achievements. The sheer fact that the gameplay itself was fun and varied and resulted in constant new experiences was enough to keep bringing people back to play thousands upon thousands of hours.

Then it went totally off the rails with stupid amounts of alternative weapons per class (as well as style-destroying cosmetics) as part of a money-making scheme and it went free to play to fuel that economy, which was the final nail in the coffin frankly. It absolutely murdered the simple fun of TF2 and turned it into the absolute abomination it is today.

The fact that people in here are complaining about lack of content in Overwatch just highlights how badly the changes in TF2 and the influence of Call of Duty have changed people's perceptions of shooters. Because if it doesn't have a progression system or loads of maps and modes its not worth the money. The idea that fun can be had playing a thing over and over and experiencing different things in doing so just doesn't seem to occur to some (despite the fact that literally describes every sport I can think of). The experience itself apparently isn't enough for some. Frankly I'm glad that Overwatch is exactly how it is right now. Its a breath of fresh air.

 

[elvor0]

Glad I got into the beta for this. Was fun for about an hour then got boring. Doesn't have the creative skilled play of halo(all the jumps and weapon/level manipulation. Doesnt have the speed and level design of CoD. It just felt sluggish and TTK is either too fast or too slow.

Well if you don't enjoy the game, that's fine, but I don't know if I'd really call Halos multiplayer /that/ creative and CoD is definitely on the lower end of FPS speed. Overwatch is /much/ faster paced. On consoles it might be slower, as people get the hang of the characters, but on PC? It's fast.

Then it went totally off the rails with stupid amounts of alternative weapons per class (as well as style-destroying cosmetics) as part of a money-making scheme and it went free to play to fuel that economy, which was the final nail in the coffin frankly. It absolutely murdered the simple fun of TF2 and turned it into the absolute abomination it is today.

Mm, this is why I don't understand people going "oh well you could just play TF2!" TF2 is nowhere near the same game as it was when it launched and for a new player to get in now would be a Herculean task. Balance is fucked and there's /so/ many weapons per character per class it's obscene.

I mean, I like TF2 and I still even played it from time to time before OW launched, always have done from TF2s launch, but it is /not/ the same style of fun it was when it launched with 6 maps, 3 game modes and 9 fucking well balanced classes. Overwatch may have 21 characters, but the idea that TF2 is a solid or approachable alternative is a crock.

 

[sneakypenguin]

Glad I got into the beta for this. Was fun for about an hour then got boring. Doesn't have the creative skilled play of halo(all the jumps and weapon/level manipulation. Doesnt have the speed and level design of CoD. It just felt sluggish and TTK is either too fast or too slow.

Well if you don't enjoy the game, that's fine, but I don't know if I'd really call Halos multiplayer /that/ creative and CoD is definitely on the lower end of FPS speed. Overwatch is /much/ faster paced. On consoles it might be slower, as people get the hang of the characters, but on PC? It's fast.

I guess creative might not be the best word for halo but dynamic in that the physics engine allows vastly different ways to approach combat grenade jumping yourself or vehicles around the map mastering the crouchjump and boost to get over/around the map, weapon interplay with differing TTK based on shields and hp drain rates. Cod probably has a similar base movement speed as OW but the level design and combat system allows for twitch play and rapid movement around the level.

I've sure overwatch is fun for most but for me it just felt slow and static unless I played lucio and could get around the level how I felt like it should be.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

I wish I could understand what keeps all those people actually entertained by the game. Then again I never got why CoD entertained people, so I guess I'm oblivious to the whatever the latest trends are.

Because like TF2 pre-2011 the game is just about fun. Finding ways to complete your objective in a hectic MP situation is fun for a lot of people. Plus the lack of paying for stuff that affects the game is a fresh throwback to when shooters were good enough to not charge players more money and risk splitting the community.

People like COD because of its skinner box progression system. Granted they have changed mechanics a decent bit since I last played, but it mechanically is set up against team gameplay and incentives solo performance.

I like Overwatch because it plays like TF2 before the cash shop drove how the game played. Its a fun MP shooter with an evolving meta that allows for visually spectacular plays.

I'm not a fan of COD, but that's mainly because I don't feel like buying a new one plus DLC every years. ANd the PC version is always the worst.

Literally all of this. Overwatch harks back to the days before TF2 massively jumped the shark.

TF2 on launch was an excellent, reasonably well-balanced and well designed team-based, class-based shooter. The replayability was entirely based on the fact that the game was fun. Not a progression system. Not drops. Not goddamn achievements. The sheer fact that the gameplay itself was fun and varied and resulted in constant new experiences was enough to keep bringing people back to play thousands upon thousands of hours.

Then it went totally off the rails with stupid amounts of alternative weapons per class (as well as style-destroying cosmetics) as part of a money-making scheme and it went free to play to fuel that economy, which was the final nail in the coffin frankly. It absolutely murdered the simple fun of TF2 and turned it into the absolute abomination it is today.

The fact that people in here are complaining about lack of content in Overwatch just highlights how badly the changes in TF2 and the influence of Call of Duty have changed people's perceptions of shooters. Because if it doesn't have a progression system or loads of maps and modes its not worth the money. The idea that fun can be had playing a thing over and over and experiencing different things in doing so just doesn't seem to occur to some (despite the fact that literally describes every sport I can think of). The experience itself apparently isn't enough for some. Frankly I'm glad that Overwatch is exactly how it is right now. Its a breath of fresh air.

The lack of maps argument is super silly considering no shooter launches with 20+ maps. The days of Unreal Tournament have looooong passed.


I'd rather have a game like Overwatch be good on its own merit vs. a game be called good because it requires a season pass. Last time I checked, most real life sports only have one mode of play and they draw millions of people to play and watch because A) lots of people find that fun, and B) playing out/seeing the evolution of how a game is played in the same conditions with very little change showcases an excellent game.

Watch a game of basketball when it was made vs. today. The game is nearly identical in rules, but the skill ceiling has greatly increased. Same with games like Dota 2 and Counter Strike on a pro level.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Why I think Overwatch is popular: The viability of each character is appealing to a wide range of playstyles. Each "Role" is divided into sub-roles by each character, and thus if one wants to play a certain way, it is readily available. There's no extraneous "skills" or "weapons" to make the game more complex, but instead allows Overwatch to have simplicity AND depth. A rare balance that makes it a wonderful experience for more gamers than not.
Sure people will tire of it, but I'm banking on it being here to stay with a majority of players rather than a ghost-town in a few months because of how solid it is overall. There are slight balance issues between certain characters, yes, but I believe Blizz will handle those, they've already done so.
I rarely play competitive multiplayer, not since Quake 2 and Half-Life have I taken it seriously, but Overwatch is a game I could put in at anytime and play for 10 minutes to 3 hours or more and enjoy, then let gather dust and still feel I made a good investment.

 

[elvor0]

Glad I got into the beta for this. Was fun for about an hour then got boring. Doesn't have the creative skilled play of halo(all the jumps and weapon/level manipulation. Doesnt have the speed and level design of CoD. It just felt sluggish and TTK is either too fast or too slow.

Well if you don't enjoy the game, that's fine, but I don't know if I'd really call Halos multiplayer /that/ creative and CoD is definitely on the lower end of FPS speed. Overwatch is /much/ faster paced. On consoles it might be slower, as people get the hang of the characters, but on PC? It's fast.

I guess creative might not be the best word for halo but dynamic in that the physics engine allows vastly different ways to approach combat grenade jumping yourself or vehicles around the map mastering the crouchjump and boost to get over/around the map,

Grenade jumping and crouchjumping are by no means unique or original to Halo. You can even crouchjump in OW too. Almost all non realistic shooters have these things. Vehicles...well it's not that kind of game. Halo has more open maps than OW and thus necessitates them.

Most of the Overwatch cast can traverse the map and approach combat in more ways than running and the game pretty much demands that you use different approaches to win; D.va can fly for short periods, Genji and Hanzo can wall climb, Junkrat can grenade jump, Lucio can wall run fucking huge distances when played right, Mei can use her ice wall to get to high up places, Mercy can jump to people, Phara can fly, Reaper can glide and teleport, Tracer can traverse massive gaps with her blink, as can Winston along with walls, Widowmaker can a grapple and Zarya can actually grenade jump horizontally. Obviously not every character can do all the things like in Halo, but there are many /more/ ways of approaching it in OW than in Halo. Not that more is necessarily better, but just that non ground based approaches exist.

weapon interplay with differing TTK based on shields and hp drain rates.

? I'm not quite sure I understand what you're getting at here. Is it to do with not being able to change weapons on a character?

Cod probably has a similar base movement speed as OW but the level design and combat system allows for twitch play and rapid movement around the level.I've sure overwatch is fun for most but for me it just felt slow and static unless I played lucio and could get around the level how I felt like it should be.

Running movement, probably, but that doesn't mean OW is slower. OW most definitely allows for a level twitch based gameplay and speed with characters designed around it(again, perhaps not so much on consoles, but "twitch" on consoles isn't really there either. Compared to CSGO for example) and rapid movement certainly isn't a problem. Lucio is ridiculously mobile, possibly way more mobile than you give him credit for. Like there's no way Lucios mobility should be the standard.

Watch this Widowmaker play from a tourney earlier this year for example:


I understand if you didn't enjoy the hour you played and that's fine, you didn't enjoy it, but you shouldn't use it to judge what you are and are capable of in the game, because for all intents and purposes you haven't really played the game. It probably felt slow and static because you were still learning the characters and only played it for an hour with newbies. You don't pull crazy shit off when you start playing Halo either, it takes time to learn. You don't know about weapon interplay and differeing TTK rates when you start playing that either.

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

10 million players and none of them are on the payload.

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

I'm actually planning to buy Overwatch once I get moved in fully to my new location. I played it, and had a lot of fun. Win, lose? Didn't matter, I was having fun either way.


Well, except for the 14 year old in the same room as me who had apparently mastered the game from the way he spoke, despite only playing it for a day longer, but that's not the game's fault.

 

[Programmed_For_Damage]

Probably the core thing about Overwatch I like is that no matter how I'm doing it seems like I'm helping. Unlike other competitive FPS where sometimes I feel like I'm only assisting someone's K/D ratio, the battles don't feel hopeless. I've found that vanilla Soldier 76 suits my play style and I do alright for myself.

That said I can't see myself playing this for months to come. It is really light on in terms of maps and modes. Kind of like the original Titanfall. The mechanics and gameplay are rock-solid, it's just doesn't offer much in the way of variety.