Overwatch

Some Person

Pretty Pony Princess
Backers' Beta Tester
Feb 3, 2016
99
71
Santa Clarita, CA
Yeah here's another thread that should definitely be around.

Overwatch, that one shooting game from that one game company. It's pretty fun and I'm lookin' forward to more of it.

http://us.battle.net/overwatch/en/ In case you don't know of it, here's the thread.

(I briefly played the beta, but) My fave heroes to play in their respective roles are Genji, Roadhog, Bastion, and Zenyatta.

Who are your faves, and have you played the beta?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Delusional Dreamer

Ambris

Wolf in Sheep's Clothing
Backers' Beta Tester
Feb 3, 2016
105
138
I've been desperately wanting to get into the beta since they first announced Overwatch. So far, no luck. :/

I really wanna play Tracer, but there is almost no one in that entire (huge) cast that doesn't look like an absolute blast to play.

Hype :D
 

Patthecat

Oleander player~
Backers' Beta Tester
Feb 3, 2016
41
26
Southern California
I love Overwatch so much, so far my absolute favorites to play are D. Va - Pharah - Roadhog - McCree - Lúcio .

Though it's such a good game that I love playing every character overall and have tons of fun with each one.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Delusional Dreamer

Sutekh94

Veteran of being taken over by robots or something
Crowdfund Backer
I've got a friend who's been wanting to get into the beta - no dice yet. As for me, I'm probably gonna wait until the game itself releases before I'll check it out. Looks really promising though! :D Can't wait to play Zenyatta, Tracer, or everybody else for that matter! I agree, there doesn't seem to be anybody on that roster that isn't tons of fun to play as.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Delusional Dreamer

Aardvark

Armadillo?
Backers' Beta Tester
Feb 3, 2016
19
11
Beta's stating up again on the 9th, if I remember correctly. Hopefully it'll have some more beta invites to go with it so I finally have a chance to try it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Delusional Dreamer

Kegradigm

Professional Heister
Backers' Beta Tester
Feb 3, 2016
39
41
It seemed that everyone I knew got a beta key except for me. So unfortunate.

I do have a list of characters I want to try out first. Mostly picked by aesthetics.

Reaper > D. Va > Reinhardt > McCree > Tracer
 
  • Like
Reactions: Delusional Dreamer

Paper Shadow

Backers' Beta Tester
Backers' Beta Tester
Feb 3, 2016
36
54
Ah yes, Overwatch, everyone's waiting for you. I am excited to try it but I doubt it'll have the same impact that TF2 had in the long term...
 
  • Like
Reactions: Delusional Dreamer

The Skullivan

That guy what with the ponies
Backers' Beta Tester
Feb 3, 2016
22
33
I've been looking forward to this for a while. It looks like basically if TF2 was made by Blizzard, and there's nothing about that sentence I don't like. Didn't manage to get in on the beta, though.
 

ZerstorenHV

Chicken Scratcher
Crowdfund Backer
Feb 5, 2016
4
2
No beta, but I'll be darned if they don't all look like a lot of fun to play.
Personally, I'd like to try Zenyatta, Hanzo, and Mei, just to name a couple off the top of my head.
 

Senjin

Resident Musician
Backers' Beta Tester
Feb 4, 2016
43
48
Chicago
I doubt it'll have the same impact that TF2 had in the long term...
Didn't TF2 basically create this genre though? So it'd be literally impossible for Overwatch to have the same impact. Even if Overwatch were to somehow unanimously become the new TF2 and no one actually played TF2 anymore (which is kind of an absurd idea to me), it still wouldn't have had the same impact, because it wouldn't be starting anything new like TF2 did.

I guess what I'm saying is, don't go into Overwatch hoping for it to be a gift from the Gods that's going to completely change gaming culture. It's not going to be that (and I don't think it's trying to be that).

THAT BEING SAID...
I still haven't had a chance to play the game :p I've signed up for hopeful beta access, but I haven't pre-ordered so I'm assuming it doesn't matter. Unless you don't have to pre-order to be able to play the beta? (I'd be surprised if this was the case though)
 

Ambris

Wolf in Sheep's Clothing
Backers' Beta Tester
Feb 3, 2016
105
138
Didn't TF2 basically create this genre though? So it'd be literally impossible for Overwatch to have the same impact. Even if Overwatch were to somehow unanimously become the new TF2 and no one actually played TF2 anymore (which is kind of an absurd idea to me), it still wouldn't have had the same impact, because it wouldn't be starting anything new like TF2 did.

I guess what I'm saying is, don't go into Overwatch hoping for it to be a gift from the Gods that's going to completely change gaming culture. It's not going to be that (and I don't think it's trying to be that).
I don't know if TF2 literally created the genre, but it definitely codified it. And while wouldn't say it's impossible for any new game to reinvent the genre, I would argue that its not Overwatch's goal.

Blizzard, in general, doesn't favor innovation much. Almost all their successful games are built on already established concepts, but refined to a fine well-oiled machine executed with excellence. They're games are quality made tried-and-true formulas. And Overwatch is exactly that--a refined and evolved upon game that is heavily based on TF2. Others have tried do the same, but none have really done it to the same successful degree.

Valve on the other hand has often been about innovation. They make quality games too, but most everything they put out is unique, new, and experimental. If the class-based team-shooter genre is going to be reinvented, it'll probably be Valve who does it. Who knows how many years or even decades that might take though (I mean, they've delayed Half-Life 3 for ages simply because nothing they've come up with for it is yet to be new and unique enough.)

So in the meantime, Overwatch is looking to be the highly refined and slightly evolved formula of TF2, with Blizzard's typical stamp of quality. Ideally anyway. The game could still suck. (I was super hyped about Heroes of the Storm, and ended up disappointed with it).
 

Paper Shadow

Backers' Beta Tester
Backers' Beta Tester
Feb 3, 2016
36
54
Didn't TF2 basically create this genre though? So it'd be literally impossible for Overwatch to have the same impact. Even if Overwatch were to somehow unanimously become the new TF2 and no one actually played TF2 anymore (which is kind of an absurd idea to me), it still wouldn't have had the same impact, because it wouldn't be starting anything new like TF2 did.

I guess what I'm saying is, don't go into Overwatch hoping for it to be a gift from the Gods that's going to completely change gaming culture. It's not going to be that (and I don't think it's trying to be that).
Hmm, let me expand my point. When I say "Long Term Impact", I wasn't referring to the impact the game had on the gaming world in general. In retrospect, "Long Term Presence" would be better wording. Basically, I believe Overwatch will more likely have a MOBA-esque community instead of a community like the one TF2 had, and I believe it will suffer in the long term because of it...

(Note: These thoughts are based on watching a lot of gameplay of Overwatch during its last beta phase, so things may have changed...)

There's a couple of reasons I believe this. First, how matchmaking and teams work. There are no community servers in Overwatch, as to be expected in the modern era of gaming, but also when you make a group to play with friends, you and your friends will always be on the same team. This creates the issue that the enemy team is not your friend, and will never be your friend, and if the enemy team somehow does become your friend for whatever reason, the friendship is fleeting. You will never come across each other again within a time frame where you are able to remember who they were. This means that games will revolve around one thing: the game itself. There's also no sense of permanence or familiarity that is usually created by a community server. If you constantly go to a community server, you become a regular and you become known by the other regulars, and eventually you become friends with them. In matchmaking systems, that doesn't happen. Heck, it doesn't happen as much as it use to in TF2 because of the presence of Official Valve Servers. Players sacrifice community for reliability in population. It's very rare you'll make a long-term friend in a Valve server unless you are trying to the moment you join (and even then it's a long shot)...

Second, emphasis on winning. In TF2, what happens when you win? You get ten seconds to destroy what remains of the enemy team, while the MVPs of your team show on screen, and after that the game begins again, sometimes with a minute of preparation time depending on the map, with team swaps and scrambles when needed. This happens about five times per map, sometimes less sometimes more, before the server changes map. In Overwatch, when you win, you get a shot of your team all together, get to see the play of the game (together these take about 25 seconds overall), then you get forty seconds of the post-match voting thing and progression stuff. Then another forty seconds to pick your hero. Then a minute of preparation time. That's almost three minutes between matches, with a good chunk of it praising the winners and MVPs. Then, for each map, you only play it twice, once on offence once on defence, and then you swap map, and your matchmaking record and hidden ELO and whatnot is updated and whatnot...

The heavier emphasis on winning means that players are more encouraged to play to win, like a MOBA, as opposed to playing to have fun. You won't see people doing silly things unless they are in a group with other people who want to do silly things (y'know, from the kind of people who make the funny videos and whatnot), but if you want to have the games measurement of your skill be accurate, you have to play to win. Solo Queue will be a no-fun zone full stop, least you anger the players who do want to win. And since teams in Overwatch are a lot smaller than teams in TF2, each person has a larger contribution, so if you aren't contributing much because you're doing something silly in Overwatch, your team is gonna suffer. It's the same in any MOBA. Winning is important. In TF2, it isn't. I mean, its nice, but it doesn't really mean much, so if you want to just goof off, you can...

This video from Jerma talks about the importance of the upcoming TF2 competitive matchmaking (just a heads up the video has some naughty language). In it, he says that there are basically, like, four or five different kinds of players on a TF2 server, and with the addition of matchmaking, those who want to play seriously can play competitive matchmaking while those who are new or want to goof off or relax just go to regular servers, and players can jump between the two whenever they want. You can't do that in a MOBA (yes, there's a ranked and unranked option, but you are still expected to play to win in unranked and the enemy team will most likely too), and it's looking to be that you can't in Overwatch. Everyone has to play together in a way where winning is the most important thing...

These two points I feel will create a weak community. Just look at any MOBA community. Most of the time it's gonna be centralised in a couple of places. You'll have the official forums, you'll have a subreddit, maybe the odd something or other, but that's it. TF2 has tons of small communities, and had a lot more when community servers were the main form of playing. You have your general ones, you have the ones based for each community server, you have the ones based on each type of modding you can do, so on and so forth, and these each had a great sense of community for itself especially compared to the larger communities seen in MOBA communities, where you'd only be well known if you contribute a lot. You will not be known just from the playing the game or making the occasional comment...

So yeah, that's why I think Overwatch might suffer in the long term. It's gonna be great playing around with all the heroes and whatnot, but I doubt there will be as vibrant a sense of community than there was in TF2...

(Addendum: Also, playing with friends new to a game with matchmaking sucks. In TF2 you just hop onto whatever server and have fun. In matchmaking either you are against opponents above their skill level or far below yours, or a mix of both...)
 
Last edited:

Senjin

Resident Musician
Backers' Beta Tester
Feb 4, 2016
43
48
Chicago
Hmm, let me expand my point. When I say "Long Term Impact", I wasn't referring to the impact the game had on the gaming world in general. In retrospect, "Long Term Presence" would be better wording. Basically, I believe Overwatch will more likely have a MOBA-esque community instead of a community like the one TF2 had, and I believe it will suffer in the long term because of it...

(Note: These thoughts are based on watching a lot of gameplay of Overwatch during its last beta phase, so things may have changed...)

There's a couple of reasons I believe this. First, how matchmaking and teams work. There are no community servers in Overwatch, as to be expected in the modern era of gaming, but also when you make a group to play with friends, you and your friends will always be on the same team. This creates the issue that the enemy team is not your friend, and will never be your friend, and if the enemy team somehow does become your friend for whatever reason, the friendship is fleeting. You will never come across each other again within a time frame where you are able to remember who they were. This means that games will revolve around one thing: the game itself. There's also no sense of permanence or familiarity that is usually created by a community server. If you constantly go to a community server, you become a regular and you become known by the other regulars, and eventually you become friends with them. In matchmaking systems, that doesn't happen. Heck, it doesn't happen as much as it use to in TF2 because of the presence of Official Valve Servers. Players sacrifice community for reliability in population. It's very rare you'll make a long-term friend in a Valve server unless you are trying to the moment you join (and even then it's a long shot)...

Second, emphasis on winning. In TF2, what happens when you win? You get ten seconds to destroy what remains of the enemy team, while the MVPs of your team show on screen, and after that the game begins again, sometimes with a minute of preparation time depending on the map, with team swaps and scrambles when needed. This happens about five times per map, sometimes less sometimes more, before the server changes map. In Overwatch, when you win, you get a shot of your team all together, get to see the play of the game (together these take about 25 seconds overall), then you get forty seconds of the post-match voting thing and progression stuff. Then another forty seconds to pick your hero. Then a minute of preparation time. That's almost three minutes between matches, with a good chunk of it praising the winners and MVPs. Then, for each map, you only play it twice, once on offence once on defence, and then you swap map, and your matchmaking record and hidden ELO and whatnot is updated and whatnot...

The heavier emphasis on winning means that players are more encouraged to play to win, like a MOBA, as opposed to playing to have fun. You won't see people doing silly things unless they are in a group with other people who want to do silly things (y'know, from the kind of people who make the funny videos and whatnot), but if you want to have the games measurement of your skill be accurate, you have to play to win. Solo Queue will be a no-fun zone full stop, least you anger the players who do want to win. And since teams in Overwatch are a lot smaller than teams in TF2, each person has a larger contribution, so if you aren't contributing much because you're doing something silly in Overwatch, your team is gonna suffer. It's the same in any MOBA. Winning is important. In TF2, it isn't. I mean, its nice, but it doesn't really mean much, so if you want to just goof off, you can...

This video from Jerma talks about the importance of the upcoming TF2 competitive matchmaking (just a heads up the video has some naughty language). In it, he says that there are basically, like, four or five different kinds of players on a TF2 server, and with the addition of matchmaking, those who want to play seriously can play competitive matchmaking while those who are new or want to goof off or relax just go to regular servers, and players can jump between the two whenever they want. You can't do that in a MOBA (yes, there's a ranked and unranked option, but you are still expected to play to win in unranked and the enemy team will most likely too), and it's looking to be that you can't in Overwatch. Everyone has to play together in a way where winning is the most important thing...

These two points I feel will create a weak community. Just look at any MOBA community. Most of the time it's gonna be centralised in a couple of places. You'll have the official forums, you'll have a subreddit, maybe the odd something or other, but that's it. TF2 has tons of small communities, and had a lot more when community servers were the main form of playing. You have your general ones, you have the ones based for each community server, you have the ones based on each type of modding you can do, so on and so forth, and these each had a great sense of community for itself especially compared to the larger communities seen in MOBA communities, where you'd only be well known if you contribute a lot. You will not be known just from the playing the game or making the occasional comment...

So yeah, that's why I think Overwatch might suffer in the long term. It's gonna be great playing around with all the heroes and whatnot, but I doubt there will be as vibrant a sense of community than there was in TF2...

(Addendum: Also, playing with friends new to a game with matchmaking sucks. In TF2 you just hop onto whatever server and have fun. In matchmaking either you are against opponents above their skill level or far below yours, or a mix of both...)
I think you bring up a lot of interesting points. I definitely agree that Overwatch is designed to be more about winning than TF2., though I think they are both designed to be fun, it's just that TF2 is more of a goofy fun and Overwatch, I think, is supposed to be more of an adrenaline based fun. I can definitely see the angle you're coming from though, in terms of the different communities, and I definitely believe this is going to be an issue when the game launches. Most likely, the game is going to attract a large number of TF2 players when it first gets released out of beta and I'd be willing to bet that a large number of them will be unsatisfied with the game for the reasons that you bring up. However, a game being designed around the idea of winning and competition is not a death sentence (as I'm sure you're aware), and in this respect I think @Ambris brings up a good point regarding Blizzard as a company. Blizzard knows how to make good games, and they're certainly not strangers to creating games based around competition. Ultimately, I think what's really going to determine how long this game lasts is going to be the depth of the gameplay and weather or not it can create a competitive scene. I'd say it has the potential, from what I've seen of it, but who knows.
 

Not What We Expected

Fire Alpaca
Backers' Beta Tester
Feb 3, 2016
25
32
27
Manhattan, KS
I've been in beta since... wave 2 or so. It's a fantastic game! Definitely worth the $40 price for it (Sorry anyone who isn't American, your prices got screwed...).

As a medic main in TF2, I hopped straight into supports like Mercy and Symmetra. Both of which I consider myself very good at, but Symmetra's a pretty difficult pick in a casual pub where nobody has any coordination and your sentries really don't get much done as a ward, but rather should be used for blocking off a path. It's really disappointing to be unable to use them to their full potential. Mercy is also annoying to play in pubs when the enemy team has that one Tracer that just never dies! It's horrible! I can't wait for beta to start again tomorrow!
 

Squid

Backers' Beta Tester
Backers' Beta Tester
Feb 3, 2016
7
1
Seen a lot of videos and the games looks so fun. I've been looking for a replacement for tf2 since it went f2p. Hoping to get into the beta and try out mei, I've always enjoyed iced type characters.
 

Mr_Kenyon

Crowdfund Backer
Crowdfund Backer
Feb 3, 2016
11
9
I got a chance to try it out with the Stress Test a while back, and enjoyed myself a lot, not gonna lie.

I figured I'd like Reinhardt, and the big ol' son of a bitch did NOT disappoint.

Zenyatta was not a character I expected to like, but he's a surprisingly good support character that can still do some damage, I really found myself liking him a bunch!

I hope I get let into the next Beta tomorrow, I'd really like to give the other characters a good strong try.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ambris

Not What We Expected

Fire Alpaca
Backers' Beta Tester
Feb 3, 2016
25
32
27
Manhattan, KS
Bastion got the buff he needed, but he's so bloody hard to deal with now if he has healing lol. I think they gave him slightly too much armor, but it's still better than it was before.
 

Octavia

Crowdfund Backer
Crowdfund Backer
Feb 3, 2016
37
28
I dont have beta access but i played during the weekend stress test. Love the hell out of Mei. Bringing up an ice wall to block off chokepoints while your team gets in position to defend the point is is lol
 

AirSonance

"My heals are here for you!"
Backers' Beta Tester
Feb 3, 2016
9
1
Oh, so here's where all the Overwatch discussions happen.

Haven't played, but I'm definitely looking forward to my tanks. Namely, D.Va and Zarya.

"Nerf this!"
 

Velvet_The_Reindeer

Backers' Beta Tester
Backers' Beta Tester
Feb 13, 2016
154
95
Couldn't get into the beta.

Still I can't wait to play this game especially playing as Widowmaker or Mercy.

I do hope they also add an offline (Vs Bot) option too for warm up and such.
 

fah_q2

Just some guy
Backers' Beta Tester
Feb 3, 2016
118
53
Pharah, Reaper, Soldier 76, and Junkrat are my most played so far. I haven't really try any of the tank or support heroes yet.
 

Avering

Pew-Pew
Backers' Beta Tester
Feb 3, 2016
1,280
1,175
30
Your soup
How's the community so far? Is it as toxic as most Mobas? Or at least heading for that direction if you are not exactly the best of players?
 

Oreo

Keepin' It Stylish
Mane6 QA
Feb 2, 2016
270
418
35
D.M.V. FGC
How's the community so far? Is it as toxic as most Mobas? Or at least heading for that direction if you are not exactly the best of players?
Since the game isn't a MOBA, the communication isn't the same. Think of connecting to a random TF2 server. Almost zero communication with randoms.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sutekh94

CamTSB

僕は誰なんだろう?
Mane6 QA
Feb 2, 2016
486
497
33
Ontario, Canada
twitter.com
How's the community so far? Is it as toxic as most Mobas? Or at least heading for that direction if you are not exactly the best of players?
I had someone tell me to leave last night, and they were on my team. But like Oreo said, that's... the only time anyone not in my squad has said anything to me in the game.
 

Ambris

Wolf in Sheep's Clothing
Backers' Beta Tester
Feb 3, 2016
105
138
Tracer <3<3<3

She can be hard to play, but damn is she fun.
 

TigerKirby215

I should be doing work right now
Crowdfund Backer
Mar 29, 2016
168
85
Play of the Game in a nutshell
TigerKirby215 said:
TigerKirby215 said:
There were so many times that I'd keep my entire team alive as Lucio or Revive 4 people as Mercy, just for POTG to be taken by a Bastion/Widowmaker getting 3 kills by sitting in a corner. Like "Wow so skilled. Best player I've ever freaking seen. o_O "
TigerKirby215 said:
Basically this.
Quoted from the obligatory Overwatch thread on the Awesomenauts (Off-Topic) forums.
 
Top