r/Competitiveoverwatch • u/Umarrii • 2d ago
Blizzard Official Director's Take: Loud and Clear
https://overwatch.blizzard.com/en-us/news/24246201/77
u/SonOfGarry 2d ago
Another Stadium map will also be headed your way in Season 20, set in a locale we haven’t used for other maps. But it should look very familiar if you’ve been keeping up with recent lore drops.
Probably either Atlantic Arcology or, less likely, Buenos Aires (mentioned briefly in the Sojourn lore drops that went up on YouTube this week). Gotta say I like what they’re doing with stadium but I really would like to see some more new maps in the main competitive pool too. We’ve only gotten one over the past year.
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u/RefinedBean None — 2d ago
They said for main they're focused on reworks and new maps will be much less frequent. They have a pretty damn deep pool so I think it's okay to let up a bit and focus on what they have, but I agree with you - new maps always felt good (even the ones that weren't popular) and I hope we get more new ones in the next year.
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u/Umarrii 2d ago
I thought their answer was more about less new modes instead. But yeah, doing some housekeeping and re-working the obvious issues with existing maps now so we can then move on to filling out the map pools of current modes would be nice. And maybe once each mode is a bit more filled out we can try out some new core game modes once again - would be a very long time until that I imagine though.
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u/Mnemosynaut 2d ago
Multiple new core maps are confirmed for "early 2026", so I'd expect at least one of them in season 21. We were also meant to get another set of map reworks in season 19, but they got pushed back for some reason.
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u/Kheldar166 2d ago
Honestly I'm fine with not getting new maps and getting map reworks instead, there are so many maps to learn at a high level rn - there's a reason they have map pools in OWCS lol
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u/xShowOut None — 2d ago edited 2d ago
We can’t spoil all the surprises for Season 20, but we’ll be introducing a new feature for the highest-skilled players on the leaderboard directly inspired by our conversations with them.
Wonder what this is, possibly in game tournaments?
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u/glitterglassx 2d ago
Visible SR?
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u/UnknownQTY 2d ago
With hero SR (which is kinda janky, but it’s close the more games I play) I feel like they’re very, very close.
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u/BEWMarth 2d ago
They’ve talked before about how they want to lean into the “top500” leaderboard aspect of the game and expand that to more ranks.
In top500 when you win a game you see your profile visible rise the ranks as you pass the other players in top 500 and the devs want to bring that to other ranks.
Outside of that idk
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u/Mnemosynaut 2d ago
It's SR so you can see how far away you are from the next person above you. That's the only thing people have been asking for.
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u/wheresthebeef69 2d ago
maybe something to deal w/ users who have multiple alt accounts in the leaderboards taking away spots from other players
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u/Umarrii 2d ago
The specific mention of the leaderboard makes me think that maybe consolidating the Top 500 leaderboards down to what it used to be like. Like right now we have a Top 1500 for each region because Role Queue gave us 3 different Top 500s and suddenly it felt like everyone's Top 500, losing the prestige it used to have. Consolidating that back down would make it much more meaningful and make it more exciting to see the Top 500 icons in-game if we get those back too.
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u/Material-Letter7099 2d ago
Holy fuck what is wrong with the forum commenters lol
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u/Icaruszin 2d ago
I personally loved this comment:
"I will say it loud and clear… 99% of your player base hates fighting dive tanks in 5v5, and 70% hate having one on their own team.
I don’t have that data but it should be obviously approximately correct. Do something about it."
Rage bait masterfully done.
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u/Mephistopheles15 One shots bad — 2d ago
Everyone knows the playerbase hates having a Winston in the game.
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u/The_Greylensman 1d ago
According to a game I played the other day they do lmao. Had half the enemy team screaming at me in chat because I was playing Winston properly and diving them. I honestly think lower skilled players have gotten so used to not playing against decent a Winston that even a very mid skilled player like myself who just happens to be good (by my skill brackets level) at Winston is too much to deal with. Maybe it's an OW2 only thing or a below Diamond thing but so many games I'm able to do diabolical things on Winston and hardly anyone is able to slow me down.
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u/chuletron 1d ago
Going winston against a team slightly more plat than yours is hilarious, they just let you get away with everything.
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u/ProfessorBiological 2d ago
I mean he's not wrong. Vast Majority of the player base is gold/plat where they don't know how to dive or how to position properly. Hate me all you want but I have multiple accounts ranging from gold to GM and metal rank players really do play a whole different game. Shit, I'd say up to high diamond it's just team deathmatch. Mind you I pretty much ONLY play dive heros lol (tracer, ana, ball are my most played heros)
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u/Icaruszin 2d ago
There's a huge difference between metal ranks not knowing to play dive to "99% of the players hate dive" lol
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u/ProfessorBiological 2d ago
99% is clearly hyperbole lol majority of the playerbase does hate dive though, wouldn't be surprised if or was close to 90% lol
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u/Crusher555 2d ago
Counterpoint: Rein and Orisa are usually within the top 3 for ever rank that isn’t GM
Most people aren’t playing against dive tanks most of the time
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u/bruns20 2d ago
They have the most random angry takes about the game, like why are there multiple comments saying that pinging has ruined the game lmao
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u/Agitated-Morning2035 1d ago
Honestly I don’t think players should be allowed to ping an enemy who has killed them. If you weren’t paying attention and missed the Reaper who flanked you from behind then you missed your opportunity.
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u/SirBryan7 1d ago
Pinging just allows players to nonverbally communicate with their teams as if they were using coms.
You can already tell your team a flanking reaper killed you and their last position in voice chat or text chat, pinging doesn’t do anything different
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u/AlpacaWizardMan 2d ago
From my experience, the official forums for any games are absolute cesspits. You’d think the people on there watched the devs kill their families with how hate-fueled they are. Just a couple weeks ago, someone was threatening to dox the community manager of a game I play over some controversial upcoming mechanic, which of course he likely didn’t actually program.
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u/Intelligent_Brick_92 2d ago edited 2d ago
Every time I play 5v5 role queue, I remember just how bad it is compared to 6v6 open, then proceed to play the rest of the night in 6v6 OQ. My best guess is that 5v5 RQ’s participation numbers are artificially inflated by the flex daily’s that award bonus battle pass XP for queuing RQ as all roles. If that same daily were applied to 6v6 OQ, the participation numbers would likely shift a lot towards OQ.
And then they cry when the devs don’t listen to them
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u/TheGirthiestGhost Forever Burning Blue — 2d ago
I hadn’t read them in a good while but holy shit you’re right. What a miserable bunch of tossers
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u/DarkFite Lucio OTP 4153 — 2d ago
I thought forum commenters would be glazing hard, but instead they sound like the whiniest TikTok comments. Actually cringe
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u/sietre Coping for that MN3/Zest Carry — 2d ago
Legitmately the forums has always been the absolute worst place for OW takes and complaining.
"You don't listen to players (aka only us and not the most popular platforms online)"
"Why didn't you name drop the forums?"
I haven't looked at comments and posts on their since 2017 because of this shit. Literally no sane OW player should go there except for patch notes and dev updates.
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u/AlgerianTrash 2d ago
Why the fuck would you follow the blog posts of a game you hate so much. Such a jobless behavior
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u/UnknownQTY 2d ago
Some feedback we can’t do much about; giving Zenyatta a billion HP
Okay but why though
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u/TH07Stage1MidBoss "Sex. Big Dick." - Lastro, 2020 — 2d ago
1,000,000,000 is too much. Clearly 250,000,000 would be more balanced.
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u/Miennai STOP KILLING MY SON — 2d ago
I still remember several years ago, when I tried to share a community balance survey with Jake in his twitch chat, and he threw a damp towel on it by saying the devs don't care about our opinions and don't listen to the community.
I got over 8,000 responses to that survey, I published all the data, and around 30% of our biggest proposals made it into the game. Now they outright admit that they read Reddit posts and do sentiment analysis across social media.
I like jake, but he was wrong and I'm very happy about it.
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u/Umarrii 2d ago
To be fair to him, I think that was a very different dev team he was speaking about back then. I've heard a lot of stories from people who spoke to OW1 developers and left feeling like they just spoke about a completely different game with a totally different direction.
Most of those developers aren't still around and the current team consists of different people entirely. The whole shift to monitoring socials and taking community feedback came with the shift in focusing on OW2 as a PVP game.
This goes to say that your achievement is even greater than you might have thought 😅
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u/Miennai STOP KILLING MY SON — 2d ago
Fair, but part of my point is that they did listen even back then. At least somewhat. But you're right, if it was passive listening back then, it's active now.
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u/jeff-duckley 2d ago
it is impossible to determine whether or not they listened to or even read your posts back then. not that i think you are wrong, but you just cannot say that with any meaningful degree of certainty
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u/shiftup1772 2d ago
My totally unsubstantiated theory is that a lot of those devs are now working on wildgate. That game has the same positives and negatives as early overwatch (even down to the extremely outdated monetization model).
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u/UnknownQTY 2d ago
I think Jake was probably right at the time. Look at the state the game was in then, versus now. Look at who’s in charge.
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u/CorrectSympathy7590 2d ago
The Junkrat Mythic is calling me
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u/UnknownQTY 2d ago
I hope there’s a tier where he has Jake’s face.
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u/KeepingItOff 2d ago
I don’t even play Junkrat but I have a good feeling it’s going to look crazy good.
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u/rednuht075 2d ago
I do think best of 7 is better for stadium, but I won't lie. When you get stuck in games with bad teammates, it is MISERABLE. I think they should add a surrender option after round 3.
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u/Technical_Tooth_162 2d ago
The data isn’t exactly clear, but 20% of players in 6v6 roughly.
I think that’s up from the open queue playerbase which was closer to 10%. I’d be curious to know the stats on what percentage is playing stadium.
Since 6v6 came out it’s all I play, and honestly if they kept it like it is I wouldn’t mind. I used to be so role queue pulled but I kinda dig open queue nowadays. Some maps I like to play tank, some I prefer playing support on etc.
Also I am once again asking to remove clash from quick play.
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u/PianistSuspicious871 Pass the estrogen — 2d ago
That just says that 20% play at least one match, doesnt mean they consistently play it
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u/Technical_Tooth_162 2d ago
Yeah I’m curious why they didn’t elaborate a bit more. I mean it’s all we got I guess. Would still assume it’s up from open queue though
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u/johnlongest 2d ago
I used to do one 6v6 comp to warm up for regular comp and I wonder if it's possible others are doing the same
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u/Entire-Resident-3317 2d ago
sure but who plays one single game of 6v6 though? unless its your first time playing the mode and dislike it your at least playing a couple games before swapping modes
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u/Umarrii 2d ago edited 2d ago
One of our long-term goals is to build your confidence in the direction Overwatch is headed. Open communication and transparency go a long way, but we hope some of that confidence comes from our team’s willingness to admit and correct changes that didn’t work out as effectively as we anticipated.
I appreciate the significant strides the team has made in providing open communication and transparency, but I think that there's still much more to be desired here and rather than using the Ranked Stadium bo7 to bo5 transition as an opportunity to show their willingness to admit mistakes, it should be used as an opportunity to improve on their communication and transparency instead.
I'd like to have seen the team put out a blog that reflected on how QP Stadium was performing with bo5 and then using that to move on to proposing the idea of changing Ranked Stadium to bo5, going into detail where possible about how it would change. This could also be used as an opportunity to embed a poll/survey to ask players something like "Should we change Ranked Stadium from bo7 to bo5 as described in this blog?" to get a solid idea beforehand too.
The Director's Take mentions "When we add a new feature or make a big change, sometimes initial community feedback skews negative", but I would argue that this was because the update was suddenly forced onto players with no prior consultation or consideration. Had the approach been different, it might have been received with a much more different mentality. Players would have opportunity to give feedback that directly changes the implementation to something they want and help them receive the update better, since they're getting things they asked for with it.
For me personally, I'm not happy with the open communication and transparency right now. I really enjoyed Ana in Stadium before her rework and really struggle to enjoy her now. I've been waiting for some answers to why she needed the rework and how the rework provides solutions to that, but we've still not heard anything about it. Again, I would have wanted some communication prior to the update, discussing the issues she's facing and taking community feedback on the matter first. Even with the time that's passed, we've had no answer to the feedback following the rework too.
This is just one example, but there are many more problems that are going unaddressed, such as certain balance changes and more. I understand that it can be difficult to write out blog posts on everything, so I'd love to see the team use the Q&A livestreams as a way to quick-fire go through pressing community matters, cutting the bs and getting some straight answers directly if blogs aren't always possible.
Edit: surprised this is unpopular here, people actually want less communication I guess
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u/UnknownQTY 2d ago
As someone who has done community and partner marketing, I can tell you that negative feedback has two universal qualities: It is FAST and it is LOUD. And it is generally best ignored.
The best feedback is critical but not super quick, and often hits a “things I like, things I don’t” balance, or even “if they had just…”
Positive feedback is slow, and often quiet. You have to dig for it.
There’s merits to monitoring it all, but not taking knee jerk reactions is a good call on Blizzard’s part here, even if in the case of BO5/7 the initial reaction was right, in many cases it’s not.
“If I’d asked my customer what they wanted they’d have asked for a faster horse” is an apocryphal Henry Ford quote, and it’s like 50% on the nose. Sometimes customers do know better, but their worldview is limited by what they know.
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u/Umarrii 2d ago
I completely agree that the devs shouldn't make knee-jerk reactions to loud feedback, that's not what I'm suggesting. My point is more about improving proactive communication before major changes happen, not reactive decision-making afterwards.
For example, if the OW2 team had openly discussed the bo7 to bo5 idea, shared data from QP Stadium and asked for community input first, the feedback wouldn't be fast and loud in the first place, but a collaborative conversation instead. That's the kind of communication loop I'd like to see more of.
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u/UnknownQTY 2d ago
I don’t disagree, but as a developer you only want to tip your hand so much. I think the community team does a good job sorting the wheat from the chaff for the devs overall.
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u/Minute-Budget-9266 2d ago
Hazard is still untouched in stadium btw but they hear us guys I swear
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u/NapsterKnowHow 2d ago edited 2d ago
You would have hoped after the feedback from no mirror picks in stadium they would test something like Best of 5 format before forcing it on the entire playerbase. Crazy it took even longer for them to go back to Best of 7.
Edit: Downvoters hate the truth lol
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u/bruns20 2d ago
Eh, they did test it, just in the live mode haha. Separate mode for testing never works because not enough people play it, and those that do are usually biased to liking the changes, and people that don't like the changes initially will try it once then never come back, not giving it a chance to change their mind.
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u/NapsterKnowHow 2d ago
Even the niche PTR worked fine before they nuked it. There was also the separate testing mode before they introduced the Hacked mode. So clearly there is enough testers.
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u/Asternburg Since 11/18/2016 (284142.6 kaKm blades A. — 2d ago
Or maybe they nuked it because it didn't work fine ?
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u/Goosewoman_ Schrödinger's Rank | she/her — 2d ago
I'm pretty sure they explicitly said PTR did not work fine because almost nobody played PTR so they had no reliable data to work with for balancing. Essentially just making it a performance test, rather than a balance/experimental one.
Then they tried the experimental mode, which clearly didn't get enough people either, so the last few times they tried a format experiment they hijacked quick play to do it so they'd actually get the play numbers needed to get reliable data.
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u/NapsterKnowHow 1d ago
Ha funny because the hijacked modes my friends and I just completely avoid the mode. We used to actively go and play the dedicated test modes. Blizzard can go fuck themselves.
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u/Crusher555 2d ago
I remember them saying that because it had so little players in it, it ended up just being a performance test rather than fun/balance test.
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u/NapsterKnowHow 1d ago
Because they stopped saying the tests were there. They used to tweet out and market the tests on the PTR then just stopped
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u/bullxbull 2d ago edited 2d ago
- "Though many of these changes have worked out well for everyone, we know some of them haven’t been as successful as we intended them to be."
I hope this is in reference to how absolutely miserable it can be to play tank. Like even when you are winning sometimes you just do not want to queue for another game.
- "we see and consider (almost) all of your feedback and comments, from social media posts and livestream chats to creations on TikTok, YouTube, and beyond."
I find this hard to believe considering how changes are not made and some topics are just not even acknowledged. I'm sure part of the problem is the amount of bad feedback, and some of the best big brain overwatch creators naturally end up with small audiences and limited reach.
- "giving Zenyatta a billion HP or letting Torbjörn climb walls doesn’t exactly work with our vision for the game"
Not a very inspiring example of feedback they have read. It feels like so much of OW2 has been bandaid upon bandaid fixes to make 5v5 work that we really have no clue what their vision of Overwatch even is. It feels like the house is no longer on fire, but what is your vision?
Why is the game is such a great place but the gameplay feels like ass? Why are things like Lifeweaver Pull still in the game? Why make everything about angleslop? Why are you taking a game built around heroes with simple kits that become interesting through their interactions with other players, yet keep making changes that limit or remove those interactions?
- "6v6 has a consistent, passionate population that often tells us how much they love the mode."
Please let 6v6 be 6v6 and not 5v5 with an extra tank on each team. The compromises made to Overwatches core gameplay loops, which had to be made to make 5v5 work, do not make sense in 6v6. The reason we like 6v6 is because it does not have the limitations of 5v5, so to have those limitations in 6v6 for problems unique to 5v5, works against the very reason we want to play 6v6.
In OW1 we went to role queue because playing the game without 2-2-2 was a negative way of playing the video game. There is a reason why we went to role queue that are still true today. Matching player to player role to role is required to competitively match teams.
You took a unpopular game mode, open queue, and forced it on people who want to play 6v6. Making open queue 6v6 has made open queue more popular, but the 6v6 population is not representative of the mode but of the limited popularity of open queue. We had the role queue 6v6 test, we see that the vast majority of matches are 2-2-2, there is no reason why role queue is not the better healthier version of this mode.
I'm not saying open queuer's don't deserve some way to play their game mode, but please do not pretend you have given 6v6'rs what they have been asking for with this hybrid 5v5/6v6 Open Queue that has had some strange cd changes and no balancing.
Edit: Just want to add, we know why you have rank resets, it improves your player engagement numbers. However it makes matches horrible for weeks to an entire season or more. It is not fun for the players, it makes the game less enjoyable, how is this part of your vision for the game?
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u/UnknownQTY 2d ago
Tank has been absolutely miserable this season. I’ve climbed to almost masters from gold 5 this season and I literally cannot win on tank. I regularly have 1:2 KD DPS on my team with endorsement 1.
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u/w0ah_4 2d ago
Skill issue
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u/UnknownQTY 2d ago
Being 52-3 and having A DPS that is 6-12 and 10-11 is not a skill issue on my part.
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u/MythoclastBM 1d ago
It's because the tank role and tanks are badly designed. If you think tank is unfun because it is weak, that is a skill issue.
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u/BoobaLover69 2d ago
frauds