Overwatch?

[Zilla-]

I had a lot of fun playing this at blizzcon and in the open beta. Officially live today~ currently its 10am at my desk job, I'm just counting the hours til i get home and deal with shitty internet and disconnects~~

no but srsly, i knew blizzard was going to take my money with this and today's the day it drops, I'm kinda hyped, hope to see you folks on the rift (or whatever the overwatch version of that saying is. heros never die? idk)

[IskatuMesk]

what is your desk job? do you fabricate bongs?

[SteakofStake]

Yeah, the robo-buddhists are waiting to get high with you zilla



that's what they do, right?

[Mucky]

The amount of salt going around on the blizzard forums towards virtually every character is both hilarious and depressing.

[UntamedLoli]

You made me go look at the forums to see it. Then I read the game has a tick rate of 20. I had me a giggle. I knew they were going to do something incredibly moronic.

[SteakofStake]

My favorite part about this game so far is how bill and kelly complain when I get play of the game

[Lavarinth]

It's pretty fun.

[Rocco]

It's pretty fun.

This, I've been having a blast playing it with my friends. Unfortunately I am on Xbox because of those friends, though I plan on getting it for PC at some point.

[Hercanic]

I played the open beta, and it's definitely got that old-school shooter vibe. I like it.

D'va was my go-to gal. The fighting game style of character roster is a good fit, as it is in MOBAs. Keeps designers and artists employed to continue making new characters, so that's cool. For a designer, there's a lot of flexibility in that design space. Since skill sets are self-contained they have firm control over its balance, and are therefore free to do more exciting things. For instance, in a normal FPS if you design a new weapon it has to balance against all existing weapons. With a skill, you can make it do something really cool, but then build weaknesses into the other skills or character itself (eg. HP, hitbox, movement) to balance out that advantage. TF2 does this with items having both pros and cons, but it doesn't have quite the same appeal or impact as a full-fledged character.

With all the unlocks, like skins and poses, it felt like they were going to go the free-to-play vanity-funded route for monetization, but then Activision was all, 'naww, man, full price.' I find it hard to justify spending $60 on a multiplayer-only arena game, when TF2, Unreal, and Warframe can all scratch that itch if I feel it.

I think they might eventually go F2P, and just give every owner all the current vanity stuff, while F2P players will need to buy those items individually or as a $60 pack.

[SteakofStake]

the game is only 40 dollars, isnt it? the 60 dollars one came with skins and shit

[UntamedLoli]

They're bad at consistency even with the store. The Legion page has buttons to pick which edition you want. Overwatch has it on an entirely different page for some stupid reason with a single line of text linking between the two.

[Zilla-]

tbh im turned off by the micro transactions. i mean, i bought the game, i get "unlocking" skins, but i shouldnt have to pay more to get stuff that i already paid for, the upside is that i dont have to actually buy the loot boxes as they drop when you gain a level, but still, am not pleased.

HOWEVER,

thats a very small part of the game, and i barely have any time to look at loot boxes anyway, the turn around time between rounds is really quick. id even argue too quick (but im biased). its good though, keeps the high pace

[Hercanic]

@Hercanic Yup, game is $40, not $60, and like others have mentioned the loot boxes are fully optional are purely cosmetic. I've been indifferent about paying for cosmetics for years, so it won't change here. At least here, paying for it doesn't guarantee it. It's still as random as paying for Hearthstone packs, unlike LoL's skins. Personally, I see nothing hinting at the likes of it ever going free to play. You could pay for items in Diablo 3's RMAH, WoW is still a monthly subscription, StarCraft 2 isn't free. The only games that are free on their track record are the ones that launched as free. If anything, I feel TF2 is one of few NON-MMO games to decide to go free to play after initially being sold at retail value for $20 in 2007. However, that didn't happen until 2011, likely once sales were nose-diving four years after release with only minimal content updates for years.

If you consider games like Diablo 3, StarCraft 2, and World of WarCraft (their paid games)- it's clear Blizzard has a timeline of at least 5 years of monetizing without free-to-play on their radar. StarCraft 2's main story is done, but the DLC is incoming, which requires a limited free copy of StarCraft 2. Diablo 3 is four years in and likely getting their next expansion announced this year. World of WarCraft is still subscription based with Legion incoming for release, shockingly 12 years later. (Just let it die, already.) I don't know, man, I still have to buy a copy of StarCraft 1 if I wanted to play it, I just don't see free to play ever coming. Why not have the best of both worlds, is the thought process I would think.

However, I do foresee purely map/hero content "season packs" containing a small group of 3-5 new heroes and perhaps 4-6 maps, and an array of more cosmetic content. Since the word expansion pack probably wouldn't fit Overwatch. Thankfully, you know it won't cost $40 dollars since the retail game is this much, hah!

[IskatuMesk]

WoW is basically free and has been ever since they introduced tokens.

[Lavarinth]

WoW is basically free and has been ever since they introduced tokens.

True, but I'm not going to spend a hot minute trying to make gold to dump into game time. What's the point, then? You are playing to earn game time, not to play the game.