Chapter 417: Advantages and problems co-exist in “Overwatch”
After deciding on the next game, Chen Mo started writing the design concept for Overwatch.
As a compet.i.tive game, Overwatch itself did not have much game content. Whether it was the number of heroes, skill mechanisms, map elements, or other aspects, it was far inferior to those real big productions.
In Chen Mo’s plan, the first expansion of the Overwatch was as follows.
In terms of heroes, the first 22 heroes would be released, and new heroes would be added in after the shadow.
In terms of maps, 12 maps will be available, and the maps beyond echeinwald will not be available for the time being.
This was mainly to ensure that the players had the most basic gaming experience. If the content of the game was cut down further, it would be too little, which would greatly affect the gameplay.
In addition, some more important systems had to be done, such as training mode, hero skins, box opening, outstanding performance, social interaction, career overview, choice settings, and so on.
The other changes were to the game, and the biggest change was mainly in the game mode.
Chen Zhao had considered this a lot.
Strictly speaking, Overwatch wasn’t a particularly successful compet.i.tive game. From the perspective of game balance, player data, match enjoyment, popularity, and many other aspects, Overwatch was much worse than DOTA, LOL, and CSGO.
…
Apart from the compet.i.tion, just the gaming experience of the players alone, Overwatch had many flaws.
One of the core problems was that this was a game that tried to eliminate negative feedback, but the players received more negative feedback than most other games.
When players first came into contact with the game, they were very excited and felt that everything was perfect. However, after playing for a long time, they would feel a deep sense of powerlessness.
For many players, there was a very puzzling question. What should I do to win when my teammates are not strong enough?
What should I do to become stronger?
In terms of playstyle, Overwatch had inherited the playstyle of Legion Fortress 2, but it faced problems that Legion Fortress 2 had never faced.
If it was just a niche game, both Legion Fortress 2 and Overwatch would be doing well. However, what if they wanted to replace MOBA games and promote this brand new game mode to the whole world and become one of the mainstream games?
It was too difficult.
There were many reasons for this, but the core reason was that Overwatch wasn’t a mature game model, and Blizzard wasn’t able to make it perfect.
As an FPS game with skills, Overwatch had the playstyle of both MOBA and FPS games. However, it also created many new problems.
Due to the different positions and skills of the heroes, the restraint between different heroes was too obvious. For example, the yuan family was naturally restrained by Winston. This kind of restraint was basically impossible to make up for with skills, which was completely contrary to the habits of FPS players.
In an FPS game, as long as one’s marksmanship was good enough, one could solve most problems. However, this was not the case in Overwatch.
At the same time, since Overwatch’s main gameplay was FPS, any slight change in the numbers would cause extremely serious consequences. Therefore, the balance of the heroes was more difficult than MOBA games, which directly led to problems such as slow updates of new heroes and rigid lineup in high-end games.
At the same time, Blizzard’s preferred “warrior, mage, and priest” Iron Triangle mode also reduced the fun of the game itself.
Overwatch was a game that was extremely dependent on teams. Therefore, some heroes that could provide a lot of benefits to the team, such as Reinhardt, Anna, and Lucio, were very popular. As for the heroes that could not provide any benefits to the team, such as Black Lily, Hanzo, and so on, they would not be accepted by the team even if the player’s skill level was high.
In simple terms, it was the same 6V6, and all the heroes were given 1 point each. Some of the heroes added up to 6 points, while others added up to 100 points.
At the same time, the compet.i.tive mode accelerated the players ‘exploration and development of this game mode. In order to win, most players would force their own side to choose the best lineup, causing hero discrimination to appear even before the game began.
You choose to rebuild the Empire? I don’t care if you’re good at it or not, I’ll spray you first.
(“Rebuild the Empire” refers to the Easter egg that was triggered when Hanzo and black Lily chose it at the same time. These two heroes were similar to snipers and had almost zero bonus to the team, so many players thought that they would not win as long as they were chosen.)
That was why 303 and 402 were so popular, making the game lose the fun of MOBA games and FPS games. In addition, the game update was slow, the single-purchase system caused a low number of players, and the compet.i.tive mode was unreasonable. All of this made the game lose its popularity quickly.
What Chen Mo wanted to do was to take over the advantages of Overwatch while avoiding these flaws, allowing the game to last longer in VR.
The core idea of the change was to completely abandon the compet.i.tive route and make Overwatch a game that leaned more towards entertainment.
The specific approach was to not open the stairway system and not hold any related compet.i.tions.
This might seem absurd, but it was the result of Chen Zhao’s careful consideration. While making Warcraft and League of Legends, Chen Mo was well aware of how the ladder and ranking system would help with compet.i.tive games. It could be said that high-end compet.i.tions were an important addition to League of Legends, and only an idiot wouldn’t make it.
However, for Overwatch, the stairway tree system and related events would not have much of an impact. Instead, it would have a certain negative impact on the game environment.
In Chen Mo’s previous life, the compet.i.tion for Overwatch was also very popular, but there were two problems that couldn’t be solved.
The first was the viewing pleasure. Like all FPS games, this was a small problem that could not be solved.
The second problem was the lineup. As the pro players continued to explore, they would discover that under the current game mechanics, 222 or 303 was the best lineup. Some heroes were just not good, and some heroes were basically useless.
This trend would quickly spread from the compet.i.tion to the high-end games, and then to the fish pond, affecting all the players ‘evaluation of the heroes. In the end, it would inevitably lead to a situation where “rebuilding the Empire combination would lead to abuse”.
Limited by the nature of the game, these two problems were unsolvable. Since they couldn’t be solved, they might as well not do it. If they forced it, it would only overdraft the game’s lifespan and have the opposite effect.