The OverThinker: Winter Wonderland 2019, the New Patch's Release Schedule, and the Problem with these Revelations
A couple days ago, Big Daddy Jeff made a post on the Blizzard forums, saying that the new, Barrier-Killing Patch would be brought onto the live servers some time this coming week (which begins today), and that the Winter Wonderland event of this year would be dropping on the same day as well. These came as glad tidings to the Overwatch community, which is waiting eagerly for Double Barrier to be nerfed, but Jeff's post on the forums also sparked some more discussion about developer transparency.
Welcome to The OverThinker, or if you've been here before, welcome back! I, Proilios, am glad you're here, because we've got an important, albeit slightly shorter post than usual today.
A few days before Jeff's post announcing the arrival of Winter Wonderland and the new patch, Trill (if I remember correctly), from the Dallas Fuel, shared a screenshot of a Contenders notice on Twitter, which mentioned that the new patch would hit the live servers in mid-January. This caused a lot of outrage among the community, with players all across the globe being upset that it's going to take so long for Blizzard to 'fix' the live meta. I think the Overwatch dev team knew that this could turn out to be a PR nightmare, which is why Jeff made that post, saying that the mid-January release time was nothing but "misinformation". I think it's good that he hopped onto the forums and cleared up the confusion, but it made me think about why such a situation had arisen in the first place. If he and his team had planned to release the Winter event as well as the new patch so soon, why didn't they inform the player base themselves? This lack of communication is a major problem, and it's not healthy for a live game's audience to be kept in the dark about future changes to such a great extent. When was the last time we had a dev update? Well, it was 4 months ago, back when Sigma and Role Queue were new additions to the PTR, not even the live game. Since then it's been radio silence from the development team, with the only major communication from them coming in the form of Overwatch 2's announcement (that too at BlizzCon), and the interviews they did for different media outlets about the PvE-focused sequel.
What about the Overwatch 1 player base though? We're still playing the live game, we're still grinding Competitive, we're still waiting for a meta shift, we're still keen on reductions to queue times, and we're still waiting for someone to talk to us or tell us what's next for the game. Unfortunately for us, it seems like the developers have shifted almost the entirety of their focus to Overwatch 2, and although I get that it's a big project, it's your job as a development team to make sure you don't neglect your other games and their communities, no matter what you're working on. What's even more appalling is that in this case, Overwatch and Overwatch 2 are essentially the same game, the only difference being PvE content and graphical upgrades. A good chunk of the Overwatch 2 player base is going to carry over from Overwatch 1, so isn't that enough of an incentive to encourage the devs to focus on the live game? Good communication is key to maintaining an active player base, and I'm sure we all agree that the Overwatch team is lacking in that regard.
In order to further illustrate what I mean, I'm going to talk about another live game that I used to play, which is Tom Clancy's 'The Division' by Ubisoft. A 3PS which was released in 2016, The Division was, in its early days, criticised for its repetitive gameplay, lack of creative in-game interactions, predictable AI, and unimpressive endgame content. As a result, the game lost a huge chunk of its player base in their first year itself, and they had to do something to get those players back, draw new faces in, and retain their active audience all at the same time. One step they took in order to do so, and I don't know how far into the game's deployment they began doing this, was doing weekly live-streams called 'State of the Game', where a few of the game's community leaders and developers spoke about their experiences with the game in the past 7 days, shared player statistics, addressed the community's concerns, answered questions from live viewers, and showed off really amazing fan content. The live audience of these streams was usually just in a few hundreds, but the viewership would go up to a few thousands once players who couldn't watch it live viewed its VODs. In retrospect, this wasn't the best thing the devs could've done to improve the game, but it kept the community alive long enough for them to start deploying fresh, new, and sometimes jaw-dropping content onto the servers, which naturally drew old players back to the game, and encouraged more 3PS fans to purchase it. It's surprising how such a simple move as a weekly live-stream can help you connect more with your players, keep them informed about the game, tell them what to expect, and sometimes even console them because their wishes aren't going to be granted. I used to wait quite intently for State of the Game each week, as I was a very active Division player, and wouldn't make any commitments for Thursday evenings just so I could watch the show live and ask questions. It would always be a worthwhile half hour spent with hosts Hamish, Yannick and Petter, or a combination of the 3, even if they had nothing special to announce game or feature-wise.
The important thing was that they'd take the trouble to engage regularly with their player base, make sure they're on the same page, and set expectations for the near future, no matter if it pleased their audience or not. We, as players, know that we can't always get what we want, but it's the suspense of "Oh, are we getting this feature in the game or not?" that kills us and our passion for the games we play about half the time. With The Division, we knew exactly what we were and weren't going to get, and when certain things were going to happen, be it events, patch updates, bug fixes, or content drops; but with Overwatch, we rarely ever know what the devs are working on, when the game is going to be updated, or when the seasonal events are going to take place, although we can make calculated guesses about that last one. Also, similar to Overwatch, The Division also announced a sequel (that too on an episode of State of the Game), but still kept the show going even if they didn't have much to announce after that. Now, State of the Game runs for Division 2, with the first game having taken a much-expected backseat.
All this considered, I think Blizzard could take a few simple steps so that the community doesn't feel left out that much. First of all, monthly dev updates could certainly be feasible. Jeff could speak about things like what they're working on, address the hot topics in the community that month, and in general summarise how the game is doing. They don't have to be extra-transparent, because we know Blizzard doesn't like that, but they could at least tease some things like new heroes and maps through these updates, since they've always loved doing that and because decoding them would be a fun exercise for speculators and theorists of all kinds to undertake, with bragging rights and community recognition on the line. Jeff could also do things like share the codes of workshop modes that he and his team have come across and liked, show off fan art posted on Reddit, or even promote up and coming content creators whom they've grown to appreciate. There's so much that could be done in these updates to keep the conversation about Overwatch going, and honestly, it doesn't even have to be Big Daddy Jeff doing the talking. You could get people like Michael Chu and Geoff Goodman even to record a few updates if Papa Kaplan is busy.
Alongside this though, I'd say a weekly AMA (Ask Me Anything) session on the Overwatch forums would be a fun exercise. Each week, you could put a different member of the Overwatch team on the forefront and ask the players to pose questions to them. The team member could then reply to some of those questions, thereby humanising the hardworking souls behind the game, and reminding the player base that they aren't exactly lifeless robots working toward a singular cause. It would also give the team members a chance to interact with the community more closely, give them more exposure with regard to public relations, and contribute to their overall development as an employee and a human being. If the AMA doesn't sound like a good idea or if the team isn't up to it, there could be a weekly game statistics post. For instance, the devs could share the most striking map-based winrates, like for example, "Only 5% of attackers could capture the first point on Paris this week" (a statistic I wouldn't disbelieve), or "Exactly 50% of teams could capture both points of Hanamura this week" (unlikely, but it would be fun if something like this actually happened). In addition to map winrates, you could even do statistics like "Hero that dealt the most damage this week", or "Hero that healed the most this week", or "Hero that had the best KDR this week". There are so many stats you could share with the players which aren't already available in-game, that it would increase player participation on the forums just to get more information about the game they're playing. I'm certain small activities like these would help retain more players in the short run, and give the devs time to rebuild relations with their consumers. It would also buy them time to figure out smoother ways to communicate with their audience, as well as reduce the frequency of leaks, which is a whole different subject altogether.
I think we're finally at a make-or-break point in Overwatch. The developers and community managers need to get their act together and start communicating with the player base more often. We already know there's going to be a stagnation of content in Overwatch until Overwatch 2 drops, but we don't want that to be accompanied by total silence or extended periods of suspense. We, as players, need to know what to expect from this game that we grind so much, and I'm saying this from both: a casual, and a competitive player's perspective, because we need changes to both kinds of content. Honestly guys, I love this game, and I don't want it to die, especially because of maddening reasons such as this. If you agree with what I had to say, do share this post around with all the Overwatch players you know. Also, subscribe to my blog to be alerted about future posts (it's really easy, you just hit 'Subscribe' and enter your email ID). If you want to provide any insights about this topic or my post, feel free to use the comments section, and yeah, I guess that's all I have for you for now. Thank you so much for the read, and I hope to see you again on 'The Plat Player's Perspective'. Cheers.
Welcome to The OverThinker, or if you've been here before, welcome back! I, Proilios, am glad you're here, because we've got an important, albeit slightly shorter post than usual today.
A few days before Jeff's post announcing the arrival of Winter Wonderland and the new patch, Trill (if I remember correctly), from the Dallas Fuel, shared a screenshot of a Contenders notice on Twitter, which mentioned that the new patch would hit the live servers in mid-January. This caused a lot of outrage among the community, with players all across the globe being upset that it's going to take so long for Blizzard to 'fix' the live meta. I think the Overwatch dev team knew that this could turn out to be a PR nightmare, which is why Jeff made that post, saying that the mid-January release time was nothing but "misinformation". I think it's good that he hopped onto the forums and cleared up the confusion, but it made me think about why such a situation had arisen in the first place. If he and his team had planned to release the Winter event as well as the new patch so soon, why didn't they inform the player base themselves? This lack of communication is a major problem, and it's not healthy for a live game's audience to be kept in the dark about future changes to such a great extent. When was the last time we had a dev update? Well, it was 4 months ago, back when Sigma and Role Queue were new additions to the PTR, not even the live game. Since then it's been radio silence from the development team, with the only major communication from them coming in the form of Overwatch 2's announcement (that too at BlizzCon), and the interviews they did for different media outlets about the PvE-focused sequel.
What about the Overwatch 1 player base though? We're still playing the live game, we're still grinding Competitive, we're still waiting for a meta shift, we're still keen on reductions to queue times, and we're still waiting for someone to talk to us or tell us what's next for the game. Unfortunately for us, it seems like the developers have shifted almost the entirety of their focus to Overwatch 2, and although I get that it's a big project, it's your job as a development team to make sure you don't neglect your other games and their communities, no matter what you're working on. What's even more appalling is that in this case, Overwatch and Overwatch 2 are essentially the same game, the only difference being PvE content and graphical upgrades. A good chunk of the Overwatch 2 player base is going to carry over from Overwatch 1, so isn't that enough of an incentive to encourage the devs to focus on the live game? Good communication is key to maintaining an active player base, and I'm sure we all agree that the Overwatch team is lacking in that regard.
In order to further illustrate what I mean, I'm going to talk about another live game that I used to play, which is Tom Clancy's 'The Division' by Ubisoft. A 3PS which was released in 2016, The Division was, in its early days, criticised for its repetitive gameplay, lack of creative in-game interactions, predictable AI, and unimpressive endgame content. As a result, the game lost a huge chunk of its player base in their first year itself, and they had to do something to get those players back, draw new faces in, and retain their active audience all at the same time. One step they took in order to do so, and I don't know how far into the game's deployment they began doing this, was doing weekly live-streams called 'State of the Game', where a few of the game's community leaders and developers spoke about their experiences with the game in the past 7 days, shared player statistics, addressed the community's concerns, answered questions from live viewers, and showed off really amazing fan content. The live audience of these streams was usually just in a few hundreds, but the viewership would go up to a few thousands once players who couldn't watch it live viewed its VODs. In retrospect, this wasn't the best thing the devs could've done to improve the game, but it kept the community alive long enough for them to start deploying fresh, new, and sometimes jaw-dropping content onto the servers, which naturally drew old players back to the game, and encouraged more 3PS fans to purchase it. It's surprising how such a simple move as a weekly live-stream can help you connect more with your players, keep them informed about the game, tell them what to expect, and sometimes even console them because their wishes aren't going to be granted. I used to wait quite intently for State of the Game each week, as I was a very active Division player, and wouldn't make any commitments for Thursday evenings just so I could watch the show live and ask questions. It would always be a worthwhile half hour spent with hosts Hamish, Yannick and Petter, or a combination of the 3, even if they had nothing special to announce game or feature-wise.
The important thing was that they'd take the trouble to engage regularly with their player base, make sure they're on the same page, and set expectations for the near future, no matter if it pleased their audience or not. We, as players, know that we can't always get what we want, but it's the suspense of "Oh, are we getting this feature in the game or not?" that kills us and our passion for the games we play about half the time. With The Division, we knew exactly what we were and weren't going to get, and when certain things were going to happen, be it events, patch updates, bug fixes, or content drops; but with Overwatch, we rarely ever know what the devs are working on, when the game is going to be updated, or when the seasonal events are going to take place, although we can make calculated guesses about that last one. Also, similar to Overwatch, The Division also announced a sequel (that too on an episode of State of the Game), but still kept the show going even if they didn't have much to announce after that. Now, State of the Game runs for Division 2, with the first game having taken a much-expected backseat.
All this considered, I think Blizzard could take a few simple steps so that the community doesn't feel left out that much. First of all, monthly dev updates could certainly be feasible. Jeff could speak about things like what they're working on, address the hot topics in the community that month, and in general summarise how the game is doing. They don't have to be extra-transparent, because we know Blizzard doesn't like that, but they could at least tease some things like new heroes and maps through these updates, since they've always loved doing that and because decoding them would be a fun exercise for speculators and theorists of all kinds to undertake, with bragging rights and community recognition on the line. Jeff could also do things like share the codes of workshop modes that he and his team have come across and liked, show off fan art posted on Reddit, or even promote up and coming content creators whom they've grown to appreciate. There's so much that could be done in these updates to keep the conversation about Overwatch going, and honestly, it doesn't even have to be Big Daddy Jeff doing the talking. You could get people like Michael Chu and Geoff Goodman even to record a few updates if Papa Kaplan is busy.
Alongside this though, I'd say a weekly AMA (Ask Me Anything) session on the Overwatch forums would be a fun exercise. Each week, you could put a different member of the Overwatch team on the forefront and ask the players to pose questions to them. The team member could then reply to some of those questions, thereby humanising the hardworking souls behind the game, and reminding the player base that they aren't exactly lifeless robots working toward a singular cause. It would also give the team members a chance to interact with the community more closely, give them more exposure with regard to public relations, and contribute to their overall development as an employee and a human being. If the AMA doesn't sound like a good idea or if the team isn't up to it, there could be a weekly game statistics post. For instance, the devs could share the most striking map-based winrates, like for example, "Only 5% of attackers could capture the first point on Paris this week" (a statistic I wouldn't disbelieve), or "Exactly 50% of teams could capture both points of Hanamura this week" (unlikely, but it would be fun if something like this actually happened). In addition to map winrates, you could even do statistics like "Hero that dealt the most damage this week", or "Hero that healed the most this week", or "Hero that had the best KDR this week". There are so many stats you could share with the players which aren't already available in-game, that it would increase player participation on the forums just to get more information about the game they're playing. I'm certain small activities like these would help retain more players in the short run, and give the devs time to rebuild relations with their consumers. It would also buy them time to figure out smoother ways to communicate with their audience, as well as reduce the frequency of leaks, which is a whole different subject altogether.
I think we're finally at a make-or-break point in Overwatch. The developers and community managers need to get their act together and start communicating with the player base more often. We already know there's going to be a stagnation of content in Overwatch until Overwatch 2 drops, but we don't want that to be accompanied by total silence or extended periods of suspense. We, as players, need to know what to expect from this game that we grind so much, and I'm saying this from both: a casual, and a competitive player's perspective, because we need changes to both kinds of content. Honestly guys, I love this game, and I don't want it to die, especially because of maddening reasons such as this. If you agree with what I had to say, do share this post around with all the Overwatch players you know. Also, subscribe to my blog to be alerted about future posts (it's really easy, you just hit 'Subscribe' and enter your email ID). If you want to provide any insights about this topic or my post, feel free to use the comments section, and yeah, I guess that's all I have for you for now. Thank you so much for the read, and I hope to see you again on 'The Plat Player's Perspective'. Cheers.
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