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Anime Overwatch

Blaine

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Do you see this being succesful esports Blaine? Or it's the kind of game that will only see competitive play on blizzcon?

I don't give a shit about esports, livestreaming, or any of that newfangled nonsense.

By "competitive play" I simply mean teams of skilled, organized players fighting it out, who would almost certainly cream any batch of randoms in a pubbie match. This sort of competitive team play existed long before anyone thought of video games as "sports" and spectators are unnecessary, although I suppose now that esports are a thing, private team play might be the equivalent of local or regional baseball teams competing with each other.

In general, public twitch shooter players (AKA pubbies) queue up for random or matchmade public matches (or join a server, etc.), just as the average dota player does in LoL or Dota 2, and that's their entire gameplay. Competitive players most likely began as pubbies, or perhaps migrated from a similar game in the genre, but at some point in time (possibly from the start) began taking their learning process more seriously, analytically, and self-critically (rather than simply experientially) with an eye toward joining or forming a competitive team, practicing as part of a team following team strategies and doctrines, and competing against other teams (as opposed to having random allies and enemies as the winds blow).

The exact differences between a pubbie and a comp player are a bit hard to explain, actually. There are plenty of pubbie players who could destroy a comp player in a 1 vs. 1 deathmatch, for example, but team play is about much more than 1 vs. 1 duels, as anyone familiar with world history ought to know.

The point is, all professional esports are competitive play, but not all competitive play is professional esports.
 

Blaine

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You should give a fuck if you like it because it's the only way MP games see continuous support nowadays.

I'm sure it will be supported for at least a year, and that's plenty long enough. I anticipate 700-800 hours spent playing over the course of about six months, my usual cycle with arena or team shooters that are worth playing.

Four hours per day (average) is the absolute maximum I'm willing to devote to the shooter du jour, and I typically only become enamored with a shooter about once every other year. For that reason (and also my elderly age of 33, though my reflexes and hand-eye coordination are very good) I'll never be a "pro gamer" of any stripe, because they need to devote 8+ hours per day during the week. Nor am I interested in that. I just want a good run of halfway-decent clashes between competitive teams.
 

Zombra

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Yup, it clearly has powerful skills that you can't use at will, like the Gorilla getting enraged or the phantom guy shooting like a blindman with unlimited ammo.
I wonder how they'll avoid being a game about waiting & syncing cooldowns...
I dunno how the gameplay of this game will compare with TF2, but if it's going to focus on spamming speshul abilities rather than good old twitch skills it's probably going to suck.
One very deliberate design feature of TF2 is the stalemate-breaker of the Medic's "Ubercharge" ability. As a result, whenever a team is losing, people start yelling, we need another Medic, we need another Medic ... because that one ability is so important to swing the tide against a team that's beating you. I think it actually makes really good sense to give every class a fuck you ability of this type.

Design wise this looks like absolute ass compared to TF2. There's no unifying style in the character designs, just a random collection of cartoony elements.
TF2 did do a superior job with character communication, silhouettes, etc. I'm hoping that at least team colors will bring this mishmash together somewhat.

---------

What I'm really curious about with this game is what the infrastructure is going to be like. In my opinion that is what will make or break it. Will there be matchmaking? Players of equal skill levels matched against each other? Or will it just be a big random queue and you're randomly assigned to a random team on a random server? Will clans be allowed to team together against disorganized noobs, or will a pregame "scramble" based on skill history be mandatory? Will the servers all be owned and controlled by Blizzard? In short, what are they doing to ensure that games will be close and not just boring curbstomps?
 

Blaine

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As much as character abilities have the potential to dilute a "pure" shooter experience, they also have the potential to add variety and interest; and while they may reduce the emphasis on precise environmental movement, reflexes, and aim, I expect they'll also present their own learning curve in that players must learn to recognize them, avoid or counter them, and when and how to use them to best advantage.

If a pure shooter experience is what's desired, then fast movement, Byzantine arena designs, and a small selection of mostly non-hitscan weapons that reward predictive aim and kill quickly are all that's required. There's already a wide selection of these available, although the breadth and health of their playerbases is another matter.

I'm very much looking forward to UT4's CtF mode as a replacement of sorts for Tribes, lack of skiing and jetpacks notwithstanding.
 

Mozg

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In these kind of games, are there like leagues where people that have teamed up, are willing to all be on to play on a given day at a given time, etc. play against other people that are doing the same thing? Like a local bowling league rather than either ESPORTS or dunking randoms?
 

Zombra

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In these kind of games, are there like leagues where people that have teamed up, are willing to all be on to play on a given day at a given time, etc. play against other people that are doing the same thing? Like a local bowling league rather than either ESPORTS or dunking randoms?
Well, my old TF2 community had a league that was pretty much exactly what you describe. In addition to our public/"random" server we had a dedicated, password-protected League server with scheduled games.

Again, a lot will depend on what kind of infrastructure Blizzard has in store.
 

abija

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What I'm really curious about with this game is what the infrastructure is going to be like. In my opinion that is what will make or break it. Will there be matchmaking? Players of equal skill levels matched against each other? Or will it just be a big random queue and you're randomly assigned to a random team on a random server? Will clans be allowed to team together against disorganized noobs, or will a pregame "scramble" based on skill history be mandatory? Will the servers all be owned and controlled by Blizzard? In short, what are they doing to ensure that games will be close and not just boring curbstomps?

All servers owned by blizzard and tournaments use the custom games option. There's matchmaking. Atm there's quick play and ranked. They try to match groups of same size in teams, but after some time in queue they lower the bar (for ranked it waits a lot longer than for quick play).
 

Blaine

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The game's still in closed beta, and I imagine that if Overwatch gains any popularity at all, matchmaking will become quite fast. If there's a player ranking system, then I hope they do what Hi-Rez did with T:A and go for a more-or-less even spread of a few high-ranked players, a lot of mid-ranked players, and some lower-ranked players on each team in pubbie matches.

Matchmaking only with people close to your own skill/experience level is very bad, as is matchmaking with a bunch of people who are far above your own skill/experience level. In shooters, I've found I learn best by playing with people who are above my own skill and experience, but not so far above that I have no idea why I'm getting trashed.
 

Zombra

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All servers owned by blizzard and tournaments use the custom games option. There's matchmaking. Atm there's quick play and ranked. They try to match groups of same size in teams, but after some time in queue they lower the bar (for ranked it waits a lot longer than for quick play).
This is good info, thanks. Looks like they've thought it through.

So what happens when one team is roflstomping? Does the match just trudge on? Does the following match get scrambled? Etc.
 

Blaine

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So what happens when one team is roflstomping? Does the match just trudge on? Does the following match get scrambled? Etc.

Josh Sawyer is spawned in to bring balance to the game.

Typically in random pubbie games, every single match is a brand-new matchmake... or if not, people can always return to the lobby and queue up again.
 

Zombra

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Seriously though, I heard matches can take up to 25 minutes. I wonder if they have any better solution than "just QQ if the match sucks". Maybe matchmaking is good enough so roflstomps don't happen, or the noob ultima powers mean crushing defeats can still be fun, or ??? Any comment abija?
 

Blaine

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I think you're probably worrying way too much about roflstomps. 25 minutes is pretty damn long for one match, though.
 

Zombra

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I think you're probably worrying way too much about roflstomps.
Maybe, but I saw a lot of wasted potential in TF2 due to lack of team balancing tools. Been playing tons of Gotham City Impostors lately, not because it's a brilliant game, but because its balance system is elegant and very effective. Matches are 10 minutes, initial teams are roughly assigned based on lifetime stats, and teams are shuffled every match based on the previous game's aggregate player scores. Makes for close, challenging matches. Hoping to see similar here.
 

Blaine

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Well, I spent most of my TF2 time running around smashing people in the head with the Scout's baseball bat (I really had a talent for it) and shouting about America into the microphone.

It was a different time.
 

Llama-Yak Hybrid

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See, you're obviously too newfagged to understand any of it. We talk about shit titles to keep our hate in tip-top shape. Spouting silly buzzwords and emoticons won't get you far, you have to sharpen your hate, nurture it, practise being in control.
Not being as retarded as the typical codexer doesn't mean I'm newfag.

Commit suicide.
 

abija

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Matchmaking only with people close to your own skill/experience level is very bad, as is matchmaking with a bunch of people who are far above your own skill/experience level. In shooters, I've found I learn best by playing with people who are above my own skill and experience, but not so far above that I have no idea why I'm getting trashed.

Pretty sure they do matchmaking close to your skill in all their games and doubt they'll change something for OW. What you want is also a bit hard to implement for automated matchmaking. (the best case you mentioned, playing with people above your experience cannot happen for everyone in a game)
What it seems to do atm is fill a lobby, keep the players there for some games while shuffling them sometimes, the "outliers" are kicked and replaced as soon as a replacement is available (between rounds). No idea if outliers are chosen based on performance in those games (would be nice) or their general mmr.
 
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GrainWetski

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The only thing that inspired them to create Overwatch was the failure of Titan and trying to earn money instead of just scrapping it altogether.
 

Gerrard

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Because we all know that the setting is the most important thing in a multiplayer FPS.
:mrpresident:
 

Daedalos

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Aight, so the early access is out for pre-order buyers (me)

Imma give dis a spin, and post some impressionz
 

Black

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Yes, show us how deep your buyer's remorse runs.
 

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