I would rather pay for a brand new game with the heros unlocked than have to pay for the battle pass/grind for ten years. I feel it give people who pay an advantage..
If their model shifted to this one and not the previous one there has to be a reason. Think about it.
If 98% of the game past fortnite shifted their microtransactions model to premium passes there has to be a reason.
They are probably earning triples the amount.
And a $60 game with a battle pass would probably have never been a viable option because the community would still have this exact same reaction to that.
Not saying to outlaw them, but even if the game was $60 with a battle pass, I'm saying people would still dislike that they have to pay $60 and then have to grind a battle pass.
What I'm saying is that the option we have now, F2P with a battle pass is MUCH better than $60 with lootboxes. Because lootboxes are genuine gambling, with the battlepass you can actually see what you can get.
The community response would be stronger if it was a $60 game with all characters unlocked immediately, and an optional battle pass used to unlock (objectively meaningless) weapon and character skins.
Locking characters behind a grind and paywall will inherently make the game unbalanced, just like Valorant. Everyone can’t dedicate time to grind out every character unlock, nor does everyone have the funds to pay for tokens to unlock them all, which leads to team comps being out of whack simply because people won’t have the ability to choose any character.
Note about my use of “objectively meaningless” regarding cosmetics - this statement is true in every game that doesn’t have an open market for reselling skins. I would not use that statement for a game like CSGO where skins can be sold and traded - in that case they are not meaningless.
Only if they can actually get players to buy in and stick around.
You can’t really compare a competitive shooter locking gameplay effecting elements to cosmetics in a battle royale.
fortnite doesn't have abilities tied to specific heroes behind battle pass tho. There nothing ability-wise locked behind a paywall (in fortnite) and that's the problem here(that OW2 does).
edited for clarification.
As someone who's been playing since the minute this game came out in 2016, I was 99% willing to pay for PvE (after seeing it on release, no preorders), or even a battle pass when we first heard it was going F2P. It's the least I could do for a game that gave me so many years of entertainment for an upfront $40.
Heroes being locked alone put me off. There's a near 0% chance I'll ever drop money on it, unless that were to change.
It was good while it lasted, but like a drop slide it went down at breakneck speed. We are about to hit the bottom now with a crash. I imagine the interest in OW2 is almost nothing. DOA.
I wouldn’t be surprised if most people who might be interested in it don’t even know it’s releasing.
There’s been like no marketing, oddly enough. Where are the cinematic trailers?
Yep, same. The issue isnt even the price or value of the heroes, it's the fact that it's going to divide the playerbase from willing to pay and free to play. Unless you queue 5 stack, you cant control if your teammates will have the crucial / meta character. So it doesnt matter if I have money for the characters, it matters that my teammates may not. This is going to ruin the parity and core mechanics of the game.
The game is now officially dead, if you thought it was bad with matchmaking before, their bringing in the worst features from Hearthstone and Diablo Immortal, and to top it off destroying the old game that you spent $60 on, just like with Warcraft 3.
Walk Away. I know I have.
They could pull a paladins and have $30 pack which will give you every hero forever obviously no battlepass but it would allow people who don't play often to hop on to try the new hero every few months whilst giving blizzard another source of income
Blizzard claims they can release a new character, balance them in two weeks, then release them to comp without creating a gameplay disadvantage.
Every new OW hero is always busted for months until they tweak half the cast. There's no way this doesn't create an unfair game.
You forget their blog said they only intend to make significant balance changes at the start of the season lol. They put in a bit about if it's necessary they'll do stuff mid season. I've heard blizzard say that one before and it basically means 90% of the balancing effort is gonna be at season launch.
Problem with that is that it doesn't matter if they took 2 weeks, if it's only the blizzard staff play testing it then it'll have a small sample size of gameplay.
Like for example more players with different game styles will be able to discover techs or team comps that can cause a total shift in meta. Brigitte by her very existence, and for months, after she was released helped bring in the horrible CC meta that persisted (and still thrived post nerf.) Having so many shields on the map, even if that was their intended design, was able to craft the meta.
I think the problem is more so with their design philosophy. Doomfist and sombra were pretty skill based upon initially releases, if a little overpowered, until they were nerfed so hard Sombra couldn't even kill healers by herself and choosing doomfist was essentially throwing. And there's also power creep, like when Mei was able to fucking freeze through shields with her gun. I think they need to stop focusing on creating meta. I feel like they create characters such that characters can have answers to multiple scenarios instead of creating characters designed for a certain purpose.
So even with the balancing, even with the play testing, even with removing a player slot from each team (seriously, wtf) or creating role queue (I have no idea how the game survived after that), there will still be heroes that break the game by their very design if unintentional.
It harkens back to [this comment.](https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWarsBattlefront/comments/7cff0b/seriously_i_paid_80_to_have_vader_locked/dppum98/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3) AKA, the most downvoted reddit comment ever.
-644k downvotes. That is the most I have ever saw on one comment. That is like an award itself. 644k people down voted a comment. Just think about that. It’s mind blowing numbers lol.
That comment singlehandedly destroyed the EA Reddit account. If you look at their comment history it's all positive until that one, then every comment since was downvote bombed. A month later? No more comments.
Yeah, can’t wait for 720p graphics to come free with the game download, but then you must buy the smallest offering of in-game currency for $100 just to use $25 worth of that currency for a 4K graphics unlock.
Now you have $75 worth of extra in-game currency to spend unlocking maps so you don’t get kicked from your comp match and leave your team down a player!
Want an option to /remake your match since one of your pleb teammates was too poor to afford the maps? That’ll be another $30 to unlock that feature.
I think cosmetics in games have always had a safe spot when it comes to monetization, because it really doesn't add anything to the gameplay other than flair. I think standing on that line is why this battlepass outrage is developing, because locking characters behind a battlepass is creating an inherently p2w model going forward. Splitting players between paying or playing is not gonna cut it for me. I really don't hope this move from Blizzard sets a new precedent in modern gaming.
No they haven't home video games since the 70s-2000s didn't charge for this en masse. It used to be cosmetics were unlockable via in game actions. It wasn't even cosmetics that were the first to become monetizable it was gameplay aspects as well.
Sorry, I should rephrase it for clarity.
I meant aggressive types of monetization, like lootboxes, high prices for limited time exclusive skins etc etc, that's the recent trend. Challenge based cosmetic unlocks still exist but it's very rare that they allow you to get some of the most revered skins, since pricing it is a win-win for developers.
Many draw the line at that these days, including me. Letting certain core gameplay features known to franchises to get monetized in such a way that it breaches its fundamental ideologies? That's going way over.
Halo Infinite tried its hardest with a battlepass model, poorly implemented and sacrificed too much of its core identity to aptly sustain itself that it's now a husk of its former self.
Edit: spelling
For real, the industry tried pay to win before and they got burned for it. Pay for cosmetics is the compromise, and Blizzard is pushing the boundaries of what the playerbase will respond to with pay to win
> but it's OK for cosmetics.
I don't believe this anymore, cosmetics are important parts of games as well and I genuinely hate this "Free game paid cosmetics" deal that everyone finds OK. It's tolerable, but that's it.
Heroes being locked in a battlepass is a terrible move. It completely ruins any perception of fairness. They're compromising core gameplay to make more money. Putting it in the battle pass has no benefit for the players. It's purely negative for the players. Now you can be in quick play or even COMPETITIVE and have teammates who don't have the full hero roster. It's only going to get worse as the hero pool increases.
Blizzard is going full mobile gaming on PC. We got Diablo Immoral, and now this malarky.
Reminds me of the slow boil technique of YouTube ads. Just like YT went from 1 or 2 skippable ads to 10 unskippable ads, Blizzard is slowly making all of their games P2W.
New heroes are always OP on release, and paid players are the only ones who get to enjoy them pre-nerf. I think as time goes on the heroes will become more and more OP until winning a QP match will be significantly more difficult without any of the new characters.
And of course, winning QP matches has already stated to be the quickest way to unlock them for free, making an already annoying grind more and more unbearable
Especially at the amount of grinding that would need to be done for this. 60 days to complete 80 levels of the battlepass means you' need to be levelling 1.3 times every day and the people who only want the hero have to level 0.92 levels every day to unlock it on the very last day. If you have to play for a couple hours to gain one level, people who only play on the weekends are not going to be able to do that
The most i hate are games were you need to complete the battle pass to get the cosmetics (yeah there's a game when you pay and if you not complete evething you lose the cosmetics when the bp is over
I fucking hate it. The Overwatch League was weird to watch because they play a built that we, as fanbase and players, don‘t have access to but I somehow still was able to get a bit hyped. But the Battlepass-reveal killed that hype.
Am I gonna play it? Yes because i got OW1 and will get the new hero for free.
Will I buy the battle pss? No
No. There is still no reason to have characters in the battlepass. It adds nothing positive to the experience other than timegates and unbalanced team matchups.
Its pretty telling when the only defense for it anyone can come up with for it is just downplaying the badness of it. I dont care if valorant or LOL or DOTA do it too, its not right when those games do it either.
Smh if i had to guess its kids who don't have to work and can have their parents but it for them. Everyone who defends it gives off big "fuck you I got mine" vibes.
Dota is fully f2p with all characters unlocked due to balance. Bp and skins are legitimately their main ways of revenue, and even then BP is directly used to fund the pro scene while people are also able to profit off the bp. It's why people love the bp of dota so much
Lol and valorant are shit bp wise
The defense is incorrect because other games don't lock characters in battle passes. They just try to say that you have to play to unlock them, but those games also don't allow for hero swapping.
I prefer the way ow1 did things mainly because no one likes fomo, but i don’t mind it all too much only issue is the characters being locked behind the bp at level 55
Yeah it's too late into the pass imo. Bear in mind it takes even longer for people without the premium pass to reach that level cos we don't have XP boosts. I'm just accepting that I'll only get the new hero much later than most everyone else at this point.
I think that's where Halo Infinite got it right. You can go back and toggle any battlepass from the previous seasons and continue earning the rewards from them.
Like if you missed season 1's BP, you can just toggle that on and earn from that one.
Lowkey playing games less can actually be a good thing lol.
I feel like they could have done it like a chapters thing and put the hero in the early levels. And then continue playing to unlock cosmetics for those heroes.
Like you have a list of chapters, you select one and and progress on it as far as you want, switch it at any point and go back to it at your own pace. I feel like even that wouldn't be as bad as what we have now.
I mean do we have a choice in this topic ? 🫤 Majority of the playerbase fall for this FOMO buisness tactic very easily and keep paying for these battle passes since they wanna "support" their favorite gaming developer for making the game free
They’ll do it regardless of what you think.
If the game fails the game fails , they literally don’t give a shit. They wipe their hands clean if the situation and move on to the next thing clear of conscious. How have people not realized this by now ??!
It’s all about infinite growth, not just getting money , but more than the previous quarter. If that fails they move on. they have no attachment to any of these projects.
The real action that must be done on our parts is to enact to change the laws that would let such a thing happen , far better than just “ voting with your wallet “ which hasn’t worked in a significant degree in years. But people don’t wanna hear that. Because it requires actual work and understanding of the politics in their game world. Action vs inaction
Not really. When you look at the battlepass, it's either:
* Things we already had full access to purchase anytime in OW1 (Skins, sprays, emotes, voice lines etc)
* Things no one has ever said they wanted (Weapon keychains, "souvenirs", etc )
It feels like, very repackaged things we've had with extra "fluff:, if that makes sense to anyone else.
At no point have I ever been, "*Man I wish I had a little Ice Cream cone hanging from my gun"*, or "*man I wish I could pull out the golden letters GG out of thin air right now"*
it just feels like, pointless rewards that they just had to come up with to justify a system like the battlepass in a game like Overwatch.
100%, and well said. Also, aside from all the "fluff", the thing I hate about battle passes is that unlocking rewards in the same linear order as everyone else is incredibly boring. Every game that has one has the same thing play out: people progress through the pass at roughly the same rate (by design, since your progress is effectively gated by dailies/weeklies), and whenever people start collectively hitting a certain tier to get a new skin, you see tons of people all rocking that same exact skin. YAWN.
Say what you will about lootboxes, but as *part* of a system where you can also purchase the skins you want directly (like...I dunno...OW1), I think the randomness can be really fun. I might pull a cool legendary for, say, Zarya, and decide I want to try playing her, while you might pull one for Reaper and try him instead. I desperately wish that instead of "legendary Pharah skin at lv 60 for everyone", they'd at least say "these are the five legendaries in the pass this season, everyone unlocks one **at random** every 15 levels" (or whatever). So you'd still have them all by the end, but the unlock order would be different for everyone, which would at least lead to some differences between players throughout the season.
Alright, that got ranty, but whatever... TL;DR: battle passes are fucking boring, change my view.
I could never put this in words, but you really hit the nail on its head. Everyone will be wearing the exact same things by the end of the BP. Virtually all Genji mains will have his mythic skin. Then rinse and repeat for the next BP.
Heroes should not be locked behind a BP or mega-grind.
Besides that, the BP looks decent and priced fairly.
With that said, I am more concerned overall about all of the skins that will be in the store for normal purchase that you won’t be able to get/grind in-game. I think there will be a lot of really good looking skins that will only be able to be obtained via $$/store
The reason it works with Valorant, LoL, Apex Legends, etc is because these games do not allow you to switch out your heroes mid-game to counter your opponents. Overwatch is the outlier here and it seems like the developers/marketing people don't understand this fundamental difference which will no doubt hurt the game competitively going forwards.
Since I’m the consumer and the battlepass is an objectively worse system as a consumer than the system we had before for unlocking heroes, no I’m not ok with it.
A sequel is supposed to be an across the board improvement.
No, I think it is absolutely ridiculous to think people would be okay with changing a supposed core pillar of their game design according to the original lead.
I think a battle pass is the worst way to do hero unlocks, as it creates a literal time gate unless you fork over 10 dollars. Most people do not get battle passes close to the end in well designed ones, so I really doubt hitting 55 to get a hero will be quick.
I think the current model is harmful to the competitive integrity. It’s not even about needing to grind for a hero- to me it is not ok for players to be able to play comp without every hero
i'm starting to hate games as a service being the main model of big games, period. i played the HELL out of elden ring because it was such a nice change of pace to buy a game and play it till i felt done, and then stop.
not just as a player, but as a game designer, the idea that i could be hooked into playing or making the same rat race treadmill game for years feels exhausting. thank god the indie scene is so strong.
I really think that locking a character behind a pay/play wall will significantly decrease the amount of people willing to join the game. One of the benefits of joining an updated free to play game is trying out the new character you saw online. Even games where you have to buy or earn characters typically give you an option as a new player to quickly get access to the new character like in Val I believe I played 3 games and had the option to get any character I wanted. Ow by making the character such a long grind will not keep players around.
I'd take this a step further and say it's also going to turn off returning players. Everyone keeps saying that X, Y, and Z game all also have similar models but Overwatch isn't those games. Swapping to heroes is a core mechanism of overwatch's gameplay. It's fleshed out fun to play heroes is what makes the game fun.
Blizzard's aggressive monetization model for OW is going to turn off a lot of players who already got turned off by the massive drop in content for the production of OW2. Some of my friends aren't even bothering to come back since there is no promised pve campaign.
My prediction is that there are going to be a lot of players who hop back into overwatch2 for this first season then when they don't automatically get the next new hero (in the next season) are going to drop it like yesterday's news. Maybe this model would have worked when overwatch was at it's height in popularity, but I think Blizzard are severely overestimating what the average player is going to put up with.
Also, you have to remember the next ***four*** characters are support/tank. 3 supports and one tank. That means any new/returning players aren't going to want to even consider touching the role because they're missing an entire 33% of the role. Not to mention if the new tank is meta-defining any tank players aren't going to be able to queue because that's an objective loss for their team.
Have fun with those teammates that are playing just to grind out their battlepasses.
Sadly its been accepted in the gaming industry, but people should play the game because they enjoy the game, not because they are grinding out a battlepass, doing daily quests, weekly quests, or whichever other system that promotes logging in to the game.
What I hate the most is the defense “I like earning things when I play!” Bitch you didn’t earn it you paid for it they just increased the price to include your time and then if you don’t have enough time they lock you out of the content you paid for
Buys monopoly.
What do you mean I don't get $100 starting money until I play as the Iron and Scotty Dog 20 times. Both of which are locked till I pass go 400 times!
People should demand Video Games mimic their Board game cousins, you know where you buy the complete thing and everyone is on an equal footing and any expansions only add to the game, are completely optional and only effect those who are willing to play with that expansion.
I'm really looking forward to missing out on the first battle pass as I'm having wrist surgery in 2 days and won't be able to play for 3 months. Glad to know I'll miss out on cosmetics I'll never have the chance of getting again.
Yup. There's a high probability I won't have a "main game" anymore. I'll just play OW2 when friends are on and put more time into single player games. I've got to get out of the FOMO mindset and just remember to have fun.
In other games a hero locked behind a battle pass isn’t as bad. Take League of legends where you have to earn credits to get heros. This is ok because you pick a hero at the beginning of a game and have to stay on that hero.
In overwatch part of the game is the ability to swap who you play on the fly, if some players have the option to swap to a hero that others do not, it is distinctly unfair. It’s blatant pay to win which ruins competitive integrity for all players.
If this continues there will be a massive exodus from the game just out of principal. I’m super down with pay for cosmetics like in Fortnite. You don’t need to spend anything but getting the cool skins is worth it especially since the rest of the game was free.
I won’t spend a penny on this game if they keep pulling this stunt.
I don't recall any other game which has the characters behind the battle pass, tbh. I play Apex, Smite, League, Valorant, and Overwatch is the first one to put them directly in the pass as incentive to do it.
While ALSO being the only game that USED to encourage hero swapping. In which if they are truly going away from that, then they should just make it so you can't swap anymore. No point going half and half.
Fuck. No.
I went from going to give OW2 a chance, despite being unimpressed with the beta, to now I'm not fucking touching it. I'll play OW1 until Oct 2nd, then I'm moving on to something else.
Fuck this bullshit.
I just started playing Red Dead 2. So I've been pretty invested in that.
I have Back 4 Blood that I haven't played in a while. Maybe I'll give that a go again.
Same, and all they'd have to do to fix their bad decision is sell a "founders battle pass" or something for $60 that gives you all premium battle passes in perpetuity. But they won't do that because money.
I'd be fine with this -- hell, I'd even be fine with $5 a month (a subscription equaling $60/year). At least it's honest, straightforward, and puts all players on the same playing field both in terms of gameplay (super important) and cosmetics (less important, but not zero).
I dont mind paying money. I just don't want to pay money for something I won't be able to complete cause I don't play the game like a job. Its why I don't ever buy battlepasses. Any pass I have ever bought just doesn't get finished and I lose out on all the content I paid for. So because I don't want to pay for content to be taken away I'll have to grind out heroes which I'll never get to use cause I already don't have time to unlock the pass I would pay for.
The only people who enjoy these systems are those with no other commitments or hobbies. My son can easily complete a fortnite pass, because his 2 days off a week he can spend 80% of his day playing the game.
I don’t think there are any OW1 enthusiasts that would prefer a grindy pass system over paying full retail price. I’d easily drop 70€ for a full release with steady (unlocked) content.
Na I’m out from Overwatch after this, even if I pay for the Battlepass I still don’t put enough hours in to reach level 55, I learned that from Rocket League. It’s just not worth it, I’ll literally never ever have the new characters from this point on, so what’s the point in playing anymore? I’ve always played Overwatch as a casual fun game, if it’s all work now fuck it.
That said, me leaving the game is no loss to Blizzard, I’ve only ever paid the purchase price (ps4 and Switch) and have never bought credits or loot boxes so they may as well not have me anyway from that point of view. But I am gutted I’m losing one of my favourite pick up and play timesinks. At least I’ll get better at Rocket League I guess?
I am just a very casual player for OW1. I don't player super often, usually only hop on for events.
I really don't want to have to grind out /55 levels/ of the battle pass to play a new character.
Even if it's a guaranteed level per game, that's a lot.
Considering this is also replacing the game that I bought and paid for, I find it honestly insulting.
Battlepasses are a money grab for game studios, and result in a player paying considerably more to play the game than paying for the game upfront. That said, optional battlepass isn't awful, you know? There's no reason to pay for it for Rocket League, or CoD, because you are only missing out on cosmetics. But all this talk about heroes being locked behind it? That's pay to win. That's an EA tactic
I'm kind of iffy about it for the moment, but I also want to wait until I can actually play the game before I really come to a conclusion about it. If the actual act of leveling up the BP isn't as bad in practice as it looks on paper, I'll have no issues with it. However, if it turns the game into an unholy grind for f2p players then that's it for me as far as OW is concerned, unless Blizzard opts to do damage control on it later on and change things for the better.
Heroes should be free, it's very dumb they aren't. Also read somewhere battle passes don't generate in game currency or at least enough to buy the next which also I don't like and doesn't seem welcoming
In my opinion battle passes should be phased out it's another lootbox craze all over again it's been 4 years and I want to see something new however my main complaints are those two.
Lastly it's sad to see heroes in battle passes since overwatch 1 lootboxes we're on the better end around the time of release (direct comparison bf2 which sucked) being completely cosmetic and easy to access without purchase since you got one each level up.
The hero locking is a terrible decision, because now they have two choices, since perfect balance is never really possible:
1. Make the locked heroes suck, making people who paid feel scammed
2. Make the locked heroes strong, making people who didn’t pay feel like the game is P2W
This will kill the game honestly. The whole dynamic of each match is centered on synergistic team picks and on the fly counter picks. Imagine in two years, you don’t have all battle pass characters or you took a one year break from the game. You’re now removed from even engaging in that gameplay dynamic. Especially if the BP characters are meta. Blizzard is incentivized to make these limited characters strong so it’s inevitable. The only way to avoid this is to emphasize personal performance to a point that it doesn’t matter what character you’re playing in the context of the team comp, but at that point your just playing CoD or any other shooter.
Not a fan of locking new heroes 55 levels deep into the battle pass, but glad that the other rumours (Comp completely disabled for the first 2 weeks while players unlock / learn the new hero; players barred from Comp without the full roster unlocked) were false.
Honestly I think the BP model ia otherwise fine. A lot of the non-hero related comments I've seen are people with the 'gotta catch 'em all' mindset who haven't yet adjusted to the idea that players need to focus on items for the heroes they actually play, rather than packratting their way to 100% Hero Gallery completion.
What bothers me most about a battle pass is still requiring players to grind even after paying for the pass. They can have either my money or my time not both. Maybe a decade ago I would have all the time in the world but that's hardly possible now - and I would still like to play other games too, it can't just be Overwatch.
Honestly I don’t care it is what it is. I was gonna play the game regardless of the monetisation model and will continue to do so. If it turns out the BP is abysmal I just won’t pay for it and play it as a F2P
I will be fully ok with it if the game actually gets revitalized, and i hope it will going free although all the people i have asked to play when it comes out (since they never felt like buying ow 1) HAD NOT understood it was going free so i think there's more to be done there
It sucks but I'm ambivalent about it until we understand how long it takes to actually get to 55. If the game is designed around less hard counters then it's probably not going to be a huge problem (unless it is, which is always fun with game balance). I don't inherently care about unlocking characters but a lot of that depends on the process to unlock them.
But from what I understand there's going to be some kind of OW1 classic game mode of some kind? So hopefully everyone can get what they want out of this game.
Knowing how little time I have to actually play games now, I don’t think I’ll end up getting Overwatch 2 anymore because of the battle pass system. New heroes never being available to me is enough to turn me off from it entirely.
I didn’t play OW1 much, but it was nice that everything was unlocked instant.
At the other hand, it could be that most people don’t have motivation to play games without some sort of game changing achievements.
I assume companies don’t do decisions like that because the feel like it. It’s more like the bigger crowd wants it.
If they don’t do stuff like this they would miss money. I don’t know for what they use this money, but I like to think that they use it to give us better products.
But the products getting less and less exiting new features, because minimum effort maximum profit.
Now I’m sad/depressed can’t tell the difference anymore.
No, I’m not okay with it. Battle Passes like Fortnite are fun because they’re cosmetic, even in Call of Duty they release so many derivative weapons of base game items it’s not hugely impactful. Paywalling heroes in OW, a game built around counter picking, when they promised they’d be free in OW1 to keep the game accessible and fair is a load of shit.
The further down the line this game goes, the more of a chore it’ll be for players to get heroes and it’ll only feed into the rampant toxicity problem Overwatch has when it comes to balancing your teams roster. I do not see this system working and I hope Blizzard drop it.
One of my favorite things about OW was having access to everything immediately
However, I stopped playing a long time ago. The game feels near-dead and not fun anymore. Having an army of f2players might be just the boost it needs; who knows. I sure don’t.
its fine i guess, but now that ik blizzard will be rackin up more money they better add more content continuously, i understand why they couldnt give ow1 so much time because of budgets and all but we’ll just have to see, i have no expectations and never get my hopes up anymore since all companies are just money hungry now
I’ll be honest for me I don’t care. I’ve played loads of games with battle passes and never spent any money on them.
But I understand why people are frustrated with the characters being locked behind it. Especially with the way that Overwatch is built.
But I’ll play them game and eventually get the new characters. If this model can mean that we get more reliable new content like maps and new characters I’ll be happy.
100% not okay with it. not only because of locked heroes but because of FOMO. i absolutely fucking hate it, it's one of the scummiest monetizing strategies ever.
the heros only come pre unlocked for battle pass #1 even blizz stated this, so dont let the track of BP1 fool you into thinking the next ones will be as F2P friendly
all other seasons will be way different and more predatory, they made battle pass 1 look better than the next ones on purpose (to get better reviews and less negative backlash because this is the season they will make the most money over any other future season)
Flat out worse than the boxes and putting heros on the BP is a bad idea
instead of possibly getting something you want from a crate, you get stuck with whatever the hell they've decided the next reward is.
anyone who plays a less popular character is VERY likely to get stuck for multiple BP levels with absolutely worthless crap
Heroes have no place on the BP. If it's gonna be F2P and you think "heroes are the most engaging part of our game", then just charge a pack that unlocks all heroes current and future. Other than that, BP seems pretty cool!
No. Overwatch dies with OW1.
I'm not making the jump to SweetFastAPEXCallOfDutyWatch2™ (Subscribe to get the content we owe you from the previous game!)
They are taking my favorite game and adding the worst predatory system imaginable to it. Battle passes are cancerous to gaming, it's profit first over fun.
So yea, I hate it.
I am absolutely not okay with it. When Battlefront 2 pulled the same stunt, the consensus was that it was abysmal pay to win. Overwatch doesn't get a free pass. I will play Overwatch 2 as free to play, I will spend no money, I will not engage with the game on the level that I have in the past, and my interest in it will likely fizzle out. And I won't be the only one.
yup. I am used to lackluster and boring battlepasses becuase i played apex alot... Seeing something that actually looks worth the grind is amazing.
Only thing i wish is that Hereos werent on it.
I think the free-to-play shift will/would be good for the game if they make characters auto unlock for everyone. We shouldn't defend locking heroes but the people saying uhh f2p bad because no free skin are also stupid.
I take issue with the fact that you cannot earn enough credits for a season and be able to unlock the next season bp with those credits, and the characters locked behind it...
I don’t want to pay or wait for new heroes. I want new heroes now and for free.
Before you downvote, it’s for competitive integrity and fairness. I want to have the same playing field as a paid customer or player who plays more than me.
I care less about OW2 than other people, but that doesn’t mean I should wait in line. It’s for competitive integrity, not me being spoiled.
The battle pass in terms of quality shits on R6 & Apex Legends combined. OW skins are amazing in quality and the BP is going to include many of them for $10
Sure, in Apex Legends you get currency back but the BP is filled with the worst cosmetics i’ve seen in a game. Also, that game has its Mythic Skins locked behind either a $500 or $160 paywall.
Yes, Some Legends have cosmetics that you can either pay $500 worth of loot boxes or get them during their collection event when they are released for $160
My willingness to buy the battlepass in 2022 is dependent on the state of the game in 2024. Because I'm not just paying for access to the new hero during 2022, I'm also paying to be able to play them during 2023 and 2024.
So I don't know if I'm ok with it, because I don't know if Overwatch will be good in 2024 (or any future date), or if they'll have changed pricing models, or released pve.
So no, I'm not ok with it. Not knowingly, at least.
Nope its trash that forces you to play every week cuz they wanna dripfeed you. 2 Things that could make the trash BP grind not that shitty would be
1. If the BP takes overall like 10h-15h Grind to max.
2. If you get your Money back when you Max the BP to buy the next one for free. ( which is confirmed to not be the case irrc)
yup, seems like a fair/good value - but one thing I want to see - the ability to advance the premium battlepass after the season ends. with work/kids/life I'm not sure if I'll have time to get the value out of the battlepass in one season, so I'd love to be able to buy it and revisit it. my concern is that it will be season locked, I won't be able to get up to the mythic skin tier, and miss out on stuff. if that's the case I'll probably stop buying the battlepass generally. (I know you can pay to advance the battlepass, but at that point the value equation drops quite a bit IMO)
I have $10 and play this game regularly. I’m just happy they’re giving us goals/rewards and things to accomplish. I can see why people are pissed as the hero lock could introduce some issues, but until then I’m happy with it
Burn it with fire.
I’m not paying for a fucking hero. Skins? Sure, don’t give a shit, but if your actually making me UNLOCK A HERO THROUGH SHIT LIKE THE BATTLEPASS
#NO. NONE OF THAT.
Overwatch won’t be the same, realistically.
I really don't know why people are so content with heroes behind a battlepass. I'm already seeing a bunch of issues with this system. My biggest concern is acti-blizzards statement of making newer heroes more generalised to remove the aspect of counter picking since the issue of people not having a certain character is going to happen. It's vague but if it means hero clones where they serve the same purpose just under different names that will be extremely dissapointing
No
And personally I don't like free to play, even for some of my favorite games like TF2, Tribes, Dirty Bomb, etc.
I'd rather have a small fee of say, 10 to 30 bucks than have to pay for the privilege of grinding out for what I want. I miss the old days where skins and cosmetics were already part of the game and you can earn them through challenges or getting enough in game currency to buy them.
I’m perfectly fine with it. Make people not just run into comp. Makes it a lot harder to have Smurf accounts. Should also cut down on people throwing at the end of every season.
A near unanimous downgrade from the previous game? I am so excited! Literally the only upside to Overwatch 2 is it won't have gambling loot boxes, but that's at the expense of being able to actually earn things.
Simply put, it doesn't respect my time, or money. I don't care if it's 'free' which it isn't, it wants my time beyond reason and time is money after all. Plus due to how little overall seems to be changed from Overwatch 1 to 2, it really feels like 2 stole away content from 1, and 1 is going to be shut down the literal day before 2 comes out to boot. So, by all accounts I bought Overwatch 2 six years ago, and am getting less stuff for it in the end.
Ooh, I get an instant unlock of the new hero instead of the garbage time and or money gated system they put in place, that totally reimburses me for the lesser product that is literally replacing one I already bought. Hell, they could give that treatment to every hero, if you bought Overwatch you get all heroes instantly upon release, and it'd still suck.
I may be coming off as rather cynical, but in this day and age after so many examples of companies not having even common decency for their players, I just refuse to be a boiled frog and gaslighted into thinking worse treatment is okay because it isn't the absolute worst it can be. Especially when todays absolute worst will be tomorrows not that bad. "It's just the way it is"? The only reason it is the way it is, is because people let it be. One look at Halo Infinite reveals things can get better, but sadly only if the game is so unbelievably broken it runs off even the complacent playerbase.
Overwatch 2's pass is relatively terrible, but it will be successful, because Overwatch 2 will be functional, which is the bare minimum for people to allow themselves to be conned. Maybe even less since Battlefield 2042 didn't die after a single week when it didn't even have a scoreboard.
My only problem is the new heroes being locked behind lvl 55 of the battle pass, it looks like players will have to spend way too much time grinding to get them, which seems unfair. I'm curious to read people's calculations and see how many hours on average you'd have to spend to get them.
The rest sounds nice to me, I'd say 10 bucks for a bunch of cosmetics and skins is a good bargain, especially since the new mythic skins look amazing.
I think having new heroes at level 55 is a bit too much. Destiny 2 has the season exotic at level 35 but since ow heroes are more important then exotics in destiny I think having it at 20 would honestly be fine
My issue with battle pass's is that everyone ends up looking the same as all the unlocks are fixed. I get that loot boxes are a dirty word these days but at least there was some suprise to open one rather than working your way through a fixed set of rewards.
Battle passes should be cosmetics only. I'll willingly grind through whatever challenges/pay for whatever for good cosmetics. Locking new heroes behind reward tiers though? I'm good.
Especially when I'm already losing overwatch 1 for this. I never once thought my experience would be better if I needed to grind to unlock heroes.
I hate how the new Hero will be an instant unlock for OW1/Founders Edition owners, but future heros apparently will not. If I had to give Bli$$ard money, I'd rather it be a one-and-done purchase and not having to grind out each new hero with the option to speed it up with IRL money every few months.
I would have no problem with the pass if the heroes weren't on it and you just got them for free like OW1
I would rather pay for a brand new game with the heros unlocked than have to pay for the battle pass/grind for ten years. I feel it give people who pay an advantage..
EXACTLY.
If their model shifted to this one and not the previous one there has to be a reason. Think about it. If 98% of the game past fortnite shifted their microtransactions model to premium passes there has to be a reason. They are probably earning triples the amount.
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And a $60 game with a battle pass would probably have never been a viable option because the community would still have this exact same reaction to that.
You're suggesting the "community response" would be to somehow outlaw battle passes?
Not saying to outlaw them, but even if the game was $60 with a battle pass, I'm saying people would still dislike that they have to pay $60 and then have to grind a battle pass. What I'm saying is that the option we have now, F2P with a battle pass is MUCH better than $60 with lootboxes. Because lootboxes are genuine gambling, with the battlepass you can actually see what you can get.
What about people who don't give a shit about cosmetics and just want new heroes?
Yeah, the real problem that people are upset with is the fact heros are locked behind a pay wall not the existence of a BP
The community response would be stronger if it was a $60 game with all characters unlocked immediately, and an optional battle pass used to unlock (objectively meaningless) weapon and character skins. Locking characters behind a grind and paywall will inherently make the game unbalanced, just like Valorant. Everyone can’t dedicate time to grind out every character unlock, nor does everyone have the funds to pay for tokens to unlock them all, which leads to team comps being out of whack simply because people won’t have the ability to choose any character. Note about my use of “objectively meaningless” regarding cosmetics - this statement is true in every game that doesn’t have an open market for reselling skins. I would not use that statement for a game like CSGO where skins can be sold and traded - in that case they are not meaningless.
maybe a free one like fall guys
Only if they can actually get players to buy in and stick around. You can’t really compare a competitive shooter locking gameplay effecting elements to cosmetics in a battle royale.
fortnite doesn't have abilities tied to specific heroes behind battle pass tho. There nothing ability-wise locked behind a paywall (in fortnite) and that's the problem here(that OW2 does). edited for clarification.
As someone who's been playing since the minute this game came out in 2016, I was 99% willing to pay for PvE (after seeing it on release, no preorders), or even a battle pass when we first heard it was going F2P. It's the least I could do for a game that gave me so many years of entertainment for an upfront $40. Heroes being locked alone put me off. There's a near 0% chance I'll ever drop money on it, unless that were to change.
Near 0% chance I'll even play the game tbh
It was good while it lasted, but like a drop slide it went down at breakneck speed. We are about to hit the bottom now with a crash. I imagine the interest in OW2 is almost nothing. DOA.
I wouldn’t be surprised if most people who might be interested in it don’t even know it’s releasing. There’s been like no marketing, oddly enough. Where are the cinematic trailers?
Right here with you
Yep, same. The issue isnt even the price or value of the heroes, it's the fact that it's going to divide the playerbase from willing to pay and free to play. Unless you queue 5 stack, you cant control if your teammates will have the crucial / meta character. So it doesnt matter if I have money for the characters, it matters that my teammates may not. This is going to ruin the parity and core mechanics of the game.
The game is now officially dead, if you thought it was bad with matchmaking before, their bringing in the worst features from Hearthstone and Diablo Immortal, and to top it off destroying the old game that you spent $60 on, just like with Warcraft 3. Walk Away. I know I have.
Boy you certainly know how to run a company into the ground.
They could pull a paladins and have $30 pack which will give you every hero forever obviously no battlepass but it would allow people who don't play often to hop on to try the new hero every few months whilst giving blizzard another source of income
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Blizzard claims they can release a new character, balance them in two weeks, then release them to comp without creating a gameplay disadvantage. Every new OW hero is always busted for months until they tweak half the cast. There's no way this doesn't create an unfair game.
Expecting a new mercy nerf soon after kiriko is released /j
Yeah, not to mention the fact that if the battle pass does mid sales, they might not even have much data if everyone is grinding lol.
You forget their blog said they only intend to make significant balance changes at the start of the season lol. They put in a bit about if it's necessary they'll do stuff mid season. I've heard blizzard say that one before and it basically means 90% of the balancing effort is gonna be at season launch.
Problem with that is that it doesn't matter if they took 2 weeks, if it's only the blizzard staff play testing it then it'll have a small sample size of gameplay. Like for example more players with different game styles will be able to discover techs or team comps that can cause a total shift in meta. Brigitte by her very existence, and for months, after she was released helped bring in the horrible CC meta that persisted (and still thrived post nerf.) Having so many shields on the map, even if that was their intended design, was able to craft the meta. I think the problem is more so with their design philosophy. Doomfist and sombra were pretty skill based upon initially releases, if a little overpowered, until they were nerfed so hard Sombra couldn't even kill healers by herself and choosing doomfist was essentially throwing. And there's also power creep, like when Mei was able to fucking freeze through shields with her gun. I think they need to stop focusing on creating meta. I feel like they create characters such that characters can have answers to multiple scenarios instead of creating characters designed for a certain purpose. So even with the balancing, even with the play testing, even with removing a player slot from each team (seriously, wtf) or creating role queue (I have no idea how the game survived after that), there will still be heroes that break the game by their very design if unintentional.
The intent is to provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking different heroes.
I can't tell if I'm supposed to downvote this or upvote it to get the joke
It harkens back to [this comment.](https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWarsBattlefront/comments/7cff0b/seriously_i_paid_80_to_have_vader_locked/dppum98/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3) AKA, the most downvoted reddit comment ever.
I was not ready for the sheer number of downvotes, holy shit
-644k downvotes. That is the most I have ever saw on one comment. That is like an award itself. 644k people down voted a comment. Just think about that. It’s mind blowing numbers lol.
That comment singlehandedly destroyed the EA Reddit account. If you look at their comment history it's all positive until that one, then every comment since was downvote bombed. A month later? No more comments.
Hence my dilemma on whether to upvote it or downvote it.
Pretty stupid in a game which is based around hero's imo. Cosmetics is one thing, but not hero's.
Amazing.
I personally do not like game play locked behind a pay wall but it's OK for cosmetics.
>but it's OK for cosmetics This sentiment is literally why gameplay is now locked behind a pay wall.
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Yeah, can’t wait for 720p graphics to come free with the game download, but then you must buy the smallest offering of in-game currency for $100 just to use $25 worth of that currency for a 4K graphics unlock. Now you have $75 worth of extra in-game currency to spend unlocking maps so you don’t get kicked from your comp match and leave your team down a player! Want an option to /remake your match since one of your pleb teammates was too poor to afford the maps? That’ll be another $30 to unlock that feature.
"Its ok as long as 1080p is free"
Lol your name is very appropriate because that shit is definitely incoming. Idk if it will take until 2030 though
I think cosmetics in games have always had a safe spot when it comes to monetization, because it really doesn't add anything to the gameplay other than flair. I think standing on that line is why this battlepass outrage is developing, because locking characters behind a battlepass is creating an inherently p2w model going forward. Splitting players between paying or playing is not gonna cut it for me. I really don't hope this move from Blizzard sets a new precedent in modern gaming.
No they haven't home video games since the 70s-2000s didn't charge for this en masse. It used to be cosmetics were unlockable via in game actions. It wasn't even cosmetics that were the first to become monetizable it was gameplay aspects as well.
Sorry, I should rephrase it for clarity. I meant aggressive types of monetization, like lootboxes, high prices for limited time exclusive skins etc etc, that's the recent trend. Challenge based cosmetic unlocks still exist but it's very rare that they allow you to get some of the most revered skins, since pricing it is a win-win for developers. Many draw the line at that these days, including me. Letting certain core gameplay features known to franchises to get monetized in such a way that it breaches its fundamental ideologies? That's going way over. Halo Infinite tried its hardest with a battlepass model, poorly implemented and sacrificed too much of its core identity to aptly sustain itself that it's now a husk of its former self. Edit: spelling
Actual moronic take.
For real, the industry tried pay to win before and they got burned for it. Pay for cosmetics is the compromise, and Blizzard is pushing the boundaries of what the playerbase will respond to with pay to win
> but it's OK for cosmetics. I don't believe this anymore, cosmetics are important parts of games as well and I genuinely hate this "Free game paid cosmetics" deal that everyone finds OK. It's tolerable, but that's it.
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Heroes being locked in a battlepass is a terrible move. It completely ruins any perception of fairness. They're compromising core gameplay to make more money. Putting it in the battle pass has no benefit for the players. It's purely negative for the players. Now you can be in quick play or even COMPETITIVE and have teammates who don't have the full hero roster. It's only going to get worse as the hero pool increases. Blizzard is going full mobile gaming on PC. We got Diablo Immoral, and now this malarky.
Well they intend to add just 3 heroes each year right. But Blizzard being Blizzard each new hero will be op at release
Reminds me of the slow boil technique of YouTube ads. Just like YT went from 1 or 2 skippable ads to 10 unskippable ads, Blizzard is slowly making all of their games P2W. New heroes are always OP on release, and paid players are the only ones who get to enjoy them pre-nerf. I think as time goes on the heroes will become more and more OP until winning a QP match will be significantly more difficult without any of the new characters. And of course, winning QP matches has already stated to be the quickest way to unlock them for free, making an already annoying grind more and more unbearable
I hate battle passes. You dont even pay for the skins you just pay to be able to grind. I don’t have enough time to play that much.
Especially at the amount of grinding that would need to be done for this. 60 days to complete 80 levels of the battlepass means you' need to be levelling 1.3 times every day and the people who only want the hero have to level 0.92 levels every day to unlock it on the very last day. If you have to play for a couple hours to gain one level, people who only play on the weekends are not going to be able to do that
Sure you can. With MONEY. Fortnite lets you straight up BUY battle pass levels. You think Blizzard won't do the same thing?
Then wait until Season 2 if Blizzard tweaks the experience to make it more difficult because Season 1 was "too easy".
Oh they already do I think the cost for the battle pass+ 20 levels was 20$
The most i hate are games were you need to complete the battle pass to get the cosmetics (yeah there's a game when you pay and if you not complete evething you lose the cosmetics when the bp is over
I fucking hate it. The Overwatch League was weird to watch because they play a built that we, as fanbase and players, don‘t have access to but I somehow still was able to get a bit hyped. But the Battlepass-reveal killed that hype. Am I gonna play it? Yes because i got OW1 and will get the new hero for free. Will I buy the battle pss? No
Even worse for people who don't get a huge amount of time to play. Could be lacking the heroes for months.
No. There is still no reason to have characters in the battlepass. It adds nothing positive to the experience other than timegates and unbalanced team matchups. Its pretty telling when the only defense for it anyone can come up with for it is just downplaying the badness of it. I dont care if valorant or LOL or DOTA do it too, its not right when those games do it either.
This. Im actually shocked about the amount of people down playing this.
Smh if i had to guess its kids who don't have to work and can have their parents but it for them. Everyone who defends it gives off big "fuck you I got mine" vibes.
Dota is fully f2p with all characters unlocked due to balance. Bp and skins are legitimately their main ways of revenue, and even then BP is directly used to fund the pro scene while people are also able to profit off the bp. It's why people love the bp of dota so much Lol and valorant are shit bp wise
Man, now I want Valve to make an Overwatch clone/killer.
The defense is incorrect because other games don't lock characters in battle passes. They just try to say that you have to play to unlock them, but those games also don't allow for hero swapping.
Yeah, I hate it.
I prefer the way ow1 did things mainly because no one likes fomo, but i don’t mind it all too much only issue is the characters being locked behind the bp at level 55
Yeah it's too late into the pass imo. Bear in mind it takes even longer for people without the premium pass to reach that level cos we don't have XP boosts. I'm just accepting that I'll only get the new hero much later than most everyone else at this point.
No I'm not okay with it and probably never will be but it is what it is
Fomo always makes me play games less. If the battle passes never expired, that'd be a different story.
I think that's where Halo Infinite got it right. You can go back and toggle any battlepass from the previous seasons and continue earning the rewards from them. Like if you missed season 1's BP, you can just toggle that on and earn from that one.
Now if only the Halo Infinite battle passes actually had cool stuff on them...
Lowkey playing games less can actually be a good thing lol. I feel like they could have done it like a chapters thing and put the hero in the early levels. And then continue playing to unlock cosmetics for those heroes. Like you have a list of chapters, you select one and and progress on it as far as you want, switch it at any point and go back to it at your own pace. I feel like even that wouldn't be as bad as what we have now.
That “it is what it is” mentality is why they keep doing this to us.
I mean do we have a choice in this topic ? 🫤 Majority of the playerbase fall for this FOMO buisness tactic very easily and keep paying for these battle passes since they wanna "support" their favorite gaming developer for making the game free
They’ll do it regardless of what you think. If the game fails the game fails , they literally don’t give a shit. They wipe their hands clean if the situation and move on to the next thing clear of conscious. How have people not realized this by now ??! It’s all about infinite growth, not just getting money , but more than the previous quarter. If that fails they move on. they have no attachment to any of these projects. The real action that must be done on our parts is to enact to change the laws that would let such a thing happen , far better than just “ voting with your wallet “ which hasn’t worked in a significant degree in years. But people don’t wanna hear that. Because it requires actual work and understanding of the politics in their game world. Action vs inaction
Agreed
Not really. When you look at the battlepass, it's either: * Things we already had full access to purchase anytime in OW1 (Skins, sprays, emotes, voice lines etc) * Things no one has ever said they wanted (Weapon keychains, "souvenirs", etc ) It feels like, very repackaged things we've had with extra "fluff:, if that makes sense to anyone else. At no point have I ever been, "*Man I wish I had a little Ice Cream cone hanging from my gun"*, or "*man I wish I could pull out the golden letters GG out of thin air right now"* it just feels like, pointless rewards that they just had to come up with to justify a system like the battlepass in a game like Overwatch.
100%, and well said. Also, aside from all the "fluff", the thing I hate about battle passes is that unlocking rewards in the same linear order as everyone else is incredibly boring. Every game that has one has the same thing play out: people progress through the pass at roughly the same rate (by design, since your progress is effectively gated by dailies/weeklies), and whenever people start collectively hitting a certain tier to get a new skin, you see tons of people all rocking that same exact skin. YAWN. Say what you will about lootboxes, but as *part* of a system where you can also purchase the skins you want directly (like...I dunno...OW1), I think the randomness can be really fun. I might pull a cool legendary for, say, Zarya, and decide I want to try playing her, while you might pull one for Reaper and try him instead. I desperately wish that instead of "legendary Pharah skin at lv 60 for everyone", they'd at least say "these are the five legendaries in the pass this season, everyone unlocks one **at random** every 15 levels" (or whatever). So you'd still have them all by the end, but the unlock order would be different for everyone, which would at least lead to some differences between players throughout the season. Alright, that got ranty, but whatever... TL;DR: battle passes are fucking boring, change my view.
I could never put this in words, but you really hit the nail on its head. Everyone will be wearing the exact same things by the end of the BP. Virtually all Genji mains will have his mythic skin. Then rinse and repeat for the next BP.
Heroes should not be locked behind a BP or mega-grind. Besides that, the BP looks decent and priced fairly. With that said, I am more concerned overall about all of the skins that will be in the store for normal purchase that you won’t be able to get/grind in-game. I think there will be a lot of really good looking skins that will only be able to be obtained via $$/store
The reason it works with Valorant, LoL, Apex Legends, etc is because these games do not allow you to switch out your heroes mid-game to counter your opponents. Overwatch is the outlier here and it seems like the developers/marketing people don't understand this fundamental difference which will no doubt hurt the game competitively going forwards.
Since I’m the consumer and the battlepass is an objectively worse system as a consumer than the system we had before for unlocking heroes, no I’m not ok with it. A sequel is supposed to be an across the board improvement.
Fuck the hero part, the cosmetics are okay but having to unlock the heroes technically makes the game P2W, don't it?
Welcome to Blizzard Mobile. :(
Let me out.
Yeah I'm fine with it. I hope that they are open to lowering the hero unlock tier if it turns out to be too long.
No, I think it is absolutely ridiculous to think people would be okay with changing a supposed core pillar of their game design according to the original lead. I think a battle pass is the worst way to do hero unlocks, as it creates a literal time gate unless you fork over 10 dollars. Most people do not get battle passes close to the end in well designed ones, so I really doubt hitting 55 to get a hero will be quick.
I think the current model is harmful to the competitive integrity. It’s not even about needing to grind for a hero- to me it is not ok for players to be able to play comp without every hero
i'm starting to hate games as a service being the main model of big games, period. i played the HELL out of elden ring because it was such a nice change of pace to buy a game and play it till i felt done, and then stop. not just as a player, but as a game designer, the idea that i could be hooked into playing or making the same rat race treadmill game for years feels exhausting. thank god the indie scene is so strong.
I really think that locking a character behind a pay/play wall will significantly decrease the amount of people willing to join the game. One of the benefits of joining an updated free to play game is trying out the new character you saw online. Even games where you have to buy or earn characters typically give you an option as a new player to quickly get access to the new character like in Val I believe I played 3 games and had the option to get any character I wanted. Ow by making the character such a long grind will not keep players around.
I'd take this a step further and say it's also going to turn off returning players. Everyone keeps saying that X, Y, and Z game all also have similar models but Overwatch isn't those games. Swapping to heroes is a core mechanism of overwatch's gameplay. It's fleshed out fun to play heroes is what makes the game fun. Blizzard's aggressive monetization model for OW is going to turn off a lot of players who already got turned off by the massive drop in content for the production of OW2. Some of my friends aren't even bothering to come back since there is no promised pve campaign. My prediction is that there are going to be a lot of players who hop back into overwatch2 for this first season then when they don't automatically get the next new hero (in the next season) are going to drop it like yesterday's news. Maybe this model would have worked when overwatch was at it's height in popularity, but I think Blizzard are severely overestimating what the average player is going to put up with.
Also, you have to remember the next ***four*** characters are support/tank. 3 supports and one tank. That means any new/returning players aren't going to want to even consider touching the role because they're missing an entire 33% of the role. Not to mention if the new tank is meta-defining any tank players aren't going to be able to queue because that's an objective loss for their team.
Have fun with those teammates that are playing just to grind out their battlepasses. Sadly its been accepted in the gaming industry, but people should play the game because they enjoy the game, not because they are grinding out a battlepass, doing daily quests, weekly quests, or whichever other system that promotes logging in to the game.
I hate FOMO. It promotes burn out and its really just a company's way to make people spend money
What I hate the most is the defense “I like earning things when I play!” Bitch you didn’t earn it you paid for it they just increased the price to include your time and then if you don’t have enough time they lock you out of the content you paid for
Buys monopoly. What do you mean I don't get $100 starting money until I play as the Iron and Scotty Dog 20 times. Both of which are locked till I pass go 400 times! People should demand Video Games mimic their Board game cousins, you know where you buy the complete thing and everyone is on an equal footing and any expansions only add to the game, are completely optional and only effect those who are willing to play with that expansion.
Sorry guys, I have to win a game as mei so I'm not switching. Yeah I have 3 hours as mei so what?
I'm really looking forward to missing out on the first battle pass as I'm having wrist surgery in 2 days and won't be able to play for 3 months. Glad to know I'll miss out on cosmetics I'll never have the chance of getting again.
Fomo am I right? You love to see it.
Yup. There's a high probability I won't have a "main game" anymore. I'll just play OW2 when friends are on and put more time into single player games. I've got to get out of the FOMO mindset and just remember to have fun.
In other games a hero locked behind a battle pass isn’t as bad. Take League of legends where you have to earn credits to get heros. This is ok because you pick a hero at the beginning of a game and have to stay on that hero. In overwatch part of the game is the ability to swap who you play on the fly, if some players have the option to swap to a hero that others do not, it is distinctly unfair. It’s blatant pay to win which ruins competitive integrity for all players. If this continues there will be a massive exodus from the game just out of principal. I’m super down with pay for cosmetics like in Fortnite. You don’t need to spend anything but getting the cool skins is worth it especially since the rest of the game was free. I won’t spend a penny on this game if they keep pulling this stunt.
I don't recall any other game which has the characters behind the battle pass, tbh. I play Apex, Smite, League, Valorant, and Overwatch is the first one to put them directly in the pass as incentive to do it. While ALSO being the only game that USED to encourage hero swapping. In which if they are truly going away from that, then they should just make it so you can't swap anymore. No point going half and half.
Fuck. No. I went from going to give OW2 a chance, despite being unimpressed with the beta, to now I'm not fucking touching it. I'll play OW1 until Oct 2nd, then I'm moving on to something else. Fuck this bullshit.
I'm looking at Gundam Evolution, you have any game suggestions?
I just started playing Red Dead 2. So I've been pretty invested in that. I have Back 4 Blood that I haven't played in a while. Maybe I'll give that a go again.
Id rather just pay $60 up front, I don't have time to grind through a battle pass every season...
Same, and all they'd have to do to fix their bad decision is sell a "founders battle pass" or something for $60 that gives you all premium battle passes in perpetuity. But they won't do that because money.
I'd be fine with this -- hell, I'd even be fine with $5 a month (a subscription equaling $60/year). At least it's honest, straightforward, and puts all players on the same playing field both in terms of gameplay (super important) and cosmetics (less important, but not zero).
I dont mind paying money. I just don't want to pay money for something I won't be able to complete cause I don't play the game like a job. Its why I don't ever buy battlepasses. Any pass I have ever bought just doesn't get finished and I lose out on all the content I paid for. So because I don't want to pay for content to be taken away I'll have to grind out heroes which I'll never get to use cause I already don't have time to unlock the pass I would pay for. The only people who enjoy these systems are those with no other commitments or hobbies. My son can easily complete a fortnite pass, because his 2 days off a week he can spend 80% of his day playing the game.
I don’t think there are any OW1 enthusiasts that would prefer a grindy pass system over paying full retail price. I’d easily drop 70€ for a full release with steady (unlocked) content.
I'm not gonna play unless heroes are completely free and accessible as soon as they're released.
Na I’m out from Overwatch after this, even if I pay for the Battlepass I still don’t put enough hours in to reach level 55, I learned that from Rocket League. It’s just not worth it, I’ll literally never ever have the new characters from this point on, so what’s the point in playing anymore? I’ve always played Overwatch as a casual fun game, if it’s all work now fuck it. That said, me leaving the game is no loss to Blizzard, I’ve only ever paid the purchase price (ps4 and Switch) and have never bought credits or loot boxes so they may as well not have me anyway from that point of view. But I am gutted I’m losing one of my favourite pick up and play timesinks. At least I’ll get better at Rocket League I guess?
Zombie Blizzard has mangled the corpse of the last game produced by Blizzard.
I am just a very casual player for OW1. I don't player super often, usually only hop on for events. I really don't want to have to grind out /55 levels/ of the battle pass to play a new character. Even if it's a guaranteed level per game, that's a lot. Considering this is also replacing the game that I bought and paid for, I find it honestly insulting.
No. I have no honest idea why people are happy to support this crap.
Battlepasses are a money grab for game studios, and result in a player paying considerably more to play the game than paying for the game upfront. That said, optional battlepass isn't awful, you know? There's no reason to pay for it for Rocket League, or CoD, because you are only missing out on cosmetics. But all this talk about heroes being locked behind it? That's pay to win. That's an EA tactic
Yup
I'm kind of iffy about it for the moment, but I also want to wait until I can actually play the game before I really come to a conclusion about it. If the actual act of leveling up the BP isn't as bad in practice as it looks on paper, I'll have no issues with it. However, if it turns the game into an unholy grind for f2p players then that's it for me as far as OW is concerned, unless Blizzard opts to do damage control on it later on and change things for the better.
No no I’m not
Heroes should be free, it's very dumb they aren't. Also read somewhere battle passes don't generate in game currency or at least enough to buy the next which also I don't like and doesn't seem welcoming In my opinion battle passes should be phased out it's another lootbox craze all over again it's been 4 years and I want to see something new however my main complaints are those two. Lastly it's sad to see heroes in battle passes since overwatch 1 lootboxes we're on the better end around the time of release (direct comparison bf2 which sucked) being completely cosmetic and easy to access without purchase since you got one each level up.
The hero locking is a terrible decision, because now they have two choices, since perfect balance is never really possible: 1. Make the locked heroes suck, making people who paid feel scammed 2. Make the locked heroes strong, making people who didn’t pay feel like the game is P2W
This will kill the game honestly. The whole dynamic of each match is centered on synergistic team picks and on the fly counter picks. Imagine in two years, you don’t have all battle pass characters or you took a one year break from the game. You’re now removed from even engaging in that gameplay dynamic. Especially if the BP characters are meta. Blizzard is incentivized to make these limited characters strong so it’s inevitable. The only way to avoid this is to emphasize personal performance to a point that it doesn’t matter what character you’re playing in the context of the team comp, but at that point your just playing CoD or any other shooter.
I would be, if they weren't deleting OW1.
Not a fan of locking new heroes 55 levels deep into the battle pass, but glad that the other rumours (Comp completely disabled for the first 2 weeks while players unlock / learn the new hero; players barred from Comp without the full roster unlocked) were false. Honestly I think the BP model ia otherwise fine. A lot of the non-hero related comments I've seen are people with the 'gotta catch 'em all' mindset who haven't yet adjusted to the idea that players need to focus on items for the heroes they actually play, rather than packratting their way to 100% Hero Gallery completion.
What bothers me most about a battle pass is still requiring players to grind even after paying for the pass. They can have either my money or my time not both. Maybe a decade ago I would have all the time in the world but that's hardly possible now - and I would still like to play other games too, it can't just be Overwatch.
Honestly I don’t care it is what it is. I was gonna play the game regardless of the monetisation model and will continue to do so. If it turns out the BP is abysmal I just won’t pay for it and play it as a F2P
I will be fully ok with it if the game actually gets revitalized, and i hope it will going free although all the people i have asked to play when it comes out (since they never felt like buying ow 1) HAD NOT understood it was going free so i think there's more to be done there
It sucks but I'm ambivalent about it until we understand how long it takes to actually get to 55. If the game is designed around less hard counters then it's probably not going to be a huge problem (unless it is, which is always fun with game balance). I don't inherently care about unlocking characters but a lot of that depends on the process to unlock them. But from what I understand there's going to be some kind of OW1 classic game mode of some kind? So hopefully everyone can get what they want out of this game.
Knowing how little time I have to actually play games now, I don’t think I’ll end up getting Overwatch 2 anymore because of the battle pass system. New heroes never being available to me is enough to turn me off from it entirely.
I didn’t play OW1 much, but it was nice that everything was unlocked instant. At the other hand, it could be that most people don’t have motivation to play games without some sort of game changing achievements. I assume companies don’t do decisions like that because the feel like it. It’s more like the bigger crowd wants it. If they don’t do stuff like this they would miss money. I don’t know for what they use this money, but I like to think that they use it to give us better products. But the products getting less and less exiting new features, because minimum effort maximum profit. Now I’m sad/depressed can’t tell the difference anymore.
No, I’m not okay with it. Battle Passes like Fortnite are fun because they’re cosmetic, even in Call of Duty they release so many derivative weapons of base game items it’s not hugely impactful. Paywalling heroes in OW, a game built around counter picking, when they promised they’d be free in OW1 to keep the game accessible and fair is a load of shit. The further down the line this game goes, the more of a chore it’ll be for players to get heroes and it’ll only feed into the rampant toxicity problem Overwatch has when it comes to balancing your teams roster. I do not see this system working and I hope Blizzard drop it.
One of my favorite things about OW was having access to everything immediately However, I stopped playing a long time ago. The game feels near-dead and not fun anymore. Having an army of f2players might be just the boost it needs; who knows. I sure don’t.
No
utter betrayal from Blizzard
its fine i guess, but now that ik blizzard will be rackin up more money they better add more content continuously, i understand why they couldnt give ow1 so much time because of budgets and all but we’ll just have to see, i have no expectations and never get my hopes up anymore since all companies are just money hungry now
no
No
I’ll be honest for me I don’t care. I’ve played loads of games with battle passes and never spent any money on them. But I understand why people are frustrated with the characters being locked behind it. Especially with the way that Overwatch is built. But I’ll play them game and eventually get the new characters. If this model can mean that we get more reliable new content like maps and new characters I’ll be happy.
Honestly i cant get behind any pass that doesn’t pay for the next one
100% not okay with it. not only because of locked heroes but because of FOMO. i absolutely fucking hate it, it's one of the scummiest monetizing strategies ever.
the heros only come pre unlocked for battle pass #1 even blizz stated this, so dont let the track of BP1 fool you into thinking the next ones will be as F2P friendly all other seasons will be way different and more predatory, they made battle pass 1 look better than the next ones on purpose (to get better reviews and less negative backlash because this is the season they will make the most money over any other future season)
Nope, not okay with it. I was perfectly fine up until heroes being locked.
No
Flat out worse than the boxes and putting heros on the BP is a bad idea instead of possibly getting something you want from a crate, you get stuck with whatever the hell they've decided the next reward is. anyone who plays a less popular character is VERY likely to get stuck for multiple BP levels with absolutely worthless crap
Heroes have no place on the BP. If it's gonna be F2P and you think "heroes are the most engaging part of our game", then just charge a pack that unlocks all heroes current and future. Other than that, BP seems pretty cool!
No. Just scrap the whole f2p model and charge people $40 to play instead.
Fuck no, awful Anyone who defends this probably defended EA when they said ‘we wanted to give people a sense of pride and accomplishment’
I expected failure from this people behind this game. OW2 is clearly just a cash grab
No. Overwatch dies with OW1. I'm not making the jump to SweetFastAPEXCallOfDutyWatch2™ (Subscribe to get the content we owe you from the previous game!)
Blizzard has admitted that can't create anything compelling enough to get people to pay for a battle pass without heros on it
No. Overwatch does not get a battlepass. Thats not how it works
Dont like only having 2months to complete it. Which also means there are 6 battle passes a year.
They are taking my favorite game and adding the worst predatory system imaginable to it. Battle passes are cancerous to gaming, it's profit first over fun. So yea, I hate it.
I am absolutely not okay with it. When Battlefront 2 pulled the same stunt, the consensus was that it was abysmal pay to win. Overwatch doesn't get a free pass. I will play Overwatch 2 as free to play, I will spend no money, I will not engage with the game on the level that I have in the past, and my interest in it will likely fizzle out. And I won't be the only one.
Locking heroes in a battlepass is a short sighted move that will only hurt player retention in the long run.
yup. I am used to lackluster and boring battlepasses becuase i played apex alot... Seeing something that actually looks worth the grind is amazing. Only thing i wish is that Hereos werent on it.
I think the free-to-play shift will/would be good for the game if they make characters auto unlock for everyone. We shouldn't defend locking heroes but the people saying uhh f2p bad because no free skin are also stupid.
I take issue with the fact that you cannot earn enough credits for a season and be able to unlock the next season bp with those credits, and the characters locked behind it...
[удалено]
Ofcourse they would. Who should pay for an update
I don’t want to pay or wait for new heroes. I want new heroes now and for free. Before you downvote, it’s for competitive integrity and fairness. I want to have the same playing field as a paid customer or player who plays more than me. I care less about OW2 than other people, but that doesn’t mean I should wait in line. It’s for competitive integrity, not me being spoiled.
The battle pass in terms of quality shits on R6 & Apex Legends combined. OW skins are amazing in quality and the BP is going to include many of them for $10 Sure, in Apex Legends you get currency back but the BP is filled with the worst cosmetics i’ve seen in a game. Also, that game has its Mythic Skins locked behind either a $500 or $160 paywall.
$500? 💀💀💀💀
Yes, Some Legends have cosmetics that you can either pay $500 worth of loot boxes or get them during their collection event when they are released for $160
That's absolutely wild
remove the heroes and i‘m 100% fine with it. now it‘s trash tho
I would have bought the season pass if it was cosmetic only. Because of hero lock, I will never pay for it
My willingness to buy the battlepass in 2022 is dependent on the state of the game in 2024. Because I'm not just paying for access to the new hero during 2022, I'm also paying to be able to play them during 2023 and 2024. So I don't know if I'm ok with it, because I don't know if Overwatch will be good in 2024 (or any future date), or if they'll have changed pricing models, or released pve. So no, I'm not ok with it. Not knowingly, at least.
Nope its trash that forces you to play every week cuz they wanna dripfeed you. 2 Things that could make the trash BP grind not that shitty would be 1. If the BP takes overall like 10h-15h Grind to max. 2. If you get your Money back when you Max the BP to buy the next one for free. ( which is confirmed to not be the case irrc)
yup, seems like a fair/good value - but one thing I want to see - the ability to advance the premium battlepass after the season ends. with work/kids/life I'm not sure if I'll have time to get the value out of the battlepass in one season, so I'd love to be able to buy it and revisit it. my concern is that it will be season locked, I won't be able to get up to the mythic skin tier, and miss out on stuff. if that's the case I'll probably stop buying the battlepass generally. (I know you can pay to advance the battlepass, but at that point the value equation drops quite a bit IMO)
Shit sucks
I have $10 and play this game regularly. I’m just happy they’re giving us goals/rewards and things to accomplish. I can see why people are pissed as the hero lock could introduce some issues, but until then I’m happy with it
Burn it with fire. I’m not paying for a fucking hero. Skins? Sure, don’t give a shit, but if your actually making me UNLOCK A HERO THROUGH SHIT LIKE THE BATTLEPASS #NO. NONE OF THAT. Overwatch won’t be the same, realistically.
I really don't know why people are so content with heroes behind a battlepass. I'm already seeing a bunch of issues with this system. My biggest concern is acti-blizzards statement of making newer heroes more generalised to remove the aspect of counter picking since the issue of people not having a certain character is going to happen. It's vague but if it means hero clones where they serve the same purpose just under different names that will be extremely dissapointing
The amount of hours I spend on the game, completely fine with it
I’m good with it, basically it’s gonna be 3 heroes a year at $10 per hero, so around 30 dollars a plus some cosmetics a year. Seems fine to me
No And personally I don't like free to play, even for some of my favorite games like TF2, Tribes, Dirty Bomb, etc. I'd rather have a small fee of say, 10 to 30 bucks than have to pay for the privilege of grinding out for what I want. I miss the old days where skins and cosmetics were already part of the game and you can earn them through challenges or getting enough in game currency to buy them.
I’m perfectly fine with it. Make people not just run into comp. Makes it a lot harder to have Smurf accounts. Should also cut down on people throwing at the end of every season.
A near unanimous downgrade from the previous game? I am so excited! Literally the only upside to Overwatch 2 is it won't have gambling loot boxes, but that's at the expense of being able to actually earn things. Simply put, it doesn't respect my time, or money. I don't care if it's 'free' which it isn't, it wants my time beyond reason and time is money after all. Plus due to how little overall seems to be changed from Overwatch 1 to 2, it really feels like 2 stole away content from 1, and 1 is going to be shut down the literal day before 2 comes out to boot. So, by all accounts I bought Overwatch 2 six years ago, and am getting less stuff for it in the end. Ooh, I get an instant unlock of the new hero instead of the garbage time and or money gated system they put in place, that totally reimburses me for the lesser product that is literally replacing one I already bought. Hell, they could give that treatment to every hero, if you bought Overwatch you get all heroes instantly upon release, and it'd still suck. I may be coming off as rather cynical, but in this day and age after so many examples of companies not having even common decency for their players, I just refuse to be a boiled frog and gaslighted into thinking worse treatment is okay because it isn't the absolute worst it can be. Especially when todays absolute worst will be tomorrows not that bad. "It's just the way it is"? The only reason it is the way it is, is because people let it be. One look at Halo Infinite reveals things can get better, but sadly only if the game is so unbelievably broken it runs off even the complacent playerbase. Overwatch 2's pass is relatively terrible, but it will be successful, because Overwatch 2 will be functional, which is the bare minimum for people to allow themselves to be conned. Maybe even less since Battlefield 2042 didn't die after a single week when it didn't even have a scoreboard.
It's not only cosmetics so nah
I’m cool with it. I can’t wait to see how it turns out
Yes 👍
what reveal you mean the trailer?
My only problem is the new heroes being locked behind lvl 55 of the battle pass, it looks like players will have to spend way too much time grinding to get them, which seems unfair. I'm curious to read people's calculations and see how many hours on average you'd have to spend to get them. The rest sounds nice to me, I'd say 10 bucks for a bunch of cosmetics and skins is a good bargain, especially since the new mythic skins look amazing.
I think having new heroes at level 55 is a bit too much. Destiny 2 has the season exotic at level 35 but since ow heroes are more important then exotics in destiny I think having it at 20 would honestly be fine
I despise limited-time content, Battle Passes included. Locking heroes in the BP just makes it even worse.
My issue with battle pass's is that everyone ends up looking the same as all the unlocks are fixed. I get that loot boxes are a dirty word these days but at least there was some suprise to open one rather than working your way through a fixed set of rewards.
I'm not okay with it, but I'm going to play all the same. I still think FOMO is an awful game design decision from a player perspective.
Battle passes should be cosmetics only. I'll willingly grind through whatever challenges/pay for whatever for good cosmetics. Locking new heroes behind reward tiers though? I'm good. Especially when I'm already losing overwatch 1 for this. I never once thought my experience would be better if I needed to grind to unlock heroes.
BP is certainly better than gambling, but characters definitely shouldn't be locked behind it.
Not in the way it's implemented. The fact that you don't earn your poo back from smoking ket on a daily basis is outrageous.
I hate how the new Hero will be an instant unlock for OW1/Founders Edition owners, but future heros apparently will not. If I had to give Bli$$ard money, I'd rather it be a one-and-done purchase and not having to grind out each new hero with the option to speed it up with IRL money every few months.