Author: big_fisch

Owner and operator of Game Watch Today, est. 2016, making content daily about the video game Overwatch. Social Media content creator, Podcaster and more. Find me on instagram, twitter and YouTube at gamewatchtoday. Find me on tumblr and facebook at Overwatchtoday. Contact me at bigfisch@gamewatchtoday.com
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Jeff Kaplan talks Hero Pool changes and Teemu Selanne…

Image result for jeff kaplan

Yesterday Jeff Kaplan dropped a huge developer update for Overwatch talking about the introduction of Competitve Hero Pools, a Experimental Mode, replay sharing and UI changes. After the video released Jeff took to the Blizzard forums for about an hour, here’s all his replies to people.

JeffreyKaplan commented on Hero pools is a brave and holistic change
Persevere:

Blizzard kept saying that this game is about being able to play several heros and flexing between them, but this is basically the first time when Blizzard supports this statement with an in-game mechanics.
Which, I think, is good for the game overall.

And I’m sure it was a very hard change for Blizzard, since the whole idea goes against basic game marketing – most people buy the game to play a character they love, not to be an flex-champion.
So whatever I like this change or not, I applaud Blizzard for making it.

Thanks for the feedback!

Oddly, we’re not viewing this change as dramatic, scary or impactful as the decision to pursue Hero Limits or our decision to implement Role Queue. Hero Pools will be introduced for Season 21 of Competitive Play only. Unlike Role Queue or Hero Limits, Quick Play and the Arcade will be completely the same as they are today with Hero Pools. This alone already means the number of affected matches is FAR less than those two prior systems.

Also, we’re super open to change with Hero Pools. If we (the dev team and the community) don’t feel like it’s a positive change during Season 21, then we won’t bring it back in Season 22. We get a lot of feedback asking for Competitive seasons to feel “different” from one another. Season 20 and Season 21 will certainly feel different!

Also, something we talk about a lot in game design is the that there is often no one, correct answer. Design is all about tradeoffs. If the thing that the community decides is “the most egregious” is a “static meta” and they “want the dev team to do something about it”… we’re going to take steps towards change. We can’t force the meta to move and not make the game work differently. Last year was great proof that player creativity and balance changes alone weren’t enough to move people off of 3/3 fast enough for the community to feel satisfied. The meta would have moved on it’s own… just slowly.

We’ve decided to help you move it along. If there are things we don’t like about Hero Pools, we can change it. Maybe they don’t come back for Season 22? Maybe they rotate faster? Maybe more or less heroes should be in the pool? We’ll all find out in Season 21.

But really this should be viewed as a fun an exciting change to Season 21 (we wanted Seasons to feel different, right?). And time will tell what happens after…

Either way, hearing your thoughts and feedback is really helpful to us.

JeffreyKaplan commented on Hero pools is a brave and holistic change

MilkyPeach:

Any information yet on how many heroes will be available in a week of hero pool?

For the first 5 weeks, we will be trying a range to see what feel right. We’ve architected this system so that we can update the hero pools without the need to patch. So we’ll be monitoring feedback very closely, experimenting a bit with the pool and adapting our strategy as time goes on.

JeffreyKaplan commented on Hero pools is a brave and holistic change

Nightstream:

Idea, bring it to the experiment card before season 21 for players to test it

The card won’t be ready until end of Feb.

For now, you can test it by not playing Torb for the week.

Next week, don’t play Symmetra.

=]

only playing with ya…

JeffreyKaplan commented on Hero pools is a brave and holistic change

what:

Would you consider rotating hero pools once every few days instead? one week is far too long, in my opinion, and once every match may come across as too hectic.

Yes. We’ve definitely considered it. Let’s try a week and see how it feels and if we need to make adjustments we will. But yeah… we’ve talked about rotating every day. We’ve also talked about rotating every match. We don’t like going longer than a week because we want more heroes played… but open to feedback.

JeffreyKaplan commented on Hero pools is a brave and holistic change

NOOOOOoooooo:

Would it be possible if we’d got scoreboard in the future too?

The discussion is open for OW2.

JeffreyKaplan commented on Hero pools is a brave and holistic change

Minerrow:

Is the profile update gonna bring new level borders?

no [i have to type twenty characters even though i work here]

JeffreyKaplan commented on Hero pools is a brave and holistic change

YoeyTheForge:

Please do this, more stats would be awesome to have.

regardless of if we do a different scoreboard for OW2, we definitely want to do more with stats and provide more statistics to players

JeffreyKaplan commented on Hero pools is a brave and holistic change

Socrates:

What about maybe a seasonal rotation?

we talked about a season rotation but taking a hero out of play for 2 months makes us a bit nervous. never say never but it’s not our first instinct…

JeffreyKaplan commented on Hero pools is a brave and holistic change

kminito:

You may create a card so users can create the hero poll, that could be great at least to try!

you can limit heroes in Custom Game. give it try!

JeffreyKaplan commented on Hero pools is a brave and holistic change

Minerrow:

Thanks for the communication, hope those features are gonna be good and can’t wait to see the new workshop additions.

workshop creators will really love some of the changes Zach and Dan made to the feature. they listened to their feedback very closely and all of it is in response to what creators wanted. really proud of them for their work!

JeffreyKaplan commented on Hero pools is a brave and holistic change

Ryan:

I have to ask though, what is the point of having super fast and drastic balance changes if we are just going to be enforcing weekly metas with hero pools anyways? Like what is the point of nerfing or buffing a hero if they can only be played whether they are in that week’s pool or not?

Historically, even when we have done consistent and dramatic balance changes, it takes the meta a long time to shift. We’d love it if balance or player creativity alone would shift the meta fast enough to meet player’s demands.

JeffreyKaplan commented on Hero pools is a brave and holistic change

Misguided:

I’d love to be able to see stats associated with each replay on my profile page. Hopefully that’s under consideration.

we want this too. more likely for OW2 at this point…

JeffreyKaplan commented on Hero pools is a brave and holistic change

Deprece:

If the Dev team decides to change up the Hero Pool functionality quickly, how would that effect the OWL Hero pool system?

we work closely with OWL on all decisions. we’d just chat with them.

JeffreyKaplan commented on Hero pools is a brave and holistic change

Korda:

is there a ban protection for popular heroes?
will lets say mercy, banned one week, than played alot next week, will she be protected not to be banned 3rd week again?
whats the plan?

we’re curating the list ourselves. we have some philosophies and guidelines we’ll be following (and evolving as we hear your feedback). we will do our best to be judicious and make sure no hero is getting the “horizon” treatment, as with our map pools…

JeffreyKaplan commented on Hero pools is a brave and holistic change

Annimositty:

I’m sorry but I can’t see how any of this is “fun” or “exiting”. I love tanking. And outside my horrible D.Va I love using all the tanks.

we would never limit the pool to just one tank. you’ll never be forced to play a single tank, such as D.va as described above… if you love playing all the other tanks, you’ll be fine.

JeffreyKaplan commented on Hero pools is a brave and holistic change

Rhaemir:

How will you be choosing which heroes don’t make it into the pool? Will it be heroes that are “meta” or will it be a bit more random than that? Or a combination of the two?

it’s curated by us. so it will be a combination of targeting metas that players are being vocally negative about (recent examples: double barrier, goats) and slightly encouraging other playstyles (i.e. “more mobile” comps might be fun for a week…)

but i am sure we’ll refine our approach over time.

JeffreyKaplan commented on Hero pools is a brave and holistic change

Hybrid:

Will the 1-3-2 system you talked about earlier in another post be in the experimental mode? You said you wanted us to try it out for ourselves.

ooooh sounds like fun… we should let you all try, huh?

JeffreyKaplan commented on Hero pools is a brave and holistic change

Hybrid:

Also, can you provide a hint on the next hero?

you know that i can’t ><

JeffreyKaplan commented on Hero pools is a brave and holistic change

NiHKI:

Is the hero pool going to be different for each rank?

not in this version. interesting idea though.

JeffreyKaplan commented on Hero pools is a brave and holistic change

Otlap:

An Experimental mode is very interesting. Are the new possible systems will be tested here? How is it safe for OW client? What if the new possible system will make a major bug in the client and what will happen to the PTR?

we’ll still use the PTR for major patches and major changes. for example, if we were testing a new hero or map, that would be on the PTR and not in the Experimental Card.

the experimental card uses a different data set and was engineered by people far smarter than i am. it’s going to work and be magic and nothing could possibly go wrong… right? =]

JeffreyKaplan commented on Hero pools is a brave and holistic change

Hira:

Jeff hello! Sorry for questioning here, but can you please say something about smurfs on consoles? You know they can create unlimited accounts with one copy of the game. May be some changes specific for consoles?

this is a very hard problem to solve but we have some ideas. any solution is more long term, though. possibly OW2 or later. sorry i know that’s not the answer you wanted but it’s actually very complicated with the way consoles work and the rules regarding account creation.

JeffreyKaplan commented on Hero pools is a brave and holistic change

Cerburus437:

Who is the best overwatch waifu

  1. hammond
  2. mei
  3. tracer

JeffreyKaplan commented on Hero pools is a brave and holistic change

Indigo:

I really, really like the Experimental Card plan. It seems like it’ll help with testing out small changes or shifting concepts for heroes with more people being able to try them out. Smaller and more tested changes is a good way to go!

totally. we’re so excited for this. we’ve wanted this for so long. it was a ton of work but it’s going to be really cool. plus i am super excited to get console players involved with testing changes (right now they cannot play the PTR)

JeffreyKaplan commented on Hero pools is a brave and holistic change

fumingǃ:

i think a hero pool would be more beneficial for higher ranks (masters and up) and may have a negative impact on competitive gameplay for the average ranks. although players should be more diverse, having random banned heroes may result in people playing heroes they arent very good at which would hurt the entire team.

we’ve considered having the system only apply to players above a certain rank (diamond? masters?). it’s definitely on our minds.fumingǃ:

ps have yall considered adding a finnish hero? im from finland

i’m not sure we can make a hero great than teemu selanne?

JeffreyKaplan commented on Hero pools is a brave and holistic change

Otlap:

Will OWL affect the hero bans pool of the live game? Or the Live game will affect OWL bans pool? Or these things are separate and does not interfere with each other?

these are separate things that will not affect each other.

JeffreyKaplan commented on Hero pools is a brave and holistic change

Cerburus437:

Out of all the things you’ve talked about so far today to us, what are you the most excited for?

your feedback…

JeffreyKaplan commented on Hero pools is a brave and holistic change

going to go get some tea now. thanks for all of the great thoughts and thoughtful questions. we’ll make changes as needed. thanks again! <3

That’s it. Hope you enjoyed reading some of Jeff’s thoughts, there were some real good ones in there and lots to think about. What are your thoughts on the future of Overwatch?

Wrecking Ball Mains rejoice

~bigfisch
bigfisch@gamewatchtoday.com

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Console PTR and Hero Pools coming to Overwatch

All good stuff coming to Overwatch soon!

Watch the Update or read whats coming to Overwatch #exciting

Jeff Kaplan in the developer update for January has given us 2 big reasons to get excited about upcoming changes to Overwatch.

The first change is there will be a new game mode called EXPERIMENTAL. This is like a version of the PTR but it will be available for all game systems (PC, XBOX, PlayStation & Nintendo). The experimental mode will allow Blizzard to make hero changes faster nerfing or buffing to change the meta.

The second change will be starting in Season 21 will feature HERO POOLS. Basically a version of hero bans but controlled by Bilzzard. Blizzard gives everyone a “pool” of heroes to play in Competitve only for a week and changes the “pool” every week.

Hero pools will also become an item in the upcoming Overwatch League Season 3.

Another side note change is there will be some “quality of life” design changes to the UI as well but this seems pretty minimal when talking about the other two items.

Jeff also promised us more developer updates in a post so hopefully we will see him more often now.

We will report more on these changes when they go live but reading through a lot of the YouTube comment section they seem pretty darn positive.

What do you think about these upcoming additions to Overwatch?

ohnickel breaks down hero pools

~bigfisch
bigfisch@gamewatchtoday.com

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Overwatch Retail Patch Notes – Jan 28, 2020

A new patch is now live on Windows PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. Read below to learn more about the latest changes.

To share your feedback, please post in the General Discussion 102 forum
For a list of known issues, visit our Bug Report 7 forum.
For troubleshooting assistance, visit our Technical Support 4 forum.

HERO UPDATES

Hanzo

Storm Arrows

  • Damage reduced from 70 to 60

McCree

Deadeye

  • Firing Deadeye no longer locks the player’s aim

Reaper

The Reaping (Passive)

  • Healing amount reduced from 40% to 30% of damage dealt

Orisa

Fusion Driver (Primary Fire)

  • Damage reduced from 11 to 10

Fortify

  • Cooldown increased from 8 to 10 seconds

Halt!

  • Snare duration reduced from 1 to 0.65 seconds

Sigma

Gravitic Flux

  • Can now be interrupted before targets begin falling
  • Impact slow duration reduced from 0.9 to 0.6 seconds

Accretion

  • Explosion damage reduced from 60 to 40

Baptiste

Biotic Launcher (Primary Fire)

  • Recovery time increased from 0.35 to 0.45 seconds

Biotic Launcher (Secondary Fire)

  • Heal explosion reduced from 60 to 50

See the official post https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/overwatch/t/overwatch-retail-patch-notes-%E2%80%93-jan-28-2020/452228

Posted on

How to be a social media master

Master Social Media: BE ORIGINAL

Here’s some advise from a social media power user on how to grow a social media account organically.

Before we get to the list let me explain a few things. I am considered a social media power user which means I don’t have enough followers to be considered an influencer but I do have enough engagement and followers to know what I am doing.

What do I mean when I say grow an account organically? I mean that we are not paying for likes, views, comments or follows. You can purchase ads if you like from others but my budget for all my social media accounts is $0.00 so if you can afford to advertise and you want to go and do it, it will get you some results faster, there are YouTube videos and other people that will show you that method.

What is a social media influencer? That is someone that has A LOT of followers / subscribers, reaches a lot of people daily and is well known in the community they exist in.

My Step by Step Method to being a social media master

For the steps below I will use my own social media pages of Game Watch Today so you can have a point of reference.

  1. Pick a “thing” or “topic” you enjoy (kind of like a hobby you already do). Example: Video Games
  2. Get specific. Your first topic will be too general so pick a sub category of that.
    1. Think of or make a list of types of games you like or specific games that you are into.
  3. Once you pick a focused topic, let’s say we picked Fortnite. Now it’s time to do research.
    1. The importance of a “focused topic” is because the internet is a HUGE place where everyone in the world shares their own experiences, ideas and thoughts on everything. The idea is you want to be known as the EXPERT of that topic you choose, that’s when people really start noticing you.
  4. Research which social media platform you would like to focus on, so let’s say I already spend a lot of time on Instagram so lets choose that as a starting platform.
  5. Research everything you can on instagram about Fortnite accounts.
  6. Let’s say you start doing research about Fortnite and realize the internet is saturated with these accounts and it seems to be slowly dying trend and you want to switch to Overwatch.
    1. In this planning phase you it is okay to switch to a new focused topic just repeat the steps from step 3.
  7. You learn about Overwatch accounts and know that the game isn’t as healthy as Fortnite but you know that Blizzard will support the game for a long time and they are about to release Overwatch 2.
    1. It is important to know the health and future of the focused topic you choose and not to just bandwagon the hottest topic trending today.
    2. Choose something you are really passionate about because people will see that in what you share.
  8. Choose your account type: This is where you decide who to post.
    1. Posts that have you in them, you become the face of your account.
    2. Posts that do not have you in them, you are the silent partner that people ask for a face reveal.
  9. Choose an account name.
    1. If you are an active part of the posts it can be your own username people will identify you by.
    2. If you are not going to be recognized then you can choose a name that people identify your account by easily.
  10. Research the account name
    1. check everywhere and make sure that username is available not just the platform you want to be on. Including a website address. Start with a google search.
  11. Once you have picked a name register that as an email address, then you can use that email to register your social media accounts.
  12. Register your name under all the social media accounts.
    1. YouTube
    2. facebook
    3. twitter
    4. instagram
    5. snapchat
    6. tiktok
    7. twitch
    8. any other accounts you may want to have in the future
  13. Start building your identity. That means logos, profile pictures, account descriptions, banners and anything else you need to show people who you are.
    1. This is called branding and it gives you an identity it will be important later when you want people to find you on other platforms.
  14. We know that for this instance we want to build our instagram empire, however you can apply all these methods to any of the other channels depending on which format you choose to best yourself in.
  15. Decide what you want to post. (just a few examples are below)
    1. news
    2. memes
    3. video highlights
    4. commentary
    5. live streaming (not really a thing on instagram)
  16. After you decide what to post find other people that are doing the same thing and have some success at it. And consider how you can do it better than them.
    1. The real objective is to have fun with your account this will help for longevity.
    2. The secondary objective to focus on is be the best at whatever it is you choose, keep a close eye on the competition and look at how you can improve over time.
  17. Start posting stuff get your friends to like your page to get some initial followers.
  18. After you have a few posts start interacting with other accounts / people in your category. Talk to pages big and small (yes even big names interact with people too but don’t expect it too often).
    1. DON’T ASK FOR SHOUT-OUTS.
      1. I know people say just ask for shout-outs even if you have to pay for it, well I guess that’s fine but remember we are working on a $0.00 budget for our account.
    2. Just talk to people. Some people call it community building. But remember you are doing this to have fun with it and talking to people (being social) really is a great part of the fun of having a social media account. You get to meet a lot of great people along the way.
  19. If people comment on your posts reply to all of them. This is easy when you are a small account, it’s when you have a lot of posts and people are commenting a lot all the time it becomes difficult to reply to all of them but replying to comments is an important step (it’s also referred to as “engagement”).
  20. Like and comment on posts that are related to your account.
    1. By liking or commenting on other peoples account starts a conversation with them. Get an open dialogue going. Don’t be disingenuous about it and do it expecting follows.
    2. Do not use the follow / unfollow method. This is where you follow someone so they follow you and then you instantly unfollow them. This is deceptive and trashy way to get followers.
  21. On instagram you have to switch to a creator or business account but you need to review your analytics daily.
    1. Even if you check your statistics by looking how many people liked a post try to do even better with the next post even if it’s by one like or comment.
  22. DO NOT get frustrated, bored or tired of posting.
    1. Remember when I said choose something you will have fun doing, well it may take years before you have success, it’s like grinding levels on a video game you have to keep working at it and never give up.
    2. Do not change your account to something else cause your bored, this will kill your chances of rising to the top. If you really want to do something else start the process over.
  23. Post to other accounts
    1. Use your other accounts to post to, it can even be the same thing but there are people that only use one type of social media so it’s important to grab as many people as you can.
    2. An added bonus is that you may find success on a different platform than you initially wanted.
  24. Be creative not a copy cat
    1. Remember I said do it better than everyone else. That means don’t just go around the internet and steal stuff from other people. People appreciate original content more than copy/pasta content.
  25. Keep it up. Once you get started keep going have clear goals in mind but not to big or you will get frustrated and quit before you are famous.
  26. Something to consider is to not accept advertising or sponsorship’s or endorsements until after you get about 500,000 (not saying this is like an acceptable number but more of a maybe around this time). If you do advertise too soon in your life span of your page people will think you are fake and just in it for the money and turn against you.

That’s about it. Check back on this post or add some more in the comments. Each social media platform has it’s own tricks so once you start talking to other people in the community they will be able to help you get better and define who you are or what your voice is. Hope this helps answer some questions.

Good Luck out there.

~ bigfisch
bigfisch@gamewatchtoday.com

(edit) – added #26 1/28/2020

Posted on

McCree gets insane buff.

McCree gets huge BUFF!

Today Blizzard dropped the latest Buffs and Nerfs on the PTR.
And it seems as though McCree gets the latest DPS testing patch with more health and a crazy buff to his Ultimate ability Dead EYE.


link – https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/overwatch/t/overwatch-ptr-patch-notes-%E2%80%93-jan-23-2020/450285/1

Overwatch PTR Patch Notes – Jan 23, 2020

A new Overwatch patch is in development and now available for testing! To share your feedback or report any issues, please post in the PTR Feedback or PTR Bug Report forums.

Please note that the below patch notes only include changes currently available for testing on the PTR. While many of these changes may also be available on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in a future patch, the PTR is PC-only and only reflects changes coming specifically to that platform. HERO UPDATES

Hanzo
Storm Arrows

  • Damage reduced from 70 to 60

McCree
General

  • Base health increased from 200 to 250

Peacekeeper (Primary Fire)

  • Recovery time increased from 0.42 to 0.5 seconds

Deadeye

  • Firing Deadeye no longer locks the player’s aim

Reaper
The Reaping (Passive)

  • Healing amount reduced from 40% to 30% of damage dealt

Orisa
Fusion Driver (Primary Fire)

  • Damage reduced from 11 to 9

Fortify

  • Cooldown increased from 8 to 10 seconds

Halt!

  • Snare duration reduced from 1 to 0.65 seconds

Sigma
Hyperspheres (Primary Fire)

  • Range reduced from 22 to 20 meters

Gravitic Flux

  • Can now be interrupted before targets begin falling
  • Impact slow duration reduced from 0.9 to 0.6 seconds

Accretion

  • Explosion damage reduced from 60 to 40

Baptiste
Biotic Launcher (Primary Fire)

  • Recovery time increased from 0.36 to 0.45 sec

Biotic Launcher (Secondary Fire)

  • Heal explosion reduced from 60 to 50

bigfisch

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