I hate when games are developed with eSports as the immediate goal.

Ade

Ade

;3
I find the "front end" of Overwatch to be fake and annoying. I think it's because the game was developed with eSports in mind. It's high gloss, to be sure, but it seems like no actual joy went into developing the game. It's like Blizzard (the Disney of gaming) put a bunch of psychologically proven, money-making variables into a soulless machine and it spit out a game. In short: there was never a time when Overwatch was simply intended to be a normal, enjoyable video game. The game wasn't going to have to "prove itself" because it had big money and eSports behind it from day one. This irritates me because it skipped the entire journey, which is the most interesting part.

Early eSport games grew out of a natural progression of normal players becoming more serious about a game over time and learning its nuances because they LOVED the game. However, newer games come out and it's a "race to the meta" on day one. The initial discovery phase of the game is gone. There will never again be a time like early PSO, where the minor details are figured out gradually and where there's a chance that even a normal player might discover something interesting. The tryhards who make gaming their full time job will discover everything before you even get the game disc out of the plastic wrap.

This makes gaming better for those who actually participate in eSports and win fame and money, but I think it makes gaming worse for the other 99.9% of players and adds unnecessary pressure.

I just find this annoying. Professional sports only have a very marginal effect on the lower levels of the sport below the collegiate level, but eSports are greatly pervasive to gaming as a whole, and I think it's making the games worse and less enjoyable. Maybe we're just not meant to be happy =/
 
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This may have something to do with the fact that the game is marketed and aimed towards "professional gamers" and you, my dear friend, are simply not its target audience.

I know lots of people who play Overwatch and they are definitely happy playing it. No, they are not faulty human beings.
 
If you aren't the type of person that enjoys playing PvP, just stick to playing co-op vs A.I. games and have fun exploring with friends.

Ade said:
Early eSport games grew out of a natural progression of normal players becoming more serious about a game over time and learning its nuances because they LOVED the game.
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When you say loved the "game" what are you referring to? The story? Early eSport games grew out of people that had competitive personalities and enjoyed the competition between their friends. That later extended to larger gatherings and tournaments held between them. That's how Quake, Halo 1, Smash, and Starcraft got so big in the early 00s. That's how Street Fighter 2 got big in the 90s.


Ade said:
There will never again be a time like early PSO, where the minor details are figured out gradually and where there's a chance that even a normal player might discover something interesting.
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Overwatch is a multiplayer First Person Shooter with no campaign, so please don't compare it to the friendly world of early Normal Mode PSO where people teamed up to fight primitive A.I. and were amazed to talk to people from across the world.
 
Yes, I know PSO vs. Overwatch is a loose comparison. I assert that the eSport attitude has accelerated the pace at which the discovery phase is completed. Nobody was "racing for the meta" when those older games came out. The players were competitive, to be sure, but it wasn't the joyless slog we see now.

The problem with the eSport attitude is that developers are seeing this and are saying, "Yes! This made us big money, so we should make more of our games like this!" So that pervasive attitude is seeping into non-competitive games and making them worse.
 
SC2: designed as esport; a horribly designed game kept alive purely by brand name
HOTS: designed as esport; dead before it was even alive
hearthstone: not designed as esport; blizzards most popular game since wow
overwatch: designed as esport; will need some time to see how it ends up, but based on blizzard's esport experience it probably will.
 
This is also due to many older people playing video games than before. There are now also generations of people that have grown up playing competitive PVP games, and ARPGs for that matter.

Social media also happened (mostly Reddit in this case.)

As a result you have many gaming veterans floating around from game to game with the kind of community reach people posting on the forums of PSO World could only dream of.

As a result games get "Solved" very quickly now unless they have a ridiculously high meta ceiling (Path of Exile for example.)

None of this needs to be relevant to average joe though who just wants to play a fun game, nor does it make it a bad thing when people make games to cater to those types of people.

Though I would disagree Overwatch was designed exclusively for esports and nothing else. Many of the people I know that consider themselves "casual" love Overwatch like it was their first born, while several other people I know who play CS:GO at a very high level don't see the appeal of it.

Not having played Overwatch though (and never intend to, since competative games are my antithesis) I don't really have an opinion on it.

I do play ARPGS at a decently high level though (mainly Path of Exile) and the best way to avoid the meta-blues is to simply ignore the opinion of the community and just figure out what works for you. It most probably won't be as effective, but it will definitely be more fun... As long as what you are trying it isn't actually garbage tier ;3
 
Overwatch is weird because it's designed as an esport, but at the same time it's mechanically forgiving and marketed towards a casual audience. The only "PROGAMERS" I know of that actually play it competitively are Bischu and Leffen
It just seems like easier comp tf2 to me :^)

I understand your frustration but I don't think designing a competitive game with esports in mind has a negative affect on the gameplay. I also know that Starcraft: Brood War and Super Smash Brothers: Melee are both beautiful accidents.
 
That's one thing I do appreciate about Melee, and game design in general of the 90's and early 2000's era is the emergent gameplay from simple yet deep mechanics that became competitive through the community pushing boundaries themselves, not through intentional design. I think more than anything that's the best signifier of good game design, it's that replayability and accessibility with depth that keeps people coming back.

The fact that a game has to openly be pushed through marketing and design to be competitive IMO is telling of our times.
 
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Could be worse. Could be SFV where the only goal was "somewhat playable." now i fuckin hate that game

To be honest, I find Overwatch has a weird disconnect. It's marketed to and more or less designed for people who generally are not going to play competitive games seriously....oh. Basically what anime said. Throw it at the celiing and see what sticks I guess.
 
Colette said:
That's one thing I do appreciate about Melee, and game design in general of the 90's and early 2000's era is the emergent gameplay from simple yet deep mechanics that became competitive through the community pushing boundaries themselves, not through intentional design. I think more than anything that's the best signifier of good game design, it's that replayability and accessibility with depth that keeps people coming back.

The fact that a game has to openly be pushed through marketing and design to be competitive IMO is telling of our times.
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Wow. You said my entire post with 1/10th of the words. This. Here. Is. Beautiful.

Thank you!
 
I might be wrong, but I don't think Overwatch was meant to be an eSport at first. When it became popular unexpected. Then the future of eSport grows. Lets get Call of Duty for example, it's an old game at first which is good, but when more sequels came in and got better, the decision for eSport decided. What I'm trying to say that I disagree the fact that most games are designed to be eSport, unless if you're talking about Umbrella Corps, then you can disagree the eSport fact on that. I'm not an eSports type of guy, so my arguments might be weak for this one.
 
Knowl said:
its ok boys breath of the wild is 98 on metacritic, there's still hope for gaming
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Welp, I'm pretty sure that won't be an option for him since he won't get a Switch unless Nintendo gives him a free one ayyy :P

But on a side note, maybe more people who play games now do so for instant gratification and not for "adventurous discoveries" which is what these Overwatch/FPS type games are great for because it's just short bursts of adrenaline, and short bursts of adrenaline just go well with e-sports type gaming.

Yeah, sometimes it gets annoying if you want to play a game casually and people are yelling "META META META" down your throat, but you know you could always just not solo-queue or you could get a group of friends to play with on the same team that won't scream meta and just want to play the game regardless if they win or lose.

You just have to face it doe, gaming is not the same as it was before...but it doesn't have to be. If you don't like it, just don't become part of it. It's really nothing to stress yourself over.
 
Uh, Zelda BotW is coming out for Wii U, which I do have. Secondly, it's not unreasonable to be disappointed (or feel cheated) by the Wii U when one expects a certain level of performance from Nintendo and they fail to deliver.

Back to topic... =/
 
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh, but can the Switch play BotW? I didn't get the Wii U rip
 
It's being released for both. The Wii U is the first Nintendo console ever that didn't get a dedicated Zelda game.
 
but the wii u did get mario party 10, which as we all know is the real god tier of esports, so you know. swings and roundabouts
 
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