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- Hi, everyone.
- This is Jeff with the Overwatch Team.
- Really excited to be back here in 2020
- for our first Developer Update.
- So, everyone on the Overwatch Team
- listens to and gets a ton of feedback
- about the game,
- and we love hearing from you.
- And in the past few months, I would say -
- this isn't based on science -
- there are 2 topics that come up the most,
- that we hear of the most.
- One is, "What's the team's philosophy
- on balance?
- And could the team balance the game
- more frequently and/or better?"
- That comes up a lot -
- a lot of discussion about the balance
- of gameplay and hero balance.
- And then the other thing that we hear
- a lot of feedback and comments on
- is the concept of the meta of the game:
- "What heroes are played?
- Are there other heroes that are viable
- to be played at any time?
- And what could the Overwatch Team do
- to make sure that the meta was moving
- along more fluidly and more frequently?"
- So, I want to spend
- today's Developer Update
- talking about some things
- that we're doing very soon
- that will address these 2 points -
- balance and the meta.
- So, let's start with balance.
- I think everybody's interested in balance
- in some way or another.
- In the past, the Overwatch Team
- has faced some criticism
- for being a little bit slow
- when it comes to our balance patches.
- We've often heard that players want to see
- balance more frequently,
- they want us to try more things,
- they want us to be more aggressive
- with changes,
- they want us to be willing
- to revert changes
- that the community perceives
- as not being good.
- We have tried to use the Public Test Realm
- in the past to test some balance changes,
- but as you know, things stay on the PTR -
- the Public Test Realm -
- for quite some time,
- and we don't always make
- a lot of dramatic changes
- once something makes its way
- to the Public Test Realm.
- We have something that I think
- is really cool and really exciting
- in the pipe, and in the works,
- that will be coming soon to Overwatch,
- which is called the Experimental card.
- So, our main play cards, as you know,
- there's Quick Play, Competitive,
- the Game Browser,
- which we call our main play cards.
- Every now and then, coming in the future,
- you will see a card pop-up
- that says "Experimental."
- This Experimental card
- will be some number of changes.
- They might be related to hero balance,
- they might be related to other things.
- We could be testing changes
- to the way one of our game modes works,
- like the Control game mode
- and how it works in Competitive.
- It doesn't have to be balance-related.
- But the Experimental card will come up
- every now and then
- when we want to test something,
- and it will give
- all players of Overwatch...
- Not just players who want to go
- to the PTR, but all players,
- including console players,
- will be able to use the Experimental card
- to test changes out
- that we're trying as a development team.
- The really cool thing about
- the Experimental card
- is because it is in
- the main game of Overwatch
- and not some separate Public Test Realm,
- you'll still be leveling up
- your Overwatch account,
- you'll still get rewards.
- If we were running something like -
- if you remember, way back when -
- we had D.Va's Nano Cola Challenge,
- and if you got 9 wins we gave you a skin,
- that would apply.
- If the Experimental card was up,
- those wins would count
- in the Experimental card.
- So, we feel like players will be rewarded.
- You don't have to change your behavior.
- It should drive a lot more players
- to helping us test out changes.
- Also, unlike the Public Test Realm,
- the point of the Experimental card
- is not stability and bug testing.
- That's not what we're looking for
- in the Experimental card.
- We're looking at gameplay changes,
- and player reactions
- to those gameplay changes.
- So, we really welcome all of you
- to check this out.
- It's going to take us a few weeks
- to get the first Experimental card up,
- so please be patient with us,
- but you'll notice it
- when we add it to the game.
- And we really welcome -
- in addition to our PC players
- who have been helping us test
- on the Public Test Realm -
- really welcome
- the entire console community
- to now help us try out new
- and fun ways of playing Overwatch
- and providing us with feedback.
- Along with the Experimental card,
- we're also going to change
- our balance philosophy,
- which is going to be:
- balance more frequently,
- more aggressively,
- and be less concerned
- with trying something out
- and maybe pulling it back later.
- So, that's a change.
- We're going to try
- some pretty aggressive balance changes.
- We are going to
- deliberately target the meta.
- Before, we used to balance
- with stability in mind -
- stability of the entire game,
- all players in mind.
- Now we are going to balance
- more aggressively targeting the meta,
- and moving you off of the meta
- as frequently as possible,
- which means some heroes might get buffed,
- some heroes might get some changes
- to make them weaker.
- When that happens,
- we might revert it a few weeks later.
- So, be looking for
- this type of balancing to happen.
- Be looking for changes
- in the Experimental card,
- some of which will never go live.
- Just because you see it
- on the Experimental card
- doesn't mean
- it's going to happen in Overwatch.
- These are some balance changes
- that are going to be different
- and coming soon to Overwatch,
- and all of this is based on
- what we've been hearing from you.
- We've been hearing this is what you want.
- You want us to balance more frequently,
- you want us to target the meta,
- you want these changes
- to happen more often,
- and you want us to include you
- in the process more.
- So all of this is designed
- to address that feedback.
- Now, I'd like to talk about Season 21
- of Competitive for a minute.
- Season 21 of Competitive,
- we are going to try something
- that's going to be very new
- and very different
- to help move players off of the meta,
- or to prevent players from stagnating
- on any one meta too long.
- Coming with Season 21 -
- which begins in March, so you have
- some time to prepare for this -
- coming with Season 21,
- we will be introducing
- to Competitive only -
- this will not affect Quick Play, it will
- not affect any of the Arcade modes -
- we will be introducing hero pools.
- Like we have map pools,
- what hero pools mean is for that week -
- and the hero pool
- will only last for one week,
- and then there will be a new hero pool -
- there will be some heroes that will not be
- included in the hero pool.
- For example,
- in the first week of the hero pool -
- let's say Season 21 had just started -
- maybe Orisa, Sigma,
- Mei and Moira are not in the hero pool.
- So players will have to think
- of a new strategy
- that doesn't involve those heroes,
- and that will last for one week,
- and then the hero pool will change.
- Again, this is Competitive only.
- This is targeted at
- keeping the meta fluid,
- or the meta from stagnating,
- and really getting to more hero diversity.
- Now, we know there are some challenges
- with this concept.
- This is what I would consider
- to be something
- that we would be willing to change
- if we don't feel like
- it's going correctly.
- We could make the hero pools last longer,
- we can make the hero pools move faster,
- we can make the hero pools change
- every match.
- There are all sorts of ways
- that we could adjust on this,
- but, starting with Season 21,
- we're going to start it with
- a weekly hero pool.
- Very exciting is that the Overwatch League
- is excited about this idea as well,
- and they will be implementing
- a version of hero pools as well,
- and the Overwatch League
- will be releasing a blog
- describing how they approach hero pools.
- And they were very excited to see
- the meta moving more frequently, also.
- Also, I just want to say how excited
- for the 2020 season -
- which is starting soon
- for the Overwatch League - we all are.
- So, as you can see, there are some
- very big changes coming to Overwatch.
- As always, we are listening to you,
- and if we feel like any of these things
- aren't working out,
- well, we're always open to change
- and iteration.
- We have that Experimental card,
- we have hero pools coming to Season 21.
- Now, that's not all.
- As always, there's a huge
- anti-cheat effort going on.
- It's in my best interests
- and the game's best interests
- not to discuss the details
- of what's happening for anti-cheat,
- but we have some major things
- in the next 2 patches
- going in to address anti-cheat.
- And, as always, all of the reports
- are super helpful to us.
- Please keep those coming.
- We really love your help with anti-cheat.
- We have a big Workshop update,
- which we'll be releasing either
- a blog post or a forum post about,
- so you can read all of the details there.
- There are some other fun quality-of-life
- things coming down the pipe.
- Pretty soon there's going to be
- some great improvements to replays.
- You're going to be able to pin a replay.
- So if one of your 10 replays
- is very special to you
- and you want to save it for that patch,
- you can pin it and always go back to it.
- And we're working on the ability for you
- to share your replays with other players,
- where they could play your replay
- in their version of Overwatch.
- I think this will be really fun
- for content creators in particular.
- You'll be able to do really cool things
- with some shared replays
- from your communities.
- I think that will be really great.
- And we've got some quality-of-life
- improvements coming to the Career Profile
- that some of you
- have been asking for for ages.
- So, Career Profile, it's going to get
- a major overhaul for Overwatch 2,
- but that's way further down the pipe.
- That's not in the immediate future.
- But for the current Overwatch game,
- we want to do a light refresh
- of the Career Profile
- and clean up some things that have been
- bothering a lot of us for some time.
- So, in the meantime,
- we're going to have some things
- like the ability to sort player icons
- coming to the Career Profile
- in the next few months.
- So, that's a lot of what we're working on
- for the live game right now.
- I know you're going to give us a ton of
- feedback and I can't wait to hear it all.
- We're really excited,
- I think most of all
- for this Experimental card,
- because it will let so many of you
- help us make the game better.
- Thank you for everything,
- and let's hope we have a great 2020.
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