Challenges do not make games better, and the designers know that just as well as we do. When a game asks you to get three kills with a sniper rifle or win matches with a specific character, it isn’t trying to increase your enjoyment or help you improve. Challenges are nothing by hollow engagement boosters designed to increase player retention. Someone at the top of the ladder needs to see an increase in hours played month-over-month, and the fastest and dirtiest way to do that is to coerce players to complete daily challen

Overwatch has never been known for its welcoming community. Ever since its launch in 2016, the game has amassed a reputation for having a pretty toxic playerbase, so much so that "Overwatch salt" became a meme in itself. And now with Overwatch 2 going free-to-play, many believe it's getting even wo

That was always the draw with the sequel anyway for me. I didn’t see the need to give us a whole new game and I won’t be working towards nor investing in the battle pass. I’m already irritated at the obnoxiously long time it takes to earn enough to buy a single skin. The thought of being able to play a story mode was a major appeal, and even though that was dampened by the news it wouldn’t be ready for launch, all things considered it was enough to hook me back in, at least temporar

Overwatch 2 is, surprisingly as it sounds, 2022’s surprise package for me. It’s just Overwatch, and I’ve played Overwatch before, so I shouldn’t be too shocked by any of it. But it has managed to pull me in in a way a lot of games I had much higher hopes for have failed to do. My time with Overwatch 2 won’t last forever, but I’ve already seen enough to know that when the single-player portion drops, I’ll be right at the front of the l

Mei has recently been pulled from Overwatch 2 for two weeks because players were using her wall to reach places they weren’t meant to. Maybe this is too much to tolerate at the highest competitive levels, but mostly I just think ‘who cares?’. Didn’t they just nerf Mei out of existence anyway? Is it really that big a deal that you can mess around on some m

After almost a month of this, players are calling for change. Many are complaining that Zarya is the most overpowered Hero in the game, and the most in need of a nerf. And unlike with other heroes, it actually seems to be the Zarya mains themselves leading the charge, as they're sick and tired of playing the same Hero every ma

But it’s a problem in single-player games too. If I’m losing a game in Marvel Snap I can retreat and I won’t lose as much rank, but if I have a challenge to play cards in the last turn, I have to see it through to the end, even when I know I’m going to lose. In these instances I have two competing objectives - win the game or play a six-cost card. When you’re playing as though you’re trying to do something other than win, you’re engaging in deviant play. Games should not encourage this, yet almost all of them

Online shooters aren’t usually my thing. Overwatch having set heroes takes away from the meta and the stress of having to care about loadouts, and means you can pick to a certain extent based on personality. The reason I play as Ashe is as much because I love westerns and wry cowgirls as it is her gameplay abilities. Overwatch’s aesthetic, low barrier to entry, and quick, varied matches means it’s keeping my interest longer than other online games do. TheGamer is going to have its own Overwatch showdown soon too, so I need to keep up even if I won’t dominate the way I did on Tekken nig

On the other side of things, playing against one tank is even more of a chore because both healers are now focused on the same tank, rather than dividing their heals between two. Take Orissa. She can buff herself and deflect damage, all while Mercy and Moira both keep her health full, meaning that it’s much harder to take her down. If you lose track of other players and focus too much on that singular tank, the enemy DPS can easily swoop in and pick you off. It’s all much harder to play for both sides, but the solution is sitting in the first game - adding a second tank. Overwatch was designed for two of each role and it shows; pulling one away has completely disrupted the way it fl

Furthermore, Zarya's Overwatch 2 buffs made her a clear winner. In the sequel, she was given 50 extra hit points and content five more points to her shield. But the real selling points here are her Barriers, which had their duration increased by half a second. While this might not sound like much, this can make all the difference in a fight, especially when Overwatch 2 is much more fast-paced in gene

This is far from the first time this sentiment has been shared. Threads from the game's launch also show players turning off chat to protect their mental wellbeing. One of these users is Capybrian, who describes disabling chat as "the best thing I've ever done". The replies agree, stating that using the in-game pings is a great way to communicate without being abused in c