Overwatch: Boop!

[Milo v3]

Neither my brother or I were able to get a single skin.... our luck is horrible.

As a genji main, he was very disappointed.

[Thialfi]

Sorry for your luck. I only got two but they were the ones I wanted most. The aforementioned Widowmaker talon skin and Combat Medic Ziegler. This doesn't count the D.Va junker and Symmetra Devi skins that I got while the event was running. I actually really like playing Mercy.

Thanks for the training tips on aiming. I play on Xbox One. I figured I would have to get in some kind of real practice to be something resembling decent on those kind of heroes.

[Silverraptor]

I saved up all my gold for the next event that happened to be uprising. In the first 2 chests I opened ever, I got the Genji Skin and the McCree Skin. I got the more casual torb skin and his highlight intro. I got the Dva Highlight Intro. I got the Hanzo Emote. I bought the Widowmaker skin and the Zenyatta highlight intro. And in one last push for chests, I managed to get the cadet Tracer skin in the last box I opened before the event ended.

God, I'm lucky!

[Togath]

Hey um... anyone else notice the game mode is back?

[The_Jackal]

Hey um... anyone else notice the game mode is back?

Yeah, they brought it back for a brief encore, because the originally advertised date included May 1, when in fact it was closed ON May 1, so they're extending it a bit, I gather. Of course, I have Tuesday evening plans that prevent me from participating in the extra day. Grumblemumble.

[Velaryon]

I was able to get most of the event stuff that I wanted. I missed out on Blackwatch McCree, but to be honest I probably wouldn't have used it over his American skin from the Summer Games event anyway. The only other legendaries I didn't get were the two Torbjorn skins, but I didn't like those anyway. I even bought the Talon Widowmaker skin, even though I don't play her and have no plans to start.

I also picked up the Daredevil 76 costume, so I've now accomplished one of my game goals, which was to get a legendary skin (not including the Origins edition bonus skins) for every single character.

Now it's time to start building up coins again before the next event. Hopefully they will take a break til at least July, preferably August or September. The event fatigue is real...

[The_Jackal]

Now it's time to start building up coins again before the next event. Hopefully they will take a break til at least July, preferably August or September. The event fatigue is real...

I'd be perfectly happy if they keep making co-op missions and do a new event every month. I'm buying $10 worth of lockboxes for every co-op event they release.

[Thialfi]

So I finally got to try out my new D.Va skin. When she hits her boosters her sirens start sounding. Very nice touch Blizzard. I love this skin. The only thing I didn't get from Uprising that I wanted was her new highlight intro. Taking a selfie while your mech suite explodes is awesome. I may have to spend gold on that.

[Silverraptor]

Why is this so funny?!

[Togath]

I love the new D.Va skin~
It's pretty, and I like... well, the much heavier use of blue than normal. Not super found of most of her other colour schemes. Plus her hat is adorable.

[The_Jackal]

I love the new D.Va skin~
It's pretty, and I like... well, the much heavier use of blue than normal. Not super found of most of her other colour schemes. Plus her hat is adorable.

I like it okay, I'm just totally unwilling to MOBA to get it. Why don't any of these cross-platform promotions promote Blizzard games I enjoy? Why can't they just let HotS die a justly-deserved igomious death?

[NeoVid]

Because they can run cross-promotions with their other stupidly popular games just to prevent that! It can work, too, considering that despite not having played a typical MOBA in years, I'm now level 50 in HotS even though I only started playing for the DVa skin. I certainly wasn't expecting the reaction I had when playing HotS: "Something's wrong here. It's a top-down MOBA, but I'm having fun..."

Course, I was mostly playing AI games, and not having to put up with other players solves all the biggest problems I had back in my LoL days.

That puts me at four legendary DVa skins. Sadly, I can't use them all at once, so I'm kind of torn...

[Togath]

Honestly, the HotS community seems way better than I remember the LoL one being.

[The_Jackal]

Honestly, the HotS community seems way better than I remember the LoL one being.

Isn't "Better community than LOL" equivalent to "Less wet than the ocean?". In all seriouslness, it doesn't surprise me that HotS has a better community, because it's my understanding that one of their goals was to remove some of the intra-team resource constraints from the game, ie: Getting rid of last-hit mechanics. However, it's still, IMO, a game that can't thrive because it's simply trying to absorb players from an already established niche. You would think that Blizzard, of all people, would understand the perils of trying to make a 'me too' game, after watching the total devastation visited upon a host of would-be WoW-killers.

Now you might argue that some of Blizzard's greatest successes have come from iterating on other games, and that's definitely true. Warcraft & Starcraft iterated on earlier RTS titles, WoW iterated on EQ, and Overwatch iterated on TF2. But the difference there, I think, is the level of value add, and the health of the games that they've chosen to refine. LOL, for all of its trashwallow culture, is still a huge, dominant, successful game. They made $1.6 billion in 2016. TF2 is years-old, The previous RTS titles that preceded SC and WC were very rudimentary, niche titles (Dune II was probably the only one of any economic consequence), and Warcraft benefitted from Sony's unthinkably bad decision to issue a sequel to their own game, instead of simply rolling the new features they wanted to add into the moderately successful one they already had. But my point is that none of those titles were in as dominant and successful position as League is right now. That market is theirs to lose, and Blizzard is utterly insane to try and shiver it. There's almost certainly going to be a game that eclipses LOL, but it's not going to do so by doing exactly what LOL is doing right now with some minor mechanical variations and a slightly difference cast of Heroes.

[NeoVid]

Awww... I just looked at what the week 3 and 4 rewards will be. Why couldn't they have had this event a month ago, so we all could have gotten ten extra loot boxes during Uprising?

Yes, I know the answer is "So we would buy those boxes instead."

You would think that Blizzard, of all people, would understand the perils of trying to make a 'me too' game, after watching the total devastation visited upon a host of would-be WoW-killers.

By what I've seen of the numbers for HotS, Blizzard's realized that trying to create the most popular game in a genre is impossible, but making one of the most popular games in a genre is hugely profitable. And now there's developers working on iterating on HotS' take on the genre.

Also, I have no idea what a healthy game population is, considering my favorite MOBA never went over about 5k players in its 'glory days.'

[Gandariel]

I think HotS works because it delivers on solving many of the current MOBA problems (game length was my main one), plus adding characters we grew up with, plus the Blizzard-level graphics and sounds.

Overall I really like the game. It was my first MOBA, and I have zero interest in trying the others.

Also, as far as "game health", Heroes has a pretty reasonably sized community.
Nowhere near as big as League or Dota, but easily big enough to be profitable.
A tweet from a developer last year said "we have millions of [active] users".

In short, it doesn't have to beat League in order to be profitable. Maybe it never will, but it doesn't mean the game is going to die.

[The_Jackal]

I think HotS works because it delivers on solving many of the current MOBA problems (game length was my main one), plus adding characters we grew up with, plus the Blizzard-level graphics and sounds.

Overall I really like the game. It was my first MOBA, and I have zero interest in trying the others.

Also, as far as "game health", Heroes has a pretty reasonably sized community.
Nowhere near as big as League or Dota, but easily big enough to be profitable.
A tweet from a developer last year said "we have millions of [active] users".

In short, it doesn't have to beat League in order to be profitable. Maybe it never will, but it doesn't mean the game is going to die.

And I'm not suggesting that it needs to die, I'm suggesting that it should succeed or fail on its own merits, rather than rely on cross-game promotions to boost its participation rate. If you love MOBAs, and like HotS, I don't think any the less of you, and I hope the game remains profitable so that the people who enjoy it can continue to do so. What I object to, however, is gating content for the game I enjoy behind playing another game I decidedly dislike. They did the same thing between Hearthstone and WoW, and I felt it was a small-minded, short-sighted idea then, even though I already played both games, and was able to grab the rewards relatively easily, because I saw the large numbers of players of either game who grudgingly did the required cross-platform chore, for the proffered extrinsic reward, only to immediately drop the game. Now that it's OW-HotS promos, I'm one of those players (except I won't do it, because I play games to have fun, not to collect skins).

My point is that extrinsic reward systems work because they guide the players toward the parts of play that are intrinsically fun. Lockboxes in Overwatch are an incentive to participate in games, to keep people active in the gaem. That's a perfectly reasonable design purpose for them. What's the design purpose of making a bunch of Overwatch players install HotS, play 5 games and then uninstall again?

[Gandariel]

A small but significant part of the appeal of hots is playing with the characters you grew up with.

Many Overwatch players played previous Blizzard titles, and it might be fun to see them all again. And if anything, there's now a full team's worth of Overwatch heroes in HotS (Tracer Zarya Lucio Genji D.Va, which should avtually kind of work decently as a team)

Secondary point: it's just a skin. It's not like they're pointing a gun at you, and it's not like they are locking actual content behind this promotion.

They're saying "Hey, we added new Overwatch heroes to HotS, among a bunch more improvements. Care to give it a try? We'll throw in a free skin".
I really fail to see the problem with this.

To quote your example, I play hearthstone and not wow. I never did the Liadrin skin promotion thing, and I couldn't care less about it. Nor am I annoyed or sad about the promo being there in the first place

[Togath]

Plus it's free to try, so it's not even like they're even encouraging you to buy a game for the promotional content.

As it happened, I had time free, like getting to see the characters together, and ended up liking the game.
Also especially with overwatch and the dozen(or more) skins for every character, I really don't see the issue.

Edit: on a different topic, I do find it odd so few people know that any form of barrier can prevent death from D.Va's ult. I keep seeing Reinhardts, Orisas, and Winstons die to it, despite being able to summon up shields(the Reinhardts seem especially odd).

[Geno9999]

Edit: on a different topic, I do find it odd so few people know that any form of barrier can prevent death from D.Va's ult. I keep seeing Reinhardts, Orisas, and Winstons die to it, despite being able to summon up shields(the Reinhardts seem especially odd).

With the case of Orisa and Winston, it's usually because their barriers are on a cooldown or they could be caught too far away from their barriers (or their barrier was destroyed already.)

Reinhardt does not have this excuse, but breaking his barrier does put him on a 5 second cooldown before he can put it up again.

[Togath]

Maybe Reinhardts let their shields break more than I think they do, and it just tends to be off cooldown when D.Va ults sometimes, and due to that it's the only time I notice?

[Velaryon]

Count me as another who doesn't care for content in the game I play being locked behind playing a completely different game. It's doubly annoying in my case since I have to play HotS on PC, when I play Overwatch on PS4. I'm just glad my new laptop that I bought can actually handle the game (my previous one couldn't), though not without occasional lag.

Yes, I acknowledge that it's just a skin rather than must-have content. I'm actually very happy that Overwatch doesn't lock any characters, maps, or play modes behind a paywall, which is why I'm very happy to play the game over other games that use shadier business models. And since the word is that the officer D.Va and Oni Genji skins will eventually be obtainable in loot boxes (and presumably buyable with in-game currency), it's not as bad as it could be. That Blizzcon 2016 skin for Bastion still taunts me to this day.

I still don't like it. Nor do I think the regular HotS players are overly fond of it, since I have seen dozens of Facebook posts complaining about Overwatch players causing them to lose matches (whether it be by throwing or by just not being any good at the game).

[Morty]

I played my first full game as Sombra. It went a lot better than I'd expected. Turning off Reinhardt's shield in the middle of a firefight is brutal. Likewise for D.Va's defence matrix. Properly cloaking and teleporting will take practice, though. I did use the beacon to get onto a Widowmaker's sniping spot and take her out, but... it's unlikely she would have mattered.

[Togath]

I played my first full game as Sombra. It went a lot better than I'd expected. Turning off Reinhardt's shield in the middle of a firefight is brutal. Likewise for D.Va's defence matrix. Properly cloaking and teleporting will take practice, though. I did use the beacon to get onto a Widowmaker's sniping spot and take her out, but... it's unlikely she would have mattered.

Another fun one is if you can hack a bastion!~
On the flipside, iirc Symetra and Lucio are barely affected by hacking(since even Symetra's ult isn't a mid-combat move usually, and Lucio relies on auras that stay active once triggered and you can only hack his ability to swap between them).

[orrion]

If it's a Projectile, Genji can reflect it. Really what's notable is the list of things Genji can't reflect at all: Zarya's Beam fire, Mei's Snow spray, Winston's Tesla Cannon, and I believe also Lucio's Alt Fire.

But every Genji I run across still tries to reflect Mei's spray.

[The_Jackal]

Count me as another who doesn't care for content in the game I play being locked behind playing a completely different game. It's doubly annoying in my case since I have to play HotS on PC, when I play Overwatch on PS4. I'm just glad my new laptop that I bought can actually handle the game (my previous one couldn't), though not without occasional lag.

Yes, I acknowledge that it's just a skin rather than must-have content. I'm actually very happy that Overwatch doesn't lock any characters, maps, or play modes behind a paywall, which is why I'm very happy to play the game over other games that use shadier business models. And since the word is that the officer D.Va and Oni Genji skins will eventually be obtainable in loot boxes (and presumably buyable with in-game currency), it's not as bad as it could be. That Blizzcon 2016 skin for Bastion still taunts me to this day.

I still don't like it. Nor do I think the regular HotS players are overly fond of it, since I have seen dozens of Facebook posts complaining about Overwatch players causing them to lose matches (whether it be by throwing or by just not being any good at the game).

Thank you. Yes, fortunately they're some rather ugly skins for Heroes I don't really care about, otherwise I'd be quite miffed. And yeah, I'm sure I'd be none too pleased to have a bunch of MOBA players polluting the player pool for Overwatch, just like I'm sure they'd just assume we bogged off.

I played my first full game as Sombra. It went a lot better than I'd expected. Turning off Reinhardt's shield in the middle of a firefight is brutal. Likewise for D.Va's defence matrix. Properly cloaking and teleporting will take practice, though. I did use the beacon to get onto a Widowmaker's sniping spot and take her out, but... it's unlikely she would have mattered.

Sombra is actually really strong played well, but you need an aggressive, intelligent team to take advantage of her kit. It doesn't do you any good if you hack the enemy deathball if they all keep doing the same poke-at-the-choke garbage after you've debilitated the enemy. But on a good team, she's amazing. I'd still like to see her get a bit more range on that SMG, but as she is now, she's decent.

Another fun one is if you can hack a bastion!~
On the flipside, iirc Symetra and Lucio are barely affected by hacking(since even Symetra's ult isn't a mid-combat move usually, and Lucio relies on auras that stay active once triggered and you can only hack his ability to swap between them).

Sure, but the big advantage of Sombra is being able to neutralize sound barrier.

But every Genji I run across still tries to reflect Mei's spray.

Genji players are noted for their reflexes and cowardice, not their intellect.

[Velaryon]

Genji players are noted for their reflexes and cowardice, not their intellect.

That and their constant demands for healing, whether they need it or not.

As for Sombra, I haven't ever done particularly well with her. Part of the problem is that I'm rarely in a group of more than 2 or 3 when I play, so I'm not really able to coordinate with my team to make the best advantage of the openings she creates. She's a very difficult hero to successfully solo queue with. But also, I'm not good at taking best advantage of her grenade to escape, as I don't always notice when it runs out or remember to place a new one before I next tangle with people. Definitely a bit of a learning curve for me.

[Djinn_in_Tonic]

Man. Attempting to really learn Lucio is insane. It's like learning Tracer, save that the ground isn't always your frame of reference.

[Rising Phoenix]

AAaand made it to masters....only to immediately derank 180 sr! Woohoo!

[Velaryon]

And now I'm very glad that the HotS promotion didn't happen a week or two later than it did, because that new laptop I mentioned in my last post? The hard drive crashed and Windows wouldn't boot again. Obviously it's still under warranty, but HP decided to be jerks and try to force me to pay the shipping charges to send it in, so I returned it to the store and currently do not have a PC at all.

Also makes me glad that I play Overwatch on console, otherwise I'd be unable to play now.