Hit plat today only taken 11 seasons
Nice one, Thats my next task...
Overwatch
- Thread starter Tejstar
- Start date
Nice one, Thats my next task...
Soldato
- Joined
- 10 May 2004
- Posts
- 5,222
- Location
- Middlesex
Thanks again. I'm always weary to start barking orders because I'm a noob who's probably making a lot of mistakes myself but also, everyone is so toxic especially when the team is doing badly. I'm going to start doing it though.
Soldato
- Joined
- 14 Mar 2011
- Posts
- 5,442
The belief that you can improve at this game still amuses me... it's like someone saying "I'm trying to flip this coin and always have it come up heads, but how can I do it better?" and then tons of people coming in with all this conjecture like "the keys is to make sure you cut the nail on your thumb just right, not too sharp" and then someone else says "actually the best way it to let your thumb nail have a slightly serrated edge"... Every now and then you flip 2 or 3 heads in a row and think "yes! I'm getting it, this must be because I did X, Y or Z" but then you flip 5 tails in a row (because nothing you are doing is changing the outcome)... Now if the coin was specially designed to monitor how you're doing and make itself land on heads just enough and at the right times to make you think whatever you're doing is working - it could keep you flipping forever... add a bunch of lootboxes to milk money from people and stick a nice coat of paint over the whole experience and boom. Overwatch
Soldato
- Joined
- 10 May 2004
- Posts
- 5,222
- Location
- Middlesex
I get what you're saying but I (as a player) can still get better even if the team around me doesn't. If I'm the best player I can be and still losing, well then, what are you gonna do? Probably get into premades I guess.
I can see why you made this kind of post, but actually your comparison is wrong, if all be it a little bit moronic. that said I can still see why you made it. As i experienced your exact summary.
What I will say is this:
Can you control ALL of your team? - No.
Can you control how YOU contribute to a team? - Yes.
If he can improve how HE plays the game, his results and rank MAY improve also.
What you have said is like saying to a poorly performing footballer: "He might as well not try improve on his ball control, stamina and fitness, game awareness, passing etc. because he has 10 other players and a whole other team to worry about so its a fruitless task...."
So... what you're saying with this is there is no ability in Overwatch, it's all random? I believe this to be nonsense. If the question was 'how can I win more', then you might have a point, but there is definitely skill involved in the game.
Soldato
- Joined
- 14 Mar 2011
- Posts
- 5,442
Waffle
But you can't improve really in a broken system... a footballer can have all the ball control in the world but when they turn up to the game to find their random team consists of several blind old-age pensioners, some children and a couple of dogs and the opposing team is Brazil's world cup team then they're still going to lose... then the next game when they find themselves in the Brazil squad against a completely inept team they're going to destroy... will they have learnt anything or even know what made the difference? Probably not...
It seems extreme and who would want to play in such a broken game? Well the trick is to cover it up - lots of heroes, lots of confusing abilities, a very un-transparent ranking and matchmaking system... no solo queue... private profiles... confuse confuse confuse the players so there's literally no way of telling what is and isn't making a difference. Then drum up an army of Youtuber-fuelled fanboys to constantly parrot "you just have to group up and use your mic, git gud" etc. and voila! The perfect game (from a business standpoint) - everyone keeps playing, everyone thinks they can improve, the lootbox gravy train stays on the tracks...
I'm not saying there's no ability involved at all, just that what ability there is makes virtually zero (consistent) difference at all in the typical lower ranked games - obviously when you have a team of 6 pros who live together and practice strategies day-in day out working in harmony faces off against another similarly skilled 6 stack it's a completely different thing altogether...
But you can't improve really in a broken system... a footballer can have all the ball control in the world but when they turn up to the game to find their random team consists of several blind old-age pensioners, some children and a couple of dogs and the opposing team is Brazil's world cup team then they're still going to lose... then the next game when they find themselves in the Brazil squad against a completely inept team they're going to destroy... will they have learnt anything or even know what made the difference? Probably not...
It seems extreme and who would want to play in such a broken game? Well the trick is to cover it up - lots of heroes, lots of confusing abilities, a very un-transparent ranking and matchmaking system... no solo queue... private profiles... confuse confuse confuse the players so there's literally no way of telling what is and isn't making a difference. Then drum up an army of Youtuber-fuelled fanboys to constantly parrot "you just have to group up and use your mic, git gud" etc. and voila! The perfect game (from a business standpoint) - everyone keeps playing, everyone thinks they can improve, the lootbox gravy train stays on the tracks...
I'm not saying there's no ability involved at all, just that what ability there is makes virtually zero (consistent) difference at all in the typical lower ranked games - obviously when you have a team of 6 pros who live together and practice strategies day-in day out working in harmony faces off against another similarly skilled 6 stack it's a completely different thing altogether...
I do wonder why you still bother with the game
But you did say there's no ability involved. You likened getting better at Overwatch to getting better at getting heads on a coin toss.
Sorry, my experience of the game does not match yours. There are definitely quite a few games were me playing good or me having a nightmare of a game have influenced the outcome.
Soldato
- Joined
- 14 Mar 2011
- Posts
- 5,442
Me too, but then that's the power of Blizzard... see also WoW and many of their other franchises, many of which have cases of people who would claim "I don't really even know why I play anymore I just do"
And like tossing a coin at some insane level there probably are aspects of technique involved that might be able to improve the odds of getting the coin to land the way up you want... but it's so far removed from the real forces at play that it would be pointless to try and practice those skills (as per why I said it in the first place)
You're meant to feel like you're influencing the outcome, that's Blizzard's design working exactly as intended. If you didn't feel as though that were the case it wouldn't drive you to keep playing, and the fewer people keep playing the harder it is to keep the people who will fall over themselves to buy 200 lootboxes every time they add a new event or whatever. I've said in posts before that my experience in the game is exactly as you describe too - some games I feel like I am having the game of my life and carrying the team super hard, others the exact opposite. As designed.
(inb4 tinfoil hat brigade... I don't think anything said here should be that surprising though if you really think about it)
Again, I disagree. Simple as that. My experience of the game does not match yours.
To be more specific, that's how games should work, it's not some illusion or trick. You play well and increase your teams chance to win.
Last edited:
Soldato
- Joined
- 14 Mar 2011
- Posts
- 5,442
That's fair enough... I'm jealous to be honest because I like the game, the lore, etc. and wish that any kind of efforts I have put in over the last 10 seasons had resulted in any semblance of improving either my own performance or that of the teams I'm on in any kind of consistent way. Must be nice
As we already touched on... not in my experience... I play well and lose, I play badly and win, and every combination inbetween...
Yet you still clearly come back for more? Seems like this Broken game has its hooks in you just as much as the rest of us....
However; whilst from most those hooks draw blood, its clear from you it draws nothing but salt.
What was the turning point for you if I may ask? Or as you are still playing it, are you still trying to find out what makes you so negative about the game?
Is it because you cant improve past your own skill cap now? Cant find like minded and similar skilled players to have a better time with?
Soldato
- Joined
- 14 Mar 2011
- Posts
- 5,442
Don't dispute that... I said in my other post I want to like the game... if I didn't then I would have stopped playing long ago
I'm still playing it, though nowhere near as much as I used to... As for a turning point, hard to say. Really enjoyed the Beta, back when everyone was just having fun with it, learning new heroes etc and just messing around (had some hilarious games playing a team of 6 Winstons and other things like that). Once comp came out I also enjoyed that for several seasons, placed in low plat (or the equivalent in the old system) and hovered around there, sometimes playing solo, sometimes with friends. At one point during season 4 had a great run and was pushing pretty close to hitting diamond (2986 I think was the highest I got) but didn't quite get there (and still haven't, to be honest I think I don't belong there)... but ultimately I care more about the quality of the games than my exact rank, and from about season 5 or so onwards whether it's due to changes they've made, the playerbase changing or something else the quality of the games has gone down massively in my experience (with the vast majority of the games being incredibly one sided). My rank has settled on pretty much 2400-2600, which I'm fine with, I usually peek into plat and then hover around high/gold mid plat most of the season but the games are boring and predictable beyond belief... Perhaps 1 in 10 games is a genuine good game where it feels like it could go either way, and those games are fantastic and fun and remind me of the game's potential... but the others are just boring or frustrating coin-flips
Soldato
- Joined
- 30 Aug 2018
- Posts
- 2,567
Sounds good. We've been asking to choose which player we follow in Owl for a while now.
Yeah owl mainly follows dps players and I find it hard to watch. They spin the camera so fast that it's hard for me to see what's really going on, plus I don't actually learn anything.
It will be really nice to be able to watch healers play so I can actually learn while I watch the match.
I've started playing recently, but am I right in thinking comp matchmaking has the same utterly stupid 'try to enforce 50% winrate' matchmaking that league of legends did? If so I feel you, it is so stupid and frustrating. At least in League carrying was more of an option which is how the really good players could keep sweeping through the lower tiers with ease (I was able to get out of bronze consistently by carrying)
Isn't this already a thing, but you need the season pass (or whatever it's called).
Nah, I think they had some matches where if you had the pass you could choose which team to watch.
This is completely different, from the sounds of what Jeff said on the home page we will be able to select which player to watch at will in real time and even move the camera round the map as they play.