The new Experimental Card system inOverwatchsimply wasn’t what some players were hoping for. Jeff Kaplan, VP of Blizzard Entertainment, stepped in to give his comments.
It’s no secret that a significant portion of theOverwatchplayerbase has been calling for an updated hero balancing system. The Experimental Card is a feature thatBlizzard has used in the past to test big changes to gameplay, and the most recent Card was geared toward better hero balance.
RELATED:Overwatch Reveals Disturbing and Hilarious Orisa ‘Rework’
BecauseBlizzard has been teasing and announcing big Hero Pool updatesfor a while now, a lot of the community expected the new Experimental Card to also bring big changes. However, some players believe the new card didn’t go far enough in its efforts to “stretch the boundaries” and “try out new things.” The card focused mostly on tweaking the balance for Support heroes, and some players feel like that doesn’t quite live up to the name “Experimental Card.”
Jeff Kaplan, Blizzard’s VP andOverwatch’s Director, responded to the complaints by saying that the devs have more planned but that “those things usually require a lot more effort.” He called the Experimental Card updates a “mix of changes” and pointed out that balance changes are still important to the game. Still, balance changes are small compared to the bigger updates likebringing Open Queue to Competitive Play.
Staleness and lack of innovation should be concerns that Blizzard takes into account, especially withstar competitors like sinatraa getting fed up with game modesand leavingOverwatchentirely. And sinatraa isn’t the only top esports player to have left. Casual gamers' concerns should be taken into account as well, as they make up the majority of the playerbase.
But, players shouldn’t forget that the recent Open Queue update is a huge update. Hopefully Blizzard will follow through on Kaplan’s claims and roll out those more “interesting” updates toOverwatchin the coming months. If players get impatient waiting, at least there’s ateased new skin coming out for new hero Echo, which could be interesting, if not groundbreaking for gameplay. Blizzard has tried to be responsive to players' concerns in the past, and there’s no reason to expect them to stop listening to the playerbase. Players can just hope these changes will come soon.
Overwatchis available now for Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
