Overwatch

TF2 came in the orange box with I think Half Life, Portal, and TF2. So yeah, it cost something, but it was a pretty good steal considering the price and what was in it. And also once you bought it there was nothing that was locked behind a paywall.

The worry I have isn't that they are going to have microtransactions. Its how greedy they are going to go with them. Are new heroes going to be $2 or are they going to be $10? We know nothing about it at the moment and that is why I'm hesitant to pull the trigger on purchasing it now. I really wouldn't have a problem with cheap heroes and a lot of cosmetic pretty princess shit, but I am worried they'll go big and shit will get expensive quick for 'current content' gameplay items.

Whats the point of not preordering? Am I really going to miss that $60?

Tenks_sl said:

Whats the point of not preordering? Am I really going to miss that $60?

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Preordering became a thing because limited stock for retail orders near you was a real fear before digital purchases. That really isn't the case anymore. Why not just wait until you know the most information you can about a game before purchasing? I'm sure people who preordered Watch Dogs, Arkham Origins on PC, or Assassins Creed Unity wish they would have waited.

There is almost zero reason to Pre-order a game these days outside of a Limited Edition version with physical goods you want (Fallout 4 Pipboy for example).

I won't pre-order a game until I play it first, for the most part. While streams and such are a decent gauge, I only go by playing myself. If I play it and find it fun then I will pre-order. The time between that and release don't really matter($60 now or $60 later).

If I can't play it until release, I just find a friend who bought it and play theirs and decide then.

As for Tenks, I think blizzard could sell him a blank cardboard box that promises something "years*" out and he would still buy it, cause it's blizzard.

Palum_sl said:

*shrug* all I remember from that era was thinking TFC was way better and never playing it.

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??

Man0warr_sl said:

Preordering became a thing because limited stock for retail orders near you was a real fear before digital purchases. That really isn't the case anymore. Why not just wait until you know the most information you can about a game before purchasing? I'm sure people who preordered Watch Dogs, Arkham Origins on PC, or Assassins Creed Unity wish they would have waited.

There is almost zero reason to Pre-order a game these days outside of a Limited Edition version with physical goods you want (Fallout 4 Pipboy for example).

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I don't see how the games you listed are analogous to this. I've seen the game. It looks good. I want to and will play it.

Man I love Widow Maker.

35-2, 38 elims. 20 headshots.

Goodness gracious.

OW page changes in launcher, new buttons, get excited, nope just preorder.

Man0warr_sl said:

Preordering became a thing because limited stock for retail orders near you was a real fear before digital purchases. That really isn't the case anymore. Why not just wait until you know the most information you can about a game before purchasing? I'm sure people who preordered Watch Dogs, Arkham Origins on PC, or Assassins Creed Unity wish they would have waited.

There is almost zero reason to Pre-order a game these days outside of a Limited Edition version with physical goods you want (Fallout 4 Pipboy for example).

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Pretty much. I'm buying Fallout 4 on Tuesday night.

I actually think this game is going to be a huge success for them through all mediums.

Video games, Action Figues, Movies, TV series, comics etc

You name it, and this super hero group could fit into that merchandising space.

Yeah i can see this whole Overwatch thing spill into an actual big ass IP instead of just a game for sure.

Probably why they introduced it as a pixar-esque short film last year instead of gameplay.

Pyros_sl said:

Damn it seems there's even less people playing on NA than on EU at 4AM, the fuck. That or it's trying to match me specifically with new players and not finding anyone, I was definitely with much worse players than when I play EU, I don't mean bad aim necessarily and more like just standing there and shit, obviously not knowing the map and losing anytime the enemy team had 2bastions because everyone just go in the front door over and over.

Can't tell what my ping is, seems kinda high but a bunch of abilities seem to not care. Like I could land my hooks without an issue at all, but then the enemy wouldn't be pulled right away, small delay, so it was really fucking weird, and then they wouldn't die instantly after shooting them either. Some of these hooks must have looked super bullshit on replay though since I'm the one lagging.

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I think the worse player thing could be due to their matchmaking (assuming it's your first time trying NA servers). I haven't bothered - assumed it would be unplayable for a FPS.

Dyvim_sl said:

Of course they will sell heroes and maps for cash. Call it xpac or dlc or whatever you want theyll nickel and dime you just like they did with the D3 AH.

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. There was one misconception that we're gonna have 21 at launch and then we're going to have a hero store with additional heroes, and that couldn't be further from the truth.

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Why isns plans for DLC? | Polygon

This is new territory for Blizzard, so they are probably being cautious to see how things shake out.

Cybsled_sl said:

This is new territory for Blizzard, so they are probably being cautious to see how things shake out.

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The IP may be new , the territory is not.

In the statement they have been giving to the press the reason they decided to not go with F2P was the degree of switching heroes that the game demands, and may reconsider F2P down the line.

My guess is they don't want to be caught with the label Pay to win, but surely Hearthstone is that exact model.

If they truly want this to be bigger then just a game, I would have just went with the F2P with the player getting 3 archetype heroes from the start. Then they adopt the Hots model of weekly try out heroes etc.

Get the game in as many hands as possible on every platform then it's success would be determined by if the community supports it, which from all signs they will.

The worst thing that can happen to them is if it Becomes like Evolve, that is what they need to be scared of. Unfortunately that is the model they are going for. Up front high cost for consoles, and microtransactions.

It's Blizzard, so I'm sure they will do fine either way, but when they look back will they say could we have done it better.

If anything they should match the price point of the PC with the consoles right now. 60 dollar entry point is a tad high for a game that is essentially just a pvp FPS with nothing else. 40 would have been a better price point with the 60 dollar special version.

This is all for gameplay reasons. It comes down to the same comparisons I've made between LoL / Dota / HotS. In LoL/Hots there are class archtypes. Characters in the archtypes compete against eachother on a power scale strictly related to their function, Tank, Bruiser, ADC, Support etc. Future characters created for both games are designed in advance with these roles and restrictions. This design allows them to sell the cast character by character. It means that technically if you have at least 1 of each type, you can contribute sufficiently in any game because the goal is to make all champions of each role equivalent in power.

Dota on the other hand doesn't have any such archtypes. When a new character is created for Dota the goal is to give it a skill set that doesn't exist in the game on any other member of the cast in quite the same way. This results in grand seemingly OP skills, the counter play to this is that the entire cast must be unlocked so as an opponent you are given an opportunity to pick against the playstyle that the enemy hero brings to the game. Broodmother is the simplest example. If you only owned 10 dota characters, and they happened to be 10 of the dota heroes that struggle to play against brood, there is no "balance" in that kind of win. Another simple example, any blink skill. If the enemy hero has a blink skill, you need a hard disable, a silence, or a blink on your own team chase/secure kills. If you didn't own all heroes with one of those solutions, the competitive balance of the game is compromised.

It seems Overwatch is going for Dota's character design and because of that you can't neuter your players ability to solve "balance" problems. It really does come down to this alone, Tigole said as much in that article. They played with locked casts and people with half locked accounts probably had horrible times against all these "OP" heroes. This is good for gameplay. It lets them create characters that have a very specific and powerful niche, but perhaps they have a few Achilles's heels laying about on the skill bars of some of the other 21. Without an item shop like dota to help solve the rock paper scissor problem in Overwatch, you'd expect to the total cast to be quite a bit smaller than in terms of Dota. I think it bodes well they are suggesting the 21 they have are the 21 they are going to focus on. I think its safe to say that a box price ensures that we aren't getting taken by greed for competitive balance. I prefer a one time price that ensures my competitive parity with all other players.