World of Warcraft: Current Year

Palum

what Suineg set it to
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...yay?

I mean I loved a lot of the first gen esports games but I just don't seem to get the point of making it a 'thing'. Do enough people really care about Blizzard's current crop of games outside of the people who already care without the marketing hype? Their games are slow to be balanced and fixed, most of them tend to downplay/destroy common camaraderie/community to save butthurt (Hearthstone/WoW) or have no individual heroics (HotS) or have no balance (WoW Arena).
 

Zastlyn

Peasant
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Am I remembering wrong? I seem to remember like 3-4 years ago when SC2 was trying to get bigger and the LAN events kept getting fucked by lag because people had to be on B.net, so you'd have a event just grind to a halt because of B.net issues. I remember everyone bitching to blizzard about it and they never did a thing. I haven't kept up on SC2, so I don't know if it changed, but I don't think Esports (which i hope stays small, fuck ESPN clickbait 24/7 shit) needs blizzards help.
 

Zaphid

Trakanon Raider
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...yay?

I mean I loved a lot of the first gen esports games but I just don't seem to get the point of making it a 'thing'. Do enough people really care about Blizzard's current crop of games outside of the people who already care without the marketing hype? Their games are slow to be balanced and fixed, most of them tend to downplay/destroy common camaraderie/community to save butthurt (Hearthstone/WoW) or have no individual heroics (HotS) or have no balance (WoW Arena).
SC2 is better than ever when it comes to balance, sadly there's little to no hype from Blizzard, since it doesn't make them money. HotS is supposed to be a thing, but so far nobody seems to think it's going to happen and they haven't even announced some huge tournament. Hearthstone is a twitch celebrity circlejerk, not an esport. WoW is terrible esport, but since it makes so much money, they might as well support it, not to mentions that last time I checked, the amount of onscreen icons and numbers was rivaled only by LoL and they redesign all the classes every expansion, so unless you are a player, you would rather watch paint dry. Overwatch could be good, but they would have to support it a lot and I think team FPS makes a rather poor spectating experience.

So, yeah, it's a "me too" thing
 

Pyros

<Silver Donator>
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My point is they are trying to chase Riot size popularity with this kind of announcement. At least that's the impression I got when I read that.

I'm not an fps guy so I have no idea if there is room in that market.
Well there's CSGO with a fuckton of viewers, like dota2 level of viewers, maybe even higher nowadays, so there's definitely some room to grow for FPS games I guess. At the same time, CSGO emphasizes esports stuff like high skill ceiling, high mechanics, short intense rounds, massive potential for outplays and heroics and shit like that, so it's probably infinitely more viewer friendly than overwatch.

Overwatch is objective based(so longer rounds and a lot of interacting with objectives), quick respawns so a lot of it will be people zerging points and what not, and constantly changing classes too so you can't even tell clearly who's who. That's good for the game to play but not for viewers, in csgo or dota/lol, when player x picks weapon/hero/champion y, they stick to it the entire game and it's generally their preferred style and stuff, while in overwatch you'll see people switching to whatever's more useful at the time, so a player might start with the sniper girl but then switch to the blinking girl and then to the teleport support girl and it's a mess for player recognition. I mean I'm sure it'll have decent viewership due to decent playerbase, and possibly very good even, but I don't know if it'll actually be a big thing.
 

Palum

what Suineg set it to
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I guess that's the crux of it, people watchprofessionalsports because of the skill/athleticism involved where they are watching for the world's best to outplay each other in unbelievable spectacle. Most people play video games because they are accessible and fun. Blizzard does not let the first one happen (on purpose) because of the second.

RE: Overwatch specifically, they could just make a 'tournament mode' where you can only select class at the beginning.
 

Pyros

<Silver Donator>
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When I watched a stream, I really didn't like the class changing element.
I think it's great for casual play, so if your team picks a really shitty composition you can swap to something more useful or depending on the objectives switch between say sniper girl or robot turret for defense and such.

However for the competitive aspect, it's gonna be shit I think. Locking classes in competitive could maybe work, however I feel it'd heavily favor specific team compositions on specific maps which sounds kinda boring(like you'd never play sniper girl on a map that doesn't let you snipe on every objective) Maybe selecting a pool of 2 heroes per player, or maybe limiting switching to certain times so the announcers could be like "ok class change incoming, let's see what they go with on next respawn" kind of thing.
 

krismunich

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Also there tons of MOBA shooters coming out real soon: Battlecry, Battlecry, Gigantic, Paladins: Champions of the Realm, Fortnite, Orcs Must Die! Unchained, Dirty Bomb, LawBreakers and of course Overwatch. I will be very suprised if Blizzard can come out as the big money making champion.
 

Dandai

<WoW Guild Officer>
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Also there tons of MOBA shooters coming out real soon: Battlecry, Battlecry, Gigantic, Paladins: Champions of the Realm, Fortnite, Orcs Must Die! Unchained, Dirty Bomb, LawBreakers and of course Overwatch. I will be very suprised if Blizzard can come out as the big money making champion.
I think you have a much broader definition of a MOBA than most people.
 

Draegan_sl

2 Minutes Hate
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A moba shooter is a small team based game where you pick from a pool of champs that each have a few abilities and an ultimate and you plays an objective based map.
 

Pyros

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A moba shooter is a small team based game where you pick from a pool of champs that each have a few abilities and an ultimate and you plays an objective based map.
I guess if you add a moba shooter category yeah kinda, though the only aspect of mobas is the classes, everything else is a FPS(or 3rd person shooter) so I feel calling them mobas is kinda pushing it. Most games have leveling/talent systems nowadays but you don't call them RPGs, you might say it has some RPG elements but say Battlefield is a shooter RPG or whatever. Gigantic is also purely moba, it's like Smite and not anything like the other games in the list(too lazy to google dirty bomb and lawbreakers). It has massive autoaim, AI NPCs, bases to destroy, leveling and gold systems, that's what makes a moba imo, not just having classes with skills.
 

Zaphid

Trakanon Raider
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Also there tons of MOBA shooters coming out real soon: Battlecry, Battlecry, Gigantic, Paladins: Champions of the Realm, Fortnite, Orcs Must Die! Unchained, Dirty Bomb, LawBreakers and of course Overwatch. I will be very suprised if Blizzard can come out as the big money making champion.
Since none of those has several years long head start, I think Blizzard has a pretty good shot at winning this round, definitely the most recognizable brand. Fortnite looks interesting, but Epic hasn't made a great PC game in a long time.
 

Tenks

Bronze Knight of the Realm
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From what I understand Dirty Bomb is the "leader" of the MOBA-FPS genre at the moment and most players are only playing it waiting for Overwatch to come out
 

Tenks

Bronze Knight of the Realm
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Smite is more of a low panned 3rd person MOBA. Instead of having the camera far away it is a bit more over-the-shoulder. I've never personally played it but that was the impression I got. It also has character leveling and things of that nature. Honestly calling Overwatch an FPS MOBA is really a misnomer. It is just that it has skills, ults, objectives and classes so it is easiest to say it is akin to a MOBA.
 

xzi

Mouthbreather
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Has there been any word or rumor at all on when the pre-event is possibly starting? gametime runs out in a few days and I'm saving my tokens for when I actually want to play.
 

Dandai

<WoW Guild Officer>
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I doubt we'll get a date or even a time frame (besides first half of 2016) until it gets closer to release. I guess it's possible they'll announce a release date at Blizzcon, but I wouldn't hold my breath.