Overwatch, Blizzard Entertainment’s first-person shooter, has gone through many changes since its release in 2016. From introducing the rotating Arcade selection of modes to allowing players to create their own custom game modes, Blizzard has continuously brought new ideas to Overwatch to keep its community excited and playing. Now, Blizzard has now introduced yet another new style of play.
When booting up Overwatch, users navigating to the Play menu are presented with varying cards to choose from, each pertaining to a different mode for them to enjoy. These cards include Quick Play, Arcade and Competitive Play. Adding to this, Blizzard has launched a new card: the Experimental card. This will not appear at all times, but rather function as an event-style testing site for players. Blizzard plans to use this mode as a way of introducing new ideas and play-styles to the community and, if players like what they test, these features may very well end up in other game modes throughout Overwatch.
Within the base game modes of Overwatch, teams of six players are comprised of three different roles: Tank, Damage and Support. Two players fulfill each role, giving each a smaller pool of Heroes to choose from when entering the game. Players choose their role before joining a match, and each role is given a different queue time based on how many other players are queueing for the same role. Both Blizzard and players alike have noticed that, with this system, the queue time for Damage tends to be greater than that of the other roles. To deal with this, Blizzard released their first Experimental mode for all players to test: Triple Damage. In this mode, the role queue replaced a Tank slot with a third Damage slot for each team.
This first Experimental mode was only available for a week, but, while testing may be over, the conversations regarding it have only just begun. Overwatch players from all over the world have voiced their opinions and share their experiences with the mode, and it's clear that Triple Damage is divisive. Some on the Blizzard forums and Reddit have argued that the mode removes Tank synergies entirely, while others enjoyed having three Damage Heroes on a team. Some community members offered suggestions for potential improvements, such as one proposal of a “flex-range” of queues to allow for the possibility of a varying number of Tanks and Damage on a team.
Through all the controversy, one observation has remained constant: the change shortened queue times for Damage. Having three Damage slots available on each team allowed for matches to be joined more efficiently. Jeff Kaplan, Game Director of Overwatch, shared more about the process behind this first Experimental mode. He acknowledged that the development team was also divided on Triple Damage, creating “strong reactions both for and against the system.” However, Kaplan also stated that this mode was implemented to help analyze how this role queue change could affect queue times for Overwatch overall.
From the community’s reaction, the Experimental mode was a success in decreasing these queue times. Players also took note of significant changes to Tank Heroes within the Experimental mode, which seems to have generated more positive reactions than the role queue change itself.
While it is not yet known if or how the changes played with in Triple Damage will be implemented into Quick Play and Competitive Play modes of Overwatch, the introduction of the Experimental card has proven itself to be a step in the right direction. Through the positive and negative reactions, the Experimental card has earned a rightful place among the Overwatch game modes. Not only does it allow players a fun new way to experience the game, but it directly involves the community in the decision-making process of Overwatch. With the Experimental card, players on all platforms have the opportunity to experience what might be coming next and have their opinions be heard.