Who's Brigitte you ask? This girl right here.
I play 5 of the 7 Blizzard titles in Battle.net (oops, Blizzard App) right now, and the only two I'm not playing are World of Warcraft (WOW) and Starcraft Remastered. So I've experienced Diablo 3, Starcraft 2, Heroes of the Storm, Hearthstone and Overwatch. Overwatch being special because I actually tried it on the Free to Play Weekend before actually making the purchase.
A list of Blizzard's current franchises on the Blizzard App
But out of the 5 that I have in my games library, I only find myself gravitating towards Heroes of the Storm (HotS) and just recently again, Diablo 3 (D3), after a 2 season hiatus. But never Overwatch. (Starcraft's a longer story but the TL:DR of it revolves around personal incompetence and the difficulty to maintain a high enough APM, self-loathing and multitasking problems. Why?
So here's what I've gotten to so far, after long, pondering sessions on the toilet seat (TMI, I know but not untrue) and multiple thinking gifs to demonstrate the amount of time I spent thinking about this subject, here's what I've gotten so far.
Just a heads up, I'll be using HotS and D3 a lot for comparison because I know those franchises a lot but just to shake things up, I'll also use Counter Strike Global Offensive (CSgo), to the degree of knowledge I have about it, as a game for comparison as well.
Player Incentives - Progression and Unlockables
What Overwatch lacks is the features that bring the player back to game daily, features which other games include in the form of Daily Quests and so on. The only form of progression you have, at the time of this post, is leveling up your account, which by doing so awards you a single, measly, loot box.
How it feels like after opening box after box of disappointments
You could also include the seasonal currency you get that allows you to purchase gold weapons but I've tried competitive in HotS and almost burned myself out of the game so I'll leave competitive to the players that actually go for that kind of thing and enjoy it.
And what do you get from that one measly loot box after leveling up?
4 cosmetic items with a 18.2% chance for Epic items and 7.4% chance for Legendary items. Which by the standards of the last Overwatch Anniversary Event means you have a 1.85% chance of getting the skin you want cause all of them are legendary (this isn't even including the probability of getting those legendaries in the sea of all the other legendaries), which are mostly what people want from the Loot Boxes anyway. And you only level up after playing 5 extremely long games, which take around 15-20 minutes per game, if not, you have to play up to 10 games, should your matches last between 5-15 minutes. Pair this with salty or foul-mouthed players that are pros at the blame game, the very apparent performance gap you and your teammates have against your opponents and unfair 5 vs 6 matches you'll have due to a missing teammate, there's only so much a person can take TO LEVEL UP ONCE. All for working towards a box whose contents you have no control over.
me, 100%
In Heroes of the Storm, you have a main account level, just like in Overwatch, each individual hero you use has their own level as well, the more you use a hero, the more they level up. Each time a hero levels up, you're awarded a Loot Chest (Overwatch - Box, HotS - Chest) and your account levels up as well, so your account level is the cumulative level of all the heroes in your roster. The difference here is that HotS also has Daily Quests, which once you complete award you Gold which you can use to buy new heroes. Daily Quests are what bring the players coming back day after day, and as your completing your daily quests, you're leveling up your heroes along the way. AND you can reroll bad Loot Chests using your hard earned Gold, which also gives you more incentive to check in every day.
Overwatch's Lunar New Year Event
Overwatch's main attraction, which brought even yours truly back for a year or so, are different events based around real world celebrations or in-game crucial moments. The latest example would be the Lunar New Year Event for Year of the Dog. During which, new or unique limited time game modes are introduced as well as new limited time in game items are available which can be obtained from... LOOTBOXES!!! Overwatch allows you to buy specific items you want with Credits (or Coins), an in-game currency you get by getting duplicates from Loot Boxes. But for these limited time items, the cost is tripled that of a normal one of the same rarity. And should you get a duplicate of the event item, you're awarded the same amount of Credits as a normal item. Sure you get ONE complimentary Loot Box, courtesy of the Overwatch Team, but really, how much does that really add in the long scheme of things?
wait... Whut?
The incentives available in Overwatch to keep a person playing are very little, and the main events that are supposed to help with attracting players to continue playing do nothing to solve this problem. HotS uses a much more organic approach, by providing small, incremental rewards that keep a player engaged and invested. And these in-game items have no effect whatsoever in how well your character plays, they are simply cosmetic items that allow you as a user to customize the character to how you see fit. Seems very trivial, I know, but as Dota 2 and CSgo have proven, it's a lucrative business model.
Overwatch's Business Model
Heroes of the Storm's Business Model
Here's a diagram of how the business models of both games look. In Overwatch, there is very little you can work for as compared to HotS, which, judging by how interwoven the different currencies and ways of obtaining them are, makes playing Heroes of the Storm more rewarding. AND HOTS IS THE FREE-TO-PLAY GAME HERE.
Speaking of cosmetic items (nice segue, I know, I'm working on it)
Visibility and Accessibility of Cosmetic Items
Cosmetic items are what drive players to invest hundreds of hours on Loot Box hunting, they are a form of reward players get for their hours spent on a game. But for a game like Overwatch, you hardly get to look at the character skin you worked so hard for in game. The only times you get to the see the full skin while playing are when you die (which is from the person who killed you's point of view) and if you a get the play of game. Everyone else sees your hard-earned skin all the time you're in their vision range.
One of my favourite Mercy skins, but also which I sadly do not own
This applies to Highlight Intros as well, since it only plays if you get Play of the Game, if you're a support player, that means no Highlight Intros like 99.9% of the time. Sprays are also hardly visible as there are so many different levels on Overwatch and so many facades, it's hard to notice which wall has a spray on it. That being said, a well-placed spray is still funny when you do actually stumble upon it.
... then back to salt
So I've selected the skin...
But I don't see most of it
In Heroes of the Storm, because of how the game is, you can constantly see skin you chose. The effects and such are always visible, and though I don't constantly go ohhh and ahhh at the changed effect or skin, there are those moments when I hearth back to base, I sit back and admire the amount of work put into the design of the skin which lead to me grinding to get it for myself.
Skin's right there
The same goes for sprays as well, it's laid out, on the ground for everyone to see. Banners too, which ultimately remind the players what they lack and then as they've worked hard to obtain it, the reward of their labours.
You plant a Banner if you capture a camp or objective, and it even has you name on it!
Sprays are there for all to see, completely visible for a duration of time, and I'm not including mounts
But Heroes is played from a birds eye view, Overwatch is from a first person point of view, these differences don't apply. Indeed they don't but the fact that it exists doesn't help Overwatch's case. Now compare Overwatch to CSgo, the same point of views and visibility but CSgo allows players to buy and sell skins they don't use. Which adds another method of acquisition for players that can't splurge on 50 Loot Boxes in one sitting. When you allow different and simpler avenues for players to get what they want, it encourages them to work towards it, given it's not as steep of a climb.
Glad to know I can spend 10 cents or 300 dollars on a skin
I have to admit, being able to spend 8 cents on a cosmetic item in Dota 2 was what got me buying different in game items, which when you add up how much I've spent in total, it could easily amount to around 30 ringgit OR MORE. Now I'm not saying that Overwatch is bad for making the skins not visible and such, but the point I'm making here is that the visibility of the item affects how much the players want it. In order to counter this, they have to give players other ways of obtaining the skin.
Amount of In-Game Content
As a game that costs as much as it does, it should have other game modes that cater towards the single player experience. Because all games now require an always-on internet connection, to combat pirating and whatnot, I'm going to let that one slide. But Overwatch's primary gameplay experience revolves around its multiplayer experience, so there's very little you can do if you're on your own.
you, if you're looking for single player content
Overwatch delivers a solid multiplayer experience, don't get me wrong, but it's those times where that multiplayer aspect fails where the other features come into play to keep you enjoying the game. A game mode where all you have to focus on is the growth of one character you love and not care about what other people do, progression. Something that Diablo 3 definitely delivers.
The game allows you to collect items and level up your character, and you keep at it, simply because you know you can get your character to a better spot,
better damage,
and better gear.
If not, give them goals to work towards, a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, in small increments within arms reach. A reason to keep playing the game they first fell in love with and wasted 2 days of their life, not doing anything productive in the real world because of the free to play weekend. Opening each loot box, watching with glee at the new skins they got to equip. Spending the first few Credits they got on a colour variation for a character they really connected with just because they liked the character that much. Entering a game with teammates all going through the same thing and treating each other nicely, because no one had ranks back then, everyone was just starting out. And how everyone just cheered when a teamfight went perfectly with 5 strangers you didn't know but all came together because they enjoyed the game so much.
But then again, how could you think Overwatch would have single player content? Like have you seen the posters?
There's no "I" in Overwatch, *checks Overwatch* Oh, thank god
So I'm not going to play Overwatch for now, but if there's anything I've learned from playing Overwatch, you'll just have to wait and see. Because things could always take a turn for the better.
THAT'S ALL AND HAVE FUN PLAYING THE GAMES YOU ENJOY!!!
