Alright.
So Overwatch is getting a new map.
Good news first: It takes place in Paris, and it's fucking gorgeous.
Bad news: It's a 2 CP map.
I sat down on the PTR, played a few matches and found myself utterly unimpressed.
Yep.
It's a 2 CP map.
It plays like any other 2 CP map.
They didn't re-invent the wheel, it's still a terrible game mode, particularly in
solo queue, and I don't much care for it.
What I do care for is the implication that comes with this announcement.
This, ultimately decides for me, whether this was a stroke of genius, or a completely terrible
idea.
Now, why could this be really cool?
Because last time we got a new map, Busan, it came not only with a brand new animated
short, but also a really cool micro-event.
The first of its kind.
If you look at the promotional material that was released with this map- Well, released
on the PTR; You can definitely see a theme here.
Paris, the city of love, and Valentine's Day is just around the corner.
I think that we can rule out the possibility of this being a full blown event considering
that Year of The Pig would still be running at the time Valentine's Day comes around.
But that doesn't mean that they can't add this as a micro-event, since all they
really have to do is give us cosmetics to work towards by winning games.
It doesn't interfere with the seasonal event.
Is it a bit of a stretch?
Yeah, okay, it might be.
But I am not completely ruling it out.
We also have the fact that the Bastet Challenge happened not too long ago, where we could
do that exact thing for an Ana skin, based on a comic.
Now, I do want to say that, because that micro-event was based on a comic, they're not gonna
do another one in that exact same fashion so soon already.
But again, it's not a possibility I would completely rule out.
It could be that, just like with Busan, we are getting a really cool animated short,
perhaps with a bit of a hero number 30 tease, and then they are going to allow us to get
cosmetics that were inspired by that short.
Obviously, most of us are gonna think about a skin for the french sniper, Widowmaker.
But the sky's the limit here.
You could make all sorts of things happen in Paris, when it comes to storytelling.
It would be a great opportunity to bridge the downtime between the end of this current
seasonal event, and the start of the Overwatch League Season 2 which, without a doubt in
my mind, they want to use to pull the hype lever.
Keep people talking about the game, keep them interested- Give them a reason to log in and
play.
However, knowing how bare-bones and low effort Blizzard's approach to content updates has
been in Overwatch, I actually find it far more likely that, at best, we'll be getting
Bastet Challenge 2.0 with another comic, because it's way easier to commission an artist
to make one of those, than having your cinematics team slave away on an animated short.
If I wanted to be really cynical about it, I would even accuse them of putting a big
twist into that comic just for the sake of having people talk and fight about it online.
You know how they say- All press is good press.
That cynical remark aside, I can't talk about the positive without also talking about
the negative.
After so long without any meaningful, new content, giving us another map, in my opinion,
is a really bad idea.
And here's why.
New maps as a form of content come with a variety of problems.
For one, it's really shitty content if you wanna sell it as such.
Beyond the first week where we get an Arcade Game Mode to specifically play this map, there
are no means for us to actually go out of our way to see it.
That's like adding a new game mode to Call of Duty, but not giving us the option to queue
up for it.
Instead, we gotta roll the dice and play 28 rounds of TDM before finally getting to see
this shiny new piece of content.
Besides that, it only adds another map to the pool that players have to learn.
I mean, okay, that is a bit of a competitive specific issue- But look at it.
A lot of maps in the game play very fundamentally differently, and they usually favor different
heroes.
We are getting widely different results when it comes to our own gameplay performance for
a variety of reasons, but the sheer volume of maps is one of them.
For your average player, it is impossible to display a consistent level of skill all
throughout every single map in Overwatch.
And considering how we are usually only good at a few heroes anyway, if the new map doesn't
favor them, we are already on the back-foot.
And do I even have to mention that it's a 2 CP map?
A game mode that is widely hated in the playerbase.
So for casual players who just wanna see the new map while queuing up for Quick Play, it's
kinda annoying that they can't specifically choose it, unless they play during the opening
week.
And for competitive players, it always means a few weeks of terrible matches, should you
be unlucky enough to get this map during your session.
Because even if you went out of your way to spend a few hours of practise time on it,
chances are that most of your teammates didn't.
So the two sides that I am seeing on this coin are the following- All the downsides
I just mentioned will not go away.
These are guaranteed issues to appear, whether or not you specifically are affected.
However, I see huge marketing potential for Blizzard here.
Even if it's only a comic, that could be enough to keep us talking about the IP.
And if they did go through the effort of making a full-blown animated short for it, including
a new hero teaser, they would be absolutely killing it.
And considering that we have no reason to believe that Blizzard has any plans of moving
away from their "content structure" in which they release nothing but heroes, maps
and skins- This would be the best thing they can do in that context.
You need as many eyeballs on your game as possible when the Overwatch League finally
comes back, and that would most definitely be the way to do that.
It's not necessarily what I want to see as a player, as much as I do enjoy their animated
shorts, but I certainly believe that, for the broader audience that they are trying
to appeal to, that would probably be a very good move.
Though, I would be very surprised if they didn't come out with a replay system before
OWL comes back, considering that the whole "World Cup Viewer" thing was meant to
eventually be implemented in the League.
Which, I guess is cool.
I still want my clan system, though.
Enough nit-picking for today though- What are your thoughts?
Do you see as much potential in this reveal as me?
Or can you not get over the fact that they are adding another 2 CP map.
Legend says that there are actually quite a few people who do enjoy them.
As always, feel free to leave all of your thoughts and opinions down in the comment
section below.
If you happen to be interested in Bioware's upcoming game Anthem, make sure to check out
my video talking about its core gameplay loop.
You can find the card on screen, right now.
Thank you everybody so much for watching, don't forget to drop me a like on your way
out if you enjoyed the video, subscribe if you wanna see more, and I hope to see you
guys next time.
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