#i'm overwatch players

[sillycoffeelover]

overwatch players fr say "i hate this game" as they proceed to sit down & grind the game for hours straight, forgetting to eat & use the restroom in the process

[berunov]

Back in Black!

[slpytired]

back in 2018-2019 when fortnite had just come out my gaming buddy invited me to play a round with him and some acquaintances. at that time i was invested in overwatch and didn't think much about fortnite, but i decided to give it a shot. a couple minutes into our game, and everyone in our squad was down but me. channeling my elite gamer skills honed from hours of watching unturned arena gameplay, i was able to kill one of the enemies harassing us. a whoop went up from the guys in my squad. surely i would be able to kill the last guy and save us all. but in a moment of weakness, i chose to attempt reviving my teammate so that he could do the job instead. this led to us losing the match, and i dropped out of the session shortly after. however i am of the mind that this was a blessing in disguise, some sort of divine intervention, for if i had won the fight and saved my teammates that round and received their adoration and praise, my positive feedback-starved brain would have latched onto fortnite with a death grip and i would turn into an entirely unrecognisable person than the one who exists today.

[owcs]

For my first clip uploaded here, I figured it would only be right to have it be tracer gameplay. Here are some highlights from Nico of team VARREL against Hayabusa Gaming* from today February 27th, 2024. *Hayabusa Gaming does not have a liquipedia page to link to

[luckycl0ve]

sorry for playing overwatch do you still want to see this drawing of lifeweaver

[twilitkingzant]

Me being shy in Overwatch...

I was playing as Ramattra and there was this Lifeweaver that kept dragging me closer to him because he knew I was shy around him. I kept hiding behind the telephone booth in King's Row.

[captainpissofff]

I have a confession,

I really hate it when an online multiplayer game has lore and back stories and cool characters and fanarts....

BECAUSE I DON'T HAVE FRIENDS PROFESSIONAL TEAM MATES PLAYERS THAT CAN HELP ME PLAY IT !!!

So I won't be able to get into that fandom or enjoy anything.

[burger-goblin]

.

[dingostrash]

Messages to make my team believe in me(it worked)

[tyraine]

I will return to my regularly scheduled Lies of P posting shortly, buuuut...

LOOK AT HER !!! SHES AMAZING !!

I love that skin

[hellfirewraith]

on god, I swear that ow2 players don't actually want supports in the game

[bobafett]

i'm in silver 1 for OW comp right now. somehow, i just ended up in a game where the other team had two high gold players and a low platinum player, and friends? i got my shit fully fucking wrecked.

[bam-monsterhospital]

me playing mercy uselessly trying to heal the dying tank as the other healer goes off to another plane of existence: once i learn how to aim, it’s over for you fools

[toosmallformyowngood]

All of my teammates left in the Animal Jam ice caves minigame and I had to build an entire cannon all by myself, all while my cat was trying to eat my phone. Easily one of the top 10 most stressful moments of my life.

[earthenclover]

RIP DiIf_Shakes (2020-2024)

You had a damn good run.

[alchemicaldesignquery]

Player Engagement (Retention)

Player Engagement - Frustration = Growth

Hard to quantify the subjective nightmare that is this equation, but there are ways to navigate it.

Some games are genre-locked (Tac. Shooters, Fighting Games, etc.) and have dedicated structures in place to ensure a specific type of player is who is being targeted. Any other players who wander into the that type of game's periphery are probably gonna want to go looking for outside content to show them the ropes (or be content as a Button-Masher/Elim-Trader).

Others, who tend to go for wider audiences, will pigeon-hole around specific mechanics or standards (The Holy Triad of Tank/Support/DPS, is a popular choice, while limited arsenals can account for varied playstyles in a large playerbase), creating unique experiences per player in a shared environment.

Other games will narrow gameplay, ensuring one type of execution is pretty much the best option at any time or in any circumstance, attracting refinement and expertise from it's playerbase, who can in turn teach others (through varied methods) how best to approach the game. (Side-scrollers, rogue-likes, etc.)

With each of these examples, there's a level of Engagement that's being restricted that will automatically turn-off or bounce certain video game players off of the gameplay just at launch.

I think often, how much of a problem I have with the way new RPGs turned away from the classic strategy of turn-based combat and toward the fast-paced reflex-with-a-menu-screen that many popular titles prefer now. A genre that, for all other purposes, fits deeply into my appreciations and values- but I'll pass over a game in that genre, if only for the detrimental need to be as responsive and quick as possible in the decision-making of which menu to have open, which spell/attack/defense to use, all the while things are happening or about to happen outside of the menu. Parallel perspectives with unstable consistency between them.

But that decision also comes as a choice for what your Playerbase is going to be. Developers make the active choice to target a specific playerbase with these various restrictions/options of play.

All of that can lead to a streamlined ease-of-access/play that is beneficial for retention/Engagement. They also come with their own problems and flaws, much of which can be alleviated with creative choices. The recognition is that:

Your playerbase is going to have an upper limit on population, due to certain limitations on what sort of fun can be had in it.

And that's perfectly acceptable.

You can pressure valve Frustration in your playerbase, so that it doesn't build up to the point of hemorrhaging players when said Frustration reaches a critical point (regardless of your content releases, which are a novelty band-aid, at best).

-----

Then, of course, you've got games so wide the approach is meant to attract

Everybody

The absolute largest playerbase possible. The Omni-game that shalt be unto a religion; that regulars and non-video gamers will recognize as The Game, to explain video games.

MMOs, tend to attract this level of ambition most often (also, consequently, a parallel level of frustration in development and gameplay), as do many 'Open World' efforts. More rare are the games that try to crush a lot of different genres and levels into their gameplay; many of which end up bloated and constantly renovating the experience.

In other words, there's not enough stools for everyone who showed up at the Grand Opening, so they keep re-designing the restaurant interior to accommodate the crowd...without realizing the restaurant just isn't big enough, comfortable enough, possessing of enough resources for that unimaginably massive number they want eating there.

By including as many different experiences, rewards, skills, spells, tokens, weapons, classes, races, and creative expression a player can customize, there's the risk of alienating people within your own playerbase; locking them away from certain content areas that are designed with certain mechanics, and by extension, experts in those mechanics, in mind.

If "End Game Content" is meant for grinders who put in the work, but that work entails a massive bundle of info., dedication, resources (time, patience, energy, money, etc.), then at some point inside of the ambition phase of development you're going to have to contend with the monster that is Frustration.

And, in doing so, understand your game is going to constantly be playing Whack-a-mole with your playerbase, whose Frustrations will climb without any bleed-off/pressure release, because you've got to give other portions of that playerbase something to do specific to their level of Engagement or "fun".

Which is, itself, a stopgap. Eventually, that Frustration in every different part of your playerbase, will grow and result in complaints and vitriol, no matter what new content you release-

Because the Frustration has Outgrown any Engagement in your game and there's always going to be more novelty out there to distract; a path of least resistance, that siphons away the resource-sink of a player's attention.