Please Microsoft bring back old overwatch as a separate game client no real reason not to do it it would be popular and fun and maybe even you could put it in Game Pass and profit like that
It’s obvious that people want this which is why they are doing it in custom already obviously you can’t recreate overwatch 1 exactly as it was because of workshop limitations
They just need to fix their matchmaking system, which they wont. You either roll or get rolled, there is rarely a game that feels like you did something smart. Thats why ppl want the old OW back. Or alternatively a solo Q, but thats even more work for them than bringing back OW1.
There are simply not that many players playing OW2 as there were OW1. Many reasons for this ofc, new games are the new thing and will pull players towards them but also the many fails Blizzard did over the years. Which can be summed up as OW being threated like a step child. In the end whatever playerbase is left would have to wait 15 mins for a game like at the end of OW1, that would alienate even more players. And portray the brutal reality.
This is Fractured Space all over again, the hardcore players playing daily with a team dont even feel that the game is dying as its business as usual for them. While there is hardly any new players joining, more like current ones leaving; from their perspective all is fine since the matchmaker finds them “a game” pretty quickly, disregarding any fairness. “We win, we are a team, game is healthy, all is good” not realizing another 100 players just quit that hour.
The new relax rules on ranked range are not there to cherish companionship, but to mask this truth that otherwise the queues would be worse than that of OW1 end times. Which was 15-40mins on DPS Q on a good day. The games you had then were good though. Tight, tension filled. So Blizz just decided to waste your time on 10 bad matchups (win or lose) to make the game look alive, while you might get 1 good game in reality. And thats a big “might”.
The rank reset was there to put everyone on a median level again, another bandaid tbh, so more games happen. Worked at the beginning yet we are a few weeks in and its almost back to the old distribution again. And boosting is at an all time high ofc.
As I see it the only thing that might save the whole situation is a pre-game lobby system. Let 5 ppl gather up in a lobby, everyone communicates and have to click ready, if someone thinks they dont wanna be there, let them leave (without penalty ofc) and calculate the average of the lobby to match up another lobby. This and other ideas were suggested many times here, but we stick to the old scripture which will be the end of this sweet game.
This is very much in line with my opinion.
I may be a little unpopular but… basically it’s silly to ask for an “exact” return to OW1. the reasons are different, and sometimes uncomfortably subjective:
apart from a different monetization (because the current one is really dysfunctional) the game is still receiving updates to move forward. I would never want to go back to the period in which it was completely frozen (2019-2022)
Appreciate the detailed response, Mefionir.
Nothing silly about it whatsoever
Just look at World of Warcraft classic
Some people would
You don’t have to play it?
In case it isn’t clear: this is a request for separated OW1/2 game clients
Well a “classic” OW would be ideal… as a separate gameplay mode. all in all the game rules are always the same but it is the balance that is different. for example, I don’t appreciate that on the anniversary they don’t put a “classic” mode in the arcades: play what Overwatch was like in 2016 (the original 21 heroes with the original day one maps), then expand it between the various anniversaries ( 2017, 2018, etc.) as a sort of time gallery in which people can nostalgically play a version of the game by recovering certain parts of the heroes in the past (which is absolutely possible, see Hanzo’s scatter arrow during the Valentine’s Day event ). In this way nostalgia would be infinitely less.
And Blizzard is not new to this approach. they did it with Diablo 3, proposing some dungeons as anniversary event that “emulated” the first Diablo, which is extremely technologically dated. and not even a bad simulation, even if for obvious reasons it is not 100% the same with the characters it offers. Why can’t Overwatch make this kind of nostalgic compromise? I think it’s ideal.
I mentioned goty because it’s basically the first point that many people make to “justify” how wrong OW2 is compared to the popularity it had in the past. sorry for the off topic.
In any case… I don’t think a game frozen indefinitely like 2019-2022 is constructive. new heroes will ALWAYS mean having a spirit of adaptation and updating on old kits. but I’m still open to saying that Blizzard is really wrong to pretend that that “2” on the title continues to be worthy of the total censorship of the past, and that every now and then… it should be honored. as much as a 6v6 arcade mode, or the ability to play some old versions of the heroes.
EDIT:
there is a fairly obvious reason for not putting the client separate, and it is similar to no longer putting the PTR / Experimental mode separate from the QP (see the quicker play a few weeks ago): it only fragments the community from the current progress of the game, from the focus of balancing the current game roster. and it’s not exactly a positive factor to base the entire experience on a simply dated version of Overwatch, especially for an e-sports game that is destined to be marketed for continuous renewals. of course, we can imagine special vintage tournaments as they are proposed in the differences between starcraft and starcraft 2, but then it must always be seen that the tournament that matters most is the one that continues to be updated with new features (in our case OW2 with its new features ).
For this reason I think that the “arcade” approach is optimal to better dampen the nostalgia of a gameplay that will inevitably never be there again, in official terms. not without accepting a censorship of annoying heroes to the old roster, such as lifeweaver, kiriko, sojourn or ramattra.
Just to clarify this isn’t a request for overwatch 1 as it originally released in 2016
This is a request for the final version of OW1 prior to OW2’s release in 2022
For the sake of clarity I refer to it as “legacy overwatch“
I refer to the 2016 version as “overwatch classic“
There might be a market for overwatch classic, I don’t know
I’ve never played that so I can’t say if it’s a good game since I started playing overwatch later on
You can’t have overwatch 1 as a separate game mode inside of Overwatch 2 - it cannot be done
The reason it cannot be done is because you’re not able to recreate overwatch as it was inside of the OW2 client
Recall that overwatch 1 had all sorts of different systems and features - looking for group is one example
Global Chat on the main menu screen is another example
These things may seem insignificant to you but all those little details are part of what made overwatch 1, overwatch 1 for me
To list some differences:
To be clear this isn’t about nostalgia
In fact nostalgia is hardly even a factor for me
I played both OW1/2 simultaneously during beta release of 2 and I noted many things I preferred from 1 and nostalgia had nothing to do with that
Look at counterstrike series - practically the same game with minor visual changes over the decades
Look at chess - practically the same game for centuries
A good game doesn’t require constant change - a solid gameplay loop is all that’s needed
We can sort of do this in the workshop but it’s not quite the same due to workshop limitations and all of the above points
But while it isn’t what is being requested here - I agree this would be better than nothing
This isn’t a good argument - most games when they release a sequel keep the old one alive and do fine
And of course World of Warcraft classic
If anything it would bring players back and potentially be a source of revenue if placed in the game pass
No balance would be required for a frozen game state
As you highlight here, two separate games - it’s perfectly fine to do things this way
What if overwatch 1 doesn’t get any players?
Then it dies but at least that way it would be a natural death rather than forced by the corps
Besides this is very unlikely when you consider that overwatch 1 had millions of players at some point - there almost certainly will be some interest and this can be seen already (Look at the video)
To be clear I don’t dislike OW2 - I like that they continue to update it and provide new features
In my view: There’s a place for a game that’s constantly changing and evolving - equally however there’s also a place for a static game that can truly be mastered
The arcade approach is a half measure and doesn’t satisfy the crowd that wants actual overwatch 1
But I do agree with you that it has some benefits like the convenience and ability to use all of the skins acquired from OW2, and various benefits of OW2’s feature set
