Topic: Overwatch being taken offline?

[Pugnate]

Another sign that Blizzard has fallen a long way from being the darling of the PC gaming world is this whole Overwatch 2 push. It looks like an expansion at best. A decade or so ago, it would have been an expansion pack. But what really ticks me off is that Blizzard is taking Overwatch offline. The game just came out in 2016. It's primarily an Internet game. I think it's crazy that they're already taking it offline. Buyers should get refunds heh.

[MysterD]

Blizzard died sometime ago, around these events:
1. When WoW hit it big, it made Activision want to turn almost everything into a MMO / always-online game.
2. See above - that's why D3 went always-online on PC...among some other reasons (DRM to try to stop piracy, try to stop players from cheating, force players to play together, etc).
3. Core Blizzard guys left & split-up, with some going to form Runic (Torchlight games), Flagship (HGL - that studio died), etc.

Blizzard's dead. D3 was the nail in the coffin in many ways and the sign of the times - while RoS improved and fixed a lot, that game got dumbed-down ARPG-wise (stat-wise & character-build wise) BIG TIME. Their corporate take-over by Blizzard happened already, by then.

BioWare's on this same path, namely after ME: Andromeda and Anthem.

Also, ZA/UM is next; and so is probably Rockstar (since Dan Houser, Benzies, and Lazlow left).

[idolminds]

It doesnt make sense to keep them both running simultaneously since it essentially is the same game and is free, but you're right that it seems kind of odd to do it this way. If they are basically the same why isn't this just added to the "base game"? Isnt that the whole point of doing "games as a service"?

[idolminds]

Oh man, this is more messed up than I realized. Apparently battlenet now requires you to attach a phone number to it to help curb cheating. Fine idea, except it also denies the use of some pre-paid and VOIP numbers. So some people that paid for OW1 but have a prepaid phone cant verify themselves so OW1 is shut down and they are not allowed to play OW2 unless they get a new phone plan.

[Pugnate]

Oh I didn't realize OW2 was F2P. My bad. Yeah, then it doesn't make sense to have two versions of the same game running.

Though, I suppose it sucks for players who hate the F2P model and don't care for microtransactions and instead paid up front to avoid that. But yeah, makes a bit more sense.

[Pugnate]

Blizzard died sometime ago, around these events:
1. When WoW hit it big, it made Activision want to turn almost everything into a MMO / always-online game.
2. See above - that's why D3 went always-online on PC...among some other reasons (DRM to try to stop piracy, try to stop players from cheating, force players to play together, etc).
3. Core Blizzard guys left & split-up, with some going to form Runic (Torchlight games), Flagship (HGL - that studio died), etc.

Blizzard's dead. D3 was the nail in the coffin in many ways and the sign of the times - while RoS improved and fixed a lot, that game got dumbed-down ARPG-wise (stat-wise & character-build wise) BIG TIME. Their corporate take-over by Blizzard happened already, by then.

BioWare's on this same path, namely after ME: Andromeda and Anthem.

Also, ZA/UM is next; and so is probably Rockstar (since Dan Houser, Benzies, and Lazlow left).

Plus all these reports of toxic behaviour etc.

Still hopeful that the new Diablo game is good.

[MysterD]

@Pug:

They'll likely never top D1 and D2, so....eh. [shrug]

D3 already swung in the "Let's remove numbers and upgrade paths/choices at level-up", dumbing the ARPG down and causing character builds to be much less interesting.

And knowing Activision-Blizz - just like PC version of D3, D4 will probably be always-online too.

[MysterD]

Oh I didn't realize OW2 was F2P. My bad. Yeah, then it doesn't make sense to have two versions of the same game running.

Though, I suppose it sucks for players who hate the F2P model and don't care for microtransactions and instead paid up front to avoid that. But yeah, makes a bit more sense.

This is exactly why skirmish-style games should have offline support and bot/AI support; and also LAN/TCP-IP support - yes, just like Q3A, UT games, and BF 1942...even if there's no real campaign there - for when they (dev's and pub's) pull a game like that, which people threw real $ at.


At least if that was implemented, those players...could still play OW1. [shrug]