Season 18 has gone live on YouTube worldwide, and the player reactions are just exquisite. Aaron Keller and company went on the developer updates to show all the gameplay and UI changes coming this August 26, and the community is going wild in such wonderful ways.
And almost right off the bat comes what probably everyone is discussing: Universal Emotes. Like, what does that even mean?! A number of people in the comments were shouting at the top of their lungs; it’s usually a good sign. And the confusion is: Someone said that the Kiriko skateboard emote is separate to the universal ones, so are we talking about both character-specific plus cross-hero emotes? That would be crazy.
Then: More good stuff got revealed by Aaron to which players breathed sighs of relief. A comment screamed, “THEY WILL NOT RESET LEVEL PROGRESSION I’M SO RELIEVED,” with probably a million celebration emojis. That’s huge for anyone who has been grinding since day one. They do not want to lose all that progress, so that’s a clean win for the community.
Roadhog mains on majorly conflicted. Several comments were full of dread over what they are doing to our beloved hook-wielding tank. One asked, “why did hog get called out specifically what r u doing to my boy… âšī¸,” which is honestly mood. On the opposite side, another asked quite flatly, “Why did you ruin hog.” Oof. Another suggested that perhaps they will be reverting him to pre-rework secondary fire and no pig pen? Would be wild if true.
The entire Aaron Keller update is filled with passion, and really, several comments brought up how passionate he was, one saying, “He so passionate about it omg đ” and another, “Where is my shy Aaron? He his on fire now đ¤.” Whenever the director of your game is this excited about something, you kind of know that something really big is in the works.
Uncle Aaron love is real, though. The comment “I wish uncle Aaron wasn’t married” was literally made-so, okay, then. Another comment was simply “te amo Aaron” or “I love you, Aaron” – he’s getting shoutouts in multiple languages.
Players are applauding Blizzard’s efforts despite the usual Overwatch kind of drama. And here is another one: “Ngl despite all my problems with this game i cant deny they are putting clear effort in changing stuff and do what people want, and doing it with joy. Really fun video”. Now, that is respect right there.
Another thing that got people excited was someone shouting, “P E R K S !!! đŖđŖđŖ,” in such vibrant tones; and there is talk of draft mode, maybe affecting stadium? Not really sure what that even means, but it’s got people talking. Also, several want the Le Sserafim choreography emotes to be part of the universal emotes; that would be so cool.
And off course are the usuals: “MAKE MERCY GREAT AGAIN!” and “just bring back monk doomfist and it’ll be the biggest season ever.” Because some things never change in the Overwatch community. Then one player is clamoring for a pregnant Mercy skin with no shoes and no server fixes because they’ve been getting disconnected from competitive matches, and that’s… uh, very specific.
But overall? The vibe was really upbeat and positive. So many comments are just variants of “Can’t wait,” “about to be đĨ,” and “Y’all cooking so hard.” It’s definitely a win for Blizzard when such unity surrounds the Overwatch community.
Season 18 really might turn out to have been one of the biggest since Overwatch 2 launched: universal emotes, no progression reset, possible Hog changes, and more surprises yet to come on August 26 cannot come soon enough. The players are seriously being heard, and the developers are seriously implementing the changes that people want, and exactly what this game needs now. This could end up being the season that pulls a lot of players back into the game, and honestly? I am so down.
