Perhaps we should start with a celebration; Overwatch‘s GOATs meta, that lasted roughly a year and a half, is finally dead. It took wild buffs and nerfs to the entirety of the roster in an attempt to kill GOATs before Blizzard finally threw caution to the wind and implemented a 2-2-2 role lock. At least now we get to see DPS heroes in the team-based shooter.
GOATs was a meta that was brought into the limelight by the North American team GOATS, that successfully ran the composition through Overwatch‘s Open Division with ten wins and zero losses to their name. The meta consisted of three tanks and three healers. It was a slow, plodding game style that murdered any excitement of individual plays, as the damage heroes were noticeably absent. The problem was that damage-dealing heroes simply couldn’t burn-down high-health tanks with burst fire, while three healers pumped the tank full of resources. In a game where damage-dealing heroes held the majority of the roster, GOATs brought about an enjoyable same six heroes for over a year.
As alluded to, after numerous buffs and nerfs to various heroes, Overwatch developer Blizzard threw in the towel and implemented role lock. With all of the heroes impressively over tuned for such a meta to suddenly replace what Blizzard has been tweaking since time immemorial, they also added a new hero with the ability to place a shield anywhere in his line of sight, Sigma.
This has brought about a new meta, double shield, where Orisa is played along with Sigma, and shields are found all over the battlefield that stymie any heroes that attempt to attack at range. The impediment that the shields impose results in only close-ranged DPS being viable. Thus the ‘one-hitter-quitter’ Doomfist has become meta along with Reaper. Doomfist nearly guarantees at least one kill per team fight with his rocket punch, an ability that moves him forwards quickly, and deleting anyone unlucky enough to exist in his path with a singular hit.
Overwatch fans are becoming increasingly frustrated at Blizzards’ tremendously slow reaction to frustrating meta’s. That reaction may baffle some at first; after all, at least GOATs is dead. Yet they seem wildly indifferent to the plight of gamers in their shooter; concerns are often outright ignored, and occasionally placated on their forums with empty platitudes. Many of the audience that Blizzard has amassed find themselves unsure if they want to continue to give the studio the benefit of the doubt.
https://twitter.com/GoddamnSkeleton/status/1192510871706230786
Overwatch all began promising enough; developers were promising often PTR (public test realms) patches with ‘wacky’ changes, and they’ll push anything to the main game that worked. That died roughly in the middle of the second year; not surprisingly, around the time the Overwatch 2 began development. Overwatch Director Jeff Kaplan stated in an interview with Kotaku that Overwatch had to take a back burner while developers worked on Overwatch 2.
So consumers that took Blizzard to heart with their promises of long-term support for Overwatch have, by the words of Blizzard’s Vice President, been placed to the side so Blizzard can push another $60 game that features impressively little; many gamers have voiced concerns on Twitter, reddit, and Twitch that the lack of new content in Overwatch 2 does little to merit a brand new game.
Yet what if we were to purchase Overwatch 2, expecting the attention that Blizzard gave Overwatch on launch? Will that last a year and a half as well, before they begin Overwatch 3?
For many fans of team-based shooters, it seems as though Riot’s Project A couldn’t come soon enough.
