Going into the official streaming on the Sunday of Season 17 launch, Overwatch developers Alec Dawson and Jorge Murillo previewed a new set of map changes for the players. The very official Overwatch account had pledged some behind-the-scenes look into the map changes, and… well, things did not quite go as scheduled-namely, the audience was left waiting.
It was to start once it was announced, instantly. Several users then pointed out that the stream was not live when the tweet came into being: “Where is the ‘LIVE NOW’?” another fan angrily questioned. “Maybe the ‘live now’ was the friends we made along the way,” quipped another. The reply was…the funniest moment, limiting meme creation and complaints accusing the delay: “You liars. You said the live would start now.”
Once the stream was finally on, it was about all things new map updates supposed to go on for Season 17. While all the exact details were never quite laid bare in the replies, one would do well to understand that the community’s anticipation was right up front-from excitement to impatience. One player, @Laurastar142, was quite excited and said: “I’m really curious about the new map!! I’m excited for this live!!” On the contrary, others made no comments about those change sets; @trabucooo1 states plainly: “Your map reworks are fucking stupid, you add a staircase or remove a glass window and it takes you years to develop.”
However, the discussion in the replies couldn’t be contained to the map upgrades; another hot topic took shape about hero bans, wherein @Zunovsky declared the bans made matches too alike and so interfered with player flexibility: “What bans in Overwatch does is make matches similar to one another, something I don’t like.” Others such as @craftydemon09 disagreed: “Hero bans are needed,” they responded. “Think about all of the worst metas in OW history… they all could have been solved by the community.”
Interspersed with the drama were other demands from the player base—thinking aloud, there was one demand from @patgames: “Pls delete brazzzil server.” And then there are those just hoping to vibe with @HEARTOFH0PE saying: “I’m so excited for the new map” with a cute emoji to back it up.
What to take away from all these? Season 17 of Overwatch is accepting new map changes, but the main story is probably going to be the controversies surrounding the player base, passionate, and sometimes chaotic. Impatience at delays, the balanced debate, or simply hype-just some of these map changes are hardly louder than the community. Now, an actual question arises—will these map changes satisfy demand? Until then, all we can do is hope and watch as the waters mature.
