Overwatch to introduce trail characters?

[BearyWatch]

So, much like other Blizzard games, it seems that Overwatch might be receiving a free2play of some sort! Would that be a yay or nay?
(Hope it does not turn into TF2).

[Gaucho-]

Not interested at all, but thats just me.

This game is sadly only playable with friends. I'll buy this game when the Origin Edition drops below 40€.

[Endus]

Eh, one of the "big sells" for Overwatch was that it's not incremental; you buy it, you get ALL the characters and maps, period. No worries about having to pay for each future hero or map as they get released, and such.

Seeing as such, they're gonna have to limit the trial, to keep people from just playing trial accounts, and one of the only ways to do so is limiting their hero options. And that's gonna be an issue, because they can't counterpick effectively, and each hero is VERY unique, and not to everyone's taste.

I'm not saying it's not workable, but I don't think either a level cap or a hero limit would work, long-term. What may work "better" is a match limit; let people play 10-20 matches (one play through to the scoreboard; not the best-2-of-3 thing Quickplay uses for KotH), with full access, and then it locks down and you can't queue for anything. Should be easy enough to track.

I'm not against the idea in principle, but it'll need to be executed right so that trial players aren't any more of a hindrance to their teammates than other new players would be.

[Tackhisis]

Well, that was long overdue.

[Temp name]

Eh, one of the "big sells" for Overwatch was that it's not incremental; you buy it, you get ALL the characters and maps, period. No worries about having to pay for each future hero or map as they get released, and such.

Seeing as such, they're gonna have to limit the trial, to keep people from just playing trial accounts, and one of the only ways to do so is limiting their hero options. And that's gonna be an issue, because they can't counterpick effectively, and each hero is VERY unique, and not to everyone's taste.

I'm not saying it's not workable, but I don't think either a level cap or a hero limit would work, long-term. What may work "better" is a match limit; let people play 10-20 matches (one play through to the scoreboard; not the best-2-of-3 thing Quickplay uses for KotH), with full access, and then it locks down and you can't queue for anything. Should be easy enough to track.

I'm not against the idea in principle, but it'll need to be executed right so that trial players aren't any more of a hindrance to their teammates than other new players would be.

So your idea to make a trial that you can't keep playing is to make a trial where people can just keep making new accounts and keep playing?

While I do agree that locking down the hero choices will be a bad idea, if you restrict people to 1-2 of each role, they still have lots of options and can see if the game is something for them. New players wouldn't know how to counter pick anyway.

[Ealyssa]

Pretty sure trial accounts are only for "free weekend" offer a few times a year. Like other online games do.

Not a permanent offer to try the game.

[Very Tired]

They can let all the F2Ps play the game that they want, it probably won't affect you in any way unless they get up to your MMR. It's not like TF2 and a overabundance of gibus engineers come flooding in on every sever.

[BearyWatch]

Maybe they will limit the account to one single map, limiting a hero wont be a solution. Its gonna be either map or free weeekend i guess!

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Guys can any one of you access Batte.net or the webpage?

[Woobels]

Not interested at all, but thats just me.

This game is sadly only playable with friends. I'll buy this game when the Origin Edition drops below 40€.

What are you basing this game only being playable with friends on if you don't actually have the game.

[Gaucho-]

What are you basing this game only being playable with friends on if you don't actually have the game.

Closed and open beta experience. I prepurchased the game until my friends chosed to play League at release, then I cancelled.

[Temp name]

Closed and open beta experience. I prepurchased the game until my friends chosed to play League at release, then I cancelled.

So you didn't try post-launch?
The game's pretty playable for me, even with I solo queue

[Deleted]

The matchmaking is competent enough that you'll never face a 5+-stack team if you solo queue (without having a similar teamsetup yourself).

I Duo/solo-q exclusively and 99% of my games are vs. 3-2-1, 3-1-1-1, 2-1-1-1-1, 2-2-1-1 etc. Same setups for my team, obviously.

Teamplay is very, very common too and I believe the only big mistake I see on high(er) ratings (~70) is that there are still people that wander off and die alone somewhere. (This is especially annoying if you have a Mercy that wants to ult but everyone dies so far away from each other.)
The voice chat is getting used too and even if they don't talk, they'll at least join and listen.

[Gaucho-]

So you didn't try post-launch?
The game's pretty playable for me, even with I solo queue

Yeah sorry, I didnt mean to say its *unplayable* solo. Its just me not enjoying this game when I play solo.

[Mystrome]

The matchmaking is competent enough that you'll never face a 5+-stack team if you solo queue. I believe you can't even okay against a group of 4.

Then you haven't been paying attention. Besides, how do you recon a team of 6 is formed when 5 people on that team queue up together?

The matchmaking system juggles group-size, MMR and experience (time played), and will try to come up with (what Blizzard expects to be) a balanced match. We don't know how heavily each factor weighs in, but it will prioritize them in that order as far as I'm aware. It's a decent system that on average does pretty well and provide us with decent matches, however occasionally, matches are terribly one-sided.

[Deleted]

I edited it, I *am* paying attention though. What I'm saying is that you can't (or it's like, super, very unlikely 360 no scope get rekt to) go up against 5 and have 1-1-1-1-1-1 yourself.

The last 30 games I did this WE never even had one 4+x(+x) in it. (neither side)

I never faced a team of 5 (nor do I remember a single case where I played with or against a team of 4 but after several hundreds of games, 1 or 2 might've slipped my mind) when I duo-q-ed, ever since they introduced the new "party-link" symbol stuff when you press tab at least. (Before that, there was no way to tell what kind of setup you played against)

[Temp name]

Yeah sorry, I didnt mean to say its *unplayable* solo. Its just me not enjoying this game when I play solo.

I rather enjoy playing solo. Means I can dick around even more than when I'm in a group and have to take it seriously. Also less reason to get mad if I perform badly

[Mystrome]

I edited it, I *am* paying attention though. What I'm saying is that you can't (or it's like, super, very unlikely 360 no scope get rekt to) go up against 5 and have 1-1-1-1-1-1 yourself.

The last 30 games I did this WE never even had one 4+x(+x) in it. (neither side)

I never faced a team of 5 (nor do I remember a single case where I played with or against a team of 4 but after several hundreds of games, 1 or 2 might've slipped my mind) when I duo-q-ed, ever since they introduced the new "party-link" symbol stuff when you press tab at least. (Before that, there was no way to tell what kind of setup you played against)

Ah ok, you make more sense now.

That said, I actually have had a couple of games where I faced a team of 6 with no people on my team grouped, as well as 5+1 on their team, singles on mine. That was a little while ago though, and not seen (or noticed) it since.

[Varvara Spiros Gelashvili]

The game's to team based for me to enjoy or enjoy enough to purchase but ill defiantly abuse the free trial.