So how are your games going lately? [megathread]

[Gandrake]

Widow is not even close to being as meta as tracer.

GOD DAMNIT WIDOW MAINS. STOP TRYING TO JUSTIFY YOUR ONE-TRICKERY!

Honestly, I hate people who "main" in general. Everyone starts somewhere, and I respect that. But I absolutely refuse to believe that any player who has put more than 100 hours into playing Overwatch cannot play at least 3 different dps heroes or 2 supports. I just don't see an excuse for not being able to and see it is as extremely unfair to act like you don't know better.

People always love to point out toxicity except for when they are causing it because either they A. do not care or B. are legitimately oblivious to the fact they are not doing enough because they have no measure or standard of what is sufficient in their role.

When it comes to the sexist bits of abuse and just flat out unnecessary hateful treatment of Widowmaker players, I will condemn that behavior all day long. But at the same time, many types of "main" players have drawn a lot of resentment to themselves and ugly as the divided community's response to them may be, they have brought it on themselves.

See, I say this because I can play so many different heroes and I am not afraid to try anything if I feel like it can make a difference. But I also have the competitive drive to win and am honest enough with myself to know when I am not satisfied with my performance and that something needs to change.

If more players were like me, I don't think there would be as much toxicity. Sounds like something anyone could say to scapegoat others for their lack of success, but it's just something I experience far too often to be completely sympathetic towards them. I would be more conflicted if they actually swapped when asked politely and were honest enough with themselves to know they are not moving at a pace that is not suitable, but you just can't win with them for two reasons: if you are nice, they expect you to become mean and if they swapped every time that someone asked, they would never get to play Widowmaker.

But the primary issue is this: they are playing Widowmaker to play Widowmaker. They are not playing to win with the confidence in their ability by adapting to circumstances and addressing the key issues their team is facing, they are playing just to shoot other players as Widowmaker and they would not want to participate in the match if they could not play Widowmaker. They are so stubborn that an enemy hero with vertical mobility ganking them and consistently shutting them down is more likely to convince them to swap than their own teammates are even if they are not being negative or abusive. On top of that, even if the team manages to inspire them to swap, by the time that they do it is already too late and they have wasted too much time.

I certainly do not condone the abusive behavior that they experience, but at the same time the fact of the matter is they are not taking the game seriously enough. This resentment was not formed in a void; this reuptation that they are remarkably stubborn, selfish, uncooperative, unreliable and possess an extremely poor comprehension of how to play the game was built over time.

[Gandrake]

Basically widowmaker mains are people who are too shitty to play CS:GO so they try to play CS:GO in overwatch.

I guess, but I could say the same about any "main". If we were playing World of Warcraft, I'd understand. But we are not - you can play any hero at any time and they are not all so different from one another that the skillsets required to play them are so unique that they do not transfer from one hero to another.

[Morally Grey Storm]

Nothing wrong with being Junkrat main.

[Battlebeard]

Honestly, I hate people who "main" in general. Everyone starts somewhere, and I respect that. But I absolutely refuse to believe that any player who has put more than 100 hours into playing Overwatch cannot play at least 3 different dps heroes or 2 supports. I just don't see an excuse for not being able to and see it is as extremely unfair to act like you don't know better.

People always love to point out toxicity except for when they are causing it because either they A. do not care or B. are legitimately oblivious to the fact they are not doing enough because they have no measure or standard of what is sufficient in their role.

When it comes to the sexist bits of abuse and just flat out unnecessary hateful treatment of Widowmaker players, I will condemn that behavior all day long. But at the same time, many types of "main" players have drawn a lot of resentment to themselves and ugly as the divided community's response to them may be, they have brought it on themselves.

See, I say this because I can play so many different heroes and I am not afraid to try anything if I feel like it can make a difference. But I also have the competitive drive to win and am honest enough with myself to know when I am not satisfied with my performance and that something needs to change.

If more players were like me, I don't think there would be as much toxicity. Sounds like something anyone could say to scapegoat others for their lack of success, but it's just something I experience far too often to be completely sympathetic towards them. I would be more conflicted if they actually swapped when asked politely and were honest enough with themselves to know they are not moving at a pace that is not suitable, but you just can't win with them for two reasons: if you are nice, they expect you to become mean and if they swapped every time that someone asked, they would never get to play Widowmaker.

But the primary issue is this: they are playing Widowmaker to play Widowmaker. They are not playing to win with the confidence in their ability by adapting to circumstances and addressing the key issues their team is facing, they are playing just to shoot other players as Widowmaker and they would not want to participate in the match if they could not play Widowmaker. They are so stubborn that an enemy hero with vertical mobility ganking them and consistently shutting them down is more likely to convince them to swap than their own teammates are even if they are not being negative or abusive. On top of that, even if the team manages to inspire them to swap, by the time that they do it is already too late and they have wasted too much time.

I certainly do not condone the abusive behavior that they experience, but at the same time the fact of the matter is they are not taking the game seriously enough. This resentment was not formed in a void; this reuptation that they are remarkably stubborn, selfish, uncooperative, unreliable and possess an extremely poor comprehension of how to play the game was built over time.

I absolutely agree with you. I hate "mainers" as well. I started with Widowmaker, for fun, but I don't play her in Competitive. I wanted to play whats good for the team, and today I can play any character quite well, while I can master 7 heroes, 2 offense, 1 defense, 1 tank, 3 support.

I hate playing tanks, but I worked hard to learn at least 2 tanks at a good level, just in case it's needed.

[Dundebuns]

Had a great game where I made a point of killing the Widow with a sonic every time. She was so incredibly tilted by this happening, telling me how I'm using it wrong in match chat in a variety of toxic ways.

MARKED! By the dragon.

I try and do a similar thing if the enemy has a widow or genji, although usually using Winston.

[Jessicka]

Widow is not even close to being as meta as tracer.

GOD DAMNIT WIDOW MAINS. STOP TRYING TO JUSTIFY YOUR ONE-TRICKERY!

1. I don't one trick.
2. Watch some OWL, Widow's in more than half the matches.

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I don't think that people realize this isn't toxicity based on gender, this is just toxicity. If someone had a high pitched voice they would be made fun of, if someone had a shit mic they would be made fun of, if somebody just sounded WEIRD they would be made fun of, so being a girl on a game is "unique" enough to be trolled by toxic people. Toxic people will latch onto literally anything.

Wrong, it is based on gender. Stop trying to excuse it.

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As a widowmaker main she probably experiences far more toxicity than the average person who tries to help their team win at the cost of momentary enjoyment.

I experience as much, if not more on Mercy. Playing D.Va or Orisa don't grant immunity either.

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This is my breakdown so far this season.


Some way off one-tricking, but I can't play as diverse a set as I'd like because others just don't seem to play tanks.

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I guess, but I could say the same about any "main". If we were playing World of Warcraft, I'd understand. But we are not - you can play any hero at any time and they are not all so different from one another that the skillsets required to play them are so unique that they do not transfer from one hero to another.

If you spread yourself too thin, you're just not going to get the experience and skills developed with any; I mean peoples' expectation that I be good with McCree because I play a shit load of Widow is ridiculous, I'm utterly shit with McCree because he has no mobility and operates in completely different ranges and places. It's absolutely unnecessary too to even try to get good at them all though, a half dozen heroes will cover most bases you'll ever need.

What's pissing me off right now though is 'support mains' who think they're above playing Mercy, especially on defence where she confers the most advantage.

[Dundebuns]

If you spread yourself too thin, you're just not going to get the experience and skills developed with any

Totally agree. You should have one or two characters you are comfortable with for each role, but any more and you start to lose ability because you don't play them enough. Coincidentally, while I have 2 tanks and 2 healers I am happy playing, I only have 1 defense and no offense because the opportunity to play them is rare. I'd rather win so I fill the gaps. I'd love to play some Soldier and Reaper occasionally.

I also agree with you on the gender thing. I have a girl gamer friend who is pretty good at the games she plays, but she will never let on she's a lady because of the shit she gets. The occasional time I let on I might be female (I am not) the shit I get is quite horrific too. I've never seen squeakers get that kind of shit.

[Flarelaine]

Don’t tell me they are not doing anything, that would be patently false bullshit made up in your imagination because you have no clue what they are doing. Someone told my 14 year old daughter that if they had tits they could be diamond too. She reported them and the next day she got an email saying the player received a ban. So obviously they are doing something. They can’t actively monitor even a fraction of the 30+ million players they have across the globe, the problem is the culture of the gamers. Solve that problem and everything would be great. Blaming the game just reinforces that the people doing this never have to change their behavior. People steal cars, is that the fault of ford and Chevy for making cars? By shifting the blame off from people who actually behave badly we only ensure that these kinds of people never change their behavior.

Quite an aside, but I looked at your name just to see who wrote such a well-composed comment and instantly heard it as a voiceline.

[Nights]

Dude it is gamer culture. The second they hear your voice they tell you to switch to healer with a string of obscenities even if you are a dps main in high elos.

If the game goes badly they will blame you even if you are on fire most of the game.

If you stand up for yourself you are offered more threats, obscenities and ill wishes.

In the last 48 hours I have played about 10 games and won 8 and in that time the words directed at me include but are not limited to: Bitch, cunt, dyke, tranny(I was doing really well and they couldn't reconcile a girl having aim) feminazi(for standing up for myself.)

This is not limited to Overwatch.

No its not "gamer" culture, im playing wow since vanila, never not a single time in many guilds i have been on many levels from very casual to super hardcore i never heard anyone acting liek this towards womens. Now we have 4-5 guild in regular rooster and noone woudl even think about saying anything like this and in ow u wont last one day b4 you will hear some sexist jokes or serious threats like someone mentioned here b4.

[Dundebuns]

No its not "gamer" culture, im playing wow since vanila, never not a single time in many guilds i have been on many levels from very casual to super hardcore i never heard anyone acting liek this towards womens. Now we have 4-5 guild in regular rooster and noone woudl even think about saying anything like this and in ow u wont last one day b4 you will hear some sexist jokes or serious threats like someone mentioned here b4.

Difference here is in WoW you're all in the same group, going for the same goals day after day. People in Comp or QP matches in any MOBA game will very rarely ever play together again hence why this toxicity exists. It's the anonymity and temporary play time together that makes people think they can get away with it.

[Jessicka]

Difference here is in WoW you're all in the same group, going for the same goals day after day. People in Comp or QP matches in any MOBA game will very rarely ever play together again hence why this toxicity exists. It's the anonymity and temporary play time together that makes people think they can get away with it.

It's been maybe a decade since I played much CS or other FPSs, but I don't remember any such toxicity from there either. And I spent plenty of time in LFR/LFG/LFD with anonymous groups from other realms in WoW, and saw nothing like what I see in OW. Nor do I remember seeing anything like this in SC, Diablo, Dawn of War or anything else I've played online.

For me, it seems both fairly new, and very limited as to where I've seen it - OW.

[DeadmanWalking]

There is no better feeling in the game than walking up to a scoping Widow and placing both of Reapers shotguns to the side of her head before one shotting her brains out. Nom nom nom.

[Jessicka]

There is no better feeling in the game than walking up to a scoping Widow and placing both of Reapers shotguns to the side of her head before one shotting her brains out. Nom nom nom.

Yes there is. When you see Reaper Shadowstepping and pull the trigger just as his head becomes visible.

[DeadmanWalking]

Yes there is. When you see Reaper Shadowstepping and pull the trigger just as his head becomes visible.

Nah, because the reaper on Widow action doesn’t happen as often as the widow on Reaper action does. Definitely far more appeasing when you can take a short ranged weapon and headshot a Widow than taking a long ranged rifle and head shotting a stationary target that glows bright red like a baboons ass.

Then again my favorite thing to do in TF 1 was to sneak a heavy weapons guy into the enemy sniper roost and drilling them in the back with the mini-assault canon and then camping the roost. Nothing more delicious than killing those who think they are untouchable.

[Jessicka]

Nah, because the reaper on Widow action doesn’t happen as often as the widow on Reaper action does. Definitely far more appeasing when you can take a short ranged weapon and headshot a Widow than taking a long ranged rifle and head shotting a stationary target that glows bright red like a baboons ass.

Not many people play Reaper, and not many of those are stupid enough to Shadowstep into plain sight

[DeadmanWalking]

Not many people play Reaper, and not many of those are stupid enough to Shadowstep into plain sight

It isn’t a question of being stupid, it is a question of not knowing just what the Widow can see due to sight lines, and at the start of the match it can be that they don’t know that there is a Widow. Are there stupid reapers? Sure, just like there are stupid widows who don’t put gas traps on the only stairs leading to their roost. This would be the case that I was presented with. I’ve also had kills where taking a knee avoided 4 head shots in a row long enough to get up close and deadly.

There is also Junkrat pipestuffing a Widow! Always a hit at parties.

[Protean]

Almost all of my quickplay games recently have been trash tier, they always seem to go one of two ways:
1) Ultra fast win with little or no resistance
1) Getting completely steamrolled while a hanzo/widow teamup impotently waste time camping our own doorway out of spawn or people lock-in instantly and then never ever
switches.

Both are ridiculously unsatisfying. Did they do something to the matchmaker recently? We get a LOT of teamups with people in the level 0-50 range and sometimes those low-level low-playtime players on the opposing team will play ridiculously good. I suspect they did something to make matchfinding faster, at the cost of balanced matches. I can't remember the last time I had a fun match.
We are currently looking for a new game me and the missus can play because having the option of steamrolling a team we could 2v6 or getting completely stomped is not fun.


I can't even find a feedback button so I can voice some sort of complaint that something is off, it's been like this for a while. I want to say some time since launch of patch with overwatch league skins but unsure, since we did almost exclusively arcade during winter event for the skins.

[Jessicka]

How am I excusing it? Saying "They hate me because I'm a girl" and "They hate me because they are toxic assholes" are literally the same problem. If you want to feel more like a special victim that's fine, have fun, but it's not accurate. Men get shit on just as much as women do, we just get shit on differently.

We know that’s not true and that mistakes from male players are far less likely to get called on and followed up with abuse. Same as 76 players can go under the radar when sucking while a Widow player is immediately going to get targeted for all the teams issues.

I highly doubt you have the aim of a top tier overwatch player, so that's not a good backup to the claim that "Widowmaker is as meta as tracer"

I have the aim of a Widow player slightly above my level of my SR gains are to be considered.

Also none of the OWL players played a widowmaker into a direct counter.

They literally play into D.Va, Winston, Genji, and sometimes the better Widowmaker all the fucking time.

[Projectmars]

I know it's quick play, but there isn't any excuse to not know how to handle Torb. The amount of games I've won with him are annoying... especially the one healer-less game.

any idea how to go from an embarrassing 61% win rate to a much better 49% one?

[Eapoe]

Just a few points:
First, saying a hero is Meta does not make them a good pick. A lot of times, a meta roster is made based on players strengths as well as team comps based around it. For instance, if a Meta is 2/2/2, with most top tier players picking Rein and Orissa, that doesn't mean DVa and Hog are suddenly good picks all the time. There are map types, enemy teams, and your own team to consider. When a top tier team plays a Widow, they are based around it and know how to support and play to her strengths. That doesn't mean in the average to lower ranks she is going to be a good pick.
Now, I'm not saying don't ever play Widow and people are stupid for picking her; however, if your team can't play to the characters strengths and support you then you are doing yourself a disservice as well as your team. *Keep in mind I am not saying don't ever pick her, I am simply using this character since it is the current topic*
That being said, people saying she is instantly bad and give up the second they see someone pick her, as well as come into forums and complain about how trash she is, display a huge level of ignorance in the game.
2nd: trash talking is suffered all around. Men and women both get it. Just as a matter of ratios, I would say males get trash talked way more than female players; however, women definitely get it worse and have some of the most horrendous things said to them that you can say to a person. Part of this, I think, comes from a combination of things. First, you have keyboard warriors. Second, you have a society that looks for terrible things to say to people. For males, one of the bigger things was calling them the N word which then moved on to saying you hope they die in a fire, which then moved onto that person and their family being burnt alive and even stating that their female family members are raped. For females, the rape thing stuck. Does this excuse the behavior? No. It's detestable and should never be said, or even thought of being said; but, it's the unfortunate side effect of how the gaming industry has moved forward.
The only way to ever combat this (opinion) would be a 1 strike policy. Any report of this magnitude is completely investigated, and if found to be true, that player gets a full time ban as well as a ban on any future online video game products from that company based on a players IP or computer ID. With something like that potentially being a costly risk by any game dev/company, it is very unlikely to happen.