Once again it’s Wednesday and… oh, let’s skip the whole introduction part. You know what usually goes here. I’ve been immersing myself in Overwatch for the past few weeks, landing a few headshots (and receiving them… much more receiving!) and, in the process, I’ve fallen in love with a character I never thought I would. But I’ll discuss my favorite hero Roadhog elsewhere. Today I want to rant a bit about the reward system currently in Overwatch. Don’t know what that is? Then taking a look at this article could help.
Blizzard has long thought about a progression system for Overwatch and had set some goals that they definitely wanted to implement. The two biggest points were probably:
- The progression should be purely cosmetic and not provide any advantages.
- The progression should not force anyone into a particular character.
At first glance, one might say that the current system has indeed succeeded in this regard. There are really no advantages from the system, but I seriously doubt the second point. Why? Quite simply! While it makes no difference which character you play for unlocking loot boxes, the reason for my complaint is another.
The rewards are completely random. I am probably among the testers who had extraordinarily bad luck when opening boxes; I have only received a stylish skin once. What does that lead to when I’ve received exactly one skin that I like? You guessed it. I play exactly this character because with him I can look “cool” and “special”, while all other heroes look just “ordinary”.
They wanted to avoid having players use certain characters to unlock things, but now they have just “saddled the horse from behind”.
Now, I’m usually a bit success-oriented and I like to sacrifice my role (*cough* whoever believes that…) to play something that helps the group more – but many players do not do that and feel similarly. “Unfortunately, I only have a skin for Widowmaker” they say in chat – and then they continue to play Widowmaker, even when they are in the attacking team, overloaded with three snipers.
What do you think? Is the current system fun and does it serve its purpose? Or does Blizzard need to tweak it further?
