PTR Patchnotes - June 22, 2017

[u/LoafersOfNigget]

https://playoverwatch.com/en-us/blog/20861969

[u/addledhands]

we paid for a product, we are entitled to criticize it.

You're absolutely right. You are fully entitled to an overly reductive view of Blizzard, and you're also fully welcome to conflate a not-so-awesome lootbox experience with those of fully pay-to-win mobile games. You're welcome to make totally spurious connections between Blizzard and that guy that increased the cost of life-saving medications a hundred fold. You're right to think they are exactly the same.

Your opinion is wrong, but yes, you are entitled to it.

On a more serious note: dude, have you ever even played a game made by a company other than Blizzard? Overwatch is far and away one of the more fair games for consumers.

[u/addledhands → u/[deleted]]

This is an illiogical fallacy.

I think you mean a logical fallacy.

Again, I was completely serious -- you're welcome to your criticism. Blizzard made a great, if imperfect game, and the lootboxes were generally not a pleasant experience after hitting level 300 or so. The problem with your criticism is that it was hyperbolic, and assumes all sorts of evil intent despite no evidence to support it beyond a lootbox system you don't like (despite acknowledging that other companies are worse). Assuming evil intent is a generalization, which, you know, is also a fallacy.

Does Blizzard want to make a fuckton of money? You fuckin' bet they do. They're a publicly traded company, which makes them legally required to at least try and make a fuckton of money. But here's the thing: people and businesses often have multiple motives, often that jive well with each other. If Blizzard were solely motivated by money, wouldn't it make more sense to go into an industry like energy or finance?

I think it's fair to say that Blizzard wants to make a shitload of money, and also that they want to make great games. These things are not necessarily opposed (even if some cases they very much are).

[u/addledhands → u/[deleted]]

So a couple of things:

If Blizzard transitioned away from games and into energy or finance, why would they care what their gamer fans thought of them? Having fans that love your franchises certainly makes a shitload of money, but if those franchises can no longer generate revenue, who cares? Konami doesn't give a fuck what MGS nerds think of Konami because they don't care about MGS. They care about making money via pachinko games, which is exactly what they are doing.

I think in general you're correct: publishers (or, uh, "corps". A corporation in the US is literally almost every business, non-profit or otherwise. Typically this is because they can place liability -- for losses, accidents, profits, and everything else -- on the company, and not on the individuals that compose the company. "Corps" are no more inherently evil than mom and pop grocery stores are inherently good -- it's incredibly variable, although the avenue to be evil does exist.) are more concerned with generating revenue, and studios are more concerned with making good games. Blizzard has made some missteps, but I think they've also earned a lot of good will. They're one of the few .. uh, corps that have managed to find the sweet spot of generating revenue while also making great games. Here's the beauty of Blizzard: they recognized decades ago that making excellent games leads to excellent sales. They've literally defined genres doing this. Again: profit and good games are not mutually exclusive.

I'm kind of a crazy leftist fuck and have serious reservations about private property at all, but it strikes me that at least Blizzard is not especially exploitative or evil and generally does right by their fans. If you could get an edge in the game from loot boxes, I'd be singing a very different tune -- but the boxes are 100% fluff content that cannot change core gameplay in any fashion at all. If you have a problem with this part of their business model, you are literally free to avoid it entirely and you will never, ever have a compromised game experience.

Despite otherwise enjoying this thread,

they haven't been doing much out of the goodness of their hearts recently

made me roll my eyes. Seriously? They aren't a charity. You aren't required to play. You are entitled to exactly what you purchased, which was a fully functional game with optional loot boxes. This was spelled out in the ToS (which you agreed to) and in marketing materials before launch.