Jaff Kaplan says Overwatch is balanced, however that “the perception of balance is more powerful than balance itself.”
Overwatch’s recreation director, Jeff Kaplan, has shared his ideas on the sport’s meta and balancing within the lengthiest of all prolonged posts in a thread discussing Overwatch’s replace and balancing cycles – particularly how “excruciatingly slow” they’re.
“The most controversial thing I’ll say here (hopefully) is that I believe the game is currently balanced,” he wrote
“What I mean is that I don’t feel like there are any heroes who are way too strong to the point of breaking balance.”
He went on to say he wasn’t fully glad with Roadhog even after the 1 shot combo changes, and that he recognised points with Mercy’s resurrect, however he doesn’t see this stuff as recreation breaking points.
“As I said last week, the perception of balance is more powerful than balance itself.”
The actual concern that Kaplan thinks most gamers have is that the meta isn’t altering incessantly sufficient for his or her liking.
“There are a lot of ways the meta can change but if I had to boil it down to three main ways (that we see in video games at least) I would point to 1) something changes with the balance 2) players innovate new strategies 3) the game forces meta change through mechanics.”
In regards to stability, he mentioned, “balancing heroes who are unbalanced is good, balancing heroes just to make them picked more or picked less is not good.”
The “best-case scenario” is for gamers to revolutionary methods. “The meta shifting because players innovate is the best possible outcome.”
Forcing meta adjustments by mechanics will not be one thing the dev workforce desires to implement.
“We can balance the heroes to equality but if there is the slightest perception of advantage, it won’t matter.”
The intent when balancing heroes isn’t to nerf or buff them, however “to make the game better” and it may be a gradual course of.
“We are going to make balance changes to heroes when they need it – and we do this more frequently than you give us credit for,” he mentioned.
“3 months from now there will be a new meta. If you’re the type of person who feels like the meta should shift every 2 weeks, then you’ll probably be sick of that meta and wishing it was back in the good ol’ dive comp days… I just caution against wanting change for the sake of change. The meta will shift soon enough.”
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