[AlexandrB]

I think Overwatch was a sign of things to come. The loot box monetization, the focus on competitive play to the detriment of other elements, and the very rigid structure of the game (can't choose map, role queue) all felt like downgrades from Blizzard's previous efforts. At least the gameplay was good for a while.

Overwatch was the first Blizzard game that I liked less and less the more they patched it.

[AgentME]

Overwatch has had prominent open queue, arcade, and custom game options for a long time now, and with Overwatch 2 they've removed loot boxes.

[a_t48]

Instead of lootboxes, we have $/time locked heroes. :(

[swagmoney1606]

It's frankly pretty insane to me that heros are gated behind a paywall in a competitive game mode. Is this the first pay to win competitive game?

[djtango]

As someone who grew up paying £25-60 for a brand new game, I find it pretty insane that we've been trained to want games for free despite it costing millions to develop and run dedicated servers for millions of players.

I tried out Overwatch 2, despite all the negative press it is fun and sweaty. I had plenty of fun despite not playing as Kiriko and I'm sure I could easily derive 10s if not 100s of hours before feeling a need to unlock Kiriko.

If a game is taking so much of your time and you have a job, why isn't it ok to just pay a bit to unlock a hero?

I'd take these kinds of monetisation over destiny 2 which didn't even have p2w or clash royale (before season pass)

[swagmoney1606]

I think the only real argument I have here is that in a competitive game mode, all heros should be available.

It's just odd to think that a certain part of the meta is paywalled. It really messes with the sense of competitive integrity.

Normally I'd be fine with a battlepass, but I refuse to pay activision any money out of principle.

[babypuncher]

Hasn't League of Legends been doing this for over a decade?

[blibble]

LoL you pick your hero at the start

Overwatch is all about swapping heroes during the game

Blizzard even incentivised swapping heroes more in Overwatch 2 (30% ult charge retained, vs. 0 in Overwatch 1)

[a_t48]

Yeah I refuse to buy the battle pass on principle. I would have probably bought them if it were just cosmetics.