showtime Posted November 2, 2018 Share Posted November 2, 2018 If you did not know, BlizzCon's opening ceremony is today. Festivities started last week - I watched a ton of the Heroes of the Storm and StarCraft II tournaments and those will be continuing this weekend along with tournaments from Overwatch and Hearthstone. However, perhaps more importantly, Blizzard will announce new information about all of their franchises and this is always a very exciting time. Personally, I'm really excited to see what's in-store for Diablo. I don't think we'll get any news about Diablo 4, but some rumors suggest a possible remaster of Diablo 2, which would be awesome. I'm really hoping we at least get some kind of taste of Diablo 4, even if it is just a 10 second trailer. As far as Hearthstone goes, the game is in the worst state that it has ever been in, IMO. This upcoming expansion is extremely critical for the game, so I am hoping for some huge game changing news. For Overwatch, I'm guessing that we may see a brand new hero and/or another animated short. IMO, Overwatch is suffering from being boring and stale. I'm assuming the player base has gone down a bit due to this as well as a lot of huge triple A titles being released. I'm really hoping Blizzard shakes things up with the game and introduces a new way to play the game. I'm extremely excited. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mossburg Posted November 2, 2018 Share Posted November 2, 2018 Yea, Blizz franchises are at an interesting state. Diablo needs a big splash more than anything and rumors suggest it will happen. Starcraft and HOTS were kinda on the lower end in popularity and I think both of those are trending up, SC I know for sure has had a huge resurgence this year. Overwatch and HS being the more successful seem kinda stagnant. WOW I have no idea, I don't follow at all. The Starcraft II top 8 storylines are so cool this year. Outside of DOTA's last TI, these are the coolest storylines in esports I've seen. I'd do a more in depth write up if anyone is interested. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
showtime Posted November 2, 2018 Author Share Posted November 2, 2018 Just now, Mossburg said: Yea, Blizz franchises are at an interesting state. Diablo needs a big splash more than anything and rumors suggest it will happen. Starcraft and HOTS were kinda on the lower end in popularity and I think both of those are trending up, SC I know for sure has had a huge resurgence this year. Overwatch and HS being the more successful seem kinda stagnant. WOW I have no idea, I don't follow at all. The Starcraft II top 8 storylines are so cool this year. Outside of DOTA's last TI, these are the coolest storylines in esports I've seen. StarCraft and Heroes of the Storm are more like Blizzard's 'niche' games, if that makes any sense. Still valuable franchises, but they're not anywhere near the cash cows for Blizzard. As far as Hearthstone and Overwatch goes... I think both of those games are in pretty stale states... the worst both games have ever been. This is particularly concerning for Hearthstone because of Valve's Artifact releasing later this month - finally a competitor from a huge game developer. Hearthstone hasn't had competition like this yet and the game is in the worst state it's ever been in. I need an explosion at BlizzCon today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danger Posted November 2, 2018 Share Posted November 2, 2018 40 minutes ago, showtime said: IMO, Overwatch is suffering from being boring and stale. I partially agree. I don't think it's necessarily boring, but it is INCREDIBLY stale. It needs something to truly break this loop they've been in for too long now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
showtime Posted November 2, 2018 Author Share Posted November 2, 2018 38 minutes ago, Danger said: I partially agree. I don't think it's necessarily boring, but it is INCREDIBLY stale. It needs something to truly break this loop they've been in for too long now. This game is based heavily off of Team Fortress 2. You can tell by how the game plays and how the characters are designed, but also because the developers have openly said it. Because of this, I would really enjoy if they took an aspect of TF2 and implemented into Overwatch - change the way characters play. In TF2, there are only 9 classes and the game has stayed fresh for over a decade because new weapons are constantly introduced into the game that completely alter the way a character plays. An example of this in Overwatch would be Mercy. Give her a healing beam that is totally different than the one she has now. Introduce a new healing beam that can overheal character (if a characters max health is 200, Mercy can buff them to 250 if her beam is on them while they're at max health. Let her ultimate be 8 seconds of 100% invulnerability for Mercy and the character she is healing. The downsides to this healing beam would be that it has a slower healing rate and that it does not have the option to buff damage. She also would not be able to fly around the map. This would be a great healing beam in certain situations with certain comps, but a bad healing beam in a different situation. They could literally do the same thing with every characters weapons in the game. Give Widow different types of sniper rifles that have different advantages and disadvantages. This change would be huge for the game and would not require them to constantly release a brand new character to heavily change the game. They could also offer different abilities for each character. In Heroes of the Storm, Overwatch characters are in that game and they all have two ultimate abilities to choose from. For example, Lucio has his normal ultimate, but he also has the option to choose a different ultimate. His other ultimate is the same area of effect concept as his normal ult, but instead of giving teammates a shield, it damages enemies in an area every second while it is active. That completely changes the way Lucio plays - it makes him more of an offensive character instead of a defensive one. He's still a support because he is a healer/speed boost, but it gives him a new way to play. All of them can be selected by the user at the beginning of the match. Allow weapons to be switched out during the game, at the cost of losing all of your ultimate charge. Let ultimate's be selected before each round depending on how the person wants to play with the character. These changes would make the game feel fresh and brand new. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mossburg Posted November 2, 2018 Share Posted November 2, 2018 42 minutes ago, showtime said: This game is based heavily off of Team Fortress 2. You can tell by how the game plays and how the characters are designed, but also because the developers have openly said it. Because of this, I would really enjoy if they took an aspect of TF2 and implemented into Overwatch - change the way characters play. In TF2, there are only 9 classes and the game has stayed fresh for over a decade because new weapons are constantly introduced into the game that completely alter the way a character plays. An example of this in Overwatch would be Mercy. Give her a healing beam that is totally different than the one she has now. Introduce a new healing beam that can overheal character (if a characters max health is 200, Mercy can buff them to 250 if her beam is on them while they're at max health. Let her ultimate be 8 seconds of 100% invulnerability for Mercy and the character she is healing. The downsides to this healing beam would be that it has a slower healing rate and that it does not have the option to buff damage. She also would not be able to fly around the map. This would be a great healing beam in certain situations with certain comps, but a bad healing beam in a different situation. They could literally do the same thing with every characters weapons in the game. Give Widow different types of sniper rifles that have different advantages and disadvantages. This change would be huge for the game and would not require them to constantly release a brand new character to heavily change the game. They could also offer different abilities for each character. In Heroes of the Storm, Overwatch characters are in that game and they all have two ultimate abilities to choose from. For example, Lucio has his normal ultimate, but he also has the option to choose a different ultimate. His other ultimate is the same area of effect concept as his normal ult, but instead of giving teammates a shield, it damages enemies in an area every second while it is active. That completely changes the way Lucio plays - it makes him more of an offensive character instead of a defensive one. He's still a support because he is a healer/speed boost, but it gives him a new way to play. All of them can be selected by the user at the beginning of the match. Allow weapons to be switched out during the game, at the cost of losing all of your ultimate charge. Let ultimate's be selected before each round depending on how the person wants to play with the character. These changes would make the game feel fresh and brand new. Personally I would love this, and I still prefer TF2 to OW, but I think OW is very balance and esports focused, where as TF2 is just a casual experience, to the point that the little pro scene it has regulates itself and bans certain non stock weapons. I think flooding OW with alternate weapons will have immense esports balance issues, and this is the reason why they would never do this and why they try to balance characters instead. But yea, TF2 is way more fun for me largely because of what you said. The amount of situational weapons you are given makes it so much more fresh and diverse to play. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
showtime Posted November 2, 2018 Author Share Posted November 2, 2018 13 minutes ago, Mossburg said: Personally I would love this, and I still prefer TF2 to OW, but I think OW is very balance and esports focused, where as TF2 is just a casual experience, to the point that the little pro scene it has regulates itself and bans certain non stock weapons. I think flooding OW with alternate weapons will have immense esports balance issues, and this is the reason why they would never do this and why they try to balance characters instead. But yea, TF2 is way more fun for me largely because of what you said. The amount of situational weapons you are given makes it so much more fresh and diverse to play. That's a fair point. However, if balancing new weapons and abilities is an issue, the pro scene can just stick to the default weapons and abilities. I guess maybe there's an issue with a possible disconnect between the pro and casual scene if they went that route. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
showtime Posted November 2, 2018 Author Share Posted November 2, 2018 Opening ceremony is going to start soon. Festivities kick off in a few minutes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
showtime Posted November 2, 2018 Author Share Posted November 2, 2018 Will be available starting in December. Partnership with Kellogs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
showtime Posted November 2, 2018 Author Share Posted November 2, 2018 Wow, Destiny 2 is free for all PC players. Have to claim now until November 18th. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mossburg Posted November 2, 2018 Share Posted November 2, 2018 1 minute ago, showtime said: Wow, Destiny 2 is free for all PC players. Have to claim now until November 18th. Will claim. Probably will not play lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
showtime Posted November 2, 2018 Author Share Posted November 2, 2018 1 minute ago, Mossburg said: Will claim. Probably will not play lol You should definitely play it. It's a pretty cool game. Great move by Blizzard to make this free because the player base on PC isn't all that high, I would imagine. At least not compared to console. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
showtime Posted November 2, 2018 Author Share Posted November 2, 2018 side note: I'm kind of worried for the future of Blizzard as a whole. Seems like more and more opportunities for Activision to sink into Blizzard, especially now that Mike Morhaime has stepped down as President. Blizzard has lost very key members throughout this year. The more people they lose, the more chances for Activision cronies to become promoted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
showtime Posted November 2, 2018 Author Share Posted November 2, 2018 Heroes of the Storm new character, Orphea. I think this might be the first one that's not from an existing Blizzard franchise. I'm assuming we're going to get more news during the HotS panel later. Seems like there will be a lot of big changes to the game in 2019. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
showtime Posted November 2, 2018 Author Share Posted November 2, 2018 Goes over to Hearthstone and the audio is muted for everyone. Sigh. What a huge blunder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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