on Priority Pass and Private Profiles
A bit of the same story, I wanted a shorter post but I've decided to include some elements from other historic issues I've seen within the OW community to provide some context and irony/hypocrisy. I'm looking to outline the new priority pass system and my thoughts on that but more importantly I'm going to tie in how the community is reacting, how this relates to private profiles, and how assbackwards this is from a couple years ago. Final Edit: While I consider this blog done I'm not happy with its results but it's still a good discussion. The video will go over it in better detail.
Let's start off with something objective. Priority Pass is a system that allows players to queue up competitively in a new flex queue. This queue will put you into the role that's needed most. If you queue up this way you'll get 2 passes on a loss and 6 passes on a win. You can save up to 40 of these passes and can spend one at a time to by-pass the long times in your normal DPS queue. Sorry if these numbers are off or change, I've waited an hour in the PTR queue but couldn't get a game to verify the data myself.
The premise is simple, to encourage players to play the more needed roles and to get queue times shorter across the board. The community needs to understand that the queue times are by far the biggest issue in Overwatch. Nearly all other modern games take a fraction of time to queue up while needing less players in a casual environment. This has chased off a lot of big streamers and DPS players hurting Overwatch's visibility and reputation. Accessibility is the key feature of OW and right now queues are limiting this concept more than anything. Remember that all of our balance talk, detailed maps and time/effort put in doesn't mean a damn thing if no one can play the game.
Everyone's immediate concern is that players will pick flex and then throw for passes but I don't see much different with that and the abuse we see with the current SR system and win trading. All systems can be abused but that doesn't mean we shouldn't use them. We have to assume the player will play to their ability like any other competitive match, if they throw then it's no different than throwing on their main role. Reports should be submitted and Blizzard will have to make the call on if they are sabotaging the game. We also have to assume the MMR system will put them in the proper level for their role. I've heard arguments that some DPS players placed high on their tank and don't belong there. The MMR system will eventually put them where they should be. Overall I see no more abuse in the new system than what we currently have, it maybe a bit chaotic at first with new players picking up tank and support heroes but the system will even out. It is not a valid complaint to be upset that we have new players in other roles.
Next we need to design a system not to just incentivize but to change player behavior in the long term so they'll be more open to playing these roles without a reward. The largest hurdle to get players to attempt a new behavior is short term gain; right now the short term gain of enjoyment from the game is what players value most. Since the player is enjoying the game less this way we're trying to substitute some displeasure with a reward also in the short term. This is why to encourage this behavior you must reward them in a worst case scenario or players will never adopt the new behavior.
Think of it this way, an average game in Overwatch is around 20 minutes that means on a loss Blizzard needs to compensate that in terms of queue times to some degree. DPS queues on average are around 8-10 minutes. Times are probably lower at SR ranges where there are more players, in my personal case this can be as long as 15 minutes. We don't know how fast the passes will make queue times so lets assume 3-5 minutes. This means if I get a loss in the flex queue and get two 5-minute queues from the passes I've saved the exact amount of time I spent in the game. As ironic as this is, I would benefit the most from the priority pass with 100% transfer of time from flex game to DPS queue. (10 min saved per queue, 20 spent in flex game). This is a best case scenario for myself, nearly all other players will have a less efficient transfer of time since their queues are significantly lower than mine. For your average player getting 2 passes on a loss is technically not worth their time, anything lower will non-incentivize the system to a degree where no one uses it. On a win the system saves a significant amount of time for everyone, for me it could save double the time I spend in the flex queue.
At the end of the day all I have to ask is do we want more tank and support players or not? We cannot encourage more non-dps players simply by making more tank/support heroes. This is a FPS and at the end of the day you will always have more players that want to play damage than others. Most MMOs are a good example of this with extra rewards for support and tank players queuing up in raids. It's not about the amount of heroes or how "fun" they are. It's about players playing what they want.
Personally, I feel like this is just the right amount of passes on a loss/win. Losses are a net-loss for nearly everyone but not so punishing that you'll avoid using the system. A win provides a significant time save for all players. It may get a little messy at first with players queueing up for new roles but the MMR system will eventually get them to where they need to be. Anyone abusing the system will be fairly obvious since their rank will drop sharply, allowing Blizzard to pick up on any trends in data that they can act on.
All that being said I do see one issue that could come about, queue storms. All players are gaining passes to use on the DPS queue and if they spent them the same time would increase the queue times overall. Those DPS players that do not have a pass will be put behind all of these players in queue causing an even larger increase in queue times purely dependent on when players spend their passes. I'm not sure how likely this is to happen but we're introducing a type of currency into the game, if everyone spends their currency 7 days into the system the market will be flooded. In our case this flood would replace the current queue system and anyone without passes would be left behind. If everyone has priority, no one does. Let's face it, DPS players are notorious for not wanting to play other roles even if they'd get placed instantly. They'll more likely quit or play another game during these times.
So why write a blog for something so simple, how can there be controversy about a feature that's good for the community!? You guessed it, the community is upset, again, and in the most hypocritical way.
The primary complaint that has been talked about across all SR ranges (including 4400+) is that players don't want DPS players to play a tank or support on their team. Let's think pre-role queue for a minute. The community praised professional players that could play multiple heroes because of how difficult it was yet on the ladder they condemned anyone who couldn't do the same. It was commonly said that if you can't play all the roles at your top SR then you didn't deserve to be there. On top of that they constantly spoke about how the developers said the game was designed for swapping heroes and to fill what role was needed yet when players did that and didn't do well they were told they we're responsible for each loss. The problem pre-role queue was that if you wanted to practice you needed to buy another account or play quick play, which no one can guarantee the skill level of. It was a catch 22 situation and the community doesn't care about skill growth, only about wins and how high they can pad their SR. Post role queue and we're in the opposite situation instantly but with the same core complaint. It's not about being able to play all heroes, it's about sticking to your role and your queue. If a player picks a different role they're usually looked down on if they don't perform properly. Again they're blamed for not taking the game seriously and for "throwing". We've even seen public complaints from contenders and other T2 tank players that they don't want other roles to queue into their games as a tank player.
It doesn't matter if you like it or not, if someone has earned the appropriate SR then they deserve to be where they're at. The MMR system isn't perfect but over time it will get players to the appropriate spot. All of these complaints are echoed in the community but there's one more situation where we hear the same complaints, Private profiles!
Private profiles came out in June of 2018 a year before role queue in July of 2019. What's the primary complaint about public profiles? The most legitimate claim is that players want to know what their role partner plays so that they can setup a better strategy around it. Which they could ask in voice, chat, or simply seeing what hero they pick. The real answer is that they want to know if someone is "throwing" by playing a hero they normally don't. It's primarily a tool to find excuses and to place blame. There was a lot of stigma behind playing a hero you normally don't and how it qualified as "throwing" by parts of the community. This forced players to be pressured into playing a single hero and Blizzard stepped in and did something about it.
I could go into more ways the community is a bit shit but I'll stop here for today because all of these topics really come from the same issue. Player's are upset when they lose and want a scape goat so they look for anything different or breaks a pattern. The problem is that this is Overwatch, you can pick any hero at any time and that's how the game works. This aligns with the core fundamental of Overwatch which is accessibility. Someone wanting to play tank today and DPS tomorrow is a perfectly valid way to play the game competitively. By all means this should be encouraged more than anything! Yet the vocal minority of the community constantly complains that they aren't paired up with someone who shares the same mindset and purpose as they do. The ladder isn't a tournament, it's a training environment. I talk about the purpose of the ladder here but it's about skill generation and getting better. Winning is a part of it but it is not it's sole purpose.
You have to get over the fact that you cannot control anyone else, all you can control is yourself. The faster you learn this the faster you'll live a happier life. Take everything on the ladder as a learning opportunity and then find a stack of 6 like minded players to form a team with. When you're in a controlled team like that you'll notice that you can do everything the complaints are looking for and what you wish the ladder to be. You know what heroes you team plays best, what heroes they would rather play for fun, and you'll actually have some say in what they should do. This is the level of teamwork and sacrifice that a tournament environment is needed for but it is not meant for the ladder nor should it be. Take it from an old man who just wants to play a competitive game the way he wants to at the end of the day. I don't want the drama of a team nor can I afford the time commitment of one. What I want is a competitive environment where I know people are at risk of losing something so they'll play to their ability instead of dicking around.