by JR Cook - 8 years ago     show comments

The Overwatch Beta is back, and I was fortunate enough to receive an invite on the day it relaunched. I played Overwatch quite a bit during the last two Blizzcons, but as you would expect the game has evolved considerably since then.

As amazing as Overwatch is, Heroes is still my favorite Blizzard game. When I play Overwatch, which it feels like is all the time, I can’t help but of think of things that I would like to see added to Heroes. There is certainly a precedent for this. The developers are quite open about how much they play other Blizzard games, and how often they are inspired by their experiences playing those games. I use the phrase ‘inspired by’ because they don’t just take something that works in one game and plug the exact same thing into a different game. They take the essence of that idea and use it to create something new. I think this is part of what gives Blizzard games such a distinct feel that carries over between titles, despite how different they may be in setting and game play.

With that in mind, here are a three features from Overwatch that I hope inspire the Heroes team.

Commendation System

One of my favorite little touches in Overwatch is the commendation system. At the end of each game, three to four players receive commendation cards highlighting their contributions. All players then have the option of giving one of these cards a thumbs up as a way of showing their appreciation for what that person accomplished during the game. There are no tangible benefits to receiving a commendation card, or giving/receiving a thumbs up. It is strictly a tool to provide positive feedback to players that goes beyond wins and losses.

I think Heroes would greatly benefit from a system like this, especially for Hero League. Aside from the simple enjoyment of playing the game, the primary source of positive motivation in Heroes comes from earning experience points. The more you play, the less of a motivator this is. Once you reach account level 40 experience has less value, and you could even argue that this happens at level 30, once you unlock Hero League. Even leveling Heroes isn’t much of an incentive since it takes so long to get a Hero from 9 to 10. While you do earn gold for playing, it accumulates so slowly that it also isn’t much of a motivator. This lack of positive reinforcement gets even worse once you start playing Hero League, since you lose more points for a loss than you gain for a win. As it stand now, the agony of defeat is often stronger than the thrill of victory. This is why some type of positive reinforcement tool would be such a great addition to the game. Even if you lose, being recognized for your contribution can help take the sting out of the loss, and maybe even make you decide to play one more game, as opposed to calling it a night after yet another loss.

I know I said that Blizzard does a great job of not just copy a feature from one game to another, but this is one that I think could be added almost as is. Blizzard is much more creative than I am however, so I am sure they could come up with a uniquely Heroes take on this idea.

Loot Boxes

Overwatch recently instituted a progression system. Under this system you now level up your account by playing games, just like you do in Heroes of the Storm. Every time you level up, you receive a loot box. These boxes contain random cosmetic items or a small amount of in game currency. If you would like to get an idea what it is like to open a loot box, just click here. It is even cooler with sound!

I am not entirely sure where something like this would best fit in Heroes, but my initial thought would be as some type of Hero League reward. As it stand right now, HL can be a frustrating experience. Aside from pride, there is no real motivation for ranking up, and even the pride of reaching your best rank isn’t going to go very far if you go on a losing stream and drop three ranks. This is where something like loot boxes could come in.

One idea would be to go the Hearthstone route and reward players at the end of each season with a loot box that increases in value the based on what rank you achieved. In order for this idea to be an effective motivator, seasons would have to be a reasonable length. I could see three to fourth month long seasons working, but if they go much longer than that then players aren’t going to receive rewards often enough to influence their playing habits.

Another option would be to have a small percentage chance to win a loot box each time you play a game. That chance could be vary based on if you are playing AI, QM, or HL. Another idea would be to reward a loot box every X number of games. This might be a good incentive to get players to play an extra game or two, and the number of games required could be tied to the mode you are playing so you would earn boxes faster playing HL than you would playing versus AI. Regardless of how it is implemented, I think the important thing is that it not be tied to wins and losses. It is all about providing additional positive reinforcement to players, and to motivate them to play one more game.

Voice Chat

Overwatch has voice chat built into the game, and unlike the voice chat in WoW, it is actually works well and people use it. I’ll be honest, I don’t use this feature much myself, mainly because I am too lazy to put my headset on. I do think it is an extremely valuable tool though, and on more than one occasion I have wished that I was using it so that I could easily communicate something to my team. I think I might use it more if I was in try hard mode, but right now it is more of a luxury than a necessity. It is nice that it is there, but you you can certainly get by without it. This is because the game play in Overwatch is very intuitive, and even new players can easily understand what they should be doing. Whether it is escort the payload or capture the point, there is one clear purpose and nothing other than your enemies to distract you from it.

Built in voice chat would be much more useful in Heroes. Not only is is much harder to determine what you should be doing at any given time, but you also have to hope that four other people reach the same conclusion that you do. Being on a team that works together is more likely to result in a positive experience. Being on a team that doesn’t work together is more likely to produce a frustrating experience. Either of these statements can be true regardless of whether you win or lose. In game voice chat would make it much easier for teams to coordinate, which leads to more satisfying games regardless of the outcome.

Since most players either queue alone, or in small groups, the only practical way for teams to use voice chat is if it is built into the game. It isn’t practical, or even safe, to expect five strangers to get on Skype together. Aside from matchmaking improvements or the start of season 1, you could make a strong case that in game voice chat would be the most impactful change that Blizzard could make when it comes to providing a positive game experience.

This feature is officially called Battle.net Voice Chat, so there is hope that this will get rolled out to some, if not all, Blizzard games in the future.

Blizzard has a history of creating games that combine enjoyable game play with engaging progression mechanics. As a result, players often feel the urge to play one more game, do one more mission, or to complete one more quest. Compared to other Blizzard games, the progression system in Heroes seems to lack that same level of engagement. In Heroes, it seems much harder to find satisfaction in a loss than it does in other Blizzard games. This is why I think Heroes would benefit from features that provide more positive reinforcement. It is easy to look to Overwatch for inspiration because the crossover of ideas is already happening. The upcoming ability cooldown announcement tool that was recently previewed is very reminiscent of something that already exists in Overwatch. Here’s to hoping the trend of being inspired by other Blizzard games continues.

GLHF!