Blizzard Revamps Progression System in Overwatch
By Derek Nichols 26 December 2015
Overwatch game director Jeff Kaplan reveals that a brand new progression and rewards system is being implemented into the game and will launch with the beta in January.
With the popular Overwatch closed beta taking a holiday hiatus until it returns sometime next month, Blizzard has been utilizing the time to continue to update and make tweaks to the experience. The progressions and rewards system is getting overhauled again for the third time, and Blizzard believes it has found the version and plans to let fans try it out once the beta starts back up for PC players.
In a new developer update video, game director Jeff Kaplan goes into great detail on how the system has evolved over the course of development, what went wrong, and how the new one will be an improvement over the last iterations. The very first system rewarded players for simply logging in and playing the game, which allowed players to quickly unlock new abilities to better customize characters. While this sounds great on paper, this system ultimately overwhelmed and confused players who were inundated with information and things to consider.
The second system moved more towards a cosmetic reward system, where each hero had a specific level. Playing games and winning matches would raise the level of the character that you play, unlocking cosmetic rewards and other customization items. The problem here is that this system rewarded the wrong type of behavior, overly rewarding players for sticking with a specific character rather than hero swapping as Blizzard intended from the start.
These failed attempts ultimately helped Blizzard narrow down and focus on what matters most and while Kaplan didn’t go into full details on how this third progression system will behave and reward players, he did tease a number of elements influenced by other Blizzard IPs like Diablo. One of the big details the Overwatch team focused on for this new progression system was more light and cosmetic items almost as if the game is thanking the player for spending time with the title.
Since ending its first closed beta run last month, Blizzard has been keeping fans in the loop with updates and changes to Overwatch through a number of developer-centric videos and interviews. Already, fans have learned that Blizzard is at least considering adding microtransactions to the game to help generate revenue after the game launches in 2016. The main reason for this consideration comes after the fact that all post-launch characters and maps will be available to all players for free. While nothing definitive has been said about the microtransactions, many expect to see cosmetic items like character skins being available for purchase instead of potential “pay-to-win” items.
With everything Blizzard has revealed so far, are you excited for Overwatch or do you need to see more on the game before you can make a decision on it? Let us know in the comments below.
Overwatch launches Spring 2016 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.
Source: OverWatch YouTube Channel
