I was reading something on another news site concerning the PTR of Overwatch. People are unhappy with an upcoming change on the Overwatch PTR servers. The purpose of a PTR server is so that players can take a look at new and upcoming changes, see how they work, and in some cases, potentially help the developers figure out if these changes are going to work. That doesn’t mean that the players have the final say. Spoiler Warning: Kaplan probably has the final say in Overwatch. There’s a change coming that have people yelling, bitching, kvetching, and throwing tantrums. I’m not crazy about it either, because I love playing D.Va; but am I going to throw firey toilet paper at their building about it, and post in all capital letters about how they’re they need a mug reading “WORLDS BIGGEST ASSHOLES”? Of course not. That’s not rational, that doesn’t make sense. But Kaplan’s end-game with the PTR isn’t to get players feedback on what they think. It’s more to make sure that shit works on servers at all! Sure, I’m sure they’re fine getting feedback, but this is the Internet. . .
His goal is to make sure stuff works, but appreciates commentary/feedback. But you know what developers don’t need? Howling buffoons, crying and throwing a fit anytime a game changing update happens that they don’t agree with. In the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t matter if a thousand players out of six million don’t agree. They have to do what’s best for their game, to keep it competitive. It’s becoming more and more of an eSports style game, which is absolutely fine. But balancing a game just around competitive play and not around casual players at all is pretty awful. But does that mean you need to visit their spots of the Internet and use all their favorite four-letter words. But I have definitely noticed that people don’t post when things are good; only when it’s a bad change. I wish more players would post their appreciation though. “Hey, that balance change was quite nice! I don’t main Mercy, but it made our teamplay a lot better in the long run. Thanks!” Maybe that’s just a pipe dream. We posted a video about this stuff yesterday, actually! They’re under no compunction to talk about it, or even discuss their changes, but they do it. The long and short of it is, it makes me kind of sad that people think just because they’re vocal, they can forge change because they don’t agree with something. That’s not how the real world is supposed to work. Discourse works best when we’re adults, coming to the developer with good, solid reasons why we disagree with something, other than “I H8 THIS!” One day we’ll be able to have serious discussion for changes in digital content. Someday.
