Overwatch 2 Director responds to criticism of gameplay experiments coming in Season 8
Overwatch 2 Game Director Aaron Keller has clarified information about upcoming gameplay experiments after talk of faster respawns sparked backlash.
Coming in Season 8, the Overwatch 2 devs will betesting out new gameplay mechanicsto improve the experience, but the example given didn’t sit right with the community.
In ablog post, Aaron Keller explained that the team would be running some experiments next season and used faster respawns as an example writing, “For instance, what would happen if spawn times were drastically reduced? Look for those to start in Season 8.”
However, the idea of faster respawns rubbed some community members the wrong way, with OWL pros even revealing the concept had beentested in alphaand was “terrible.” In response, Keller clarified how such experiments would be run in OW2.
Overwatch 2 Director clarifies comments on new gameplay experiments
On November 20, Keller broke his silence on the controversy by addressing concerns that Overwatch 2 players have about experiments ruining their games.
“Faster respawn times was an example for short (i.e. limited time) experiments that we would like to run starting in S8,” he explained.
Keller further noted that these experiments would not affect every part of the game and pointed out that ranked competitive matches wouldn’t be impacted.
Late reply, sorry! Faster respawn times was an example for short (i.e. limited time) experiments that we would like to run starting in S8. These would not be permanent and would not affect all areas of the game, especially comp.
Additionally, the directorstatedthat the UI will make it “obvious” that an experiment is being conducted to not confuse players when they queue up.
When a player inquired about the possibility of any experiments being so successful they become permanent, Kellerrepliedthat the point is to find things that make the game better for everyone or help tune certain game modes.
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It’s not clear if the hypothetical respawn changes are actually coming, but at least now the fears players had about them should be alleviated.
