Blizzard's Jeff Kaplan Answers Overwatch Questions From Twitter

Hi, I'm Jeff Kaplan and today,

we'll be doing Overwatch Support.

This question comes to us from Noods.

Why is Genji such a cool dude, why? Explain.

If you were a cyborg ninja, wouldn't you be a cool dude too?

It's not like he's an accountant

or he works at the supermarket.

He is a cyborg ninja.

This one is from Jamison.

Is it ever gonna be revealed

exactly what Junkrat's treasure is?

At some point, it will be revealed.

I think the better question to ask is

is it Junkrat's treasure in the first place?

Just leave you with a little hint there.

We have a question here from Blade Mitchell.

How come Overwatch competitive isn't placed

based on individual skill instead of win/loss?

Doing a competitive matchmaking system

is actually quite complicated.

In a game like Hearthstone, we're judging

one versus one performance, so it's very easy to decide

what you as an individual contributed

in a Hearthstone match versus your opponent.

In a game of Overwatch, you've got six players on your side

and six players on the other side, and you're basically

one small part of the fraction, so we have to look

at a much bigger picture when it comes to breaking down

your individual performance and your contribution

to the overall outcome of that competitive match.

Now, there's a lot of complicated things we do

under the hood, but at the end of the day,

whether your team won or lost is still the best indicator

of a team's success or failure and your contribution

to that, so I know it doesn't always seem super fair,

but it's the fairest way we have of judging.

Comrade Brennen writes to us,

why is nerfing Reaper not a thing?

Actually, if you listen to a lot of our community,

they've been talking about buffing Reaper,

so it really depends on the skill level

that you're playing at, the types of compositions

that you're seeing and whether or not

you have a highly skilled Reaper player

playing against you or with you

that sort of forms your opinion of whether

Reaper should be buffed or nerfed,

but at this time, we think Reaper's in a pretty good place.

PKMN Master Jared, I'm assuming

that's Pokemon master, I hope it is.

Why is Widowmaker blue?

So Widowmaker really has a tragic arc

and it's interesting when you think about

the trials that she's been through, so she was originally

married to an Overwatch operative and she was brainwashed

and used to assassinate her own husband.

This is absolutely a tragic story, and after that,

she was really deprogrammed to become a Talon agent,

and then later, they did all sorts of freaky experiments

with her to slow her heart rate down

to make her the amazing sniper that she is,

but the end result is that her skin turned blue

and she's actually a little bit numb in more than one way.

Agent Brotastic writes us, anyone has any ideas

on how to make your FPS much higher?

RIP my gameplay.

There's a lot of things you can do to make your FPS higher.

Your video card is one of the key components to performance,

your hard disk speed, your CPU.

Now, if you wanna make software adjustments within Overwatch

I recommend looking at things like world scale,

looking at what resolution you're playing in.

I would highly recommend playing in full screen,

and generally, turning things down then checking the game

without turning everything down all at once because

then you won't know what's yielding that FPS back to you.

From Dobywulf, seriously, why is Reinhardt able

to still move at full speed while swinging his hammer

while Orisa and D.Va slow down to shoot.

Reinhardt is defined by two main functions to his character.

One is that glorious barrier to protect his teammates

and to create a front, and the other is the hammer.

Now, Reinhardt doesn't have a lot of ranged capability.

He has Fire Strike, which is a great ranged attack

and does a lot of damage, but it's on a very long cooldown.

Besides his Charge ability, which really isn't meant

for Reinhardt to use as mobility,

Reinhardt only has base movement speed to get around,

so we felt like the engagement range being rather short

on the hammer, it would've been an extra detriment

to slow Reinhardt down while he was swinging that hammer.

From Undeaderino, what do I do if

in my first two placement matches, we get someone AFKing?

Will they be punished?

I'm really upset.

If somebody is AFKing in a placement match,

we've added functionality on PC to report these players,

where you can say they're being inactive right now,

and we have a whole customer support

and hacks and risk department here at Blizzard

that looks at people that have egregious amounts of reports.

Now, on console, the report functionality is coming soon.

In the meantime, you can use the native reporting features

of the Xbox and the PlayStation to report bad behavior

through the Sony and Microsoft channels.

From Jess, what is a toblestein

and why is Zarya always going for it?

Toblestein is a made up word.

Those of us on the development team have been saying it

since we first got the voice recordings in,

and the players have picked up on saying this as well.

When she casts her Graviton Surge,

it sounds like she's saying something about the toblestein.

Well, this is just us, in our ignorance,

not understanding the Russian language,

but she's saying, Ogon po gotovnosti,

and I did pronounce that very poorly, but what that means

in Russian is fire at will, so there you have it.

We all call it the toblestein, though.

Now, from Space Jess, I know almost zero Overwatch lore.

Why is Reaper just standing there

creeping on a family in the shadows like a 15 year old goth?

There's a lot more that's gonna come out about Reaper.

This is something that we don't wanna reveal immediately,

but it is a story we're very compelled to tell overtime.

From MidniteandBeyond, serious question.

What's the point of alternate costumes

in a game like Overwatch, when you can't

even see your character when you play?

So when we were first making this game,

we were very committed to making the game in first person.

Now, we also knew we were gonna have

a rich cast of characters that we wanted you

to identify with and fall in love with,

and part of that was providing cool skins

like the costumes that you mention for the characters,

so what we've tried to do to solve this problem is

show your character in all its glory

in as many places as possible, so for example,

when you log into the game on the front menu,

most of your characters are standing there

in really big form.

When you go to hero select, we show a giant version

of your character so you can really get a sense of it,

and lastly, seeing other people and seeing their skins

and realizing how cool they are

really goes a long way too.

From Pretzels, why is Symmetra

support class and not defense class?

I have seriously always wondered this.

When we originally added the whole class system

where we added roles to Overwatch,

we did it primarily for new players

who were first approaching the game.

They would see this big list of 20 some characters

and have no idea which character they should even play,

so we did it as an easy way for players to digest

what the characters may or may not be about,

and I don't wanna say it was arbitrary

who we put into what category.

I mean, we did put a lot of thought against it,

but there wasn't a lot of rigid gameplay mechanics

behind what role they were in.

You know, we honestly talked about Torbjorn

being in support at one point,

characters that could bring some utility to the battlefield

that wasn't necessarily just shooting at people.

She could easily be in the defense class.

I don't know if we did that today,

if it would actually change anything in Overwatch.

Okay, for Xurtan, from a lore perspective,

how do Zenyatta's Discord and Harmony Orbs work?

Biotech for latter, maybe, but the former?

We've talked a lot about this.

We have a lead writer by the name of Michael Chu,

and people have asked this about Reaper, in some cases,

where they ask, you know, Reaper has

those soul globes laying around the map.

What is the sort of science or magic behind those?

And I know this is kind of a weird answer to give

but in some cases, we want things to just exist

for gameplay reasons that don't necessarily need

to be supported by lore in the game,

so not everything is explained as canon lore

when you're playing six v. six Overwatch

that might happen in the game.

That's why you can have a Tracer and Widowmaker

on the same team even though they don't like each other

and they're fighting against another Tracer and Widowmaker.

River asks, what if I broke my Overwatch disk in half?

I hope you have Overwatch installed

if you're playing on PC.

You can just re-download Overwatch.

You can buy five new computers and re-download Overwatch

and we've got your license on hand.

Now, if you're playing on the Xbox or the PlayStation,

you're gonna be in trouble and you're gonna have a hard time

playing Overwatch without that disk.

GlitterGuts writes to us.

How come I'm not good at Overwatch?

I've played for I think 200 hours, bullshit.

So to GlitterGuts, I think sometimes,

we really misjudge ourselves as players.

A lot of players think they are much better

than they actually are, and I think there's a whole group

of players who are way better than they think they are,

and I'm not sure which you are, but I'm sure,

if we tracked your play style and we went back

and looked through your play history,

I'm willing to bet that you've gotten much smarter

and much better at the game as time has gone on.

One thing that's very challenging about a game

like Overwatch is that it's player versus player only,

so as you're evolving and getting better,

the matchmaker is consistently putting you against

players of your skill, so they're also getting better,

and what that means is in a game

that's player versus environment only,

where you're fighting AI controlled creatures,

you'll get to the point where you'll just sort of stomp them

and in Overwatch, you're never really gonna

get to that point against other players.

From Kettle, hello, this might be a stupid question,

but will I trigger Overwatch's cheat detection

if I download mods for other games?

So, no, you should not trigger any sort of cheat detection

if you're downloading legitimate mods for legitimate games

that have, you know, mod support.

It won't trigger any sort of cheat detection for Overwatch.

Emily Heredia asks, how do the Overwatch heroes

feel about pineapple on pizza?

We've talked many times about the diversity

of Overwatch heroes and what a rich cast it is.

Right now, we have 24 heroes

and they come from all walks of life.

They have completely different backstories.

They play completely differently.

They care about different things.

The really interesting thing about the Overwatch heroes is

that the only common thing that they have is

that they all like pineapple on pizza.

Carrie Sloane writes to us.

I'm curious why the map is payload themed,

but Hanamura isn't a payload map in Overwatch.

What made you decide to make that choice?

This is a question about the map that was recently added

to Heroes of the Storm, where they added a Hanamura map

that takes in place in Hanamura but isn't the same

as the Overwatch map, and I think this is one of

the awesome things about Heroes of the Storm and Overwatch

and how they can coexist in the same universe

that, you know, A, Hanamura's a big place

so there's room for assault maps

and there's room for payload maps, and also,

sort of showcases the differences between the two games

and how they can play differently

and make different design and gameplay choices

to really feature and showcase the best parts

of how the heroes in both games play.

David Jones, why doesn't quick play have the ability to tell

if we will be switching sides next game or not?

Quick play, if you're playing any

of our game mode types with the exception of Control,

you will always switch sides in quick play.

Now, sometimes, a match will collapse

because players leaving at the end of a round

and the matchmaker will be forced to create a new match

and this might give the impression

that we're not always switching sides every time,

but as long as a critical mass of players stays together

and/or the matchmaker can backfill in time,

you'll always get a mirror match in quick play.

From Joseph Edwards, can I ask a question about Overwatch?

Why is overtime in the game?

Originally, overtime wasn't in Overwatch

and we were playing a lot of matches without it,

and it was extremely frustrating to us

because as a team, you're sometimes doing a final push,

in particular, when you're on attack,

and you might be right on the control point

and feel like you're coming out ahead on a team battle

and you're about to win it, and then time would just run out

and the match would be over, and it felt

very unsatisfying and very unfair.

Over time, we have played with many different mechanics

to make the overtime period feel more fair, and I currently

think we're in a pretty good place with overtime.

From Liah, hi, I was just wondering

and I'm sure this question is kinda annoying.

It's not, don't worry; we get lots of questions.

Will Overwatch be coming to Mac?

Is it definite answer?

I would not say that it's definite,

always out of the question, we will never be on Mac.

We are open minded to it.

We just sort of need the priorities

of our development process to line up

with the capabilities of the platform

in order for it to become a reality.

Melania Mylioti, maybe stupid question,

but how can I see my national rank in Overwatch?

You currently cannot see anything

like a national rank in Overwatch.

It doesn't really exist that way.

What we have in Overwatch is

a top 500 system that's regional based,

and we currently have three main regions.

We have Americas, which includes North America,

South America and Australia.

We have Asia and we have Europe.

China also has a separate region unto itself.

We don't have anything that's on a country by country basis

and we also only track rank for the top 500 players.

From The Gay Mutual, and it's trademarked,

why does everyone HC Roadhog as a big sweetie

when the lore literally describes him as cruel and sadistic?

What's fun about Overwatch and the characters is

that they belong to you guys and you can do

whatever you want with them, so we often see you shipping

different characters that we normally hadn't thought of

having romantic relationships, and we think that's awesome.

We see you taking different takes on them.

You've turned 76 into a dad.

You've turned D.Va into some sort of

Mountain Dew chugging gremlin.

We think it's awesome.

If that's what makes the game cool to you guys

and makes you love the characters even more,

go for it, is what we say.

MeganLMAnime, how do I enter the World Cup for Overwatch?

So in some ways, you're entered

for the World Cup just by playing.

First off, 32 countries are gonna qualify,

and the way that they qualify is we're looking

at the top players and their average skill rating

across all nations, and we're tracking that.

It's on our website; you can look at it,

so if you are one of the top players in your country,

there will be a selection committee

that will be reaching out to you

if they think you will be World Cup worthy.

Michelle Lega, how do I politely tell my roommate

to get off my PS4 so I can play some Overwatch?

I have two answers to this one.

The first one is, I'm gonna make up

a name for your roommate, it's Mabel.

Mabel, would you be so kind as to leave the PS4

for a few minutes, if not hours,

so I can indulge in some Overwatch?

That's one, and then the second one is a little bit easier.

You say to Mabel, did you hear that?

I think somebody's at the door, and then she gets up

and she goes to the door, then you quickly lock the door

that the PS4 is in and then you lock her out and then

you just start playing Overwatch, so it's up to you.

Liam Jackboo writes, what do I do if this comes up?

I think it's funny that we say unexpected server error

as if there's like an expected server error

that we would pop a screen up for,

but in this case, just try to log in again.

If the game does not allow you to log in again,

what I recommend doing is going to playoverwatch.com,

then going to the community section

and looking for our tech support forum

and checking if a CS representative

has posted like a server status update.

You could also go to the Blizzard CS Twitter account

and ask them, is something wrong with the Overwatch servers?

And we'll try to respond as quickly as possible.

Charles Clausen, why doesn't Blizzard help

the smaller team out to even the playing field?

10% health or low level bot.

We have not been believers in catch up mechanics.

They tend, in our opinion, to feel a little bit unfair

for the team who's doing well, and it gives you

that sense of futility if you're performing really well

and the other team gets sort of this

free boost to bring you up to par.

It tends to feel really bad for the team

who's doing well in the first place.

If there was a mismatch for whatever reason

and the teams were not fair or even, believe it or not,

I'd rather have there be an acceleration to defeat

and then the matchmaker split up the match

and find a new, better match.

Odd Solo, whoa, whoa, whoa,

they don't keep track of kills in skirmish anymore.

How can I prove I'm king of the skirmish now?

I actually didn't know that.

I have had skirmish turned off for a long time.

I used to engage in skirmish all the time

when I was in the matchmaking queue,

and then recently, I turned it off

because of the people that I'd been grouping with

didn't like to have it on, so I will look into that.

I think that's actually pretty valid.

I mean, the kill count doesn't really mean much

because in essence, there's no match going on

and people are in for different times,

but we'll still look into that.

Betina asks us, but the question is,

can I get away with playing Overwatch at work?

Absolutely, I recommend going

to the careers at Blizzard.com page.

So far, all of us have gotten away

with playing tons of Overwatch at work, and I've only gotten

a couple talking tos about it and I still have a job,

so it really depends on your workplace.

From Catboy Catgirl, how come in Ana's old Overwatch skin,

she looks young but Mercy and Genji

and McCree look exactly the same.

How have they not aged at all?

So aging in Overwatch is sort of interesting

because you have characters like Mei

who was literally in a cryo freeze.

Like, Mei is one of the older characters

but because she was in that cryo freeze for some time,

she's aged at a different rate.

Tracer had her accident on the Slipstream

and that's caused her to have

some unique aging properties as well.

With Mercy, you have to keep in mind

that she is one of the highest tech doctors in existence

and she has extremely advanced medical technology,

and with that, you need to remember

that Mercy also helped Genji greatly in his recovery

and helped him get over his grievous wounds

that he received from Hanzo.

There's a little bit of Mercy medical magic

going on with both of them.

Mika writes to us, I just wanna play Overwatch.

Why does it take years to find a match?

If you are an extremely high skilled player,

the matchmaker will take a longer time

finding a match for you because it doesn't wanna subject

lower skill players to your inevitable wrath,

so if you're a very high skill player,

it's going to take you a longer time,

especially in competitive mode.

Josh Brown, how does this guy

keep putting out stuff like this?

And this is an amazing video.

It's by a gentleman by the name of Dinoflask.

He's become quite a legend.

Dinoflask keeps putting out amazing content,

mostly by the talent that he has recruited

to be in his videos, and he works with

a wickedly talented group of individuals.

When you think about, like, acting and performing talent,

it's no wonder that this guy is making amazing videos.

The talent is really carrying the videos for him.