The Great 2023 Debate feat. Flats, Stylosa & Spilo

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Timestamps
0:00 Introductions & Opening Thoughts
12:10 Bobby Kotick is Officially Gone
22:22 January - Blizzard Games Gone From China
29:00 Season 3 - Map Pools
31:30 Season 3 - Comp System
41:30 Hog/Orisa & One-shot Meta
1:00:00 Heroes In The Battlepass
1:01:50 Loverwatch & One Punch Man Collaboration
1:10:35 Season 4 - Support Buffs & Lifeweaver Launch
1:23:50 Season 4 - Starwatch
1:25:20 Season 4 - Pride Event
1:31:10 Season 5 - The Forgotten Season?
1:39:40 Season 6 - PvE
1:48:10 Season 6 - Illari
1:51:50 Season 7 - Sombra & Hog Reworks
1:56:55 Season 7 - Blizzcon
2:02:25 Season 8
2:16:06 Concluding Thoughts

[@GroupUp]

This episode was recorded on 29th December 2023. Podcast links below! If you're enjoying this content, why let SVB know on his stream (www.twitch.tv/svb_ ) or his second channel The Soak (youtube.com/@TheSoak ) where he does movie, TV & anime breakdowns! The best way to support the podcast is still www.patreon.com/svb Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/ow_svb/great-2023-debate Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/6sRWutKTc0gnWuguo62Vpa Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/svbs-group-up/id1490256265

[@aboveSubparBallAnalysis]

2:09:00 make rein the Go to sizing for balancing- make hero bans along with the r6 map vote w/ 5 maps after 2 heart band for tank and 1 for supp Dmg for Each team also Also - u build out slower have to play counter watch kid game- still with hero bans prob- and make a way - for 7 v7 rework some maps- and make it able for 7th to go any role- and have new comps- than un beatable comps - for each role on your team vs - pocket Dos carry- - make worker comps to play against than ow1 go away -

[@ld_raine4247]

Flats: "Idk if you remember but I said that first." Stylosa: "Everything sucks" Spilo: CHILLIN

[@TheRitva26]

For real kinda starts to get annoying lol

[@batcarpet1225]

Its a voice line he spams off cooldown

[@Flemalt]

happy to see stylosa has friends lmao, hes been rambling about this game by himself on camera for too long

[@actionmarco8556]

Hah spot on! 😂 Love to see him here more often

[@valocrazy]

*stylosa maniacle laugh increases*

[@Bongkaiii]

He’s the only person that actually talks about OW truthfully 🤷🏻‍♂️ if every OW creator talked about/defended the game like flats then the skins would be 30$

[@vopcracker3193]

​@@BongkaiiiI would argue Flats is one of the better ones that stil treats Blizzard with kid gloves. I say this because I'm genuinely shocked that people consider SVB a good host when it's been so obvious his "unbiased moderator" stance only really manifests himself as explaining away any and all criticism of the format and inherent direction of the same. So many "yeah, but I think..." type statements after the fact when he's supposed to be the moderator of an honest debate and not a participant, don't you think?

[@nufcjoker9057]

@@vopcracker3193no the mod doesn’t need to been non biased he allowed an opinion , As much as everyone else on the panel . his role is juste to make sure people don’t talk over each other and recap what people have said in a shorter format

[@zc8673]

So happy to see Sty and Spilo on the podcast. Hopefully we'll see more yeatle and fareeha in the future as well

[@Deprece]

It’s hard for me to take my boy Spilo seriously in that get up LMAO! You looking fly tho!

[@Sahilow]

He just wanted to join the glasses gang.

[@ggs7516]

Ez on em he has a coke hangover

[@inferno1738]

​@@ggs7516 I was about to say man got a hangover look

[@Kurse_of_Kall]

It's funny because Spilo is a pretty intellectual guy with some very enlightened things to say, but he's out here looking like a frat boy with a hangover LMAO

[@yoku_UwU]

That is actually hilarious wow

[@o0_VanYsH_0o]

This is a gang I never knew I needed. I love the old crew, SVB, Flats, Freedo, and Samito. But subbing a couple out for Stylosa and Spilo?! HELL YEAH!!!

[@joshuataylor5080]

These are hands down the of my favorite Overwatch content creators. One of SVB's best panels yet.

[@lightninghands3071]

I want to see metro on at some point

[@vopcracker3193]

I think Samito wanted to be here but SVB decided to be petty, like he always is about Samito's preference for 6v6, and cut him out the latest pod for his opinion. Especially now that Flats is slowly coming back to the 6v6 train; SVB has been losing rank in _his own podcast_ because *the game feels that bad to play right now.* It's hilarious to see him try to be positive through all of it 😂

[@evicteetori8738]

​@vopcracker3193 so we should just get a bunch of people with the same opinion on one podcast? It's not petty it's just called being a good host

[@mycelia_ow]

@@lightninghands3071 No, Metro is awful

[@ShirmaAkayaku]

59:03 Stylosa’s take really pairs up well with Spilo’s take on how the devs aren’t really thinking on how heroes will be impacted after changing them in the long run. Devs buff 76 without taking balance ramifications into account and then he gets his healing cooldown nerfed as a “countermeasure”, taking longer than nade, which nade is arguably more powerful. Like what’s the vision for 76? The answer is simple like Sty said: devs metrics say low pick rate (or maybe a new skin is planned), then buff them.

[@typicalhitman4115]

I actually really appreciate Stylosa’s more pessimistic view because its very thought provoking. Gets you to realize how shitty things can be sometimes (got rid of that whatever that last part was I reread it and it made no sense)

[@Bongkaiii]

To be honest he is the only OW content creator that truthfully speaks on the game. The others are scared.

[@vopcracker3193]

Him and Samito, really anyone that saw how 5v5 would ruin the direction of the game

[@P-39_Airacobra]

@@Bongkaiii Spilo always speaks truthfully. So does Chazm

[@mckinleyostvig7135]

Especially when you look back and realize how excited he was about everything Overwatch for years and years. He tried so hard to give the game energy and life and his slow hardening reflects how I feel exactly.

[@TheFartGod69]

@@vopcracker3193I don’t think being against 5v5 is an indicator or being serious about OW

[@dacr8928]

The most Fun I had on the game all year was the April fools game mode, It was fresh and hilarious.

[@ervinaspetrauskas1716]

Only had a chance for few games back then to try it out and it was better than their other new seasonal modes

[@marvynjeanbaptiste3206]

I played the shit out of it. There were soo many good changes that didn’t even seem overpowered to add to the game. E.X Junkerqueen having Bleed in shout upped her survivability but you could still shred her

[@J.R.Swish1]

That's because the April Fools mode was made out of all the fun new abilities the heroes were gonna get from PvE

[@ervinaspetrauskas1716]

@@J.R.Swish1 Yeah. I know this sad fact about it...

[@CobraCommander69]

​@J.R.Swish1 Exactly what I was about to say. It was more of a slap in the face than anything else. The different voice lines were top notch though.

[@hdhdhejqjsy5729]

I hope svb pays the people he gets on his podcast so flats can get enough money to buy a second shirt

[@goldfishtoast]

Spilo looks like he wants to sell me a cryptocurrency

[@willywonka00]

😂😂😂😂

[@mycelia_ow]

Looks more like a cop trying to sell me droogs

[@jimmyjab8744]

Spilo, flats and stylosa in an svb podcast to talk about 2023, HELL YEAH its like all of my fav people when it comes to advocating for whats best for the game (as well as just some of the best ow content creators who ive been watching for awhile now)

[@waddlez7192]

Yep, same. Hope Stylosa can become a regular on the podcast just like spilo and flats

[@racmanov]

Sadly flatts then complitely shuts down when talking to a dev and is like a spoiled kitten.

[@miniespeon158]

I watched stylosa for the longest time when i started playing comp in ow1. Was a great time in my life. Glad he was able to be in the podcast!

[@nabilsalam1253]

Silksong when

[@hellokittyfan9]

stylosa videos got me out of bronze in 2017 and for that he will have a special place in my heart of the ow community. it’s nice to see creators stick with the game thru everything :)

[@waddlez7192]

Hope to see these guys together on the podcast more often in the future

[@imsorobo]

"lots of creators we're hyping the game up" THAT WAS YOU FLATS, YOU WERE HYPING IT UP.

[@Gimnbo]

Spilo's point about risk being fun made me think about why Winston is my favorite hero. When you pull off a slick play with Winston, you feel like you got away with something you shouldn't have and that's another level of thrill over a safer tank like Sigma, not that I dislike Sigma at all.

[@BOOMbear214]

Spilo always spitting facts. The product comes first and the money comes later. People throw money at things that they love.

[@nonipplenoah6179]

i’ve never disagreed with one of his takes he understands the game so well

[@COOMmanderInChief]

Ngl I have developed some of that zoomer battle pass brain rot, if a season's battle pass doesn't look worth completing I probably won't bother playing unless a friend forces me to get on. HOWEVER, this only happened because I have developed an indifference to Overwatch over this past year... I just don't care as much anymore. Its not my "main" game anymore, just part of the rotation of games my friends and I have. I feel like I have experienced most of what this game has to offer someone like me, my relationship with the game is past its peak and my only remaining attachment is the characters. It honestly might be cringe to have something like a battle pass have such a huge say in whether you play a game or not, but man let me tell you it feels so freeing having Overwatch be downgraded to an OPTION and not the default. Like, now I only play when I get the itch, kinda like the memes about everyone having a yearly Minecraft phase. If Blizzard wants me to play they gotta work for it either by making huge changes to keep things fresh and new or make a cool battle pass that preys on my attachment to the characters, and if they never do either... that's cool too I'm at peace with the possibility existing that I'm done with this game, its content creators, its characters, and the universe it set up but never built :)

[@christopherripley5081]

Spilo deserves a permanent spot on this podcast. Best takes

[@Cameron.ae08]

When I saw Stylosa on this one I had to tune in for his thoughts. They mirror mine better than most creators in this sphere, so shoutout to confirmation bias😂🙆🏼‍♂️

[@Bongkaiii]

We all can appreciate an honest king like Stylosa 👑

[@danielj6897]

Thanks for always putting these on. Not only are they entertaining to listen to, they also provide a platform to discuss things about the game from players' perspectives. The player experience is more than just balance and I'm glad these podcasts give an opportunity to mull over thoughts as things evolve from month to month.

[@dylanbersano9488]

My man Spilo out here lookin like he's the lead in Baby Driver LOL.

[@Snowofthewild]

This was such a good discussion, this was definitely my favourite cast of guests so far!

[@IHJello]

I just upped from Plat to Diamond on Patreon bc the consistency has been crazy good. One video a month is all I ask and youve gone above and beyond.

[@spencerfrankel414]

This is probably the best cast i could ask for for a podcast. I cant wait 🔥

[@fettbub92]

I have not seen Spilo and Stylosa interact, excited to see how they converse.

[@Korvmannen]

Hearing Sty is always such a treat

[@kingdionysus]

Man flats really likes to pat himself on the back every chance he gets huh

[@Bongkaiii]

Yes he’s hard to listen to these days

[@vopcracker3193]

It's Ike a little kid dancing on a pile of ash

[@YourBlackLocal]

Every. Single. Time.

[@johnsonspark171]

High-level OW players act like they are high-level players of a game that actually isn't dead. Like bro, Flats, you ain't Faker man. Your "game" is DEAD and doesn't even have a pro scene anymore. Didn't anyone give OW players the memo on that one? It's just sad. When I tell people that I still play OW they laugh at me

[@kingdionysus]

I don't mind people saying when they were right about something. I get it in this industry you need to promote yourself. Totally fine with that..to a limit. It just felt like it was literally every time in this video. I generally like his content, but it's just too much here.

[@lazycatchphrase8148]

Big Sty energy, love to see it.

[@chriscammock3289]

Never would I ever think I'd see my favs Flats, Spilo and my fellow Britain Stylosa ! Love it

[@mrpetebojangles21]

Spilo looking like a “first time poker player” absolutely murdered me 😂😂😂

[@patonnight]

Best cast so far. Hope we see you guys more often!

[@ItsOnlyGenjutsu]

**opens with OW3 at con** "OH, CUT-CUT IT!... Sorry, uhhh, wrong clip. That's for next year... Well, now that the _cat's_ out of the bag, just a little word on the future of Overwatch. Since you guys loved the cat's involvement in OW1 soooo much. We have let the cat-are you guys ready? Ok, you're gonna love this. _GUYS..._ we have let the cat. . . *MAKE. OVER. WATCH. THREE.* That's right, the whole game. We still have about 76 years left in development if the cat takes only 1.37 naps per work day. And, we need to figure out how to immortalize a cat. But, It's comin'-ALL PAWS ON DECK" **75 years, 11 months, and 2 weeks later** "Guys, were sorry. But, the cat died 2 weeks after Blizzcon 2023. We are canceling OW3. It has been a hard ans tough decision for us to make, but here is OW2.9 made by a full dev team wearing dog masks... Why dogs when it was supposed to be a cat's creation? Great question. The cat masks were 3 dollars more per mask. Anyway, hope you enjoy!"

[@huntish3760]

I seriously don't understand why developers are leaving because they have to go back to the studio. When COVID first hit and the quality of games diminished all of the game devs would go on and on about how "working from home is the reason quality is dropping" and "oh it's so much harder to work from home and we don't feel like a team anymore" and as soon as companies say it's okay to go back to the offices it's suddenly "games are so much easier to make from home" and "the quality of my work is so much better when I'm able to work from home." I really do feel like the devs are just looking for scapegoats to avoid the accountability of bad releases.

[@iR8state]

As a returning OW1 mystery heroes player. Im finally giving competitive a shot again. My main motivation for playing OW1 was the grind for free loot boxes and trying to get enough points to buy what ever i wanted. So that basically meant grinding new skins was my content and a bit of that is still burned in so the game feels boring because we don't have much to grind for other than rank. But if you don't play competitive, there's really not much to grind for. Making base mythic skins part of the free battle pass and customization being part of premium would probably incentivize more people to play.

[@prestigiouschili7911]

10:21 Not Stylosa saying “irregardless” 😭😭😭

[@ryanmccarthy7572]

“Some creators hyped the game up.” -Flats Flats said that…. Flats

[@michals1108]

Best podcast so far , thanks guys

[@ES_DCSAVIOR101]

Stylosa is probably my favorite CC. Please bring him back on for future podcasts.

[@njuns999]

You're on fire with these podcasts, and this one will all my favourites people ! Thanks a lot ❤

[@Paradoxx867]

Mauga Rework: my idea is to turn him into more of a melee brawler. I’d change his Cardiac Arrest (I mean Overdrive!) into an ability that gives you damage reduction, speed, and substantial improvements to his melee damage, rapidity, and knockback. This way, he would get in, create space, and feel like a threat close range however not unavoidable or unkillable. This also fits the fantasy more, “I have two hearts, therefore I heal myself and teammates when shoot the tank!” and also Cage Fight makes more sense. BTW, of course you have to nerf his damage! He should have to land 20 shots on tanks to ignite, nerf his damage per shot to 3.0. Lastly, I’d make overrun ignite enemy players, this would serve as a risk the player has a decision about. Should I charge in and lose my escape option, or should I save it in case Sigma fluxes me?

[@signsignsign74]

this is my favorite line up of guests

[@pingufan1239]

Who is this tik tok thirstrap in the top left corner

[@javanmason2969]

Star studded episode. I’m subscribed to all 4 💪🏾😤

[@actionmarco8556]

Just for your info on playability in China: What we did was play on asia servers. Worked pretty well actually, Korea or Singapore. It was a good workaround , but sure, everybody is excited about getting the CN client back.

[@Oliver.Pfahl.]

This cast is cooking so much. I also highly recommend Spilos rework series or even his regular content if you want to improve at Overwatch.

[@thatguyat]

The audio is always really really quiet on these podcasts compared to all other content on youtube, any chance you could turn it up by like 50%? Volume slider maxed out is still far quieter than most videos I watch, even compared to basically all other videos at ~50% volume.

[@Caleb-Drg]

Hog survival change, when he's vaping and get's hit by something that stuns him, a portion of the vape charge is lost

[@skyler7017]

or atleast put a 3s CD, it'll force the hog to be more careful about when hes using it.

[@mac_chappy]

Orisa Verison 1 - She's boring and unfun to play against she should never be meta. Orisa Rework - She's much more fun to play. But she's unfun to play against and she should never be meta. Devs - WTF!

[@mylorddio8272]

Pride felt forced just how it does every June with every company.

[@Bebopvicious00]

It just doesnt make sense for a global company to celebrate sexual expression that is accepted on such a small scale in the world. I dont care about it, but financially it feels like a risk more than a reward.

[@ChimpRevolution]

​@Bebopvicious00 Dude the fact it took up such a big section of the podcast sucks I really don't care. Not to mention do people not realize Activision blizzard really doesn't give a crap. The fact that they geolock certain regions where LGBT is frowned upon shows they don't actually care they pander to the audience for brownie points like every other company

[@poddy3827]

This is my favorite lineup of guests

[@kielmessersmith1956]

I kind of wish they would tangibly include the community more in balance decisions. Maybe towards the end of each season they take take submissions for changes to 5-10 of the least played heros, and try a few of the best ones for a patch cycle at least.

[@aussiecossie5816]

Talking about season 6: I would love to see a new team take on the helm of progressing the overwatch story in a completely different game in a different genre. I can’t remember the name of the genre but there’s this top down type of game where you walk around as a team and shoot stuff while completing objectives. I could see blizzard redefining that genre and maybe adding moba elements to it and make that the engine that tells overwatch’s story.

[@dafaz4685]

Look at this lineup! Stacked

[@cesarfigueroa8467]

Stylosa!!! 🔥🔥🔥 more with this cast please!

[@finnbacon]

Love sty being here!

[@masterwizardham7655]

Killer line up 🔥

[@_reigner]

I lowkey forgot about Starwatch until svb brought it up

[@Nett11]

Blame Bobby for making your work life awful and a horrible environment but don't say he's the reason Overwatch 2 got review bombed, hiding the true nature of the game and leading players on is what did the most damage, you should have just said the truth. You made your game available to a public domain instead of policed forum posts. A good game would get good reviews. Saying you didn't want it on Steam because you knew it would get review bombed is basically we know we have made a bad game and don't want to be told that we have because we live in our Blizzard bubble and can't take blame.

[@shoppedbomb3719]

What was the pve workshop code SVB suggested and brought up?

[@plimbopilled]

nice to see sty collabing with other creators, he always talks about how he either doesnt have friends or doesnt like to collab

[@sean3589]

THIS IS WHAT I NEED TO SEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

[@ytk3797]

Bro ALL I want for them is to show everyone’s ranks like in ow1, that shit was so FIRE and hype and made it feel like more of a real COMPETITIVE experience and gave people more of an individuality when you saw there individual rank which was really cool

[@johnsonspark171]

You don't want that because in OW2 they are forcing extremely uneven matches in order to keep queue times artificially low because the game is low-key dead but the OW addicts are too brainwashed to admit it. SAD

[@ytk3797]

@@johnsonspark171 bro I’m sorry to break it to you but …… ranked inflation is basically completely gone now that was only a problem up until season 4/5. And even if it wasn’t gone it’s not like showing peoples individual ranks would make the match making worse

[@johnsonspark171]

@@ytk3797 I'm not talking about rank inflation. I'm talking about Blizzard forcing uneven matches to artificially keep queue times low for their dead game. That's why you will never see the ranks of who you are playing with

[@DemonbreedGaming]

Spilo giving guxue his flowers ❤

[@endless_del]

i maintain that map pools are an excellent addition i would have liked them to keep implemented for QUICKPLAY ONLY. two of my siblings just recently started playing overwatch, a couple times a week for the past month, and there are still maps we haven't played more than once. and i don't think they've ever played 3rd point rialto. even if the rotation was as quick as every week, it would be better than what we have now. for competitive, every map should always be open (barring reworks/bug issues, of course). but for new players, i think it's more valuable for them to be able to learn the maps more quickly which would better prepare them for competitive, should they want to play it as soon as it unlocks. and map pools are a good way to aide them through the process as it's easier to learn through repetition than randomness.

[@skyler7017]

if you want to learn maps you can make a server and walk around yourself, i do this in every game i plan on playing often. i dont think reducing the amount of options players have for 1.5 months is remotely cool. the only middle ground that i could conceive is having map playlists where you can opt into map pools while q'ing into QP but it would be a seperate option so if you want to play kings row you chose the playlist that has the map available.

[@skyler7017]

also with the way blizzard handled map pools in the the past in regards to how long it will take until the next rotation happens I think people will only have the chance to play a single rotation before they unlock comp which means they are missing most of the maps played in competitive leading to inexperienced players being duped into comp without knowledge.

[@mangshu21]

map pools are dumb period

[@endless_del]

@@skyler7017 sure, a lot of people learn maps that way, and if i had more time with them, i would walk them around every map myself and explain the concept of main choke points, off angles, etc. the issue is, though, that one of my siblings has a kid, and the other works near 80 hours a week. we simply don't have time to do this. this is the case for a lot of players-- they only have maybe a few hours a day to play the game. do they really want to spend any of that time walking around alone on a map instead of actually playing the game? and if they're playing solo, or with friends who are ALSO new, walking around a map alone means almost nothing to them. you need to actually PLAY on that map, or be/have an already experienced player who can recognize key points of the design (if its new) and relay information to the new player

[@endless_del]

unless any of you have experience playing with someone who is LITERALLY brand new to the game since the implementation of flashpoint (which is easy to get lost on even for experienced players), your opinion means nothing to me and you will never change my mind on this

[@ktm1125]

Does anyone have a link for Stylosa's interview with the devs which made the workshop?

[@ghosteeniesmith6219]

i suspect a tremendous amount of cleaning damage control for 2024 overwatch to degrees that the average gamer cannot comprehend.

[@TheRitva26]

holy shit great to see stylosa join up

[@Jé_go]

bro on the top left saw the rest of the guys had glasses and wanted to jump in, but brought the wrong type

[@davidborkwood2368]

2023 is the year I stopped playing ow. Been playing since 2016, OW2 came out just after I had surgery & had a lot of time to grind it which was fun, but man there’s been a lot of bs in ow & kind of glad I’m not playing it anymore

[@chilly039]

Stylosa needs to be a regular on the pod!

[@spacecowboy7193]

Sweet! 3 of my favorite creators: flats, stylosa, and the Unabomber!

[@debuffxbaby]

Perfect timing

[@FailingGH3]

I just want an OW classic mode at this point. I believe that tanks, being only one player in ow2, should be balanced against eachother in such a way that tanks dont have to swap against eachother. The only reason a tank should have to consider swapping heroes is the enemy team full countering on dps and support. To me it makes sense to anchor the tank player, and to leave the other roles to be able to swap around to handle their weaknesses. Basically, make tanks interact uniquely against other tanks, for example, instead of tanks suffering with reduced boops against other tanks, make it so specifically tanks can regular boop other tanks, thus making heroes like doom or orisa or ball able to get environmentals on an enemy tank. Make tanks nigh on immune to cc across the board. Maybe all tanks pierce armour health of other tanks, making it so a dive tank doesnt insta lose to an orisa or a mauga, or have to play the "i guess ill just ignore the other tank" game. This would incentivise a hero like mauga or orisa or roadhog to actually fight the other team, rather than tank duels running rampant. I guess what im saying is, is that tanks are big dps, so make them play into eachother like big dps, where even countered matchups are close to 50 50 because of the across the board kill potential

[@Dobebavx0r]

I love how everyone is sitting on the chair ready for monkey business and Spilo is on his phone chillin like he got outta school and is on tiktok

[@danmac_au]

Talking about adding modes and taking actual feedback I think it's a legal issue of them worrying they'll get sued for stealing ideas. I think they should have a bug bounty style thing where it's a set amount if they take your workshop mode.

[@m3rcher]

Blizzard has a terrible track record of making use of community ideas. The most obvious example is probably how the fan made DOTA game mode in Warcraft 3 spawned the genre giants League of Legends and DOTA 2. Heroes of the Storm was too little, way too late. And again Riot took the cake by making Team Fight Tactics off of DOTA Auto Chess, which was vaguely inspired once again by a Warcraft 3 Custom game mode called "Legion TD". Hearthstone Battlegrounds surely is financially sucessful, yet cannot compare to TFTs overall longterm success. It seems to me that Riot has a firmer grasp on community favourites, compared to all the other giants in the industry. They just can't miss (LoL, Valorant, Arcane, TFT). Looking at all this I'm tempted to say, that Riots' MMO might even take the all time MMO crown from Blizzards' World of Warcraft. Blizzard in its current state is no longer a trend setter, but a trend follower, be it monetization models (taken from Fortnite for skins and huge IP events, Counter Strike and Valorant for weapon and character skins), big franchise cooperations (taken from Frotnite + LoL for the K-Pop stuff) or as mentioned at the beginning - the whole use of popular game ideas, that in their core, stem from devoted Blizzard communities. They have fumbled the bag so hard in the past, that it is just not plausible to push all that blame on Bobby Kotick, especially since Blizzard barely ever recognized their fanbases talent, even before Activision Blizzard was a thing.

[@piusdoe8984]

With Quickplay warriors in the overwatch team. Comp integrity will never exist. Balance changes made for quickplay. More characters like Moira brig. It's fortnite gaming

[@Midnight_BRAZIL]

Please, bring more Spilo!! ❤

[@lruddy8820]

They still havent addressed cc’s they wanted to have less cc but gave orisa two ram and mauga both have cc and mauga is immune to cc because they did a 180 on cc’s and they in full force in the game, so what is their plan with cc’s did they address their change in philosophy with it like they did hard counters?

[@pristineo]

the sigma hog interaction summed up most high elo player frustration for me. those interactions are why the hardcore community enjoy the game.

[@kylepackard7499]

Map pools could work one day when there are eight to ten maps per gamemode and each map is well balanced (or at the very least most of them are well balanced aside from a few key maps). And then maps that are egregious outliers can be pulled from rotation for rebalancing. Obviously, the maps that deserve rebalancing right now are numbani and coloseo. The vast majority of the player base groans whenever these maps pop up on their screen, so why dont we pull those and give them the Gibraltar treatment?

[@xeno_ii_8617]

2023 year of godly supports!

[@mycelia_ow]

2024 the year of godly dps heroes

[@cloud3x3]

The comment about wanting problems not solutions is pretty much a universal creative adage. It's not about being closed minded, but generally it's because people, especially passionate ones, are not in a good position to deliver actionable feedback. In order to keep people focused and productive, you focus on experience, not solutioning. There's a myriad of reasons why well meaning people give unhelpful advice from narrow perspective, lack of operational understanding, lack of understanding of what is hard and what is easy, lack of understanding internal team dynamics, lack of awareness of which team members are on vacation, difference in tastes, lack of awareness of what they have and have not tested before. That statement is not a Blizzard thing, it reflects that devs spend 40+ a week thinking about OW, and maybe have decades long careers, and if they only have an hour to spend getting feedback from a streamer, it's not productive to catch those streamers up on 7 years of dev history and internal context. I dunno, maybe one day streamers could spend a month working with the team and actually building that context necessary for deep diving into solutioning, but it's not that they are not listening, it's that they way that you want them to listen is often not time effective, and any emotion your perceiving on the part of the dev is, in my opinion, just projecting. This is a super common way of working, and learning how to articulate what is helpful from a dev perspective with actually increase how responsive they are to your feedback, not decrease it, but in order to get to that point you do have to actually learn how to give helpful feedback. Hope that helps (from a person that's been deving software for 20 years).

[@iamandyFEARME]

underrated comment

[@denn7s]

spilo and flats are always phenomenal guests

[@rangerguy]

People should start talking about a 5v5 role queue rework. We don't even need 6v6 or open queue back. But what would shake up the game more than a different format to play in? Naturally it would need more rebalancing, but that's nothing new for OW's lifespan. Keep 5v5 but give us some flexibility for roles.

[@michaelc7418]

2-2-2 simply provides much more replayability than 1-2-2. 5v5 just makes the game way too narrow minded. We need 6v6 (2-2-2) back as the main format.

[@marcusbullock2753]

I’m curious what the devs think about this podcast and will make the game be better.

[@shole121]

2:07:23 I think the reason the casual replies are about skins is because players that cared for game balance and mechanics has already left.

[@Dynamonster-us5hq]

Hey SVB, not sure if you will ever see this but your skills as a host and moderator for the group up have really come a long ways and you’re by far my favorite podcast. The only think I wish I could hear more is some positivity given to the development team. I get that not all hero’s, maps, game modes, balance, seasonal games and so on are going to hit for everyone but I think it’s important to give some praise for these developers who I’m sure work really hard to try to give us as much as they can. They pour their hearts and souls into the content and I can’t imagine how hard it must be to hear only negative comments. While i understand that it comes from a place of love for the game and we all want the game to be the best version of itself and be a big hit and fun, hearing about the things they are getting right from big time figures in the community would probably go a long way. Keep up the great work!

[@TrueNyxis]

Why is there ads every 30 seconds

[@kielmessersmith1956]

Many of the skins miss the mark on this seasons theme, where was the modern hunter skin or beast skins. Rhino Reine, Falcon pharah, you know.. Not recolors with silly new hats.

[@LeatherNinja]

Love to see Spilo here

[@TheChryystal]

The biggest problem with Mercy, is that every 30 seconds, she is technically 2 players with her rez. In my opinion, that's BS!

[@LeatherNinja]

Rez having boop resistance makes no sense at all and it's too quick

[@TheChryystal]

Everyone has a huge problem with the immortality abilities but at least they don't bring your kill back to life... lol@@LeatherNinja

[@wvdk7911]

As a Mercy player myself it's kinda funny how rez is an ability now that is hated by both the users and the enemies now. I'd like to keep the rez but I also wouldn't be too sad to see it go for an ability I can actually use. Rez just feels bad to use, you either have to hope that people haven't noticed you, can't aim or that you have cover for you to actually use it. You can't do anything while doing rez, you can't cancel it yourself unless you are able to walk out of range

[@johnsonspark171]

Support is BROKEN and rez is just one of the offending abilities in that no-skill role. Rez should be deleted along with suzu, lamp, nade, life grip, and pylon. Make that role actually take skill to play

[@TheChryystal]

Support is and always has been broken in Overwatch and it started with Mercy!!!! Immo abilities can be adjusted with enough thought and consideration. How do you adjust rez? OW2 is a tighter gamer with 5v5 now. Which means that an ability and hero who's had to be constantly worked and reworked are in a situation which a hero being revived is not reasonable. In 6v6 it was less of a big deal. 5v5 it's much different. It's giving the Mercy's team a 25% increase of firepower (roles with standing) @@johnsonspark171 This might be me but I don't really get mad over the kills I didn't get but I get pissed when my kill pulls a Frankenstein's Monster.

[@CROSSFADE69]

We got sty on this now?! now were really cooking, can't wait to watch all of this!

[@patrickkubicki3589]

No way you got this insane cast. Auto-sub from me for this Gem!!

[@slomow]

Rank inflation is still in the game in lower ranks like diamond bc they just stopped playing when hitting masters and then came back.

[@mr.meeseeeks5544]

So to add to Stylosa's point of removing original skins. Overwatch has removed carbon fiber for genji when it was always something that was always there for hero gallery to purchase

[@Joe_Payne]

4 Chads, 1 podcast.

[@BAIARJ]

SVB you are the GOAT. I can’t believe you brought Stylosa to the show. Love his work. The guy is a legend in our community

[@SocialDesignFlaw]

"Hiring" or including Players into your game's development at any level is a risk that most Executives are gonna take one look at? And release/destroy the devs who went looking for it. CCs/Streamers you've got some leverage to ensure their secrecy, based on contracts and their on-going need to play the game for their bank? But the amount of times OWL players leaked new patches in discord servers that eventually made it out into the wider community? The amount of accounts that (used to) make their status/rep off finding leaks about new heroes and content? OW2 itself got leaked weeks prior to it's announcement at Blizzcon way back when. There is too much risk to go including players in the Development to any significantly private degree; most Devs are going to be very hesitant about the mercurial nature of unreleased content- -which is why a PTR (safe, isolated, community-wide exposure) would drastically improve the process on both sides. Players can give feedback that is open and obvious within the client and Devs get access to early data that they can tweak future content for. Experimental Mode would be good? But I genuinely think they need a separate client in the Battle net launcher for a "safe mode" where they can remove Group Restrictions, expand MMR bandwidth, and have a Comp mode with no SR value to allow players a full range of experimentation with new systems and projects that could come out in the future. Same goes for the Workshop. Upgrade and increase the assets available (all removed assets from the Game like Orisa's old Halt/Shield, Sym's old Shield Gen., LW's parting gift) so workshoppers have a lot more to play with. Both of these are the 2 most beneficial ways to get feedback into the Devs hands, without putting them/their jobs at risk by clout chasers.