08/11/2016

Blizzcon 2016 my take

                          



So Blizzcon have come and gone. This was as expected a sort of off-year with no really big reveals on the horizon. I would assume that people who care by now have digested the recaps and info dumps sp i am not going to go through it all. I will mainly focus on WoW and Overwatch as these are the Blizzard games that i currently play but i will touch on things i found interesting for other games and beyond. 


Let me first touch upon what might have been the biggest reveal, Overwatch League, a bit like Premier league just way smaller and for a digital shooter game. So Blizzard just slapped a foot of prime meat on the table and asked the rest of the esports scene what they have done so far to advance the.., well.. sport. In short it is a organized league that if it actually reaches what it set out to do will have proper teams and formal contracts, making it look more legit. In reality it will not be much different from how it is today but appearance as we know is key. If people feel a connection to the event they will be more invested, and Blizzards idea to have local teams tied to towns and regions  (not only on a national level) fits very nice in to this. After all i´d love to see the Gothenburg Guthooks take on Kiruna Pickaxes for a spot in the regionals. Time will tell what this will pan out in too and how many teams it can support. But the idea i feel is really fresh and interesting. 



So beyond that Overwatch saw mostly tweaks and QoL stuff beyond the new hero Sombra. Now i had the chance to play as and against Sombra on the PTR today and i think she will be very fun and Tracer levels of irritating in the right hands. But she also seems to have a very high skill bar, being both squishy and fairly low on damage DPS hero. Her strengths ofc lies in  her ability to control the field of battle. Also i like to see that Blizzard continue it´s new path of making female heroes that look badass and kick arse without needing to dip in to the "battle dental floss" outfit category. She will most likely see some serious rounds of nerfing and buffing in the coming weeks. Personally i was more happy to see Torbjörns scrap resource now having a slow auto generation to accompany the usual kill drop way, that way one does not have to suicide dive in to the enemy team to get some packs made. 


I also love and adore the new hero "limit" in quick play. Only one version of each hero per side stops the *insert very foul words here* cheesing that is a two Torbjörn and two Bastion with a tank and a healer point capture or any of the other insane troll builds. I was for a very long time a strong opponent to the limit and had a live and let live attitude. But at this point i have had enough with humanity and its so called right to free will. It will be a joy to play once this patch drops live. 

But no big expansions planned for Overwatch.. Or any other game in reality. 


As for WoW, well we will be taking the fight to the *more bad words* Eredar in their own back yard and trust me you that i will be very happy about that. Because i am so sick of the burning legion that i will even put up with Illidan to get the job done I wish we will get to shot them up once and for all. This would also set up for a new and final expansion next where we shut the door on the last remnants of old gods and titans. A worthy end to the story so to speak. I also like the idea of class mounts. 


Beyond that not much to report, this Blizzcon was mostly a retrospect on Legion. 

Now it was a bit sad to not have Chris Metzen there as he retired before the con, but all in all the quality was as high as it used to be and it was nice to see that games like Overwatch  have gained some real traction now. 

Not sure it is a good idea to teach a AI to play StarCraft... Once it get a taste of the sort of smack talk that accompanies competitive games have it will be ready to go SkyNet on us... But at least it will have a brilliant comeback to the claim that it is botting =P 

But looking forward there are a ton of fun things to enjoy if you like Blizzard games. 

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