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Jeff Kaplan talks about the Developers

u/Proud_Qatari

us.battle.net

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Proud_Qatari

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12d

For those who can't click the link:

When we launched Overwatch in May of 2016 our team was comprised of 70 developers. When I say developers, I am specifically talking about artists, engineers, producers, sound/music designers and game designers. We're now at just north of 100 developers. We do have a few open roles (you can check our job site for these) but we mostly feel pretty good about the size of the team in regards to the things we'd like to accomplish. One of the things we value as a team is the concept of doing more with less. Even though I wouldn't say we're necessarily a "small" team as modern development standards go, we're certainly not an overly large team either.

We view ourselves as artists and craftspeople and we like to avoid that feeling of being "cogs in a large machine". We like the fact that we own Overwatch together as a unified team with a shared, collective vision. There is not one person -- or select people -- who dictates what we do. We're not peons of some visionary -- just implementing his or her vision -- and we're certainly not beholden to any corporate "overlords" telling us what we can or cannot do. We are 100 game developers who absolutely love playing and making Overwatch.

The day we announced/launched/put OW into Beta, the game belonged to a large community. And we truly do see ourselves as the custodians -- not overlords -- of the game and community. With that said, something that no one can ever take from us is that the 100 or so of us on the team created something together that we truly believe in and stand behind. We have poured our hearts and souls into a game that we believe is special. We've staked our names and our careers on it. We try -- every waking hour -- to show how much love and magic we believe Overwatch can represent.

Since the day we have launched, we've only increased our efforts and dedication. Overwatch is a 24/7, 365 days a year affair for us. Overwatch doesn't stop because it's 5 o'clock on a Friday evening. Overwatch doesn't stop because it's our kids' birthday.

Do we do everything right? Certainly not. The 100 members of the OW team are far more critical than most of you of the game on a good day (although we're a little more professional about how we express our criticism). You will never meet one of us who says, "the game is perfect". We have no shortage of ideas of how to make the game better and we are lucky enough to show up to work every day and try to make those things happen.

We've built the team around the people who we consider to be the top developers in the entire industry. And because of that, we view them as amazing, creative individual contributors and not just "mindless implementers" who can be easily multiplied to increase output.

While most players have a few "causes" that they focus on, we - the team - care about literally every experience that has anything to do with OW. We care about where a button on the screen goes, what sound it makes, what color it is. We care about what the email says to a player who has just been banned. We care about constantly trying to improve ping times worldwide and server up time. We care about what Mei says when she is sad. We care about the integrity of Top 500 play, the tournament rules for esports, how big the OW logo is on a backpack. We care about all 26 heroes equally.

Each of us wants to be involved and contribute to all of these things plus 10,000 other OW-related things that come up each day. We are the 100 people who created the experience and whether it is good or bad, that's on us. We know we're only as good as our last patch.

Our passion and love is for making and playing Overwatch. Things like posting on the forums -- for many of us -- is not a normal or core part of our job. From Day 1, we felt like we wanted to be a development team that communicated more openly with our player base. We tried to make as many posts on these forums as possible. Our intention -- more than anything -- was show a presence and let you know that we're listening. We're not naive enough to think that we can sufficiently address each player's concerns here. But we do want you to know that we -- the OW development team -- are here with you, listening.

We try to do other things to let you know that we're part of this community as well. We make Developer Update videos so we can talk directly to you and explain what we're doing and why we're making decisions. We do not hide behind online handles or layers of Community Managers and PR Spokespeople.

Developers speak to you directly, using our real names.

And if you'll allow me to speak openly for a moment -- it's scary. Overall, the community is awesome to us. But there are some pretty mean people out there. All of our developers are free to post on these forums. Very few of us actually do because it's extremely intimidating and/or time consuming. It's very easy to post the wrong thing and make a "promise" to the community that no one intended to make. Once we say we're working on something, we're not allowed to "take it back". It's set in stone.

Also, because we are open with you and do not hide behind an anonymous handle (like all of you have the luxury of doing), we often times get personally attacked and threatened.

Most great developers I know just love being head's down making or playing games. The "public speaking/posting" part of the job is downright scary and intimidating. It often feels like there is no winning.

As a result, there are a small few of us who do most of the posting here. Two weeks ago, I was offsite all week without posting access (I cannot make forum posts from my phone for security reasons). The week after that, I came into the office 1 hour later than I normally do (I was feeling extremely fatigued and rather than waking up at 5:40am like I do most days, I woke up at 6:30am). The end result was that for 2 weeks I haven't posted at my normal rate. I apologize that it's been a quiet two weeks but that doesn't mean that we -- the OW team -- haven't been working just as hard as we always do and are not dedicated to making this game great.

Just because there are "a lot of threads" or "a lot of upvotes" about a certain topic, does not mean we're not paying extremely close attention to not only the community feedback -- but more importantly -- the game itself.

Of course the team talks about Mercy. Of course we talk about Ana. But we talk about all of the heroes. If we post, "we're talking about Mercy" immediately there is an expectation that she is going to be radically changed in the next patch when the truth is, we might just leave her how she is for a while. We're not allowed to post that here without our bosses (and I am talking literally here) receiving emails from some of you demanding we be fired. It's not exactly what I would call a safe environment for creative people to openly express their thoughts and feelings.

Anyway, we always appreciate feedback when it is expressed in an open, direct and constructive way. Player feedback is what has made this game great. We will try to communicate as much as we can. We love being a part of the community and we don't ever want to view ourselves or be viewed as being separate or removed from that.

Thanks for being patient with us.

426

roho1

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12d

For those who can't click the link:

there goes my hero..

181

______DEADPOOL______

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12d

At any rate, this bit:

We care about all 26 heroes equally.

26 is really coming. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

46

aeroblaster

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12d

Was there ever really any doubt? Blizzard said they have ideas for the next hero but the community really decides what role gets released next. The community wanted an alternative to Rein, Doomfist, and now a healer, so the next hero is going to be a healer. If the community is quiet it can be something interesting we didn't ask for, like Sombra.

20

unluckycandy

Torb is high-key jacked

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12d

We care about all 26 heroes equally. - omg

EDIT: NOT A DEV TRASHING POST!!!!!! 26 HEROES AS IN WE HAVE 25 RN and 26 IS THE NEXT ONE!

242

Nickelinho

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12d

Had to double check to be sure, but when I read this and checked the hero roster(currently 25) I was like: "Oh shit."

89

comrade_dongers

FUEL THE FIRE

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12d

Did you think they would stop releasing heroes with Doomfist?

39

Nickelinho

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12d

No, but there have been only 4 new heroes added since the game was released.

So whenever they announce a new hero, I get hyped.

46

Erlian

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12d

Jeff was in a deep trance for 2 weeks thinking about the new hero

14

xEuphemistic

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12d

Waterfall meditation in his D.Va hoodie.

5

GameksTastik

3808 Bastion Main

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12d

6 Months

Still no Devoloper feedback on Bastion

mfw

49

kevmeister1206

Master for a day.

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12d

Eh he's situational that's fine for me.

26

shiftup72

3215 (PC)

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12d

One shot and static defense heroes should all be situational imo.

21

KDizzle340

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12d

I hope you lose to a dozen Offense Torbjörns.

29

shiftup72

3215 (PC)

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12d

I would lose to a thousand Offensive Torbjörns to spare all of you from suffering a turret meta.

13

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GameksTastik

3808 Bastion Main

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11d

Bastion wouldnt be meta ever. He is a situational Hero, but the reason he is a situational Hero is not he is weak its because of his design.

So in conclusion if he was Reworked or had a collection of small tweaks to make him better such as being able to cancel his Ultimate he would still stay where he is at but instead actually be played in his niche and not be ignored because he is weak.

3

wetpaste

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12d

jesus fucking christ If we have a fucking bastion meta or a hanzo meta I'm going to kms. I can deal with the junkrat thing.

12

simland

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12d

Do you not recall the Omnic crisis? A whole week of Rein Bastion Mercy.

6

More Comments (1)

More Comments (2)

dontstalkmedood

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12d

If someone is actually emailing blizzard asking for the team to be fired they’re actually a bunch of men-children. Be logical. You don’t own the game franchise with the $60 you paid.

22

murtiC74

3729

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12d

If we post, "we're talking about Mercy" immediately there is an expectation that she is going to be radically changed in the next patch when the truth is, we might just leave her how she is for a while. We're not allowed to post that here without our bosses (and I am talking literally here) receiving emails from some of you demanding we be fired.

Mercy Mains go this far?

46

rainmask

at heart

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12d

you should have seen the forums when people were still throwing tantrums about dva. dozens of posts a day demanding to know when Geoff would be sacked

knowing that that statement doesn't surprise me at all

28

Share-Q

3642

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12d

Pretty sure he's referring to the people losing their minds about how OP she is

17

Kdwolf

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12d

Doing god's work son.