Thank you Jeff Kaplan

Channel:

XMARC

Subscribers:

470

Published on April 21, 2021 12:43:53 AM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZepzwc9IpU

Game:

Overwatch 2 (2023)

Duration: 42:57

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3

Overwatch has been one of the most impactful games in my life, at first it was a game that I would watch my best friend Kat play whenever I'm over at her place, then I decided to give the game a chance after playing it once way back when it launched. Ever since then I was heavily addicted to the game and I was even more invested when the role lock was released giving us an equal playing field. I went from a Moira one trick to being a strict Tank player from going Main Tanks exclusively (Winston, Reinhardt & Orisa), to counter picking with off tanks (Roadhog & Zarya) and finally being the number one fan of the Dive Meta Comp (D.Va & Wrecking Ball). I got the game on PS4, Switch & PC and made friends across all 3 systems and have so much fond memories of this game even getting the chance to play with people from the TGMG server. I owe this game a lot and it's all thanks to Jeff Kaplan and his team from Blizzard to create this amazing chaotic game. Recently Jeff Kaplan announced that he was officially leaving Blizzard after working there for 19 years, and I can only imagine why but I want to say this.

Overwatch isn't a perfect game, it never was and it never will be, it gets so much crap for many understandable reasons from the balancing to the lack of content, I get it. But at least Jeff Kaplan cared for Overwatch enough to at least try to fix as much as these problems as possible. Remember GOATS? How about before role lock how almost everyone would insta lock DPS? The role lock was in my opinion the best thing Overwatch added because it actually allows us to play at an equal playing field, and sure the queue time for DPS is ridiculous but come on, what do you expect? Its the most popular and most used role in the game so I don’t think its fair to give all that crap to Jeff & Blizzard. How about the fact that Jeff actually considered removing 2CP from Overwatch 2 because of the negative reception on maps like Paris & Horizon Lunar Colony? But instead on focusing on the good or at least the effort let’s just focus on where they fucked up.

The game will never be perfectly balanced nor will it ever please everyone in they’re attempts to balance certain heroes, there will always be a power creep somewhere that will change the meta into a completely different direction. One day it'll be Dive, then Double Shield and god knows what comes next. But at least I can see the effort Blizzard is trying to do to please as much people from the community as possible, a community that's already pretty well known for being toxic.

Jeff Kaplan leaving does make me a little concern, it reminds me of all the time we shit on someone's vision on a specific franchise before they leave and we suddenly wish they never left. Like we gave shit to George Lucas for the prequels and the Special Editions of the Original Trilogy and then The Rise of Skywalker came out, I thought nothing could be worse than Batman V Superman but then Suicide Squad and Joss Weadon's Justice League proved me wrong and even though I'm not crazy for Zack Snyder's Justice League it is still a better movie than the ladder two I mentioned combined. What I'm saying is I'm remaining optimistic for Overwatch's future as well as the release of Overwatch 2, but the departure of the lead director on both games is definitely going to have an impact with how these games are managed just like with George Lucas and Zack Snyder I can see a similar circumstances happening with Overwatch and we're probably going to wish Jeff Kaplan never left, something I’m sort of also expecting to happen with Smash Bros. once Sakurai retires presumably after Ultimate’s DLC Fighters are released but I digress.

I hope I'm wrong about all of this but as a final message I just want to say, no matter how frustrating this game can get, or how burnt out I can be from this game, this game also brought some of the best & most fun moments I’ve ever played in any game and in doing so gave me so much great memories that I will never forget. For that Jeff Kaplan, I just want to say...thank you.

PS yes I know I got Bronze, don't remind me. 😝

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