Jeff Kaplan Shares His Thoughts on Power Creep in Overwatch
By Joseph Melillo | Jul 31, 2020, 12:40 PM EDT
Lead Designer for Overwatch, Jeff Kaplan, shared his thoughts on power creep in Overwatch on a Reddit AMA this week. Kaplan had some interesting thoughts on the state of the game and how the community is reacting to recent balance changes. The post pokes fun at the "echo chamber of the internet" saying, "'power creep is bad!'... 'btw buff roadhog, revert rein earthshatter nerf, buff pharah, you should TOTALLY be adding way more new heroes... and they all better do new cool stuff....' ... 'oh yeah and power creep is bad!"
In Overwatch 2, Mauga, Sanjay, and Dae-hyun can appear as New Heroes.
— Naeri X 나에리 (@OverwatchNaeri) July 31, 2020
Jeff Kaplan: absolutely. ana, doomfist, sombra are all examples of this...
Geoff Goodman: This is always a possibility! Ana is an example of a hero that came from the story. pic.twitter.com/XkDrnLZX6x
Often the gaming community gets torn between a properly balanced meta and new content, as Jeff Kaplan mentions. New heroes have to be powerful enough that they have sufficient pick rates while also being exciting to play. As a result, some older champions become outdated and either are buffed into absurdity or fade into obscurity.
The post later goes on to explain Kaplan's vision for the future of Overwatch. It states, "Personally, I prefer when the conversation is more focused. Is time to kill to fast? Do we feel like CC is too much? Too much/little healing? And then apply all of these to individual heroes....My personal feeling is that I would like to see less barriers and cc and see the game trend slightly more in the fps direction than the MOBA direction."
It will be interesting to see which direction Blizzard decides to push Overwatch in the near future. With Overwatch 2 on the horizon, it presents the perfect opportunity for Blizzard to make the meta-defining changes that will shape the game for the foreseeable future.