Overwatch 2 developers have learned to empathize with more ‘aggressive’ fans on social media, explaining during a recent interview why they still take time out of their day to interact with brash players online.
Regardless of which gaming community you come from, there’s no denying each and every corner of the internet has its more vocal and disruptive side. Given the passion many players have for their game of choice, it often lends to the occasional ‘aggressive’ outburst online.
While at first, this may be a shock to the system as developers can have to deal with an outpouring of criticism on the likes of Reddit and Twitter, something “magical” can come from it, as Overwatch 2 leads recently explained in a Q&A with press.
“They don’t think you’re listening, so they’ll try to hit you up with something aggressive or snarky, or a little bit rude,” Executive Producer Jared Neuss said. “You just respond like a person…because you’re a person. They immediately change tone.”
“People just want to be heard,” Neuss continued. “They want you to listen, they want to know that someone’s on the other end. So for us, I think it’s just been a lot of realizing how much people value that communication.”
It’s been a “learning process” over the past year since Overwatch 2 shifted the franchise to a seasonal model, Game Director Aaron Keller chimed in. Without any ‘off’ time, new content is constantly expected, and balance changes always in demand, it’s been a balancing act of its own for the dev team deciding when and how to best communicate their intentions with the community.
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“I think before Overwatch 2 launched, we were a little bit more hands-off with the community. We weren’t as transparent as we are now. And to be honest, some of that was out of fear. We didn’t want to give bad news to the community, or say something they might interpret as negative. We always wanted to be hyping up the things we were doing and having players respond in a positive way.
“When we launched Overwatch 2, we realized that’s not really transparent communication, that’s more just marketing. So what we want to do now is, we’d rather just be upfront with where we’re at.”
Nowadays, the devs are comfortable enough with their lines of communication, to the point they believe players are happier now with the steady stream of intel, even if it’s not all necessarily good news.
“Even if they don’t agree with our decisions, at least they know what they are and why we’re doing them,” Keller said.
