John UM
“watching Pioneer” was born in a troubled world It’s not that the outside soldiers are in a mess, but their father’s Blizzard is in a hurry
Many people know that Watching Pioneer is made from the scrap of a Blizzard’s failed work. Blizzard started the “Titan Plan” in 2007 and convened the most talented gamers in the world. It took seven years, but it ushered in a big defeat, and even a formal LOGO was not released
When the Titans were officially announced, Blizzard President Mike Morhaime explained that the game was not good enough. “We can’t find fun, we can’t find motivation.”
For the management, the failure of the Titan may only be equivalent to the loss of 50 million US dollars, but for the producers of the first line, this is a terrible collapse, everyone is under tremendous pressure and begins to self-denial
Former Blizzard creative director Mason recalled, “We can’t make a game that we want, and we can’t even agree on the future development of this game.” , 16 years Mason chose to retire, basically because of the mental anxiety of the Titan project
After the event, “Titan” almost became the banned word of Blizzard, reflecting on it, no matter the outside world feels:
Blizzard overestimated himself
After the material of Titan was returned to the furnace, the “Watching Pioneer” project was put on the agenda. The indulgence of the producers found a vent. Watching Pioneer Director Jeff Kaplan. Feeling a thousand, “It is “watching pioneer” to make this team unite again!”
However, aside from the unknown development process, the release of “Watching Pioneer” is not smooth
In 2014, Blizzard applied for a trademark for “Watching Pioneer” and found that “OVERWATCH” was pre-registered in 2013 by Innvois of Arkansas. The US Patent and Trademark Office also rejected Blizzard’s complaint
After a few months, Blizzard finally signed a gentleman’s agreement with Innovis. Each step will not invade each other. Otherwise, the name of the game will not be maintained (directly called Ass Pioneer?)
In 2014, at the Blizzcon Carnival, “Watching Pioneer” was finally made public, and the team members in the audience were so excited that they couldn’t speak. At that moment, they were relieved, but they were destined to face even greater challenges: “Watching Pioneer” is no longer a spare tire. It is
“How should this game develop in the future?” The question of “unable to reach a consensus” on the Titan and almost killing Blizzard in the past was once again in front of “Watching Pioneer.”
However, the “Watching Pioneer” teacher has greatly diluted this worry, and the short eight days of global public beta attracted 9.7 million players to participate
On the Carnival, someone asked: “What makes OW stand out from other FPS?” One of Jeff Kaplan’s answers is. Art style
There is no doubt that the art of the watchman is a plus item for the initial promotion. The domestic market has not been tested first, and the virus marketing of “sucking ass” has been overwhelming. After the test, it was a wave of “no ass to play, I am going to die”, and finally lived up to expectations. At the end of December 16th, Guangguo District sold more than 5 million copies
As of today, the character model and art design of “Watching Pioneer” are still very popular, and the degree of discussion on the skin is very high, and the search ranking on the Sechen website is high
Can escape the first day, hide from fifteen, how to continue the hot game, where should OW go? This issue will always plague Jeff and his team, and is largely determined by their operational thinking
“Watching Pioneer” is still in the test stage, a player said in the official forum that the hunting posture of the empty hunting is too sexy, and her daughter likes to play OW, not wanting her to be bad
Jeff personally responded: “We will replace this position and hope that ‘everyone’ will receive attention and respect.” The community players blasted a pot, and various surveys at home and abroad showed that everyone was dissatisfied with Jeff’s rash decision
Use our words here, “The people love to see, you don’t like it, how old are you?”
Although the game of hunting and replacing positions is more of a compromise made by Blizzard as a game maker on “political correctness”,Can the Blizzard team really respect and value “everyone” when operating and modifying games? Obviously it is very difficult
Some people say that Blizzard is too cold, not eating human fireworks, which is not very appropriate on the watch pioneer, they try to communicate with the players, and even so timid
Jeff repeatedly stressed in a long article last October that his team is afraid to talk to players too much because they are facing. Intimidation, threats and even dismissal. Risks of. If so, how much useful information can be conveyed?
To be honest, Blizzard’s team lacks the maintenance experience of FPS and MOBA games. If it is RTS, if it is MMO, but MOBA-based FPS? Everything is difficult
The most obvious manifestation is the slow update rhythm of “Watching Pioneer”. Looking back now, many people regret why OW failed to update the game content in the hottest time, but dragged it down until it was “cool” to wake up?
I don’t want to update, I probably don’t dare to update Jeff mentioned in an interview that OW is a MOBA-based FPS game. Players need to master most of the hero’s characteristics in order to cope with the situation. At once, the player’s learning cost will be high (it is difficult to get started)
And their team is more inclined to enrich the background story, culture, character, personality and other aspects while considering the balance of the new hero
This means that Watching Pioneer will take a long time to shape a new hero. However, MOBA is cruel. Once the new hero fails to recognize the public and finds its own position, it will immediately become “useless.” “The dilemma, waiting for the next return to the furnace
In the “Fighting Pioneer” time and time again, it is difficult for players to gain pleasure, and nothing new to stimulate the nerves. Free trials are more like a way to complete KPIs. Instead, they have made the fisherman’s paradise, only beautiful. The skin is not able to keep the masses of players
So, Blizzard’s “high cold” performance is conservative in the way of doing things, he is still the craftsman who must produce fine products, but I don’t know if it is the drag of time or the shadow of failure, which makes him suddenly confused: now the players are Thinking about?
In all fairness, isn’t “watching pioneer” a good game in production? The most blizzard evaluation is probably “the quality of the game is really good, all aspects are very like, it is not fun.”
Watching is a new IP that is completely independent of the previous Blizzard style, and Blizzard should give it a more active mind and future. , and he would rather send the hero of the watch to the graveyard and complete the closed loop of the Blizzard family
Also like the openness to pop culture and peers. , look at the “Fortress Night” next door. The re-election just finalized the cooperation, joined the infinite glove mode, caught the hearts of young players, “Fortress Night” will follow and “Black Action” The “walking dead” linkage, the road went very wide
Today I saw the design of the big touch, and moved the “Witcher 3” to the watchman. The message below the foreign website has been asked for a guest, even if it is a small activity, but with the toe, Blizzard definitely does not Will adopt
The game is big but the era, when the “watching pioneer” heats down, need to calm down and think about how to enhance the ordinary player experience, he was forced to charge for Blizzard’s e-sports layout
In order to watch the Vanguard League (OWL), Blizzard made a desperate effort to almost completely use the money to come up with a match against LOL and DOTA. The seat fee for the second season has reached 3,000 to 60 million US dollars
OWL Will it be successful in the future? No one is right, but for the “young” “watching pioneer” itself, OWL brings opportunities, but also like a burden of billions of dollars, the future maintenance ideas will certainly tilt toward e-sports
There is another week, “Watching Pioneer” is about to celebrate its second anniversary celebration. I really don’t like to use “cool” to describe OW, because he is hot in the world, as a buyout. The game has been successful enough, but as a player, I regret that he has not been able to run faster and is struggling with the will of the parties
Watching Pioneer: “Blizzard Dad, do you know how much I have suffered in the past two years?”
Blizzard: “Don’t worry, you look at the fate of the next move, 2, China has not yet been online, it has cooled 2 DLC.”
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