Overwatch head honcho Jeff Kaplan is among the most most open and approachable figures operating in the gaming industry today. Kaplan spends an excellent chunk of his time interacting with Overwatch fans on the Blizzard Forums, Twitter, and thru video updates, but even he admits handling demanding gamers might be a difficult and intimidating experience.
Recently, Overwatch fans have noted a decline in developer step to threads and questions about the Blizzard Forums, having a disgruntled few suggesting the group is understaffed, and even too lazy to correctly react to concerns. In a lengthy response, Kaplan rejected these notions and passed part of the blame into the sometimes-combative Overwatch community.
From Day 1, we considered an improvement team that communicated openly with our player base. [-] Of course, if you’ll i want to speak openly for a second – it’s scary. Overall, town is awesome to us. But there are many pretty mean individuals out there. Our own developers are free to post on these forums. Very few people begin doing because it is extremely intimidating and/or cumbersome. It is easy to write a different thing and create ‘promise’ on the community that none of us developed to make.
Also, because we’re also open along and don’t hide behind an anonymous handle (like all person possess the luxury of performing), we regularly times get personally attacked and threatened. Most great developers I know really love being head’s down making or playing games. The ‘public speaking/posting’ the main job is downright scary and intimidating. There are lots of feels like you cannot find any winning. [-] It isn’t just what exactly I will call a reliable environment for creative visitors to openly express their thoughts and feelings.
Overwatch players as well as game’s makers may have an occasionally-rocky relationship, but Kaplan assured fans the development team cares deeply for the game and community-
The day we announced Overwatch, the adventure belonged into a large community. So we truly do see ourselves because the custodians – not overlords – of the game and community. [-] We C the team C worry about literally every experience containing anything to apply OW. We care about where the button on screen goes, what sound it’ll make, what color it is actually. We love them about what the e-mail says to your player who’s just been banned. We love them about constantly seeking to improve ping times worldwide and server up time. We love them in what Mei says when she’s sad. We care about all 26 heroes equally.
We don’t often go through the folks that make our most popular games, but Kaplan’s post is really an eloquent reminder actually, in fact, real people, with real feelings. Hopefully, Kaplan’s honest response will enhance the tone between Overwatch’s fans and devs. Unfortunately, this is not exactly how things usually use the web.
How you think the lines of communication may just be improved involving the Overwatch community and Blizzard? Pontificate, below.
