The latest patch is now available for Overwatch‘s PC players, and a change is on the horizon. Blizzard has removed their “Avoid This Player” feature. Players were apparently abusing its purpose. It seems some were using the system to avoid online play against good opponents.
The developer explained their decision in the patch notes. The developer said this feature was designed with good intentions, but quickly grew into a different sort of beast. “Its not currently performing in a way that we feel is healthy for the game… the ‘Avoid This Player’ option has impacted the matchmaker in a negative way and led to some very poor player experiences.”
Game director Jeff Kaplan offered a specific example of the feature gone wrong in a forum post.
“One of the best Widowmaker players in the world complained to us about long queue times,” Kaplan said. “We looked into it and found that hundreds of other players had avoided him (he’s a nice guy – they avoided him because they did not want to play against him, not because of misbehavior). The end result was that it took him an extremely long time to find a match. The worst part was, by the time he finally got a match, he had been waiting so long that the system had ‘opened up’ to lower skill players. Now one of the best Widowmaker players was facing off against players at a lower skill level.”
The basic idea behind the change is an overall improvement of the game for everyone. It’s hard to argue against it. Blizzard has been great with updating Overwatch since its release. The developer obviously wants all of their players to enjoy the game. And as Overwatch quickly grows into one of the most popular new video games on the market, it’s safe to say that people are indeed enjoying it.
What do you think of Blizzard’s latest update news? Let us know in the comments below!
