For all the interest in Overwatch 2’s apparently really great Stadium mode, I haven’t seen all that much positive feedback on the new hero ban system in competitive. What I have seen is a very grumpy husband who absolutely loathes the system and has a fresh rant about it every night. He has a range of characters he’s gotten really good at, probably Hammond most of all – and since most Ball players suck, he finds his best character banned constantly. He’s even been ban-griefed by people on his own team; one night, he sat back in his chair and congratulated Blizzard on somehow managing to find a brand-new, totally self-inflicted way to inject toxicity into the game.
An eloquent player on the official forums provides even more context: The hero bans basically give low-skill players the power to block characters for dumb reasons, which disproportionately affects high-skill specialized players.
“Players who approach the game strategically and properly (specialize in 2-3 heroes per role based on specific maps and team comps) are punished more by bans. […] Hero bans unintentionally penalize those who invest time and skill into playing the game as intended, effectively punishing correct play rather than rewarding it. So it actually rewards bad play, and punishes good play in the name of ‘fair’ and ‘punishing 1 tricks.’ I am not worried about the intent, I am worried about the strays that are gonna hit other people.”
Obviously, Overwatch 2 is not an MMO, but I could easily imagine stuff like this spilling over into not just MMORPG PvP but PvE. It’s not at all out of the realm of possibility that we could see MMOs’ “complete this encounter without healing” achievements turn into “complete this encounter without healers” achievements. Hell, maybe something like that is already out there and I just don’t know about it.
Let’s talk about it: Where do you stand on hero bans and similar rulesets in multiplayer games? Do you think it’s acceptable in some multiplayer games, like team shooters, but not others, like MMOs? Where have you seen it work?
Every morning, the Massively Overpowered writers team up with mascot Mo to ask MMORPG players pointed questions about the massively multiplayer online roleplaying genre. Grab a mug of your preferred beverage and take a stab at answering the question posed in today’s Daily Grind!
