“Overwatch” is without doubt one of the most successful releases of this year, and the game did a lot to revive the shooter genre and pull it out of the modern military theme that was so prevalent over the last few years. The game did many things right, and Blizzard are rightly enjoying a lot of popularity for it, but the studio isn’t relying on the initial hype to keep things going – they have been very active in releasing updates and new content for the game too. They also keep experimenting with its core concepts, including the way the game is marketed, and there are rumors that they might try something special in this regard sometime soon.
Recently, reports popped up that the game contains strings related to a “trial mode”, such as “Sorry, the Overwatch Free Trial is not available at this time”. This strongly implies that a free trial mode could be coming to the game, or at least was being considered by Blizzard at some point. However, considering that the information only appeared in the game’s files recently, it sounds like this is a new development.
Of course, anyone who knows how software development works would be aware that this could be just a random mishap, and it’s possible that the files are from an older version of the game and accidentally made their way into the last update. We won’t know for sure unless Blizzard decide to address the situation (or if they actually released the Free Trial mode), and knowing how secretive the studio can be about these things, we don’t expect to hear much from them.
The company has also been addressing some interesting issues with the game, such as badmouthing players at the end of a match. It’s quite common for people on the winning team to spam the chat with “gg ez” (“Good game, easy”) at the end of a round, taunting their opponents for giving them such an easy time. The trend didn’t start with “Overwatch” and is popular in several other shooters, such as the “Call of Duty” franchise, but the game is a notable recent example.
After a recent patch, typing the above string into the chat results in the player saying something else, chosen from a list of random humorous lines, often implying immaturity for the player him/herself. Of course, some gamers actually found the idea funny and started to intentionally type the words so they could see a list of all funny things their characters cold say.
Some seem convinced that this was more of a joke from Blizzard rather than a serious attempt to curb badmouthing, because the phrase can still be typed in various different ways, and the game doesn’t actively try to check for its presence. Others are critical of the company’s attitude, claiming that they should leave players to behave as they wish and leave the community to sort out its own behavior.
That can’t realistically be expected in a game like “Overwatch” though, especially considering its popularity and the general audience of Blizzard’s games. Badmouthing players will always be there, and other than giving gamers tools like a mute button, there’s not much else the studio can do. According to some, they shouldn’t be trying to do anything else anyway, as it’s not their place.