AndyB-11735

That was my mistake. Brain randomly inserted number.

And before the conspiracy theories start: just no

Hiya folks,

We’ve been working with LemonKiwi, ml7support, Jake, and W_NTED today on some balance adjustments for the current Experimental Card. I don’t have an ETA for implementation, nor the final change-log. As soon as we can share more information, we will.

The participating creators have been taking in a lot of feedback, and we’re working with them to make some adjustments that should address some of the current critical discussion.

LemonKiwi has been working with folks from our Hero balance & design team to make sure we’re adjusting tank values to feel more rewarding, while still preserving the spirit of the many well received changes she added in this Experimental Card. ml7, jake, and W_NTED have submitted several adjustments, and we’ll be fixing some bugs that cropped up since the card went live.

Don’t forget to check out the Experimental Creator Cup this weekend! You can find the official broadcast on either the ...

In gaming forum culture, it’s generally considered poor form to “necro” or revive old threads, as they usually contain information or content that’s either outdated or has been repeated many times in other discussions. It can also be confusing for a reader who wasn’t participating in the original conversation.

TLDR: If you have an updated opinion or take on the same topic, ask yourself if you should really revive an old conversation, or would it be better to start a new one.

I wanted to drop a note to say that I appreciate the conversation we’ve been having here. It’s an important one, and I think has been long overdue here on the forums.

I have been reading and processing all of your thoughts here. I understand the frustration some folks have expressed, and do sincerely appreciate the passion and dedication to this game and community. The fact that you care enough about the world we’ve built together to share your feelings with us is always a reminder that, ultimately, we all want the same thing.

We didn’t pay either Doc or Tim to stream today.

Just to clarify one thing: decisions like that aren’t made solely by me, without taking in feedback and listening to the concerns of my team, peers, and manager.

I’m not always going to make the right choice, and when I screw up I’ll accept accountability with the community. Also keep in mind that what is “right” to do can be completely subjective, based on where you’re looking at it from. It just so happens that Jodie and I’s viewpoint has to incorporate both the needs of the community, and the OW team.

Listen, I hear what you’re saying, but let’s put a pin in this and circle back offline. We really need to be thinking outside of the box here, and working to drive synergy across all verticals.

Excuse me now…I need a shower.

YouTube metrics and Twitch analytics are only a single data point in how we decide how to support creators.

My first 3 months on the job consisted of dozens of 1:1 calls with content creators from all backgrounds (among other things). During those calls, these creators shared with me what frustrates them, what they need from us, and what could be leading them to moving away from Overwatch content.

Anyone who has been in a management/leadership/vision setting position knows that strategies and their associated tactics take months to formulate, means test, and drive alignment behind. Taking in data from as many di...

I understand, and to be honest, I wish we could have a 1:1 relationship with every OW content creator in the same way we do with what roughly the top 15-20% of our creator community.

I mentioned this to you in another thread, but it’s on me to define how we support content creators at each step of their journey. Nothing else to share here, aside from that it’s something I’m working on.

This is something I agree with, and will take accountability for. I didn’t quite anticipate the creator response coming out of the call that folks are commonly referencing.

Moving forward we’ll be more discrete, so as not to build hype and excitement before it’s time.

There’s a certain point where what I say about what’s happening behind the scenes starts to spoil the efforts and countless hours of work of all of the people who would be involved in our major beats and announcements.

I’m not Mike Y, and don’t have the latitude to discuss certain things. I know y’all want news and information with more details. I’m not particularly keen on making promises without something of substance to show for it (yesterday’s statement notwithstanding).

I want to be very clear that the forum community isn’t made up of nobodies. Jodie and I devote a significant part of our weeks solely to forum interaction and feedback gathering.

It’s been great to get to know all of you over the last several months. Even the folks who like to consistently hold our feet to the flame are valued and respected, and I really look forward to the day we can finally meet some of you all, whenever events like BlizzCon end up returning.

Respectfully, this just isn’t true. The average player’s financial success doesn’t hinge on their relationship with the developers of any given game.

It’s not a zero sum question.

Players are important
Content creators are important

The way we serve the needs of these groups are different.

It’s a fair question.

The nature of the relationship between us and creators vs. us and the broader community is essentially apples and oranges. Our team (community) views content creators as professional partners, and we manage that relationship similar in nature to how we view our relationship with other business partners.

The difference is, these business partners have tied their success to not only the game, but also the community. We’ve been focusing on building trust and confidence from the creator community, improving communication, giving lead time so that they can prepare content to be ready in way that’s coordinated with our announcements and major news, and creating regular check-ins with both the community team and T4.

Their needs are very different, but ultimately everyone benefits if we have a better relationship with content creators. Players get timely content from their favorite channels, creators feel confident in building their audience and co...

Friend, contributing to the writing of prepared statements is an important part of a community manager’s job. We provide insight into how players will respond to what we say, and suggest edits that will hopefully sound less “PR” and more appropriate for players.

It’s a collaboration with multiple communications disciplines, which means there’s give and take on all ends.

CaptainPlanet shared some stats with us internally. I’ve not had the bandwidth to prioritize chasing down if we can share it publicly or not. I’ll try to ask about that this week.

This was a miss on my part. I should have noticed that there was a lack of developer notes and called that out before the notes were published, especially for changes like the Cassidy air roll, and the Wrecking Ball grapple.

Jodie and I will both be more vigilant about this in the future.

Practically speaking, if we announced this the day before, that’s all that would have driven conversation for the next 24 hours, rather than excitement around the new skins.

I’d much rather that myself and Jodie take it on the chin in a thread like this after the fact, than to do anything that would diminish excitement aro...