Like most of the entire planet I play a great deal of Overwatch but there’s a few things that I feel it’s missing, that I’d like to see added or changed. Some are minor, some are major, but I think the majority would unquestionably improve the game.

1. Don’t Punish Players Who Have A Leaver

I would state that at least one in three of my Overwatch matches, when I’m queueing for ranked, result in me having a leaver on my team. It isn’t rare, it’s incredibly annoying and makes winning near impossible at times. While I commend Blizzard for allowing players to freely leave a match without being punished, it absolutely boggles my mind to think that the remaining 5 players still suffer a loss to their ranking, if they do in fact leave. You’re effectively being punished for something completely out of your control and that, as far as I’m concerned, is ridiculous.

What’s frustrating about this, is that I’ve yet to read a single reason as to why this system is justified. I’ve heard the usual of, “Oh, it prevents one player in a group from leaving, to save their friends ranking” and while that might be the case, are we honestly punishing every player just because of this potential abuse?

Simply put, if you’re grouped with a friend and they leave a match, whomever is left that is grouped with them should receive a rank reduction if their team loses. Everyone else - outside of their group - should be free to leave without penalty of any kind.

Don’t like the risk of a friend causing you to lose rating if they disconnect? Simple: don’t group up with “friends” with a bad connection. It’s an instant fix to a situation that’s incredibly toxic and which makes climbing the ladder of Overwatch an incredibly frustrating experience.

2. Allow Us To Report Easier

There’s only a few instances when you can report a player and this, for the most part, is during your hero select. What’s frustrating about this is you can only do it back at base or at the end of a match however, as most people leave when the match has ended (before all the medals and accolades) you can’t always report someone. What we need is the ability to simply press Escape, see a typical scorecard and report a player by clicking on their name (similar to Heroes of the Storm).

The current system is incredibly sloppy and too long. Shortening it by making it easily accessible and having all players and their names viewable at all times would help a great deal in ensuring players who’re trolling, AFK or being abusive, get swiftly reported.

3. Hide Medals Until The End

One of the most frustrating things I encounter when playing Overwatch is listening to a Hanzo with 12 minutes of play time inform everyone how amazing he is because he has 3 gold medals. Not only that, but those 3 gold medals ensure he doesn’t need to swap on attack because he’s “doing awesome”. To point out the obvious, medals are largely meaningless. They don’t help with a solid composition, they aren’t indicative of your team winning and they aren’t any representation of a player's ability on a specific hero. Using them as such a benchmark is ridiculous and yet I see it constantly.

As far as I’m concerned, you don’t need to see any statistics of your play as you play (certainly not represented as a medal) and instead, such details should be hidden until the end of the match. It encourages players to stay in game after a round ends to see how they did and it prevents any of the nonsense above.

4. Open Workshop Submissions

At the moment there’s a massive lack of weapon skins in Overwatch. I think that’s a real shame and yet for Blizzard to develop skins for all heroes, alongside everything else they have to do, is a lot to ask. There absolutely should be more weapon skins in Overwatch and I think opening this up to the community would be amazing. Team Fortress 2 perfectly demonstrates how creative players can be, so why not let the Overwatch player base have a go?

Blizzard could open up a website where submissions are made, reviewed or up-voted by the community, and those at the top would be added to the game. Even if they weren’t available in loot crates, they could be available as end of season rewards (lord knows the current rewards are terrible) or as special community purchases.

Regardless of how they’re obtained, allowing the community to aid in making equipable weapons would add some much needed variety to hero appearances.

5. Improve Support Heroes

I adore playing support heroes in video games and yet the majority in Overwatch are incredibly passive. For the most part, their depth is linked solely to positioning and while I’m largely fine with that, it’s fair to say most are played less than other roles simply because they aren’t as engaging.

Mercy is a perfect example of this with her gameplay often involving nothing more than hide and seek, while holding down the left or right mouse button. Despite her value (which is undeniable) it’s not particularly exciting. In fact, it's downright dull at times. 

With that in mind, I’ve love to see some of their kits revisited so greater depth is available. For example, why can’t Ana’s basic attack heal for more when scoped, or gain a healing over time component the longer you look down your sight? Why can’t Mercy actively boost her healing output by causing damage from her pistol? Why can't Ana hold her Sleep Dart pistol out, instead of it instantly firing the moment she presses the button (surely this would give her greater control and accuracy?).

There’s lots of potential for improving what we already have to make them more active and more involving. Ana and Mercy are prime candidates to see revisions.


What would you like to see added to Overwatch? Let me know. 


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Last Updated: Mar 13, 2017

About The Author

Lewis is a long standing journalist, who freelances to a variety of outlets.

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