If you are one of those “Overwatch” PTR users who has wondered why you’ve never seen Blizzard offer up any incentives for using the test phase, then you should know there are more likeminded people out there than you might have thought. One such user recently took to the Blizzard forums to ask the company directly why they aren’t offering any kind of encouragement for players to treat the testing phase as though it were indeed a testing phase.
The problem is that there are plenty of people who use the PTR in a way that doesn’t really take help to iron out problems in the game, or even catch them ahead of time.
Some players are simply using the PTR as a way to brush up on their skills. This use of the “Overwatch” PTR as a training ground ruins the experience for others who are really trying to do what Blizzard intended.
The ‘Overwatch’ PTR doesn’t feel good to play
The Blizzard forum user Capfoo is the one who brought the question to the forefront. They commented that, “it seems like the PTR is just an excuse to play abysmally, and to play heroes you would never normally play, and to just play really awful team comps that just do not work.” The user went on to say that they feel the reason the PTR is getting played like this more and more is because the “Overwatch” devs aren’t offering any kind of incentive to use the mode the right way.
Capfoo suggested something like offering a golden lootbox every now and then would go a long way towards getting people to actually test new content, settings and characters in a way that made sense. The user also suggested some kind of currency, or “really anything” would go a long way in showing the Blizzard team cared.
‘Overwatch’ director responds directly
In an effort to show that Blizzard is really listening to the people who play the game, Jeff Kaplan, the director of “Overwatch” took it upon himself to answer the post. While he didn’t provide a ton of information, he did make it clear making the PTR better is a goal of the development team.
Kaplan said the team has been “wrestling” with making the correct choice and gave one example of an idea the team has come up with that they can’t quite figure out how to implement. “The same people who would work on match history or replay features would be required to work on making EXP carry over from the PTR to your main account.”
Finally, Kaplan cut off the inevitable response of “you should just hire more people to work on “Overwatch” quickly. The game’s director posted a posting on Blizzard’s official site showing the team is indeed looking for more applicants.