Team fortress 2 sprays not in matchmaking

It is rare to see someone using a spray or taunt outside of the attack teamвЂ™s preparation stage. Overwatch is very much about active engagement on both sides rather than hardcore turtling on one side and waiting for an uber to pop on the other, and that makes for matches that feel fluid and close without feeling like a waste of timeвЂ¦ but it also leads to matches where thereвЂ™s not really an opportunity to use your spray or your taunt or your voice line because you are always needed somewhere on the battlefield just that second. The result is that things are frantic and action-packed from the word вЂgoвЂ™, and the game avoids a lot of the sitting around that happens in Team Fortress 2. It wants rounds that last long enough that the match feels like it has consequence and is something to get invested in, but short enough that youвЂ™re never more than ten or fifteen minutes from changing things up. It aims for a sweet spot somewhere between Team Fortress 2вЂ™s half-hour-to-an-hour battles and SplatoonвЂ™s 5 minute skirmishes. Overwatch, meanwhile, is paced much more tightly.

All of this leads to lots of time to socialize вЂ“ the game has some quiet time that lets players breathe a bit and allows for non-systems based interactions like sprays and taunts and chat to matter, and because matches are so long and prone to stalemating taking a few seconds to enter some text or put out a spray isnвЂ™t the end of the world. A TF2 match can last 40 minutes to an hour on official servers if thereвЂ™s an ongoing stalemate, with average matches of a lot of modes running twentyfive to thirty minutes. These quiet moments are amplified by the comparatively long length of the rounds. Maybe youвЂ™re an engie guarding your turret, maybe youвЂ™re a sniper sitting in his roost, maybe youвЂ™re a medic waiting for his uber to charge вЂ“ for a lot of classes there can be a surprising amount of sitting around in this fast paced online action game. Team Fortress games вЂ“ especially the earlier modes like capture the flag and control point вЂ“ tend to have a lot of down time. And I donвЂ™t know how much of this is intentional on either Valve or BlizzardвЂ™s part, but both games have several mechanics and interface choices that pull them in those specific directions. Or in more simple terms: TF2 is where you go to meet your friends, where Overwatch is a thing you do with your friends. Specifically, Team Fortress 2 focuses on creating a social space within the game whereas Overwatch tries to frame itself as a social activity. From its upbeat and cheery artstyle to its character-driven advertisement campaign to its mix of capture points, king of the hill, and payload objectives, to its core gameplay loops and class definitions, Overwatch is definitely BlizzardвЂ™s take on TF2.ДЄnd I find that interesting, because despite all of the similarities the two games end up creating radically different social spaces and ask players to approach them in very divergent ways.

That Overwatch is deeply influenced by TF2 is apparent when you sit down to play it. And, of course, then thereвЂ™s Overwatch: BlizzardвЂ™s attempt to transform, modernize, and streamline TF2.

Magic had its complicated land systems revamped to a deceptively simple game of escalating mana counts with Hearthstone, Everquest had its role playing wonkiness sanded down into World of Warcraft, and Defense of the Ancients was reworked to be the more accessible and player-friendly Heroes of the Storm. Blizzard has something of a tradition of taking a game someone else has made and polishing away the rough edges to make it their own вЂ“ they took the real time strategy game Dune and polished it into Warcraft.

Team fortress 2 sprays not in matchmaking