• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Overwatch Sombra ARG - No one is ready for Sombra [Up2: New Model Leaks]

This whole 'ARG' is just.. lame. Once I saw the website counter I lost all interest. It was obvious they were holding her back for pre-Blizzcon hype.

Blizzard listened to the complaints from the Summer games and made all Halloween cosmetics available with the in-game currency. No real world cash needed.

Lol, at three times the normal price for the other skins.. They are definitely trying to push people towards spending money.
 
Lol, at three times the normal price for the other skins.. They are definitely trying to push people towards spending money.

Huh?

How is "only available with real world cash" to "also available with in game currency" a push towards people spending real money?

So it's an expensive item? So what? I don't have to spend a dime to obtain it.
 
Blizzard listened to the complaints from the Summer games and made all Halloween cosmetics available with the in-game currency. No real world cash needed.

Yes they improved one thing about their shitty gatcha box system. The excitement is still blunted by the drop rates, the slow acquisition of crates and credits and the lengthening grind to earn them. As I said, it's designed to frustrate you into paying more money. I did not say that you are forced to buy them. Them nudging forward the worst case scenario from 'you can't get any of the items you actually want until next year' to 'well at least you can maybe get enough credits for one premium skin' is an improvement, I guess.

To the point that this is about Blizzard's delivery of new content, the effects of cosmetic expansion is only really felt by people spending quite a lot of money on top of their purchase price. Unexciting, just like this crummy viral advertising countdown-to-patch-day stunt mistaken by reddit for an ARG for Sombra.
 
Huh?

How is "only available with real world cash" to "also available with in game currency" a push towards people spending real money?

So it's an expensive item? So what? I don't have to spend a dime to obtain it.

Because it really isn't feasible to grind out 15k currency just for the legendary skins in the update before 11/1. That's the whole reason why they made them three times as much as base skins. They hope the playerbase gets near the end of the event, are still missing a couple skins they want, so they try to get them through lootboxes. I've seen tons of people already saying they're buying boxes at the end if they don't get the skins they want. Both of my roommates already dropped $20 cause they don't want to grind out currency or free boxes, or wait until next year to maybe get another chance at buying one.
 
Yes they improved one thing about their shitty gatcha box system. The excitement is still blunted by the drop rates, the slow acquisition of crates and credits and the lengthening grind to earn them. As I said, it's designed to frustrate you into paying more money. I did not say that you are forced to buy them. Them nudging forward the worst case scenario from 'you can't get any of the items you actually want until next year' to 'well at least you can maybe get enough credits for one premium skin' is an improvement, I guess.

To the point that this is about Blizzard's delivery of new content, the effects of cosmetic expansion is only really felt by people spending quite a lot of money on top of their purchase price. Unexciting, just like this crummy viral advertising countdown-to-patch-day stunt mistaken by reddit for an ARG for Sombra.

We're getting pretty far off the main topic here, but I'd like you to elaborate on some points here.

Mainly:
"the slow acquisition of crates and credits and the lengthening grind to earn them."

Worst case scenario, the game takes a little less than 1 hour of real world time to level up, and thus get a free loot box. Every 100 levels you get the equivalent of an XP boost, which lets you get about 25 levels in about 11 hours worth of play time. or what blizzard prices at $19.99 USD.

Because it really isn't feasible to grind out 15k currency just for the legendary skins in the update before 11/1. That's the whole reason why they made them three times as much as base skins. They hope the playerbase gets near the end of the event, are still missing a couple skins they want, so they try to get them through lootboxes. I've seen tons of people already saying they're buying boxes at the end if they don't get the skins they want. Both of my roommates already dropped $20 cause they don't want to grind out currency or free boxes, or wait until next year to maybe get another chance at buying one.

This is not a game where every person needs to own every cosmetic item. Having to choose one item over the other 5 isn't that bad. It comes of very entitled to think that you should just be handed all the new goodies, just because.
 
We're getting pretty far off the main topic here, but I'd like you to elaborate on some points here.

Mainly:
"the slow acquisition of crates and credits and the lengthening grind to earn them."

Worst case scenario, the game takes a little less than 1 hour of real world time to level up, and thus get a free loot box. Every 100 levels you get the equivalent of an XP boost, which lets you get about 25 levels in about 11 hours worth of play time. or what blizzard prices at $19.99 USD.

Okay, so I'm supposed to grind from 70-100 so I can prestige and then still grind for another 11 hours to probably get a few of the skins at most? You basically just elaborated upon how slow it is.

This is not a game where every person needs to own every cosmetic item. Having to choose one item over the other 5 isn't that bad. It comes of very entitled to think that you should just be handed all the new goodies, just because.

That's totally subjective. I dabble with every character almost, especially with the ones in this event. I want all of them, but Blizzard is going to make sure that's almost impossible without spending some money. You can think it's an entitled opinion, but I just value my time. I'm not asking for everything for free, I'm asking for it to be easier than it currently is; because this isn't a f2p title. I have the same issue with the new Gears.
 
Okay, so I'm supposed to grind from 70-100 so I can prestige and then still grind for another 11 hours to probably get a few of the skins at most? You basically just elaborated upon how slow it is.

Yes, because Overwatch is obviously a Grindfest... That's how you play the game. When I log in tonight, I plan on grinding out some XP so I can level up. As an unfortunate side effect, I'm going to have to play the game, but I'll have to suffer through so I can knock out all that grinding.

That's totally subjective. I dabble with every character almost, especially with the ones in this event. I want all of them, but Blizzard is going to make sure that's almost impossible without spending some money.

It still sounds entitled.
 
Okay, so I'm supposed to grind from 70-100 so I can prestige and then still grind for another 11 hours to probably get a few of the skins at most? You basically just elaborated upon how slow it is.



That's totally subjective. I dabble with every character almost, especially with the ones in this event. I want all of them, but Blizzard is going to make sure that's almost impossible without spending some money. You can think it's an entitled opinion, but I just value my time. I'm not asking for everything for free, I'm asking for it to be easier than it currently is; because this isn't a f2p title. I have the same issue with the new Gears.

-You don't want to spend money
-You don't want to play enough to get them without spending money
-You still want all of them

This seems like it's your issue, not theirs. I mean to some people (including me) It's worth throwing Blizzard some cash because I love the game and want some cool cosmetics. That's my choice. Blizzard has to keep up the revenue stream somehow if they want to keep supporting the game. Some of us don't mind spending money on cosmetics. If you do that's fine. But you are not entitled to every cosmetic item, that's just something you'll have to learn to live with.
 
Yes, because Overwatch is obviously a Grindfest... That's how you play the game. When I log in tonight, I plan on grinding out some XP so I can level up. As an unfortunate side effect, I'm going to have to play the game, but I'll have to suffer through so I can knock out all that grinding.



It still sounds entitled.

Lol, the fact that there is this much grinding in a game I already paid $60 for is my whole issue. I've already put 70 something hours into it and I plan on putting in many more, but it's because I'm having fun, not grinding out xp for chances at randomized bottom-tier emblems and sprays. I'm down to put in time, but not when the system so blatantly steers you towards spending real currency.

You're literally telling me to play non-stop for the rest of the month in order to get the skins I want as if that's some sort of sane request. We're way off base here, though, so lets agree to disagree. I'll keep playing it casually, for fun, and complaining about the shitty loot system.
 
Lol, the fact that there is this much grinding in a game I already paid $60 for is my whole issue. I've already put 70 something hours into it and I plan on putting in many more, but it's because I'm having fun, not grinding out xp for chances at randomized bottom-tier emblems and sprays. I'm down to put in time, but not when the system so blatantly steers you towards spending real currency.

You're literally telling me to play non-stop for the rest of the month in order to get the skins I want as if that's some sort of sane request. We're way off base here, though, so lets agree to disagree. I'll keep playing it casually, for fun, and complaining about the shitty loot system.

I don't think I've ever seen a "we're off-topic, so we'll agree to disagree" post that had more condescension or final "I'm actually right, of course" comments. Jesus.
 
Worst case scenario, the game takes a little less than 1 hour of real world time to level up, and thus get a free loot box. Every 100 levels you get the equivalent of an XP boost, which lets you get about 25 levels in about 11 hours worth of play time.

On a good day I'm earning ~3k exp per win, at a 10~15 minute per match rate. That's significantly slower than your 'worst case scenario.' Your point about grinding to 100 for a temporary exp boost elaborates my statement about a lengthening grind better than I can.

You and another poster wanted to list the cosmetics we 'got' as part of their content releases. I'm saying the cosmetics barely count, since the majority of the desirable stuff is locked up behind their garbage f2p lootcrates. The stuff that counts more is the stuff that is actually free, like characters (yay Ana), maps (yay Eich) and playmodes (MEH). My initial post in this new activity in this thread simply rates the quality of the content, of which the cosmetics ranks somewhere near the bottom, due entirely to the means and rate of acquisition. Given that track record, I only really have Sombra (and whatever gets announced at BlizzCon) to look forward to.
 
I've already put 70 something hours into it and I plan on putting in many more, but it's because I'm having fun, not grinding out xp for chances at randomized bottom-tier emblems and sprays.
Well if you're having fun isn't that enough? Do you really need all the skins? And if you've been playing for 70 hours shouldn't you have enough coins to buy the skin(s) you want by now?
 
I thought more Sombra stuff got released, instead people are talking about grinding (???) to get RNG-skins for a game they don't even like. What in the world.

There is no grind in this game for anything but competitive points. It's a PVP game, first and foremost.
 
Well if you're having fun isn't that enough? Do you really need all the skins? And if you've been playing for 70 hours shouldn't you have enough coins to buy the skin(s) you want by now?

Kinda like to spend my currency on other skins I like. I wasn't aware they were going to be charging three times as much for the event. I do only play for fun, I'm just frustrated with how slow the unlocks are. That doesn't take away from my enjoyment of actually playing the game -- it's a totally separate complaint. I like to have skins and wish they were easier to unlock. And, honestly, in those 70-something hours of play I've gotten maybe 5k currency total, with a big chunk of that coming from boxes I actually purchased.

I thought more Sombra stuff got released, instead people are talking about grinding (???) to get RNG-skins for a game they don't even like. What in the world.

There is no grind in this game for anything but competitive points. It's a PVP game, first and foremost.

Nowhere in my posts did I say I didn't enjoy playing the game. All of my complaints have been with how slow the loot system is. I enjoy the game or else I wouldn't have put this much time and money in already.

I don't think I've ever seen a "we're off-topic, so we'll agree to disagree" post that had more condescension or final "I'm actually right, of course" comments. Jesus.

His option was for me to grind out games for literal days to get a chance (not guarantee) at some skins, sorry that I don't want to do that. Didn't really feel like I was being condescending trying to end the argument, we obviously don't agree.
 
Kinda like to spend my currency on other skins I like. I wasn't aware they were going to be charging three times as much for the event. I do only play for fun, I'm just frustrated with how slow the unlocks are. That doesn't take away from my enjoyment of actually playing the game -- it's a totally separate complaint. I like to have skins and wish they were easier to unlock. And, honestly, in those 70-something hours of play I've gotten maybe 5k currency total, with a big chunk of that coming from boxes I actually purchased.

I mean do you prefer that skins are locked to crates only and cant be purchased with credits like summer games? Atleast they are improving the game as time goes on; theres a reason this game has 20 million players.. because they are listening to the community
 
On a good day I'm earning ~3k exp per win, at a 10~15 minute per match rate. That's significantly slower than your 'worst case scenario.' Your point about grinding to 100 for a temporary exp boost elaborates my statement about a lengthening grind better than I can.

Almost all of overwatch's XP is based on time played.

You get 3.5xp per second of playing overwatch. So a 5 minute game gets you half as much xp as a 10 minutes game.

That said, there are several XP bonuses that can be earned. XP based on the post game medals you earn, finishing the match, victories, back fill, consecutive matches, and first win of the day all net you a chunk of XP to go on top of your time based XP.

Then, on top of that is the +20% bonus of playing with somebody else.

Basically, XP isn't really much of a variable. It's almost entirely tied to play time. The people who are going to level slower are people who have worse than a 50/50 win rate, rage quit, and solo queue.

As an anecdote, I am currently level 297 with 220 hours of play. So roughly 1 level per 53 minutes of play time. I should note that I solo queue about 75% of the time.
 
So anyway, back to Sombra. I'm betting once the countdown (countup) is complete it will then go to something like "installing" or "initialising" instead of the upload/download thing it's doing now and that thing will last until Blizzcon.
 
I mean do you prefer that skins are locked to crates only and cant be purchased with credits like summer games? Atleast they are improving the game as time goes on; theres a reason this game has 20 million players.. because they are listening to the community

I agree that the decision to make them purchasable was a good one. However, making them 3x the amount of basic skins was a little too far. I would be okay with even 1.5k for event based skins. Asking for 3k a pop when there are 5 legendaries alone is steep as hell. It feels designed to trap players into spending more money imo.
 
Okay, so I'm supposed to grind from 70-100 so I can prestige and then still grind for another 11 hours to probably get a few of the skins at most? You basically just elaborated upon how slow it is.



That's totally subjective. I dabble with every character almost, especially with the ones in this event. I want all of them, but Blizzard is going to make sure that's almost impossible without spending some money. You can think it's an entitled opinion, but I just value my time. I'm not asking for everything for free, I'm asking for it to be easier than it currently is; because this isn't a f2p title. I have the same issue with the new Gears.
i play alot at times, and other times i dont play at all. I hit level 325 already. Im not going to lie as i cant, that at times i do play a fuckload, we go all night on the weekiends sometimes, but there was like a 3 week period where i didnt play at all.

Grinding level isnt all that bad. Competitive gives y ou alot of points towards the level. Brawls do as well, plus they are fairly fast. You can get crates so easy in this game. I have spent 0 dollars outside of the 40 dollar purchase for the orgins edition game (thanks to Amazon for giving me the 20 bucks back. lol
 
So anyway, back to Sombra. I'm betting once the countdown (countup) is complete it will then go to something like "installing" or "initialising" instead of the upload/download thing it's doing now and that thing will last until Blizzcon.

I would not be surprised if the announcement or reveal is delayed to Blizzcon which would be disappointing because I hope it gets released and Blizzard announces other things beside Sombra at Blizzcon.
 
I agree that the decision to make them purchasable was a good one. However, making them 3x the amount of basic skins was a little too far. I would be okay with even 1.5k for event based skins. Asking for 3k a pop when there are 5 legendaries alone is steep as hell. It feels designed to trap players into spending more money imo.

Its an event; some things in the game are meant to be limited or hard to obtain. Compare the game to league of legends where the only option to buy skins is through real $$$ or RNG through crates that are 10x harder to obtain. I think the current model is PERFECT the way it is. You can either 1) Buy loot boxes 2) Play the game (Which you should be doing if you enjoy it.) I play about 4-5 competitive games a night and get AT LEAST one loot box. The event lasts from Oct 11- Nov 1, so thats about 1 crate a day just from 4-5 games a day. You can pretty much obtain every halloween skin at that rate.
 
It'll be like the Metal Gear Solid Rising and Peace Walker countdown. Once it reaches 100 it will load a new countdown with a different background or some more crazy Spanish lines.

As much shit as I give Konami's announcement of announcements, this one was amazing. Big Boss showing up was so fucking great.
 
i play alot at times, and other times i dont play at all. I hit level 325 already. Im not going to lie as i cant, that at times i do play a fuckload, we go all night on the weekiends sometimes, but there was like a 3 week period where i didnt play at all.

Grinding level isnt all that bad. Competitive gives y ou alot of points towards the level. Brawls do as well, plus they are fairly fast. You can get crates so easy in this game. I have spent 0 dollars outside of the 40 dollar purchase for the orgins edition game (thanks to Amazon for giving me the 20 bucks back. lol

I'm only rank 70 or 71 right now and it feels fairly slow at this point. I realize prestiging resets xp caps but I just play too casually to rely on that mechanic often. If you play a ton, you'll have no problem with loot boxes. For the casual player, it doesn't seem that way imo. I've spent about $40 on loot boxes on top of my origins and still don't have much to show for. :p

Its an event; some things in the game are meant to be limited or hard to obtain. Compare the game to league of legends where the only option to buy skins is through real $$$ or RNG through crates that are 10x harder to obtain. I think the current model is PERFECT the way it is.

Oh I totally abhor their payment model so I 100% agree with you there. Most MOBA's rub me the wrong way, though, in regards to monetization. The current OW system is definitely better, but not great. (imo)
 
I'm only rank 70 or 71 right now and it feels fairly slow at this point. I realize prestiging resets xp caps but I just play too casually to rely on that mechanic often. If you play a ton, you'll have no problem with loot boxes. For the casual player, it doesn't seem that way imo. I've spent about $40 on loot boxes on top of my origins and still don't have much to show for. :p



Oh I totally abhor their payment model so I 100% agree with you there. Most MOBA's rub me the wrong way, though, in regards to monetization. The current OW system is definitely better, but not great. (imo)

It should be worth noting that Overwatch's in-game currency becomes crazy abundant around level 150-180. By this point in the game you've gotten a fair amount of the in game items already, so you'll start opening boxes that have more duplicates than new items, and these duplicates turn into currency on the spot.

Thus, money starts flowing like crazy for your own specific purchases.

So it's quite possible the 3K per item thing is for a demographic that isn't you, but rather people who've started hording tons of in-game cash with little to spend it on.
 
So anyway, back to Sombra. I'm betting once the countdown (countup) is complete it will then go to something like "installing" or "initialising" instead of the upload/download thing it's doing now and that thing will last until Blizzcon.

There's a Sombra candy sticking out of the Halloween lootboxes though, displayed fairly prominently too.

bd39113c2bea983740849fc42d38f478-ow-lootbox-halloween-mobile-1280x720.jpg
 
It should be worth noting that Overwatch's in-game currency becomes crazy abundant around level 150-180. By this point in the game you've gotten a fair amount of the in game items already, so you'll start opening boxes that have more duplicates than new items, and these duplicates turn into currency on the spot.

Thus, money starts flowing like crazy for your own specific purchases.

So it's quite possible the 3K per item thing is for a demographic that isn't you, but rather people who've started hording tons of in-game cash with little to spend it on.

Yeah, I can see myself hurting way more than someone who puts a ton of time into the game, but I'm still a little unhappy with it. Still going to enjoy the game, though. ;)

Sorry if I seemed aggressive earlier, didn't mean to be whatsoever.
 
Yeah, I can see myself hurting way more than someone who puts a ton of time into the game, but I'm still a little unhappy with it. Still going to enjoy the game, though. ;)

Sorry if I seemed aggressive earlier, didn't mean to be whatsoever.

No problems man. You never came off as disrespectful. We both got a little "unprofessional" here and there, but no harm at all.
 
Weird that we're getting more new heroes than new maps.

The latter should be their priority. More heroes just confuses things and makes the game harder to break into.

Ehh, heroes is what people want, which is perfectly sensible when this game has more in common with MOBAs than say COD or Halo. And it really isn't hard to break into by it's very nature.
 
It should be worth noting that Overwatch's in-game currency becomes crazy abundant around level 150-180. By this point in the game you've gotten a fair amount of the in game items already, so you'll start opening boxes that have more duplicates than new items, and these duplicates turn into currency on the spot.

Thus, money starts flowing like crazy for your own specific purchases.

So it's quite possible the 3K per item thing is for a demographic that isn't you, but rather people who've started hording tons of in-game cash with little to spend it on.
yeah, i dont have all the skins for the holloween one, but there are only 2 left i want, reaper and ana. Ana won ill get with coins easy peasy, but the Reaper one is going to be tough for me. Ill play a fair amount and if i dont have it by the day the event ends, im going to buy crates. lol.

They want people to -play alot to get the skins, there is nothing wrong with that. They want you to put time into the game for the cool shit.
 
If it starts to "install" with a progress bar leading up to Blizzcon, nobody is ever going to pay attention to any ARG with the Overwatch devs.
 
Well it's on 99.1 something % right now so something should happen soonish at some point unless the download/upload rate slows even more which could happen, we don't know if Sombra's housemates will start trying to stream 4k Netflix or something and take all of her tiny bandwidth.
 
Top Bottom