Blizzard has released a large and much talked about update to Overwatch today. And this should come as no shock to anyone well familiar with the gaming community, there are controversies. One of the concerns (albeit relatively mild) is regarding the game’s new XP system.
So here’s how it works. Once a player reaches the level cap, which is 100 and is further promoted – the player starts again from level 1 – the current rate at which in-game levels are cleared will no longer be as fast as for those levelling from 1 onwards as a fresh player, or as the community would call him/her, a n00b.
For a better explanation, Overwatch players were reaching level 100 after a massive hard grind through its levels, acquiring numerous loot boxes at an extremely sluggish pace, only to be showered with them as they progressed rapidly from 1 all the way to 23. Now, once you have been promoted, each of these levels will be requiring 20,000 XP and will also no longer reset and have to start over.
The manner in which Blizzard explained everything in the patch notes is fairly simple:
While [the previous system] has worked pretty well so far, it’s also encouraged some people to stop playing the game after they’re promoted—hoping to save those first 23 levels for a seasonal event.
Game director Jeff Kaplan resorted to the Battle.net forums to further defend the move.
Overall, the EXP change should be a benefit to the player base, had this change been in effect for the Halloween Terror event we would have given out MORE loot boxes. More players would have gotten more stuff.
This change has nothing to do with a desire on our part to drive more or less interest in loot box sales. This change is to prevent players from binge behavior or halting play… and to prevent players who are not close to prestiging from feeling like they somehow missed out on ‘bonus’ items. This change exists to add levity to the levelling experience.
We want you playing Overwatch or not playing Overwatch when you want/don’t want to. That’s the entire reason for this change… nothing else.
This huge change came as part of the new 1.5 patch, which has officially introduced Sombra into the main servers.
