Overwatch developer Jeff Kaplan has finally spoken out on all the hero ban rumors, and he is not for it. Kaplan addressed the issue on Wednesday on a Blizzard forum.
Kaplan states that the Overwatch team understands why some people want hero bans, but suggests that it’s not the best solution. He is “reluctant to add hero bans”, but also says they aren’t entirely against the idea for the future.
Better solutions for a stale meta
According to Kaplan, he hears three main reasons for why people want hero bans. This includes the metagame being stale, the game being unbalanced, or people simply don’t like playing against certain heroes. He believes that hero bans won’t solve these problems.
Kaplan says that “by studying other games, the end result is usually a ban meta.” This means that people will ban the same heroes every game and the meta will stay stale. He goes on to state that “hero bans might actually make the problem worse, not better.”
The Overwatch developer says he believes the best solution to keeping the meta fresh and balancing heroes is by making more balance updates. This is what the upcoming developer update is going to address.
What the Overwatch team is working on
Kaplan goes on to discuss that the Overwatch team is working on faster match times. He states that “the sting of defeat is much less if the match took less time.” This would also speed up queue times and increase the number of games players could play.
It looks like everyone who was hoping for hero bans will face some disappointment. The developer update later this month should shed some extra light on Kaplan’s post. Make sure to stay tuned for more Overwatch updates!
