Overwatch 2’s hero progression revamp feels like engagement bait disguised as learning

Blizzard overhauled Overwatch 2‘s hero progression in Season 18 to include fewer stats and more chances to get free stuff. Ostensibly, the change reduces complexity, but it takes away more than just stats for tracking your progress. It wipes out a valuable learning opportunity and replaces it with what seems like little more than a quick gratification hit.

Previously, each hero in Overwatch 2 had several progression metrics, including some general ones, such as time played and eliminations earned, and more specific stats, like turret kills for Symmetra or Life Grip saves for Lifeweaver. You’d earn badges for ranking these sub-stats up and new hero levels once you leveled them up to a certain point. The idea was that the system required you to learn how to use every part of a character’s kit and change how you play accordingly, instead of just relying on specific strategies in every match. The new version gives you experience points based on how long you play and nothing else; swaps the more subdued progression badges for sparkling, neon-colored replacements; and gives every character a miniature battle pass with banners and other rewards when you reach milestones.

Stats in themselves aren’t that useful, but they did play an important role in learning the game. I’d reached a plateau with Ashe in the old progression system, as my BOB aiming desperately needed work. After playing one full, seven-round match of Stadium mode under the new system, though, I leveled up twice with a new badge and a miniature cascade of rewards just for spending 30 minutes playing as Ashe — with only one additional BOB kill under my belt (yes, I’m that bad with the robo-butler).

Perhaps the amount of experience earned was a glitch, as the bugs in Season 18 have been legion. But either way, it’s hard not to see this new setup as a way to reduce friction and keep people around. You don’t have to learn or improve to progress. You just have to play more and more, then scoop up a bunch of rewards for it regardless of your performance.

You can just completely ignore progression, of course, but for a game that still has no comprehensive means of teaching people how to play, it seems like a missed opportunity to foster a stronger, more lasting type of engagement. Trying to score more long-range eliminations as Ashe pushed me to improve my aim, sure, but it also taught me to think about positioning and angles of approach more carefully. Bumping up ratings for Symmetra’s and Torbjörn’s turret eliminations encouraged me to pay closer attention to how other people moved and played in a bid to figure out the best locations for turrets to do damage without instantly getting obliterated.

Overwatch 2‘s existing hero training regimens pit you against predictable training bots instead of actual people, and they’re only available for a small handful of the game’s 40-plus characters anyway. Yes, I can teach myself how to improve without little badges and rising numbers. However, seeing the result of my effort after a match and charting my improvement over time made me want to keep doing better, far more than being patronized with free loot and “progression” I didn’t earn does.

\nImage: Blizzard Entertainment””>

Image: Blizzard Entertainment

There’s a potentially more serious issue with how the new progression system works as well. Since Blizzard wants to let people show off their shiny, redesigned progression badges, the overhaul lets everyone see your top three highest-ranked characters and your rank with the currently selected character. I already ran into a few instances where less pleasant party members were using it as an excuse to be toxic — complaining about someone trying a character they weren’t familiar with or griping when someone’s performance didn’t match their character rank. In an ideal world, I’d write those off as isolated incidents. But I’ve already had a couple of people tell me in private that they’re worried about picking up a new hero in case they get piled on for it and probably won’t be playing with comms on anymore.

Prior to publication, Polygon asked Blizzard for comment about why the design team believed the new progression system is more useful for players than the old one and what considerations were given to potential increase in toxicity. However, a representative said the team was busy with the launch of Season 18 (and the Luka Dončić collaboration) to prepare a response.

A community specialist did post on X that Blizzard plans to add a “legacy” version of progression at a later date that includes at least some of the data the old system tracked, though had no other details to share.

I don’t like clichés and adages. I’d be lying, however, if I said my first reaction to learning that Blizzard already wants to re-introduce the old system wasn’t a classic: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”