I'm gonna assume that I'm like Jeff and this is also something that's been touched on in the Podcast. Overwatch looks really interesting to me and I'm probably gonna get it, but how has the community been so far throughout the beta? I'm 30 years old lol, the last thing I wanted to be doing is hop into some game is with people who are just being dumb on voice. I Don't need some 17-year cursing in my ear for dying *Dota I'm looking at you haha*. Was watching a video of an Overwatch playthrough and it looked interesting except for random guy being a jerk to put it lightly. That's kinda a huge put off for me.

So how important is communication? Can you get by just muting "X" player.

How beginner friendly is it?

@trillian: In public matches people rarely even text chat. Sometimes you get the over eager "team captain" who will start telling everyone to get on the cap point and when we lose be all like "or you know.. don't, thanks guys" in some snarky way as if everyone was sucking except for him - but that happened during maybe 6 matches out of the 6 hours I've put into it thus far.

Objectives are pretty clear and once you learn the maps you'll even know what characters best suit defense and offense. You don't really need to communicate with others. Of course if you come up against an organized group of people then your public ensemble of unlikely heroes will probably get completely stomped out, but most of the time it's ok. You can tell right away when people are communicating by the way they coordinate their ultimates.

No one really talks on PS4 and that's more than okay with me. The game actually comes with a lot of pre-recorded contextual communication, like yelling out when you spot a sniper or destroy the enemies turret. One of my favorite things for healers is showing everyone's current health levels just by looking at them and you can see them even through walls. You don't need people yelling at you that they need healing, you just know by looking.

As with anything like this, strong communication will take you farther, but for casual play it's not really that important. You can still have fun and win matches as long as you work together and use common sense.

In my experience, any communication will take you farther. If you are grouped up with even one or two other people and are using voice, chances are pretty good that you are going to stomp all over a team full of randos. But that is usually pretty true with any objective-based team game.

Anyway, to address the topic at hand, my experience has been mostly positive. Then again I have been playing with friends and haven't been grouping up in pubs too often, but I also haven't seen much toxicity in the text chat. Most people are just silent.

@mike: Perhaps. But it's so rare on PS4 that it's hard to quantify.

Even without ever using any kind of chat, there's only been a couple matches that I've felt completely and utterly outmatched and outplayed, and it's still hard to know how much of that is just them being better at the game, since I can't know if they are actually using mics or not.

As of now, most people don't do all that much chatting or talking, and when they do, are typically ok and try to be helpful. It's generally ok. Occasionally you will get end up with someone that tries to tell everyone what to do and then rages or throws some shade when you lose, and as with any online gaming community, you may occasionally get matched with or against some child that loves spreading the homophobic slurs around.

Thanks for the comments people! More than helpful in making my decision. I should say I don't mind the voice chat like hey someone is coming up mid, sort of like Counter-Strike, but yeah the trash talking is sometimes annoying for me anyway. I know other people feed off it for competition reason like any sport.

I'll give it a go... Plus I'm sure there's gonna be some cool guys and gals here in the GB community that's in the same category as me if later on in the life cycle of the game it all goes to hell I can play with them :P

@trillian: Try the GB Discord server, there are always people looking to group up in there. Also my friends and I are always looking for more since there are usually only two or three of us online at any given time, so you're more than welcome to play with us as well.

@chaser324: my favorite was this one guy who kept talking down everything. Like OH kids these days need turrets to aim for them OH using Mei cheap stun etc etc. Three whole matches he accused everyone of either cheating or playing cheap. It actually got kinda funny after a while but man I can't imagine what turns you into a person like that. I sincerely hope it was a kid.

Some heroes are really easy to understand. Solider 76 as an example basically shoots people and can heal people around him. There are more mechanics, but that's the gist of how he works. There isn't some deep strat or secret mechanic behind him or most characters for that matter. All characters have 4 or 5 aspects to how they play, and if you learn how these combine together, you will know how to play their character. Some are definitely more complex than others, but the more basic heroes are a great place to get your feet wet.

So far the best way I've found to play Overwatch is to get with a group of people. You don't really need a Crew, you don't really need to get your best bud to team up with you. After seeing other random suggestions on other threads, I joined the Giant Bomb server in Discord. Joining up with five other people, even if they are strangers, is better than going solo 100% of the time. Going solo is still fun, because this game is pretty great, but being on a somewhat formal team can help make it a more pleasant experience. You will occasionally hear people be a dick or you will have people doubling up on heroes your team doesn't need or nobody wants to play support. Those are things I and others have experienced going solo. I don't think they are deal breakers, but you will bump into this stuff from time to time. Overwatch doesn't need Dota level coordination, but having a group can solve or prevent some of those issues.

Basically do not even bother playing this game without a group. Playing with pugs is a miserable, rotten experience and as Jeff described will sour you on the game in a matter of days. Not only do they not know how to play, coordinate, or communicate, but a lot of times are toxic trolls in the chat.

Glad I don't play on PC then. I only play pugs, but it's been fine on PS4.

I had some kid tell me "u suk" after my team beat his. I also had a dude tea bag today. That stuff isn't very common but it happened so clearly those people are out there. Also, yeah you can mute text and/or voice by hitting "P" on PC to bring up the communication menu if people are being stupid. I pug a lot and it isn't the end of the world like people are making it out to be. Try talking to your team, you might be surprised when they start talking back and you guys communicate like a team.

I have yet to see a single person use voice chat and so far insults were left at a bare minimum. I mean sure sometimes someone complains that someone else played badly or picked dumb shit but that's it really, it wasn't even decorated with cuss words so coming from Dota 2 this is absolutely nothing. I'm guessing not having public K/Ds and stats does wonders.

I didn't come across too many assholes during my time with the Beta. But I've played thousands of hours of Dota so I tend to zone out all the small insignificant smack talk and mute if it gets too annoying. I can take childish stupidity and bad manners. It's the long-winded, well thought-out, uncomfortably specific assholishness that gets to me. But I didn't see anything like that in Overwatch.

I've played about 110 matches so far and only had one where some insufferable asshole wouldn't stop whining. Other than that it's been fun with random people on xbox. Not many people talk but besides that one guy it's been fine.

Speaking of which, is there anyway to mute people on consoles? I couldn't figure out how

It's fine for the most part.if anyone wants to team up let me know.

You can easily mute people mid match, but I haven't found it much of a problem so far.

I've had, so far, one experience with a toxic player. Calling everyone 'retard' and 'idiot' and calling out certain people for 'sucking so much' and have 'zero game sense' because he thinks he's the best (to be fair, we were doing badly in general). I made the mistake of baiting responding to him, and I got a kick out of exposing how much of a 10 year old he acted.

Other than that, usually people rarely text chat aside from the gg wp at the end of the match, but I've come across some pretty cool people who put up some praises for people who pulled off clutch moves. Or pretty much people who just wanted to have a good time, win or lose. Overall, playing with a group you know is ideal to have a better time.

~100 matches after release, not yet heard anyone use voice chat. Text chat is also very rare.

XBL pug player checking in. Obviously, expectations were low, but I've been surprised. The people I communicated with (voice) were all really cool and having fun.

I am cautiously optimistic, but the toxic goobers can't be too far off.

That's been my experience as well. Maybe it's not perfect, but I don't find myself losing constantly or getting frustrated during PS4 random games. Also, the few games I played on PC during the beta were full of the toxic trolls mentioned above, and that-perhaps more than anything-soured me on that version.

Then again, I'm not a super competitive esports type. I'm very patient when it comes to losing, but I have almost none when it comes to shitty internet chat.

The community hasn't been great, at least in-game. Lots of people who play 1 hero and will never switch. Endless complaining about not getting PotG. Lots of nasty people in the text chat playing the blame game.

I hear people in voice chat maybe 1 out of every 15 games. I think all of these things will improve over time. There's just a big initial hype rush that's attracting all the toxic players.

Thus far, my experience has been great on PC. I haven't run into a single troll yet, and I have played with a surprisingly large number of really nice people. Lots of positive comments about good performances, especially directed toward support/healers. I've actually only played with a single person using voice chat so far, and he was a perfectly pleasant fellow.

I have been on my fair share of teams who haven't quite grasped the concept of team and objective based gameplay, but I've been on plenty of teams that worked great together as well. I'm still seeing a huge number of what I'll call "selfish" players who like to play only damage dealers, which is evident by about 75% of my game time so far being with Lucio. But I think that's probably something that will work itself out with a little time.

My PC experience has been pretty great so far. Maybe I'm jaded after the 2000+ hours of Dota2, CS:GO, and LoL, but as for "toxicity" or just idiotic teammates, its far less. Overall, the PC community isn't terrible. Just the random guy in 1 every 20ish matches who types "EZ GAME" or "GIT GUD SCRUBS". But that doesn't bother me. I ignore it more nowadays.

I get compliments from time to time, so I'm not too bummed out.

What does it matter? If someone's talking and is annoying, mute them individually. Or mute everyone.

Just play the game and have fun

Most people seem too busy playing to be dicks. The few assholes we've gotten haven't been nearly on the same level of other games. Probably because the game actually put us in higher tiers of matchmaking pretty quick instead of just perpetually swinging from bronze to platinum.....

My PC experience has been 100% randoms and it's been mostly fine? Maybe some jerks during the PoTG clip or the occasional player who thinks they can boss the team around.

I say this to people that complain about moba communities too, there are toxic people, but you can just mute them straight away.

As for the topic, when ranked comes I am sure there will be more of people being angry. I have met a few so far that got really upset that I played Symmetra on offense, and stuff like that. (which we won and I actually got POTG)

Mostly people don't say a word during matches and barely even use the written chat. So I guess the experience is neutral on the whole.

A few assholes here and there but that's every online game.

When playing with friends we voice chat to coordinate and such and of course we're always nice to each other.

Can't say I had any real problems with people. Some angry losers here and there but nothing special (some people really don't like losing, as it turns out.) There's barely any communication during pub matches, for that matter.

...I'm 30 years old lol, the last thing I wanted to be doing is hop into some game is with people who are just being dumb on voice. I Don't need some 17-year cursing in my ear for dying...

As a 28 year old, I find this line hilarious. As if 30 is that old.

I've generally found the 'community' really friendly so far. Granted I turned voice chat off before my first match but after 117 games I've only seen a few angry comments and a couple of "ez" or "noob".

I think it's quite neat that you can set a "prefer" or "avoid" player if you right click on a players character when you press P. I've been doing this pretty much anytime an arsehole appears so hopefully I won't have to play with them again.

Just to edit: It's super beginner friendly, there is no reason to be worried. People can't even see your score, anyone shouting is just making noise.

Since posting here last week, I've run into a couple of unsavory characters, but still nothing too bad. The few I've seen have led me to believe that calling people "cancer incarnate" is a popular insult now. First I've heard of it, but seeing it like 3 times in the last 4 days can't be a coincidence.

@woodyrson: I've had a couple people call everyone in our team that during the open beta, must be a thing!

@audiobusting: Thing confirmed!

From my experience shit only gets bad once a lame Play of the Game gets highlighted and the claws come out.

Have been quite fortunate so far not to run into any problems with people. I've found random people rarely use chat or voice on PC which is fine by me.