This is a nitpick but I feel like the way the postgame voting works kind of teaches bad player behavior in a minor way.

The way the system works, by rewarding bulk stat numbers, pushes players to stick to one character. So much about the game is structured around players changing characters, and Blizzard has made a lot of decisions to push that and talked about how important it is, but if you change characters a bunch it becomes more difficult to show up on the post game voting screen.

I know that for myself, even though I don't REALLY think it matters, I will stick with a hero if I've got gold metals just to keep them up, even when I think switching at certain points might be smarter. It's not a rational decision really, but when I'm casually grooving on the game small things like that definitely influence me (and I assume others).

It's honestly a small influence on my play, and only really comes into play when I'm having success, but it stands out to me as going against the grain of how the game works in general.

Just wondering if anyone else has thought about this detail.

Does it really "reward" though? You gain nothing from anyone voting for you, outside of a "ding" sound effect and maybe a "nice" if you get what, 5 or more? That's it. If that is what you are styling your play around, to try to get those completely pointless post-game votes, I'd say there is a bigger issue.

I honestly think nobody gives a flying fuck about those things, I know they certainly won't when this game is a couple months old. I barely see anyone even 'upvote' anymore at most like 3 people do.

I mostly play Mercy and it's nice to see people voting for support characters who might not otherwise see any recognition

Voting page is just there for teams to tip their healers.

I think POTG is worse, its a fantastic idea but it just almost always goes for multikills, that rarely is the "play of the game" in the sense that its the most important one. Instead it teaches people to just go for kills, because if you get the POTG it doesn't matter if you lose, you still did "good".

But you keep your gold medal progress when you switch?

@bollard: I was just thinking that. Let say you get 35 eliminations in a game, 20 with Reaper and 15 with Soldier, won't you still show on the post game cards with 35? (Provided you get on the cards to begin with)

I think it becomes a non-issue since, if you are having success you are winning. If you are winning you won't need to switch. It's so much of a team game, that if you feel like you are doing well, generally your entire team is doing pretty good. So switching at that point won't neccessarily help. What also makes it less relevant is that medals are relative, so even if you get a #sickkillstreak with widow in the first 5min of a match and want to stick with her for the gold, if you start failing in the second half the golds will soon be gone anyways. You are essentially preserving nothing at that point.

@frodobaggins: Yes you will. I think what he is referring to is switching roles. If they have a bunch of kills but your team desperately needs some healing or perhaps blocking then players may not wish to switch in order to maintain those medals/cards.

Personally I have not really seen it as a issue. People need to learn to switch characters in general, but I don't think that people are not switching in order to hold onto some pointless end match card, I think that they just are not used to Overwatch yet.

I know that I personally try to switch characters whenever what I am doing isn't working.

Sometimes I leave once POTG starts. I just wanna play.

I only play with people I know and I only ever upvote them. I don't even read the cards from people I don't know.

Yah all that stuff should go by a lot faster. 9/10 the Play of the Game picked out by the algorithm is something lame, and then we sit there waiting for numbers to tally up. Like do that when loading a new level or something.

There are a few problems with the way the cards are set up, but I usually feel like, outside of the role-switching issue, the right people end up on the MVP screen. If someone is wrecking my shit, they usually end up there, and likewise, if I'm doing well I end up there as well. As far as how people vote, I really haven't detected much of a pattern. Sometimes a guy clearly deserves the kudos, sometimes votes end up all over the place.

My biggest issue with the system is that the card often displays stats that are difficult to parse. Like, on Symmetra, I get a callout for 70% shield uptime. Which is fine, but that's not actually any sort of a skill, particularly if my team stayed alive. At the same time, I could get medals for damage and eliminations that the card doesn't even mention and which would better represent my contribution. Instead of focusing on one stat, the card should read, like, damage, healing, medals, and maybe one line for a character specific stat like blocked or shields or whatever.

Totally agree that PotG is worthless, by the way.

Always vote support

@humanity: POTG is there to help hide the time between matches and give the match finder time to work. Removing it would likely lead to a similar wait.

I wouldn't mind seeing some variety like a Combo of the Game or Save of the Game, however.

@viking_funeral: I think if they renamed it to "Player highlight" or something people wouldn't get so pissy. Play of the Game by name suggests that it is the best thing to have happened, when quite often that is not the case because of the limited tech behind choosing it.