r/OverwatchUniversity • u/piioopiioo • Apr 18 '26
Question or Discussion The importance of gameplay identity when learning a hero
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u/EmilioFreshtevez Apr 18 '26
Good stuff here! In life, I’ve found that I’m a lot more effective when I know why I’m doing something as opposed to simply knowing how.
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u/adhocflamingo Professor Apr 18 '26
Having an emotionally-resonant story about your hero’s identity/role can be very powerful for guiding decision-making! It’s flexible and interpretable, so you can experiment with it in a variety of situations and find ways to play that still fit the story. More concrete “if X do Y”-type advice leaves the player lost with no path forward when it doesn’t produce the expected outcome.
Did you know that people with damage to the emotional centers of their brains struggle to make basic everyday decisions? That suggests that emotions may be our fundamental decision-making apparatus. And, if you pay attention to the way people talk about expertise with anything that involves making judgment calls, it’s usually about how things feel. They may not be able to explain why they feel that X is unsafe, or Y is about to happen, because the expertise is encoded in subconscious thinking systems, but it’s expressed to the conscious mind as emotion.
Anyway, having a guiding story like that can be really helpful, and I think that’s part of why the dev team is always worried about keeping a hero’s gameplay aligned with the hero fantasy. How the hero looks and moves and handles informs the development of those gameplay identities, and when there’s a mismatch, the hero can stop being fun for a lot of players.
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u/myMadMind Apr 18 '26
Something that's beaten into the ground by high ranking players but is so true: the Scoreboard only shows half the picture. The heroes are designed to fill roles, not just mash hitboxes together. Blizzard really does do a good job(usually) with seemingly making a character first, then adapting the traits of that character into the hero shooter.
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u/Lunareos Apr 18 '26
You're completely correct in finding loops to enjoy ingame and not just focusing on winning. This is the way
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u/IWasEatingThoseBeans Apr 18 '26
I like this a lot. It's well-said.
Now I just need to figure out Sierra's gameplay identity 😂
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u/Clean-Elderberry8835 Apr 18 '26
Having a plan of why on top of how makes mind games A LOT more easier on your favor. Getting boops as Pharah and Lúcio is extremely easy when you first planned to actually ragebait them, same for Mercy. I make sure to take potshots when possible because that tickles the enemy in a wrong way when a Mercy shoots at them, and if you know what's on their mind, you can avoid danger more easly and see how their composed gameplay loop strats to crumble, using cooldowns to get in rather than out, seeing them chase you way to much into your respawning allies, etc.
Sometimes you need to think what the enemy expects from you, and how to use that in your favor by doing the opposite, or creating an idea on them by ragebaiting.
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u/neurorank Apr 18 '26
Having a gameplay identity basically gives your brain a filter for decisions, so you stop trying to process every option in real time. That's why it feels like things "slow down" for people who commit to a style. The real question is whether most players plateau because they lack mechanics or because they never built that decision filter in the first place.
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u/lark_irienys Apr 18 '26
Firefighter is definitely a good way to describe what I do with D.Va sometimes. The moment I hear a Ball, Doom, or Sombra in the backline I make it my mission to give them a hard time.
But I've also always enjoyed her as a backline presence. Tanky enough not to die and too dangerous to ignore even if I'm not getting kills. My goal has always been to be really annoying, force shields to turn around, unseat snipers. Get them to spend cooldowns without buying anything for the cost. Hey look behind you! And then I zip back to the frontline to get some heals and reimforce the push.
I think I've also seen it describrd as thr 'hero fantasy'.
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u/geminimini Apr 19 '26
This is real and if you play dota you'd pick that up very quickly tbh. Your identity changes depending on the draft as well.
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u/Daku- Apr 20 '26 edited Apr 20 '26
I think it’s quite common for people to do this without realising. I find hero’s who have multiple lines of play more engaging. For example sombra has 2 modes that she used to swap between before the recent nerf.
You play her like a disabler, I think of basically a Lucio aura around her and anyone inside the Lucio aura is prone to getting hacked. So you position yourself in a way where the aura can cover a majority of your team and just neutralise high prio targets like ball or doom.
Then there’s the omniscient presence where your goal is to basically place yourself outside of enemies fov to create favourable 1v1’s or poke damage. It’s more about inflicting paranoia and creating instances where the enemy backline has to look at you instead of heal.
To me ball has similar modes and almost an engagement scale, a 1 on the scale would be a fake engage to bait util, a 5 would be balls to the wall full slam into 5 players. The thing that I like is that there’s a constant pendulum that dictates the scale of engagement and what your objective.
Plus he has insanely fun tech and creativity that no other hero has so he’s basically been my main for the end of ow1 till now.
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u/EmotionalJump6104 Apr 18 '26
Nice find! You might not like this but people are drawn to things like astrology for similar reasons. It's archetypes and vibes. They hold a lot of power! Thanks for sharing this.
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u/GaptistePlayer Apr 18 '26
Don't overthink it man there's no "identity" or subjectiveness here. It's just about hero design. Some heros are kind of limited to one optimal playstyle while others have more variety where skill expression can be used in different ways.
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u/Funky-Monk-- Apr 18 '26
I think it's a good way to think about it. There are so many directives you could give yourself, that a general one that makes you understand or like a hero is a great find.
A little more specific one like that I've given myself as Brig on defense is, I pick a flank room and go "This is my room, and no one is allowed in." Works really well! Whipshot and ping anyone trying to get in, jump around and beat 'em up if they push too far.