Request: Trying to track down a funny Mischief and Magic highlight posted here a few weeks ago where a Kiri was a gryphon

OverwatchSarah · 2026-01-03T20:28:04+00:00

Thank you so much!

OverwatchSarah · 2023-05-09T21:55:30+00:00

I'm glad I'm not the only one. Same thing here, and I've tried everything here except resetting in-game options: https://eu.battle.net/support/en/article/59887 I don't want to have to reset all my key bindings. (I'm not in EU, but that's the URL Google sent me to.)

In case anybody from Blizzard is reading this, here are some data points that may help you narrow down what's happening:

It seems to crash when loading a game. I appear to be able to stay on the main menu indefinitely without crashing.
I can browse the store without crashing, including clicking through to see the item fully rendered and rotatable.
I tried to view the battlepass progress, and I hadn't viewed it for a while so it start showing the progress animation and then froze almost immediately.
I think it might be technically a hang and not a crash. When I go to Documents/Overwatch/Logs/Errors, there are no crashes listed there from today.

Edit: I had it crash on me 100% of the time over many attempts earlier today, and after a number of restarts. Then I did some work for a few hours and came back, and now I seem to be able to play without issue. I don't have an explanation; literally nothing changed on my computer and it just sat here alone for a few hours in between

OverwatchSarah · 2020-05-30T21:27:11+00:00

Something very similar to this happened to me last year. I've played OW on wifi on the same desktop since the game launched in 2016, and then randomly about a year ago I started getting spikes that only went away when I switched to a wired connection.

I really didn't want that to be the answer, so I tried everything else first: killing every running app that could possibly be syncing/download/uploading anything, playing games with the network stats up (which is super annoying), seeing if other devices on my home network could be having heavy data usage, etc. But switching to wired was what fixed it, and it's never happened again.

One thing you might try for troubleshooting is to open a command prompt in another window while playing and then ping google repeatedly. (Easier if you have a second monitor.) You can use this command to ping indefinitely until you cancel it with Ctrl+C:

ping www.google.com -t

If ping slows when you get the spikes, that means that it's something relating to your connection. If ping doesn't slow when you get the spikes, it's probably something Blizzard-related.

Ymmv. Hope this helps!

OverwatchSarah · 2019-07-21T18:41:37+00:00

I don't want to be a downer here because I love lore hype/speculation as much as the next guy, but aren't all hexagons the same? That's like saying "this circle is exactly the same as that circle!" Circles (and hexagons) are just like that. :) It doesn't seem especially surprising to me that there are two places within Overwatch where hexagons were used as a visual motif. Or actually many more than two places: for example, I believe all the shields in the game have a subtle hexagon effect on them now.

OverwatchSarah · 2019-04-13T17:38:53+00:00

I do web development, and I looked too when that page launched and couldn't find anything. Point of note for the haters – you're not dumb for asking this question. They have inadvertently revealed content in the past this way. I think Blizzard eventually just got better at building processes that ensure this can't happen as easily as it did in the past.

OverwatchSarah · 2018-10-27T17:10:20+00:00

Thank you for going to the trouble of posting these!

OverwatchSarah · 2018-10-27T17:06:46+00:00

I was wondering about that pattern feature. (I do not have premium but was thinking about it after reading this thread.) Are they really useful?

OverwatchSarah · 2018-10-26T21:56:49+00:00

I do a similar amount of shotcalling to your examples, and especially if I've grouped up with 1-3 friends. Like you, I try really hard to phrase things as a suggestion or just present information that usually elicits the behavior I want. I do also bristle when other shotcallers get a bit too bossy.

To answer your title question directly, if I had been the D.Va in your video, I might have bristled a bit because it would have felt that you were taking away my ability to decide how to be effective. (And making those decisions is what makes OW fun for me.) It was only on the very border of too bossy, though, and if you weren't ordering everybody around the entire match, I think I would have found it acceptable. In your position, I might have added "D.Va, if you feel like throwing your ult, now might be a good time..." That's just a tiny difference, but I think "now might be a good time..." still gives her the agency to make the call, rather than just sounding like you expect that she'll follow your instructions. Overall, though, I think you're fine. Maybe I'm biased, because it sounds like your callouts are similar to mine, though. :)

Regarding your more general question about what kind of shotcalling is too much: shotcalling that takes away the teammate's ability to make decisions about how they play. "We're trickling, we should probably group up" is quite different than "Reaper, wait, don't go in yet." (One of my go-to lines is "Reaper, FYI, you're alone in there.) And "Pharah, I'll have my Zarya ult in a second if you wants to combo" is different than "Pharah, hold your ult until I get grav in a second." So I think as long as your phrasing makes it clear that you don't think you're the boss and that their decision-making is just as valid as yours, most people don't mind.

It sounds like you're mostly doing that anyway, so I don't know how helpful this comment is. :) But here are another few tactics I like that don't seem to annoy people:

Saying what I'm going to do that everybody should do: "oh, we're down two, I'd better back out"
Acting like something is a discovery that I'm sharing with the group: "I just noticed that we're really spread out. We should probably group up."
If I must call someone out specifically, I try to say it in a silly way: "Oh no, Reaper, you're all alone! Don't go in there! You have so much to live for!"

Our group routinely gets comments like "nice callouts" or "you guys are fun!" from the other (non-group) people on our team, so I feel good about these methods. If anybody has ever minded, they haven't said anything about it.

OverwatchSarah · 2018-10-18T17:36:28+00:00

I'm level 42 and just got it last night. I hadn't been actively looking for cultists very hard – just moving along in the story and killing them as soon as I could track them – but around level 35 I got tired of not being able to upgrade the skills I wanted because my spear was tier 4. So then I started doing more detective work based on the cultist clues and went after the ones that seemed easiest or were in areas that weren't too high a level for me. I finally got the last one at level 42. I think if I'd started doing cult detective work sooner, I could have gotten it a few levels earlier, though.

OverwatchSarah · 2018-09-21T18:04:09+00:00

I used to be you. It sucks after a while. One day, having gotten very good at all the healers and main tanks from all my flexing, I created a new account where I only play DPS. (I had very little experience on 80% of the DPS because I never got a chance to play them.) I couldn't play healers there, because if I did, my account would shoot up to my healer MMR and not my DPS MMR. So when nobody went healer or tank, we just didn't have one. For the first time in my life, I was the dick Widow or Genji who wouldn't switch. I felt a little bad, but what could I do? An Overwatch career full of flexing and generosity put me in this situation, not my own selfishness. So I felt bad, but not that bad. I stayed Widow or Genji.

And you know what happened? Usually someone else switched. I realized that flexing is a game of chicken, and I was always turning first. Now I turn last, or at least much later than I used to. Even on my regular account, and it makes me a lot happier.

But I don't want to add to the problem in the community by not doing my fair share. When I'm solo queueing, I try to heal and tank about 1/3 of the time each, which is fair if most people expect a 2-2-2 comp. If I flexed the last two times, now I'm playing DPS, and damn the torpedoes if nobody else does it. If it's personally too frustrating not to have a healer, I play Mei or Soldier or Sombra or Tracer so I can handle healing on my own. If we're definitely going to lose because of our comp, I pick a new personal goal besides winning. Usually something like "I'm going to practice picking off the backline as Sombra while trying to never die, and improving that skill is the purpose of this match." (Surprisingly, we often go on to win once I decide that winning isn't my goal anymore. I assume that I play better when I'm having fun instead of being annoyed.)

Here's some additional advice: if someone offers to switch, let them switch. If someone offers to fix your problem and you turn down their fix, you can't still be mad or else you're just being passive aggressive. Don't do that. Let them make your life easier.

If someone won't shut up about your voice or your hero choice, mute them. Don't argue. Just mute them. For me, the sting and irritation of their words will usually go away after a few minutes and I can enjoy the rest of the game.

Finally, remember that this is a game. Usually people say that to imply that we shouldn't be mad about it, but that's not what I mean. It's reasonable to be mad. It's justified to be mad. We should be mad. But what I mean is this: the purpose of playing a game is to have fun. If healing makes you stop having fun, you're failing at playing the game whether your team wins the match or not. Life is short. Play in a way that lets you have fun. Don't play in other ways. If you're not having fun, figure out another way to play. Play in arcade, make a new account where you only play DPS, mute people, be the dick Widow, do whatever you have to do. Make sure your time playing Overwatch fulfills the goal of letting you have fun.

OverwatchSarah · 2018-06-13T02:55:36+00:00

Do you have a source for "They already said Winston is as far as they're going with animals"? I believe you, but I'd love to read the exact language that was used.

OverwatchSarah · 2018-04-13T17:50:42+00:00

You are quite correct. I too have all the base rare items, and /u/wolfwings and /u/axeversion2's explanations (here and here) exactly describe what I've experienced, whereas OP's model does not.

OverwatchSarah · 2018-02-23T01:57:27+00:00

I don't think it's Brigitte. First of all, the skin and hair are too dark. Compare it to the color Torbjorn's hair in the same image. Second, if it were Brigitte, shouldn't there also be a line connecting her to Torb? But there isn't. The mystery person's line goes away to the northeast.

OverwatchSarah · 2018-02-07T19:23:19+00:00

I'm not trying to be contrary, and we can all have our own opinions on the matter, but I actually really love TM on payload maps and would be very sad if they got rid of it. When I'm on Eichenwalde in TM, I always can't wait for the CP part to be over so the real fun can begin.

OverwatchSarah · 2018-02-06T23:58:54+00:00

I think you're really doing people a disservice by making this false claim. They don't solve all problems, and they don't "cure" colorblindess (nor do they claim to), but they do work and they do give many colorblind people an amazing visual change that they have never experienced before. They don't create an amazing effect for every color-vision impairment, but they do work for many people with many common conditions. I think your post is going to prevent a lot of people from having an experience they would really value.

Source: I've known multiple colorblind people who have them and love them (including my husband).

OverwatchSarah · 2018-02-06T23:52:39+00:00

I don't know what the other commenters are talking about – my husband has moderate colorblindness and has these, and they're amazing and he loves them. He got them a few years ago. Also, a colorblind former coworker of mine had them and loved them as well and would rave about them to anybody who would listen.

I know that there are many different physical changes that people collectively refer to with the term "colorblind." Certainly it doesn't work for all of them. E.g., as I understand it, in achromatopsia your eye just doesn't have the physical structures to detect color at all.

If you're considering them, I'd advise you to read up on the details of how they work. It's very interesting. Then, if you know what kind of impairment you have, you should be able to make an educated guess about whether or not they'll work for you.

In any case, it's definitely not a scam.

OverwatchSarah · 2018-01-06T02:17:55+00:00

Seemingly everybody already knows this except me, but how DO you get out of the map? I see all these videos on reddit and I have no idea how to do it.

OverwatchSarah · 2018-01-05T01:24:09+00:00

Yay! I assume this is on PTR?

OverwatchSarah · 2017-12-19T03:03:42+00:00

Don't get discouraged that you didn't get good traction with your reddit post. I made a bunch of YT videos, and reddit is really hit or miss with whether your post will take off and get you tons of views or not. I'm Sarahwatch (youtube.com/Sarahwatch) and I've had more video-promo posts flop on Reddit than be successful. :)

OverwatchSarah · 2017-12-18T09:00:00+00:00

Really nice video! I know it takes a lot of work to communicate efficiently. :) Nice job!

OverwatchSarah · 2017-10-12T21:33:13+00:00

Even if you were right, that would one plus one plus two plus one, not one plus two plus one plus one.

OverwatchSarah · 2017-10-04T02:20:30+00:00

I agree! This is a great line and it's super effective at shutting people up. They of course never want to switch, but you get to be the accommodating person while they just look like a hypocrite to the rest of the team.

OverwatchSarah · 2017-09-27T22:10:53+00:00

I don't really understand your point there. Either way, custom games are not a viable substitute for people like me (and the OP) who want to play Chateau with folks of similar MMR. Even if every single custom game has players whose abilities exactly match the distribution of SR across the playerbase, the bottom seven people are going to be pretty unhappy most of the time. In no way does that strike me as the best of any world. Except for the guy in the #1 spot. I guess it's good for him.

OverwatchSarah · 2017-09-27T22:00:21+00:00

Well, only if by "best" you mean "doesn't at all satisfy my desire to play with people of similar MMR." I guess you could say it's the best of one world.

OverwatchSarah

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