Blizzard Doesn’t Want Overwatch Console Players Using Mouse-Keyboard Setups

Megalith

Megalith

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Can I get your thoughts on console gaming with a mouse and keyboard? Because Blizzard is making it sound like it should be banned. The company is apparently lobbying for console manufacturers to either disallow mouse and keyboard entirely, or to make it “easier” for all players to adopt these options—but wait, aren't there are already licensed peripherals immediately available for anyone to buy? Maybe Blizzard should make it easier on themselves by developing for PC only.

“The Overwatch team objects to the use of mouse and keyboard on console,” Kaplan wrote. “We have contacted both first-party console manufacturers and expressed our concern about the use of mouse and keyboard and input conversion devices.” Neither the PS4 nor Xbox One natively support mouse-and-keyboard setups. That means people who want to use them go out of their way to buy convertors to hook them up to their consoles. As Overwatch players on PC know, using a mouse allows for much more precise aiming than a control stick does. Since not everyone has access to a mouse on console because of the lack of native support, it creates an unfair advantage for those who cough up the bucks for a convertor.
 
Finally, someone who acknowledges that a KB and mouse setup is better. You wouldn't believe how many hours I have argued this with console gamers.

Most never played Quake 3 1.6 against Dreamcast players, that's for sure. It couldn't get any easier than that.
 
Oh Blizzard...trying to people please all the time. Do they really think the 1% of people willing to go to the lengths of KB gaming on a console will really affect the overall balance of Overwatch?

Also, it's interesting to note here that on Gears of War 4, the keyboard mappings on the Xbox One are identical, and does function to play, as on the PC. Only the mouse doesn't natively work on the Xbox One. And while on the Gears subject, I have been crushing it online recently only to have found out that the multiplayer recently converted to Cross-Play. So yeah, gaming against controllers is shooting fish in a barrel.
 
Eventually as the KB+M users rank up, they'll be taken out of brackets where the controller users are just bad at the game. Obviously this only works for ranked games.
 
Microsoft is already working on enabling keyboard and mouse system wide on the Xbox One. It will be up to the developers to enable it on a per game / playlist basis once the tools go live. In this case I think Blizzard will opt to go with enabling it with the side benefit of making it easier to port over World of Warcraft to consoles ;).
 
Can't they block KB/M drivers on the console versions of the game? There's little anyone will be able to do about the emulators that take KB/M and translate them to controller commands.
 
This is the stupidest thing I've seen in a while from a game developer and it'll only serve to backfire and cost them some points with respect to the popularity of Overwatch in general.
 
Sonicks said:
Oh Blizzard...trying to people please all the time. Do they really think the 1% of people willing to go to the lengths of KB gaming on a console will really affect the overall balance of Overwatch?
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I'm surprised that nobody notices how much effort was put into Overwatch to curb skilled players from owning other players. I think 1/4 of the classes have some ability with AIM-BOT built in. Solder 76 has a super with it. Gun slinger guy has it built in. Other things were done to curb skilled players with good aim, like Bastion was nerfed. Bastion is highly dependent on good aim, and lots of players have good aim. So they nerfed him to the point where nobody plays him cause just about anyone can blow him up. Black Widow has limited zoom on her sniper rifle, so it's like sniping with no scope.

Blizzard is big into making everyone happy, and keyboard+mouse on consoles is like having a cheat. Especially when the majority of players are going to be on gamepads. Unlike PC where the majority of players are on keyboard+mouse. Also remember that majority of first person shooters on consoles have built in aim-bot for their games cause without it people would have a frustrating time getting through the game.
 
Spidey329 said:
Can't they block KB/M drivers on the console versions of the game? There's little anyone will be able to do about the emulators that take KB/M and translate them to controller commands.
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KB+M on console works by, for XIM, using the controller as the connection to the console. The offical hori KB+M works by mimicking the controller input. For example, the mouse on the hori is actually pretty terrible because it inputs movement in steps. The XIM is the better implementation of the two.
 
auntjemima said:
Finally, someone who acknowledges that a KB and mouse setup is better. You wouldn't believe how many hours I have argued this with console gamers.
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Well what can you say? Having aim-assist enabled for every game you play does things to your head...
 
auntjemima said:
Finally, someone who acknowledges that a KB and mouse setup is better. You wouldn't believe how many hours I have argued this with console gamers.

Most never played Quake 3 1.6 against Dreamcast players, that's for sure. It couldn't get any easier than that.
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Yessir, but sometimes it's nice to use a controller. I wish WoW would have native controller support like FFL XIV. With a bad back sometimes being able to sitback and relax is glorious.
 
You can't use widescreen resolution either. Apparently it gives you the unfair advantage. Don't get me started on competitive in Overwatch. So many potato players.
 
Tiberian said:
This is the stupidest thing I've seen in a while from a game developer and it'll only serve to backfire and cost them some points with respect to the popularity of Overwatch in general.
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I don't think wanting everyone to have a fair playing field should be consider stupid. How is this going to backfire? The 1-5% who use such modded controllers are going to rebel? Or will the 90-95%of players who don't have KB&M rebel on behalf of the other players?
 
auntjemima said:
Most never played Quake 3 1.6 against Dreamcast players, that's for sure. It couldn't get any easier than that.
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OH MY GOD! Someone else who remembers this! Even remembering the version you had to downgrade to on PC to make it work!

On another note didn't Unreal 3 on console (at least PS3) naively support KB&M? I remember there being an option in one of the versions of the game to restrict only controller players on the server. Why more games don't just do that I will never know.
 
I remember playing some Black Ops with my sisters boyfriend on the Xbox 360 and I am shitty with a controller for FPS games, so he was kicking my ass for the first few games.
I told him to hold on while I changed some settings, grabbed the Xim3 and a keyboard and mouse, and proceeded to destroy him till he got upset and quit the game, lol.
He claimed that I must have loaded some kind of aimbot cheat.
I didn't tell him I swapped to a keyboard/mouse.
 
Iching said:
You can't use widescreen resolution either. Apparently it gives you the unfair advantage. Don't get me started on competitive in Overwatch. So many potato players.
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Ultrawide works in Overwatch, but it is gimped, the FOV is zoomed in a bit so both 16:9 and 21:9 players see the same horizontal view, but the vertical view is cropped for UW players, which I think is shitty.
I still play in UW since I like having the game fill the screen.
 
elzeus said:
Microsoft is already working on enabling keyboard and mouse system wide on the Xbox One. It will be up to the developers to enable it on a per game / playlist basis once the tools go live. In this case I think Blizzard will opt to go with enabling it with the side benefit of making it easier to port over World of Warcraft to consoles ;).
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I'm pretty sure you could use a keyboard/mouse (at least keyboard) on the Xbox 360, it's just that no developer ever allowed for their use in games.
 
auntjemima said:
Finally, someone who acknowledges that a KB and mouse setup is better. You wouldn't believe how many hours I have argued this with console gamers.

Most never played Quake 3 1.6 against Dreamcast players, that's for sure. It couldn't get any easier than that.
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Quake 3 1.6? Final patch was 1.32. Dreamcast player got stuck at 1.17 - the release build.
 
I don't get all the bitching about kb/m vs controller every time it's brought up. If it was a 1-on-1 western style duel then kb/m might be an advantage every time, but in a multiplayer game there are so many variables other than just the aiming. I get killed more from being engaged with one person and having another person shoot me that I don't see. Any decent controller player can do that.

When you play sports you don't complain that a person is taller or faster. Why is the controls of a game different?
 
htpc_user said:
I don't get all the bitching about kb/m vs controller every time it's brought up. If it was a 1-on-1 western style duel then kb/m might be an advantage every time, but in a multiplayer game there are so many variables other than just the aiming. I get killed more from being engaged with one person and having another person shoot me that I don't see. Any decent controller player can do that.

When you play sports you don't complain that a person is taller or faster. Why is the controls of a game different?
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A controller relies on a preset speed of rotation whereas a mouse follows your tracking movements so speed of rotation is as fast and as accurate as your mouse will allow, this gives the KB/mouse combination a substantial advantage over thumbsticks. Using a controller I literally can't hit the side of a barn.
 
DukenukemX said:
I'm surprised that nobody notices how much effort was put into Overwatch to curb skilled players from owning other players. I think 1/4 of the classes have some ability with AIM-BOT built in. Solder 76 has a super with it. Gun slinger guy has it built in. Other things were done to curb skilled players with good aim, like Bastion was nerfed. Bastion is highly dependent on good aim, and lots of players have good aim. So they nerfed him to the point where nobody plays him cause just about anyone can blow him up. Black Widow has limited zoom on her sniper rifle, so it's like sniping with no scope.

Blizzard is big into making everyone happy, and keyboard+mouse on consoles is like having a cheat. Especially when the majority of players are going to be on gamepads. Unlike PC where the majority of players are on keyboard+mouse. Also remember that majority of first person shooters on consoles have built in aim-bot for their games cause without it people would have a frustrating time getting through the game.
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I dont mind, the game is more about team work and strategy then having one player carry an entire team.
 
dgz said:
Quake 3 1.6? Final patch was 1.32. Dreamcast player got stuck at 1.17 - the release build.
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I meant 1.16. I was going to quickly google it, but I was in a bit of a rush. I'm sure you knew what I meant and were just being pedantic though.

edit: to be exact, its version 1.16n. Dreamcast never made it to 1.17.
 
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auntjemima said:
I meant 1.16. I was going to quickly google it, but I was in a bit of a rush. I'm sure you knew what I meant and were just being pedantic though.

edit: to be exact, its version 1.16n. Dreamcast never made it to 1.17.
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You're right about 1.16 being the release version. It hit me as soon as I read it in your post. Honestly thought you made an analogy with CS. Why would I be pedantic about the game that I wasted my youth on? Could've raised a child to adulthood in that time
 
I use a XIM4 on the PS4 & Xbox One. It feels nothing like a native mouse & keyboard, especially with games with built in aim assist. Sure, it's better than other kbm emulation devices, but I think a lot of people are overestimating how powerful it truly is. The limitations of controllers just keep it from feeling natural. I really wonder how many people are just complaining people better than them must be using it, where in reality, they're just terrible players, just like how on the PC, 99% of players must be using aimbots, because no one could possibly be better than me at a game!
 
necrosis said:
On another note didn't Unreal 3 on console (at least PS3) naively support KB&M? I remember there being an option in one of the versions of the game to restrict only controller players on the server. Why more games don't just do that I will never know.
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If I'm not mistaken, it was Unreal Tournament 3 on PS3 and Unreal Tournament 1 on PS2 that supported USB keyboard and mouse. Quake 3 players on Dreamcast could use the official DC keyboard and mouse. On the original PlayStation, Quake 2 supported the keyboard adaptor (http://s1283.photobucket.com/user/true_kiat_p/media/scph/scph2000a.jpg.html) for mouse aim and keyboard movement:
 
ElBerryKM13 said:
Blizzard is the company that overly balance all their games. They always dumbing down every aspect of the game and if somebody find a nice strat/combo they will quickly nerf it.
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I got sick of overwatch after about 40hrs. I still say it's a bad game.
 
viscountalpha said:
I got sick of overwatch after about 40hrs. I still say it's a bad game.
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I hate blizzard... I liked WC2 but i think every game since then has been trash

Yet i tried OW over the holidays with their free trial and I have to say it's one of the better shooters out there. The people can suck - online games are like that - but overall it's been fun. If you havent played it since release you may try it again as from what i've seen they've made a lot of improvements.
 
This is a silly idea but I was sort of surprised somoene hadn't thought of trying to ban them sooner. I use a Xim4. I'd say it upped my accuracy by about 3-5% in shooters, going by my stats pre and post use. Not huge but good enough for a slight increase in overall stats like KD, etc. For some games it functions almost perfectly like native KB+M support once you tweak it, for others it is not as great. (For instance for COD, it is really fantastic.) I was already pretty good with a controller, but I've been using the Xim now for a long time and if it was banned I'd be screwed, because I have completely left my controller aiming skills behind. It would take me a while to get back to pre-Xim form. For someone who plays PC and console games it was nice to finally just settle on using a mouse for all FPS across all platforms, rather than going back and forth.

They really should just allow native KB+M in consoles. Then we can discard this silly artificial barrier between PC players and console players online.
 
travisty said:
I hate blizzard... I liked WC2 but i think every game since then has been trash

Yet i tried OW over the holidays with their free trial and I have to say it's one of the better shooters out there. The people can suck - online games are like that - but overall it's been fun. If you havent played it since release you may try it again as from what i've seen they've made a lot of improvements.
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I was playing today, and every time I spawned I would run to the capture point and I was the only one there trying to take it over. I don't know where in the hell my teammates were or what they were doing.
 
htpc_user said:
I was playing today, and every time I spawned I would run to the capture point and I was the only one there trying to take it over. I don't know where in the hell my teammates were or what they were doing.
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I think the CoD players started infiltrating the game. Before the free trials and sales, people for the most part played as a team. You'd obviously have that 1-2 players trying to get the most gold medals, but majority was playing as a team. Nowadays, everyone's just trying to get as many kills in as they can and ignore the objective. Whenever there's a big sale or a free trial, I stay away from Overwatch for like a month. Usually by then, those new players leave or they learn to play as a team, cause they get sick of losing all the time.
 
travisty said:
I hate blizzard... I liked WC2 but i think every game since then has been trash

Yet i tried OW over the holidays with their free trial and I have to say it's one of the better shooters out there. The people can suck - online games are like that - but overall it's been fun. If you havent played it since release you may try it again as from what i've seen they've made a lot of improvements.
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I tried. I honestly tried to like the game. There's some serious issues I take with it. The satl level of the player base still bothers me. No thanks.
 
viscountalpha said:
I got sick of overwatch after about 40hrs. I still say it's a bad game.
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It's definitely not a true competitive game. I think it's fun to play as a filler for a few rounds here and there. "Competitive Overwatch" boggles my mind.
 
If they are trying to make things more fair, I think it's more fair to let people just buy a KBM than expect people become the next Gamesager with a controller.
 
jbailey said:
It's definitely not a true competitive game. I think it's fun to play as a filler for a few rounds here and there. "Competitive Overwatch" boggles my mind.
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Ya. It's only competitive if you actually have a team/guild and play against other teams/guilds. Single person matchmaking to form a team for competitive mode makes no sense. Not in a team oriented game
 
It's to be expected from the same people who disabled the FOV slider from going past 100 because "ultra wide monitors are an unfair advantage".
 
Just have the console detect the type of controller in use and match you up with gamers of only that type of controller...
 
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