Jeff Kaplan regrets Overwatch was too team-orientated

Jeff Kaplan says one of his "hindsight regrets about Overwatch" was making the game so team-focused. "I wouldn't go back and redo it, but if I was making a hero shooter from scratch today, I would make it less team-focused," he told Lex Fridman. Kaplan added he would "downplay the team factor and try to put more focus on individual contribution.

Because that's just how people play, they're selfish. And I don't mean that in a bad way it's just that human nature that they can't help." The problem, as described, is that Overwatch matches tend to be decided by each team's weakest link. Very rarely is a match lost because entire teams are mismatched; it's usually who has the least worst teammate.

You can't carry as easily in Overwatch as you can in games like CS2 or Valorant—if your tank is the weak link you can't hold the line, if your support is weak you won't stay alive, and if your DPS is weak there won't be elims or damage. That dynamic forces players to compensate and adds another layer of stress.

jeff kaplan, overwatch, hero shooter, team-focused, individual contribution, lex fridman, carry, cs2, valorant, weakest link