Blizzard Legend Jeff Kaplan on the Most Toxic, Diabolical Trait of the Overwatch Fandom

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Blizzard Legend Jeff Kaplan on the Most Toxic, Diabolical Trait of the Overwatch Fandom

There’s no doubt that the announcement that Overwatch‘s director, Jeff Kaplan, would be leaving the team and Blizzard entirely back in 2021 took the gaming community by complete surprise.

The Overwatch community is infamous for its toxicity, and even Blizzard knows about it. (Image via Blizzard)

Kaplan is a Blizzard veteran who began working at the company as a quest designer for the original World of Warcraft. Throughout his entire career, he was one of the most transparent developers at Blizzard, and at one point, he even opened up about the toxicity within the Overwatch community.

Jeff Kaplan On Challenges Of Toxic Overwatch Community

Even though the original Overwatch was a massive hit, its sequel hasn’t hit the mark for many in the community. The sequel debuted back in 2022, and since its release, it’s been plagued with various issues. Blizzard’s decision to cut the PvE aspect of the title fueled the ***** even further.

Jeff Kaplan left Blizzard in 2022 but was heavily involved with Overwatch 2‘s development in its early stages and was one of its most prominent public figures. While chatting with

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, he talked about Blizzard’s decision to connect the original title with the sequel to preserve the aspect of continuity for players.

However, Kaplan and his team’s decision to prioritize the community ultimately ended up backfiring as the same players complained about the sequel.

But the second you go, “Let’s try to be a little bit cooler about what we do with the community,” we actually get destroyed by that very community. It’s something I hope in some ways influences people to think about how they want to be treated as a community. 

Kaplan and his team made every effort to treat the community with respect by ensuring that existing players of the hero-shooter wouldn’t feel abandoned by the sequel by integrating various things. However, the community didn’t appreciate this and bashed Blizzard for overcomplicating things with the sequel.

Kaplan states that if Blizzard had marketed Overwatch 2 as a traditional sequel, players would’ve accepted it instantly. For him, this backlash against the hero-shooter serves as a lesson in balancing developers’ intentions with community expectations. Before bashing the developers, players need to understand the intention behind a decision.

Did Jeff Kaplan Sabotage Overwatch 2?

The hero-shooters core issues might stem from Kaplan’s development approach. (Image via Blizzard)

Back in September, journalist Jason Schreier had an AMA on

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to talk about his new book, ‘PLAY NICE: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment,‘ and revealed bits about Overwatch 2‘s development.

After the original game, Team 4 ran into multiple problems, and they had too much to work on. The developers had to keep making new stuff for the original game and its sequel, which was Kaplan’s “baby,” as it was expected to bring more players via now-scrapped PvE. On top of that, they also had to help the Overwatch League.

Bobby Kotick suggested bringing more people on board for Team 4. However, Kaplan and Chacko Sonny didn’t like the idea of hiring more people as they believed strongly in the culture they had crafted at the company.

Kaplan’s approach ultimately led to all sorts of issues in the game as the years went on. Even after his departure, the game is still suffering from issues, and it doesn’t know where to head in the future.

With that said, what do you think the hero-shooter needs to rise back to the top again? Let us know in the comments below.

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#Blizzard #Legend #Jeff #Kaplan #Toxic #Diabolical #Trait #Overwatch #Fandom

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