Yes. OW1 cost money, but you got all the content. The only paid service was cosmetic outfits for the different characters. You could buy loot boxes for cosmetics. But you had all of the characters, maps, game modes, etc available to begin with. You got the whole game, then could grind for cosmetics.

OW2 takes that and flips it on its head. The game is free, but each character costs money. The problem is that they shut down OW1, so now the players who owned 1 are having to grind for everything. They’ve also had some weird server bugs, with players getting indefinitely locked out of characters they already own.

Yep. The gameplay itself has no p2w or grinding in general, but now you have to grind to unlock characters. In OW1 you also used to get showered with cool cosmetics just for playing, in OW2 they turned it into a paid battle pass and a rotating cash shop where a single skin costs like $20 and F2P users get basically nothing. The thing is set up in a way to scam whales by selling them things that used to be free for hundreds of dollars.

I would still play if it were just cosmetics but now every time a hero releases you have to grind to unlock them.

Actually that's the wrong use of that word in this context. It's actually a "queer questioning point of sale system" he's talking about.

They've been awful since Activision got involved. I knew that was the end the day the news broke, people told me I was wrong. I wish.

Also they sexually harassed an employee to suicide. That tells you all you need to know.

Blizzard has been on a downward trend for a lot longer than 3 years.

I really hope MS doesn’t take a laissez faire attitude with Act-Blizz and actually take a real hands on approach. I know they’re not the best at handling things but there has to be some type of change for their studio.