Everything You Need to Know About Overwatch’s New Social Features
A recent Overwatch patch brought an extensive Symmetra rework as well as a few new social features to the game, including Endorsements and Looking for Group. Players have been anticipating these changes for a long time now, and hopefully they will change Overwatch for the better. Here’s a breakdown of everything you need to know about each feature.
Endorsements
The Overwatch team has introduced Endorsements in an effort to reduce some of the toxicity seen in the game. There’s just no getting around it: toxicity has been a problem with Overwatch for a while. Players are just plain bad to each other, and Blizzard’s punishments alone haven’t been enough to keep the trolls and bullies at bay.
So now, the developer is taking a different approach to combat this issue. With Endorsements, some more light will shine upon Overwatch’s good-hearted players. The basic idea is to reward players for being good teammates. Here’s how it works.
- Players get three Endorsements per match, but can only give out one Endorsement per player
- There are three Endorsement types to choose from: Shot Caller (for leaders), Good Teammate (for helpful and effective communication), and Sportsmanship (for positive and respectful players)
- You get experience points for Endorsing other players
- With each Endorsement received, you’ll level up. There are five levels total, with colored rings that designate the Endorsements received
- You can only endorse a single player every 12 hours
Blizzard has also said that “periodic rewards” will be given out for players that consistently remain highly Endorsed, but has given no further details.
Looking for Group
This feature also aims to bring some positivity to Overwatch by helping fill teams with people that actually want to work together and play together.
How it Works
Looking for Group can be accessed from either the yellow box at the top-right of the Overwatch menu screen or through Overwatch’s “Play” screen. From there, just click the “Find Group” button to pull up the menu through the section option.
Available Options
- Queue – You can choose a group depending on where you want to queue (Competitive, Quick Play, or Arcade)
- Endorsement Level – This will let you choose a minimum Endorsement level for players in your group, starting at one and ending at five
- Role Queue – This requires players to lock into roles, such as support or tank
- Hero Slots – If you’re only interested in playing a certain role, you can also create a filter that shows the roles you want to play
Blizzard is currently taking feedback on this system to clear up any ambiguity within the menu. Overwatch game director Jeff Kaplan said shortly after the feature’s release that the team was already working on improvements for the system. Though he didn’t provide any specifics, Kaplan did assure players that Blizzard is working on a solution to a problem caused when a group member leaves.