Earlier this week, I tuned into the stream announcing Overwatch’s upcoming roadmap and the big “Year of Talon.” The reaction seems to have been overwhelmingly positive from most circles, but I gotta say it mostly left me feeling cold.

While I do think Vendetta is more a compelling character than Doomfist (low bar), having her just instantly dumpster him the moment she’s introduced without him ever actually doing anything in the story feels pretty lame. The original Null Sector story was vastly better in both concept and execution.

I didn’t really expect there to be an announcement of any new PvE content, but there was always the vague hope at the back of my mind that they might throw out a mission or two with the renewed focus on story. No such luck, of course.

What really upset me was the fact that Stadium seems to be getting put on the back burner. They’re scaling back to one additional hero release per season, which coupled with the increased release schedule for new heroes pretty much kills any hope of it ever reaching parity with the main mode.

To be fair, Vendetta and Ramattra (the ones coming in the next two seasons) are some of my most wanted heroes for Stadium, so that’s cool, but there’s still so many others I want. I love Illari so much as a character, but when am I ever going to get to play her?

Everyone else is gushing over all the new heroes, but it’s hard for me to get excited about them when they may never appear in the one mode I can play. Domina looks so cool, but I may never get my hands on her (phrasing).

I know for most people Stadium is just another game mode, but for me it’s a crucial accessibility tool. I simply cannot manage the game in first person.

I love the world and the characters of Overwatch immensely, and I thought there might come a day where I could finally get to experience it all firsthand, first with PvE then with Stadium, but it feels like the game and it’s community just don’t want players like me.

It’s weird because it seems like Stadium’s been pretty successful to me. I can get pretty quick queues for matches as all roles even when I play at super odd hours, and for the first few seasons they were really pumping out the content for it. Now they’ve started rapidly scaling back on support for it, and it feels like they’re starting to sweep it under the rug.

Maybe I’m overreacting, but it’s hard not to worry about Stadium’s future given what they did to PvE.

On a lighter note, I have been playing a bit of custom games lately, and there does seem to be a decent amount of co-op modes there. I’ve been particularly enjoying Stop the Zombie Car. Unfortunately the workshop tools are very limited, so it’s never really going to be a substitute for professionally made modes, but at least it gives me some option for playing characters that aren’t in Stadium, I guess.