Screen Clutter in E-Sports

One game that has recently been thrown into the E-sports scene has been Overwatch. I am sure that the majority of people understand how the game works, but I will explain it none the less. Each character has several abilities they can use in the First person shooter. The fatal flaw of the game is that when a team fight takes place all characters are throwing out these abilities that produce these large effects all over the place. Some characters have explosives, shields and even lasers. As a spectator experience it is difficult to determine what exactly is happening without having experienced the game first hand and practiced learning how to discern the clutter from the important things. That being said this is not just a spectator problem as it has also been a problem in game. During team fights it is often common place that several ultimate abilities will be used to win the fight. Ultimate abilities in this game are the worst when it comes to screen clutter. It is a problem when players cannot understand what is happening in the game they are playing. This is not a problem limited to Overwatch as a game like Spellbreak also has this problem. Most games that the abilities produce large visual effects has had to deal with this problem. Overwatch has dealt with this problem through updates to opacity of abilities as well as adding characters that do not have large visual effects of abilities.

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