You're not getting it. I'm not actually disagreeing with you. However, your counterpoint doesn't really matter, because that's not what I'm saying.
Being able to ping a moving target in the direction that they're going might be better than only being able to ping one location at a time, but you know what? Both those are better than not being able to ping anything at all.
To be clear, I've argued for a while that the voice line system needs an overhaul; for example, the "Group up with me" line should be replaced with something like "Fall back!" or "Retreat!", and they should add lines like "Wait for me," "I think [highlighted enemy] has their ultimate," "We're being flanked," and "Hold this position," etc. that can help people without mics to more tactically assist their team.
However, I think there's also a common misunderstanding about the purpose of Apex's ping system versus Overwatch's voice lines. Apex's pings are meant to
supplement, not replace, the standard voice chat. Apex's map is so big that even when in voice chat, it can be difficult to convey exactly what you're talking about without pings. "Hey, let's go on that rooftop!" "Which one? There's like six buildings over there." "The one on the left!" "Your left or my left?" "The blue one!" "There are three blue ones." You need pings to correctly point out which part of the map you're talking about, and enemies are all small, fast-moving, and hard to see. "There's an enemy over there!" "Over where?" "Behind that rock!" "Which rock?"
In Overwatch, the maps are small and very distinct, and characters are big, colorful, and slow-moving. There is far less value to 99% of players to be able to specifically point out who is where at a given time. "Orisa's on that roof!" Yeah, no shit, she's a huge robot cow, everyone can see her, and there's only one roof in this entire part of the map, so your single voice chat line has already given me all the information I need. Pinging her location is just additional visual and audio clutter that isn't necessary.
What you're suggesting, and I understand why, is the advocation of a ping system as a
replacement for traditional voice chat. But that system can only go so far and is more useful in some genres than others. Overwatch is a tactical game where positioning and gamesense are important; these are things that you just can't automate, at the end of the day. Ultimately, you've got to speak, out loud, what it is that you're trying to convey to the team. In a game like Apex, the pings don't really replace voice chat either, they supplement it; however, because of the way the battle royale genre is designed (massive maps, sneaky enemies, items all over the place) a system for pinging specific locations has a lot of value.
When you want to add a new feature to a multiplayer game, the very first thing you have to consider is how this feature could be abused by bad actors. A ping system similar to Apex's would have minimal value in 90% of situations and would otherwise just be misused constantly by players who are either too dumb to know what information they need to ping, or are deliberately griefing. If you want better communication options, an overhaul of the existing voice line system would be far easier. The only ping that I could see having decent value would be the ability to mark a part of the map, maybe once every five seconds, and then your character yells "I think they're coming through here!" This would let you identify areas where you think the enemy is about to flank or attack through.
It's very easy to just say "Just add pings 4head" but there's perhaps a reason why other multiplayer game developers have decided not to add this type of system outside the battle royale genre.
