Overwatch

Hmmm, well thats understandable.

I put a lot of emphasis on lore because I always personally enjoyed just reading about fictional characters and fictional worlds.

Blizzard isn't perfect but they did have a wealth of lore and material for World Of Warcraft. I know Overwatch is a new IP but it does feel strange that they aren't atleast trying to fill the gaps lore wise with the old heroes and have retconned some stuff.

Or why that comic idea they were making was canceled.

I gotta agree with Wispy; if Genji was literally my favorite hero in the history of fiction, and Mercy and Zen still had other no purpose than as his support staff, that would still be an issue.

It should be noted that Genji is to Hanzo what Mercy & Zenny are to him.

It all converges back to Hanzo, the only character apparently on some kind of path.

Edited by slimcoder on Nov 24th 2018 at 11:24:36 AM

He has a bit more lore than them.

Thats not saying much though. We all need some new lore for the heroes. Part of the reason I am excited for Echo is she may finally add some new lore in.

Wait I thought the convo between mercy and gabe was an urban legend.

There IS the 'dear god what happened to you gabe ?' 'you tell me, doc' in the game, and it hasn't been removed, it just doesn't have the implications the fandom were giving it.

Some people claim there existed one that goes along the lines of 'i didn't meant that for you' 'you knew exactly what you were doing' but no one can actually find a recording of that interaction happening anywhere.

it doesn't come across as retconning so much as fans reading too far into some convos that weren't meant to be an then getting upset at blizzard when they come out and say "wait no we didn't meant to say that".

I get why people are upset blizz didn't went in that direction for their story because it gave some lore to mercy and now it feels like it's been taken away, but I don't think there's a need to call for retcons unless you want to undermine your own point.

It does make sense that Mercy would be able to piece together a rough estimation of whatever the hell happened to Gabe. Honestly, I think Mercy has a fine amount of lore, it's just that the main bit of her lore is also adjacent to Genji. She was a medic working for Overwatch, and she also happened to rebuild Genji's body. Genji isn't the focus of her lore, it's just something that she did while working as a medic for Overwatch.

I do agree that Zenyatta needs more lore about his life before he took in Genji as a pupil, or just more lore about his life in general.

Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Nov 25th 2018 at 5:23:27 AM

Everyone tends to forget that Zen dropped out from the Shambali monastery because he disagreed with how they teached their methods. He also has a lot interesting interactions with other characters.

Mercy is also an accesory for Overwatch and Moira, not just Genji

I stand corrected.

Point still stands though, shes one of the heroes that needs more lore. Mercy is way too squeaky clean in her lore. Part of the reason why the fandom believes or used to believe that she had something to do with Reaper's state was that it would add a bit more to her character that yes she had made mistakes.

But a lot of the heroes need some new lore in general.

The problem with her lore is that there is literally nothing to her other than her being the kind medic. Atleast lore wise, you can infer pieces in-game and make your own theories.

Mentioned that, I personally don't think thats enough. We never knew what his life was like before the Shambali but I imagine he was involved in the Omnic Crisis on some level.

And beyond him helping Genji we don't know what he is doing after the Shambali either. There is an wealth of interesting developments they can burst open their but they haven't yet for some reason or another.

D.Va atleast got new lore.

Edited by Wispy on Nov 25th 2018 at 5:37:27 AM

I think the amount of lore Mercy has is fine, the problem is that she's the face of the Support class, and she doesn't have any more lore than most other heroes to show that. If any other Support hero was the face of that class, the lack of lore for Mercy wouldn't be as noticeable.

2018 also didnt have a big lore hero release like 2016 or 2017 had.

Brigitte is another Pharah but she happens to be heavily tied to two people instead of one. Hammond if just a quirky character who is connected to two groups that arent too big in the lore and Ashe is a quirky criminal just like the Junkers.

And somehow the Hamster is the most compelling

I like all the new ones. Although I do agree that Brigitte is a retread of Pharah's backstory.

The main issue with Ashe's is that the short with her makes you think that Echo is the new hero.

Mercy diagreeing with the militarization of Overwatch and dislike of her technology being weaponized is a thing too.

Edited by lycropath on Nov 25th 2018 at 10:07:05 AM

From my understanding the short wasn't originally scripted to be a direct handoff to a character announcement at all. It was just a McCree short that happened to introduce a few characters from his backstory. Some of which could become playable sometime in the nebulous future.

It wasn't until they were well into the short's development that the gameplay team latched onto the character of Ashe and decided she should be the next hero.

We should talk about something more wholesome.

Like Reinhardt and Torbjorn's friendship

tf2-gmod-style youtube poops are one of life's great treasures.

Based on the interviews with Jeff, it sounded more like it was supposed to introduce Echo as a playable hero, but her (his? their?) release got pushed back and they decided to upgrade Ashe to playable instead.

Who knows how much the short developed after that decision though. Ashe probably was a nameless goon before Echo was pushed back.

We know Echo will be a playable hero we just don't know when.

Its also very very likely that she will be a support or a tank as Jeff in one of the streams said that they know we need more tanks and supports. I would take any role for Echo though as long as shes fun.

Something a bit sad that I noticed, Ashe would of actually been our first defense hero if they kept that category intact since she is sniper-ish.

I would assume Echo is support. Overwatch tends to prefer to keep roles pretty easy to read from a glance/distance. Tanks are big and bulky, DPS somewhere inbetween, and then supports tend to be the smallest and hardest to hit with the least threatening of designs.

Echo, with soothing colors, no inherent threatening weapons visable (so far), and rather thin and slick frame, reads as more support to me.

Bingo. That's arguably the most important aspect of Overwatch.

Of course there's always the chance she'll walk around with enormous floating turrets or jack her slim frame into a bigger body or something to give her visual presence more weight. Doomfist started as a Tank hero, apparently, so changes happen.

I personally would prefer support but I wouldn't mind the other two.

I just want her to be fun and unique. I could see her being our first shield healing support considering her design definitely brings Vishkar to mind.

Edit: I just realized that Ashe reminds me of Guzma from Team Skull. Same general silliness to her villainy

Edited by Wispy on Nov 26th 2018 at 1:11:43 AM

You know, now that you pointed it out, I can see it. Adorable leader, incompetent team, the most/only competent minion she has is her second in command...

Before Brigitte exits the metagame for a while, let's remember about that time she reunited with her Papa

Winter Wonderland returns on 11th.

Snowboarder Zarya

I'm just glad I finally have another opportunity to purchase Orisa's Puppy emote again.

Finally I’ll get to buy Backpacker Hanzo. I mean, Scion Hanzo hits the same notes that made me really want it in the first place, but still.