I really hope the initial intention was pure, but the aftermath leaves a bad taste in my mouth. The community has done a better job of portraying queer stories in the Overwatch universe than Blizzard has themselves. Pairings have emerged from chemistry found in the game’s dialogue that its creators failed to capitalise upon, which is the sign of an excellent universe filled with potential. Now, Blizzard just needs to build upon it and treat its canonical queer characters with greater resp
This is a result of Blizzard gently touching on the queer nature of its characters before running away and never mentioning it again. Fans are forced to draw their own conclusions, and the post-launch announcement that some characters are gay simply feels like performative nonsense. Was this the plan from the start, or did it seem like an easy diversity win when writing the next co
Overwatch skins are nothing more than costumes to dress your favourite characters up in, so it seems silly for someone like me, who only plays rarely and not even as Soldier 76, to care about them so much. But it’s not really about whether the skins look good, whether I’d want them, and whether they’re better or worse than other sets. It’s that Blizzard had the opportunity to embrace the queer culture behind Soldier 76 and Tracer, a culture the company is happy to cater to in only the most minor of ways, and instead ducked it. A skin that was unabashedly queer was an opportunity to reinforce the diversity Blizzard often talks about, but Overwatch deliberately let the opportunity pass
It could be argued that Overwatch doesn’t need to waste time focusing on this stuff, pushing an “agenda” that simply takes away focus from actually playing the game. But it should, its queer characters deserve more than just a passing mention to keep us satisfied. Explore these stories, show that Overwatch is worthy of the awards and nominations it has received for doing the bare minimum for representation. Two cisgender white homosexuals feels like a sanitised definition of diversity. Where are the POC, transgender characters, and those who refuse to fit into neat little boxes? The universe is only growing with the coming sequel, and its grasp on representation should do so along with
Despite my praise for the designs, Overwatch is not a game with in-depth characters – it’s all skin deep. Any attempt to flesh them out usually comes through fine print in the lore, promo reels, or external material like comic books. I understand why fans want these great designs to be built upon further, and I appreciate that a hero shooter all about utilising powers and fast PvP play is not the ideal genre for deep, interconnected stories. Overwatch has two queer characters, which is more than most triple-A games, but it’s hard to give it too much credit when their queerness has been so completely downplayed. It’s often lauded for its diversity – it even once had a GLAAD nomination – but that fact is its two queer characters are white, cis, and straight passing, while there are more playable animals and playable robots than there are playable Black women. That’s not too much of a stretch though, given that there are zero Black women in Overwatch’s heaving roster right now – Sojourn will join in Overwatch 2, but that feels too late for a game with playable 32 charact
As a – very – casual Overwatch fan , the characters have always been my favourite thing about the hero shooter. They only tell vague stories, but they’re so well designed and are bursting with such life that they feel like bigger characters than they actually are. They’re similar to comic book characters; you don’t need to have read the decades long history between Batman and the Joker, you just see their iconic designs and you instantly feel as if you know them. Whether it’s Ashe and her Wild West gunslinger aesthetic, D.Va’s e-girl vibe, or Winston the science monke, the character designs tell their own stories. That’s why the recent Archives event feels like a big missed opportun
They wouldn’t even be the exception to the rule, either. Mercy’s skin is based on the history of healers, taking inspiration from Florence Nightingale, while Zenyatta’s is a deep sea diver because… well, I’m not sure. It looks cool, I gu
