Overwatch: A Failure in Expanding a Universe
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- Опубліковано 28 вер 2024
- When Overwatch was being teased in 2015 and 2016, it seemed like the beginning of a universe that was only going to keep expanding - and then it never happened. The TV show people wanted never materialized. The story stagnated. The universe of Overwatch didn't progress, and not only did the canon not move forward, but Blizzard failed to actually expand into more ambitious media projects that could've filled out their universe in a way that games like League of Legends, Danganronpa, or Cyberpunk (to name just a few) have.
So, in a perfect storm of over-caffeination and hyper-procrastination, I made a video about it. Enjoy! And also, if you haven't already, go listen to some K/DA - or at least go watch some of the reactions people have had to K/DA videos over the years, because they're inexplicably addicting.
Apologies if the intro is a little scuffed, I had to cut the original first 17 seconds out for copyright lol
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Overwatch could have been a multimedia empire. They could've made a movie with multiple sequels, an animated series for every faction and "era" of the game's lore, and a dozen-plus character-specific comic runs, _all at the same time,_ and we'd STILL beg for more...
I wish Blizz had more than two brain cells and did any of the above, instead of piling all their eggs in one basket & obsessing over their (manufactured) esports scene _at the expense of literally everything that made Overwatch so popular in the first place._
This crazy obsession for profiting with esports over pretty much everything else is absolutely doing more harm than good for Blizzard games. Heroes of the Storm already got the nail in the coffin this way and WoW already received a massive backlash a while ago for Blizzard advertising an in-game toy whose sales would revert to increase the prize pool in the Blizzcon Arena tournament, only for players to find out later that it was just a very minimal percentage of the sales of this toy would actually go to the prize and the big majority of it would go to their (Blizzard executives) pockets. In Overwatch's case, there's also the fact that they themselves manufactured an esports scene instead of letting the players and community grow and mature for a while prior. A company having 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 influence in their games esports shouldn't be big deal, but if they completely fabricate a competition for a recent launched game, like Blizz did Overwatch, it feels artificial and not very compelling to watch/care about.
The worst part is that I do believe that the creative team behind Overwatch did think in other ways to expand the game beyond the already good comics and cinematics released because, afterall, there were/are a bunch of people from other Blizzard IPs that were transfered to Overwatch's development team and all other Blizzard IP's already had a shit ton of other media stuff released way prior to Overwatch's release in 2016, so my guess is that Activision-Blizzard's executives thought at the time that the esports thing was the best way to make more money and told the team to focus on that, which, as we can see now, was definetely not the best decision.
The irony is their esports would probably be 1000000x better if they did all of the examples above
I hopped on yesterday after not playing for years and it’s like graphic design is the ONLY thing they are good at anymore. Like genuinely in awe at the lack of direction or ability to add on to the existing gameplay loops. They sure can sell some sick skins though I guess.
IKR! They should put more eggs in OW Porn
they cud have profit from overwatch hero stories/adventures alone
Stuff like sigma and probably rammatra make me mad because they are such good characters with amazing stories that are NEVER expanded on.
That’s the worst part, almost every Overwatch character has been given a backstory that really makes you want to learn more, and then it just never happens. Sigma and Ramattra are great recent examples, but even the original roster has heroes like Widowmaker who have great stories that just never got properly told.
@@TheViveros You touched on this in the video, but they really don't have anything planned. Overwatch was supposed to be "Heroes of the world, UNITE! Hope, progress, optimism, and in a future with endless potential!" Then it turned into "World doesn't want us anymore, life is pain. Maybe we were the villains the whole time. Were all criminals, innocence is dead." like wtf. Same thing that Picard did exactly. Throw the setting in the trash for compelling drama, despite that not being necessary for drama. Now Ramattra, the leader of Null Sector, is a anti-hero? They made the robot invasion a retaliatory attack, and keep saying Ramattra is a sympathetic rebel underdog. Doomfist's motive of breaking the peaceful stalemate in human evolution falls flat when he has no reason for it. War for the sake of war? He isn't upset at the world getting soft, that was never shown, he just wants to "evolve". Plot sucks, setting sucks, heroes are getting less interesting. I am struggling to be a fan, I just like the gameplay at this point. Stick-in-the-mud old-guard Overwatch high ranking official with inconceivable amounts of guilt would be fine for exactly ONE character, not ALL ex-Overwatch. Reinhardt barely mentions lore, which is why everyone still likes him. 76 being a rebel vigilante was cool, but now its just gone so he can be grumpy dad haha.
@@choccy_bagel it would make sense in our world, but not in the 2070s futuristic utopia that is ow2
Remember how cool Sigma's story trailer was, and how he's just a quirky old gravity man in the game instead?
@Relevart i wouldn't call the OW2 world an utopia lol, cities are more advanced because they are 50 years ahead of us, but a whole continent is an irradiated wasteland, russia hasn't changed and is at war with a race instead of ukraine, and tension's after the omnic war have lowered but are still pretty hot, the issue with overwatch isn't the setup, far from it, their bases are amazing and have an extremely amount of potential that might be seen in the campaign, but the core issue is that they do not expand on them besides some comics or pdf's with 6 pages, if you are creating a new universe, and one this big, you need to put a lot of material before going ham with the story, which is exactly what they did, it's just that blizzard does nothing to capitalize with what they have created besides 19 dollar skins.
It's insane to think that right now team fortress 2 has a more expansive and detailed story than OverWatch
absolutely insane indeed, considering valve has also abandoned team fortress in similar ways that blizzard abandoned overwatch. i wish valve would focus on their games and IPs more again, even if it was just to release the final team fortress comic. every franchise featured in the orange box is a goldmine of things we could be exploring, yet the most they get to be these days (maybe aside from half life, what with alyx being a more "proper" game) are tech demos for valves new gadgets and gizmos
most of TF2 lore is in a series of 6 comics - 6 COMICS - that was never even finished and it's still better than Overwatch. At least they bothered to make an animated short for every character
I am still blue balling waiting for the next comic to come out.
Like the game's already in a bad state, while I just want a conclusion to the comics.
@@takahashierik 6 comics and basically 9 introductory “Meet the Mercenary” shorts and they still overshadow OW in terms of world building
@@takahashierik To be fair, there were also A LOT of other ancillary comics, spread across the various updates the game had, which also contributed to TF2's lore. And which laid the groundwork for the comic series, which frequently referenced events from said earlier comics, obliquely or otherwise.
The best bit of lore Blazzord has given us is still Junk and Hog trying to break back into Junkertown.
I'd legit pay just to watch an epsiodic comedy about their antics, with each episode dragging someone new into the mayhem
It actually was both funny and inventive, despite it being made on the game engine. I watched it like 5 times back in the day, much more than any pre rendered shorts like Dragons or Last Bastion
I am DYING for more junk and roadhog content. Hell just junkertown. Some of the my fave worldbuilding in the franchise
They insist what kiriko and the Yamada twins aren't using magic, but they NEVER explain it to us, as it's not hard light manipulation like Symmetra uses and any shield users
At this point, I'm 99% sure the "No magic" rule has been totally retconned.
Zenyatta and the Shimadas are effectively wizards, kiriko makes it even harder to believe it's not litteral magic.
Kiriko has a spirit protector and no one knows how the robo-monks can do their thing, since it doesn't make sense with their rudimentary body frames. Magic is pretty much canon.
the Yamaha twins 💀
@@Skibbutz (presumed) unpopular opinion here, I hate the presence of magic in Overwatch. It really ruins the overall thematic of science in its universe. Hologram, gravity-manipulation, genetic-engineering, temperature-control, electricity, and whatever Tracer's thing are still okay in my book
I just refuse magic and called it as non-canon
Isn't spirits?
Blizzard isn't into making fun things anymore.
They used to have an in house metal band with Elite Tauren Chieftain. Them taking the stage at Blizzcon was amazing. Their lyrics dripped with lore and references to their games and even threw in game concerts in WoW.
I would say it even inspired Riot. Their first music project was a lore laden metal band called Pentakill. First I heard them it gave me vibes of what blizzard did with Elite Tauren Chieftain. Then they went on to make KDA and True Damage.
Blizzard could have easily done the same. Hell, isn't Lucio IN LORE a famous recording artist? Kiriko even has a line bantering with him about his music. They EASILY could written music for him as a solo artist in the same way Seraphine is a solo artist.
And in Blizzard’s current biggest MMO competitor, FFXIV, the dev team has an in-house band featuring the main composer and their head of localization (and random female singers from their office sometimes because they just have a good few of those apparently) and that band’s music is actual in-game music! When they host concerts The Primals play songs that they wrote for the actual game!
And even though XIV doesn’t have something like a TV show or comic book runs there are dozens of short stories that the writers have published on the website that massively expand on many of the supporting and side characters. Not to mention quests in game that also do this!
Hell they even wrote their own in-game absurdist comedy series in between expansions! (Less relevant to the overall comparison but those Hildibrand quests are actually super expensive to make due to all the extra animation the team has to do)
Oh and they published a really damn good irl cookbook because you can spec as a cook for your crafting class and people really want to make those recipes!
Now in the future I’d love for them to re-explore the lost story of 1.0 (updated to smooth out retcons) in either a single-player RPG or as a TV show or something but until the game ever starts to wane I’ll be super content with what they’re giving us!
Cannot say the same for Blizzard whatsoever.
Lucio is also Brazilian lorewise, but in game that's very rarely relevant other than "Lucio is brazilian so he wears green and yellow and is black"
Meanwhile Zarya and Mei both got default voice lines in the language of their home country, I don't even know if Lucio got added any voice lines in Portuguese
I was pretty hyped to have a support character that was from my country, but all of his characterization in game feels like "generic DJ" when you play him, also, while this is not the VAs fault, his accent is so American you'd never guess he isn't one if it weren't for the clothes.
@@NoxShadow Honestly, it seems like Lucio is ethnically Brazilian but was raised almost exclusively in the US, then maybe moved back to Brazil as an adult.
Yeah but Activision’s priority is the money unsustainable infinite growth
@@NoxShadow i think he has one line in portuguese, when he ults in the enemy team
"I get drunk, impulsively unlock the himbos, twinks, and pop stars, and play League like two hours a year"
I barely know you and I already love your vibe.
I'm not saying there's a right or a wrong way to play League, but I *am* saying I'm the only person I know who doesn't regret the time they've spent playing League and that should count for *something.*
And thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it!
I mainly play Bard, so every game’s just “nyooooooooom” and it’s wonderful ^^
This would be me if I didn't get reported for bot behaviour everytime I'm in a match due to me sucking at MOBAS in general
Something strange to me is that Blizzard displays the animated shorts for Kiriko and Junker queen in the hero gallery, but no other characters have that. They also removed all cosmetic descriptions that had lore in them (or even made up stuff for the sake of jokes). It feels like they just don’t care about the story anymore. The sequel to overwatch releasing WITHOUT the story mode worries me.
NO DEADASS WHY DID THEY GET RID OF THE BREIFS
WHAAAAT
so stuff like "sparrow" being sojiro's nickname for genji it doesnt say that stuff anymore?
The fact events that are thrown around so casually like Vishkar's fuckup at Brazil, Orisa Fighting Doomfist, The Lunar Colony Revolt, and Hammonds apparent Hatred to Winston (it took them spelling it out in an interaction to make it clear because of how little those two actually talked) yet we've never seen them actually visualized in any meaningful way feels so wrong. Like why even have these events be a thing if you'll never follow through with any of them?
Sombra dancing to More should not line up as well as it does. I love it.
I think I actually changed the speed of the dance for this one to try to make it line up as much as possible lol
Lucio canonically has music that’s on streaming services though, doesn’t he? Synaesthesia Auditiva is what it’s called on Spotify. It’s under another name but it was meant to canonically be his music.
Yeah, I mentioned it in the video briefly (probably butchered the pronunciation, but I can’t help being a filthy Anglo) but it wasn’t really treated like a real serious musical venture - more like a gimmick, like the Luci-Os cereal. It was a real missed opportunity for them to really lean into his music, especially because it’s pretty frequently referenced in-game with characters talking about wanting to go to his concerts or loving his songs.
Ever since the first cinematic trailer for Overwatch came out years ago I've always been on board for an animated film. I'd thought that was what the trailer was for initially, and the intrigue from the cinematics was much of what drew me into playing but as time went on it felt like it all dried up.
Same. I remember watchin the spider cinematic short n thinkin it was a trailer for a film
Oh, man. That Zenyatta point hits hard for me. I've been maining him since I first started playing and I've honestly kinda lost hope for him ever getting more lore beyond background dressing on other characters' cinematics.
I feel you there. There are definitely a lot of heroes in Overwatch who've been done dirty in terms of lore, but Zenyatta's always stuck out as a hero who has *so much* potential and is just wholesale ignored. It really sucks, and I'm hoping you guys finally get some lore now that Ramattra's out (although tbh I feel like the odds are pretty high that he's now just gonna also be background dressing for Ramattra).
I'm really glad UA-cam's algorithm changed to promote smaller channels like this recently. Just binged a few of your videos over dinner, you make really good content, keep it up!
Thank you so much! It's been great to win the algorithm's lottery, but it definitely came out of left field for me - the channel is only a little over 2 months old and I figured I wouldn't be getting anywhere near these numbers for a long time haha
As someone who plays a decent bit of both League and Overwatch, it's really interesting to think about:
If I wanna learn more about my favorite LoL characters, there's short stories, comics, lore cinematics, even entirely seperate games I can go play to learn more about them. Fuck, my favorite character even has a full-length *novella* written about his rise and fall. A whole book.
If I wanna learn more about my favorite Overwatch characters? I'm lucky if half of them even have one cinematic.
You can find it on the wiki or old PVE events but its not as straightforward when it comes to learning the lore
LOR gave us so much info on the world they created and the champions
litterary a entite war between darkins and celestials was written with flavour text
Blizzard is really bad at managing non video game things. The Warcraft movie, the overwatch comics, the various ttrpgs and board games they refuse to support...
They're clearly also bad at managing video games too
You just reminded me that the warcraft movie even existed
Honestly the cinematics and lore is what brought me. It’s been really disappointing we have gotten pretty much nothing. Really hoping when PVE comes out, the lord explodes.
it is honestly such a massive shame that Overwatch does not take advantage of utilizing multimedia to expand their universe. in my opinion, there is so much potential for crafting such a fascinating near-future fantasy story. I didn't start playing in 2016 when the game first came out, but after I started first playing the game, the lore that I kept discovering was what kept me hooked for an incredibly long time. it's always been sparse, but I remember fondly watching and rewatching all of the cinematics, reading all of the bio blurbs on the old website, and getting so attached to the ideas and concepts behind all of the characters. it makes me sad that Blizzard as a whole has always been more apt on focusing only on the gameplay and PVP balancing to the point that I literally jump at every opportunity I can when they release even a sentence of a new dialogue interaction between some of the characters or jump at the opportunity to read a little short story. I think that in itself is pathetic, that the parts of the community that genuinely enjoy the lore are given at best 2-3 short stories a year and maybe a novel if we're lucky. they don't even make comics anymore. do they even know how much potential an episodic series would have? have they ever even tried to come up with a sort of multimedia pipeline to market the game to a wider audience that don't even have to play the game to enjoy its universe? I hate League, but I love reading about the lore behind its universe and the characters and I really enjoy a lot of the songs they've produced for their esports scene and some K/DA too. I think that says something about how putting in actual time and effort to appeal to a wider audience can still make an IP successful and well-liked. in my opinion, Blizzard seems too narrow-minded, and limiting their Overwatch audience primarily to its gaming platform is hurting it because the game is just broken at its core. what you said about only playing League for like two hours a year but still being able to pore over the lore on a consistent basis and bop your head to K/DA is indicative of how successful Riot (and even CDPR) has been with marketing the game to a wider audience with other things people actually like to experience, like with anime or TV series adaptations. not everyone plays video games, after all
with the fact that OW 2 itself was advertised as a game that some of the less PVP-inclined could enjoy, I've been incredibly disappointed thus far. when they revealed it at Blizzcon, it was pretty much ONLY advertised as PVE from my perception and I was so freaking hyped to finally get story content and a campaign, but all we've gotten so far is a store disguised as OW 1. I've loved playing this game for so long, but I feel like I've been beaten to near-death by the developers for doing nothing more than trying to have fun playing this dumb game. I'm pretty much hoping beyond hope that they don't completely scuff the PVE campaign if and whenever they add it in next year, but I guess we'll just have to see
but anyway, very cool video! I agree with you 100%, and I just hope that maybe this game won't completely go up in smoke lol
In regards to OW2 announcement, while I do agree that I loved the idea of the PVE that the revealed at Blizzcon the first time, as far as I remember it was advertised that Overwatch 2 would have BOTH a pvp and a pve mode, the pve mode of course being the new thing that would differentiate the game from the first version and that everyone would like to see. This launch of the game in its current form does feel like it's been rushed to please shareholders/meet some deadline/something in those lines because without the new PvE mode and with just some few changes from before (the main one being the removal of 1 tank from the standard team composition), the game feels like just a reskin of the original Overwatch, but with the "2" at the end. It really shows how much the decision making from the higher-ups have changed, them before only releasing games "when it's ready" and now releasing games rushedly and missing key features of a sequel game that is the main reason to even call the game a sequel in the first place.
This Video has a much better quality than the size of your channel would suggest. Not that those numbers matter that much but rather, what I'm trying to say is that, after watching this video and clicking on your channel I was very suprised not seeing a few more zeroes next to that number. Good Job! More people deserve to see this video!
Thank you so much! I totally get what you mean, and I really appreciate it. And I’m glad you liked the video, I was trying something different with this one and I was really proud of how it turned out so I’m glad it’s working for other people too 😊
I literally just finished watching both Arcane & Edgerunners. Wow, great video as usual. Agree with all the points. If Blizzard released a movie, I would be in theaters tomorrow reserving my seat. Blizzard definitely needs to realize the cash cow they are sitting on rather than just burying their heads in the sand. I mean, a storyline of Sombra or even Reaper trying to navigate the world would be amazing. Even an anime similar to edgerunners would be fine. But give us something. For me, I lost interest in CP2077 & i've never been into League. But the shows renewed my interest to check both games out again. I imagine if OW pulled off a show or movie of similar quality. The 2016 hype would be there again. The fact that THE hub was, at one point, the only place to go for additional media on OW characters is really the biggest bruh moment of all time. Anyways, a little off-topic. Favorite Danganronpa character? I'm shameless in admitting i'm a Kirigiri fan. Although Monokuma is just too fluffy to not love his murderous plays.
Thank you! If I had my choice, I would love an Arcane-style series about Sombra as someone who was orphaned during the crisis and had to navigate the world that it left behind - regardless of the subject of it, people absolutely would've gone wild for it. There's so many stories that could be told even if they weren't willing to move the story forward, but it's like they're paralyzed by fear of accidentally painting themselves into a corner.
As far as my favourite Danganronpa character, it's so hard to pick. I also played the games in a weird order (v3, then 1, then 2) so my perspective on them is skewed a bit, but gun to my head it's probably a toss-up between Kirumi and Junko. Honourable mentions go to anyone who brought some real unhinged energy into the games like Nagito or Miu, though.
Cash cow sounds like if they tried they would be ruining it, taking all it's value for money.
I would instead call it and opportunity, they didn't develop their world enought and just stuck to the Game for too long where the game fails they have nothing else, thats why most OW heroes feel Boring and stale.
i mean i dont know if the opportunity still exists but activion is due to takover by microsoft in 2023, if they still see that opportunity chances are they will take it, they are pretty good with the whole monkey see monkey do shit.
Blizzard did try to expand on their IP lore once. Anyone remember the Warcraft movie?
@@TheViveros played v3 first? the ending must've made no sense to you at first lol
Doesn't help that what story we do have has already been retconned and adjusted numerous times. The creative director left. The lead writer left. They just don't know where to go.
What’s sad is that even if it was too risky to do a show on the main narrative, there was a lot of potential for small scoped or solo character stories. Like for Dva, it was already compelling that she was essentially a celebrity turned soldier that developed PTSD from her experience and has to balance being an international hero and a teenage icon while dealing with trauma that goes mostly ignored and can only cope by gaming. It feels weird hearing her OW2 lines because it’s like the devs and others that worked on her OW2 variation completely forgot that was a part of her character and are using her to reference “modern gamer memes”
Her lines have been that way since OW1 though (she had one or two map lines about ruins reminding her of home but thats scant). It feels like one department doesn't know what the other is doing. Her PTSD war hero vid felt like it stumbled out of left field when it came cause nothing in her persona/demeanor really sold it to me.
I feel like while Blizzard having extra resources after the merger with Activision might sound good on paper, it is exactly the reason why nothing was ultimately done to expand the OW universe beyond the game. To me Activision has for a long time seemed very short-sighted in is pursuit of easy money, and the new model of monetization of OW "2" could signal that they have more or less pulled the plug on any significant development for the game and are vacuuming as much money before abandoning the title altogether, and I REALLY want to be wrong on this one.
They were just following in TF2's footsteps. Abandoning something with so much love poured into it, so much potential, and so much fan passion when it was deemed not a priority any more.
The animated shorts were what got me into OW1 back when it first came out. I kept up with everything that came out while I was still playing it and even though I saw all the complaints about it making no sense I was convinced Bliz were going to fix it somehow given the quality of the stuff they were putting out. Now I can't help but find a lot of the in-game interactions the characters have really embarrassing knowing there's virtually nothing backing them up a lot of the time, it all comes across like characters saying cool lines at each other with literally zero depth to it. Almost every single thing about Overwatch now feels like they're just making cool character designs, slapping a personality on it and shoving them into the roster with little rhyme or reason.
Really good video btw, I hope you keep growing on here
I think that the Junkenstein skin line in a great place to start when looking at something that could’ve been the start of something great. They took an old story and then redesigned it to fit the characters fairly well as well as adding in interactions between the characters in the event which builds the character in that universe while showing it can still stick to the core character. While it was simple it showed they could successfully create ideas to build off and make something interesting. Which could have branched off into not only confidence to build the rest of the actual universe. I mean their practically 2/3 of the way there. Many of the heroes in Overwatch not only have a current version but we see what they looked like when they were younger. The Blackwatch skins, Origins, Hammond with his Junkertown skin, Winston with his horizon skin, etc. etc. It’s all right there in front of their faces. That potential I think if tapped into could be the thing that stops Overwatch from its continuing decline. It won’t magically balance the game but like you stated it can at least stall until Blizzard realizes how much of a golden goose egg Overwatch is. It feels like they’re still trying to play it safe. With Overwatch 2 I feel they’re trying to avoid stepping on eggshells after everything that’s happened and don’t want to upset anyone else. This is actually the time to be more aggressive (not with monetization). By the time the campaign comes out I think they will nearly be sunk. So I don’t keep going and going and going, Blizzard needs to show they can make a game that be more than just a game. More than just gameplay and skins. Make characters that are characters. Not a hero to fit an archetype of play. Make character a playable hero that has reasons for being in that archetype. Which a lot do meet but don’t ever exceed. And I’m still going I swear I’ll end it soon. Everything is either at baseline or creeping up to something better but Blizzard has to push to that higher excellence. Everything is there. The dots are layer they just need to weave the strings together and it could be a beautiful tapestry.
riot's music department is on another level. even the login screens/champion themes are insanely good to the point where i listen to some of them regularly years after their release
Not even just the music, they go hard on the music videos too. Like they did not have to go that hard for POP/STARS or MORE, but they did it anyways and I have nothing but respect for their commitment to the bit.
@@TheViveros reccomend also watching some champion trailers
my favourite one was for bard
In both the video and the comment section, the date 2016 is being thrown around a lot. I would remind people that Blizzard did make a movie in 2016 - World of Warcraft. A movie that was critically panned, just the next of a long line of bad video game movies. My guess is, Blizzard wanted to use their bigger IP to break into the market, and when that failed, they dropped some of the loftier plans they made for Overwatch.
That's a great point
Good stuff, I also feel that sense of just wanting to know why, like what the heck, it was bases loaded and they didn't even swing. So confusing, but hopefully when the PVE shows up we will get something to actually sink our teeth into rather than crumbs of what amounts to character introductions. Funny watching lore videos on youtube because it seems like i already knew everything and i wouldnt call myself a lore expert, theres just so little lore for a billion dollar almost decade old ip.
Right? The average VTuber has a more coherent, fleshed out backstory than most Overwatch heroes. There's so little lore, and what does exist is so spotty and inconsistent that it feels like a lot of work to keep up with all of the nothing that's happening. I hope the PvE finally brings the story, but honestly, I'm kinda expecting it to just get delayed again.
@@TheViveros has there even been any content put out about the omnic crisis? other than the general fantasy nature of tech and maybe magic its like the defining difference between Overwatch and our real world. Is magic real? its never referenced but a couple of japanese people that use dragon/fox magic and some robot monks that use robot monk magic make me feel it is so why isnt it a bigger deal that they can do that especially if its so rare. Im mostly interested in everything omnic related, especially the shambali so its cool Ramatra is coming out, what are you hoping gets expanded upon?
There have been tidbits here and there about the Omnic Crisis, and stuff like the first Archives mission where you fought Null Sector in King's Row, but not much about the overarching crisis or what it was like day-to-day. And yeah, they really haven't explained the mechanics of the universe very well - like, why is it *only* Japanese people who can apparently do magic? The Omnics can reach enlightenment and then harness the power of the Iris, but that kind of implies that every Omnic theoretically has the ability to do all of this stuff and just... doesn't, because they can't reach enlightenment (whatever that even means). Human beings are mostly not implied to have any magical powers outside of Japan, but none of the other characters seem particularly impressed by the fact that Kiriko, Genji, and Hanzo are able to functionally do magic/channel spirits, which would imply that it's at least a little bit normal in their universe.
I think I mentioned it in another comment, but if I could wish upon a star for a single piece of Overwatch lore, I would like to see them expand on Sombra's childhood as someone who was orphaned during the Omnic Crisis and fell into the underworld to survive. To me, that kind of story is something Overwatch's lore is missing - what was the Omnic Crisis actually like, and what did it do to normal people?
I mean what 99% of the heroes do is basically magic
blizzard just see OW and think "ooh yeah, that's our E-sport cash cow baby. Let's push THAT and forgor everything else"
wow, i really feel this. i got into overwatch back in 2017 thanks to my friends and loved the cast and the sheer potential there. there were a lot of reasons i stopped playing, but i think part of it is that i never felt fulfilled on the lore and seeing the interesting cast develop
It is currently 11:25 pm. I found this video in my feed, and a voice in my head screamed “THAT’S WHAT I’VE BEEN THINKING!!!!”
I have not yet watched the video, but rest assured that the title alone gave me joy.
I’m a League fan and honestly this video made me actually reflect and appreciate what we’ve been getting more. Sure, there are dead ends, lore retcons and a lot of greed fueled decisions (We don’t talk about Sentinels event) but we also have a lot of great stuff. Arcane is truly lightning in a bottle and we have spin-off games and the universe is branching out. And Legends of Runeterra basically carries this universe at this point
i love how after this video overwatch made a kpop group, released pve, then gave up on pve putting further missions on indefinate hold essentially cancling them
I was interested as soon as you mentioned Danganronpa
Glad to see Danganronpa in the comparison, which proves just how much Overwatch hasn't really done much externally than even DR did in the past few years.
Though the latest release of Danganronpa S is kind of a lackluster (and I didn't buy it simply because I don't like school mode). Also the biggest blow for me is that all the side Danganronpa novels (including Kirigiri novels which I fell in love with) do not have an officially translated release outside of Japan.
I think one game worth looking at in order to see a subtle reinforcement of its universe is Apex Legends.
It's a multi-character FPS involving a relatively large cast which, even if built on the foundation of the Titanfall universe, created a lot of online and in-game content which pushes the development and changes of character issues, goals, and desires through PvE, in-game comics, and YT/Twitter media.
It isn't by any means as extensive as LoL's other media or as potent as Cyberpunk Edgerunners, but it allows people like me to want to tune into Apex Legends every once in a while when I wanna know how those characters are doing and if anything changed about them and their relationships with one another.
In Overwatch, they gave my robot boi Bastion a backstory... and it was never really touched upon again...
Sombra lore can be fixed by simply making there NOT be a group secretly running the world.
Or making it Omnico (or whatever their name was) and they aren't in control anymore because of accidents and errors outside of their control so now the factions they set up are spiraling, splintering or growing out of control
Imagine a world where blizzard pulled their heads out of their asses and did SMTH back in 2016/17 making OW bring in money in a way thats not a predatory monetization system in a lazy "update"(more of a downgrade but whatever) advertised as a new game
It started off good with the shorts, BUT they should've turned those shorts in a full blown series
Man I still remember how hype it was when the doomfist gauntlet was stolen from the payload on Numbani. Seeing the effects of the story ingame was so sick. Then they never did something like that ever again. The story just didn't move on after Doomfist got out of jail which really made me lose interest in the game. And based on this video and these comments, it never progressed even after I stopped playing in 2020.
I’ve always wanted there to be TV show based on Sombra’s discoveries and her work with Talon. I would’ve loved to see what she knows about the universe and it would be a great introduction to various characters in the roster. The Sombra intro made me super interested in her character and I really wanted to root for Sombra to be the third faction to uncover the secrets of both the good and bad guys.
Then the comics pulled back on it and I feel like it was because they couldn’t handle the exponential potential expansion of the story. I hated it because it made a character that looked like a cool mastermind rogue into a blundering idiot who couldn’t keep her secret from a Russian weightlifter. It was truly a missed opportunity. Thank you for conveying the very same thoughts I had about OW in a more coherent fashion. As a KDA fan but not really a LOL fan like you and a once devoted fan of OW lore, you really talked about the EXACT problems I have with Blizzard and their misuse of a franchise that had so much potential.
God it was so dumb that they were like "Here's this master hacker, her entire identity was deleted from existence so that she could be basically reborn from nothing with the sole goal of being able to take down a global conspiracy, and then it took a Russian bodybuilder five minutes to crack the code." If someone had eventually uncovered her identity years down the road through a long, challenging process, that would've been one thing - it would've demonstrated that Sombra *was* really good at what she was doing but that she's still a human being who makes mistakes that could eventually be used to expose her, but instead they made it clear that all her effort was really for nothing. If it took Zarya so little time to reveal her secret, then clearly anyone who cares to figure it out is gonna know pretty soon.
I hope they do a Love Death and Robots type show- different stories each episode
It would be cool if they made a Lucio soundtrack. Blizzard can add a demo of Luicio's music at the karaoke bar in Busan.
Love your editing, especially the end with Sombra! Super cute and fun 😁
“you promised mountains yet you performed molehills”
- Obiwan Kenobi
man, this title hits different rn...
I take it back, the entire video hits different
(for anyone reading this some time later, this comment was made just after the big cancellation of the PvE for ow2 :) )
cool thing about lol is that even of they often dont follow up on their stories, they arent afraid of creating and writing them for each character, their pairings, and even alternate universes for their skinlines, giving them all their own contexts, stories and even in-game events.
they all fill out and bring life to their world, each region has its maps with memorable locations and such.
blizzard meanwhile threats a hero shooter that would be best to be marketed by its characters and world like its cs:go, being a shooter with mechanics and nothing more to it, they dont invest resources into what makes the IP fun to talk about.
its not all about plays of the game and k/d ratios when games can have real character
Do you know the say, "chase many foxes, catch nones" ? I feel like Overwatch wanted to be an esport, and failed miserably. They wanted to be a story heavy game, and were unable to out shine fan fictions from 13 years old. They wanted to have a fun pick up casual game with simple mechanics and they got an unbalanced mess where crowd control rules its meta.
And the worst is that it's what fans of the game has been telling them for years, but every time they were called down on the awful decisions, fans were silenced and mocked by the dev team and especially by the blizzard forum moderation team
This stings even more now that the PvE got cancelled. We're not even getting that now :(
One problem that OW has is that while they have a lot of characters and traits for those, they lack character expression that makes them stand out.
So many if them are just kind of generic in the archetypes that they represent and they have so much overlap in the characterization they have.
Like which character is “brave” and “self sacrificing”.
Half the cast would fit those descriptions, which isn’t a problem, but even then they all are self sacrificing in the same way, to the point where they are in therms of character just glorified reskins of each other.
This is probably why the one that I see the most fanart of, is DVA.
Sure much of it is just horniness but the cultural image that she has assembled is something at least.
I've never forgotten the Lucio v Symettra ideological conflict. Freedom v capitalism. 2 heroes on the same good guy side, who are in conflict with each other? God damn. It's such a mature concept in so many ways to dive into, i love the lore basis behind both factions and I remember when Lucio was supposed to be the one who was going to get the next short.
And all we got was a line from sym when she's being played on the Brazil map, talking about how the corporation failed here and should do better.
Overwatch 2 has no lore. It doesn't matter. I doubt the story mode for ow2 will have lore that properly follows what we were initially given in 2016-2018
Arcane edgerunners were amazing shows and the reason I started playing league and learned more and more lore on league and hoping to do so soon with cyberpunk while all I have had for blizzard recently is dissapointment and resentment for how badly theyre treating fans and staff
My friends have heard more than enough from me that Overwatch could take a few notes from League. League is also sitting on some of the biggest cash grabs in gaming history, and they're doing nothing with it. The skin lines. Give us a show based on odyssey or spirit blossom or something, and those skins would make an absolute mint because people wouldn't want to play those characters. They'd want to play those VERSIONS of those characters. Overwatch could give us a show of the Omnic crisis with characters like Tracer, Reinhardt and Mercy in their archive skins, and people would froth at the mouth at the chance to buy those skins specifically rather than just play the normal characters for free. Or make their own alternate universes like Odyssey and come up with a solely original story and make skins for that
for Edgerunners in particular it being an unrelated story in the same universe makes sense (for what it's worth I think it's often a good avenue for video game adaptations in general tho) since Cyberpunk is based on a tabletop RPG, where making your own unique story is basically the point
Yeah, I think if I were going to make this video today I’d probably make a similar argument for the Fallout show. Part of the trade off of RPGs is that they kinda have to be jack of all trades, master of none kind of stories - a lot of the fun comes from having branching stories and different factions or narratives that you can play through, but as a consequence the games can’t present any single route as the definitive story of the game without undermining the ways other players might play. The TV shows have the freedom to hone in on one specific narrative or part of the universe and tell one story *really* well as opposed to having to juggle so many modular story components (not that the games do it poorly, just that there’s no risk of half of your TV audience never going to one part of the city while 10% of them want to spend 50 hours in that one area and having to accommodate both). V doesn’t really have *a* story, he has dozens of stories that may or may not happen, but David can have *a* story that goes all-in.
Hey Viveros! If I’m not mistaken, new comments get pushed to the top of your feed, regardless of the video. I used to watch your twitch streams of Overwatch 1 back around 2017. I slowly stopped watching you and your videos, but the recent Illuminaughti drama enlightened me to your existence again. Just wanted to say I’m happy you’re still making content and hope you keep making content, have a good life :P
It’s always wild to me that there are people remember me and the old channel, thank you! I took a break from it for a few years and decided to start fresh with a new channel, and since I’d been pretty small at the time I genuinely didn’t think anyone would remember. It’s really funny that that Illuminaughti tweet somehow led here, but I hope you’ve been doing well and that you enjoy the new stuff!
@@TheViveros haha yeah I recognized the name so I searched you on UA-cam and this was the first video I clicked on. I subbed !
What is that melody?
Realistically even if they do expand on overwatch's lore, blizzard is so heavily self censored that sigma would probably end up neutered to the point where he'd be turned into a babyfood night night story.
Please for the love of god let this not happen.
there's an entire behind the scenes on the making of arcane that shows how the idea for the animated series kind of dragged riot's LoL IP into new mediums because they (the leads on the project) didn't want to unhire the animation studio that they contracted for Arcane, so instead they put the team to work making the music videos, both as a proof of concept and also as a way to keep the animation team on payroll... yknow, cause they wanted to treat their staff (contracted or not) right. and i think as much as it was an insane risk to take that might not pay off for riot, i think the crux of it is just the leads *wanting* to treat their teams right. There's so many stories of overwatch's writers leaving the project years ago that we can now connect to the atrocious conditions they worked in and it just makes me sad because there was an interesting foundation made by people who cared about the characters and the stories these characters were going to be in. But now, as someone has mentioned it on tumblr "overwatch's design philosophy is combining someone’s fetish and someone else’s bigotry, throwing a dartboard at a map and then covering it in gundam armor". It just reeks of exploiting diversity because it sells rather than actually caring about the characters because the overwhelmingly queer fanbase of the lore will keep making art and writing for it.
i still love a lot of the characters in overwatch, it just sucks to see their concepts and lore squandered like this.
I'm just coming back here to mention how we now know why the OW universe didn't expand and it was due to Jeff and the devs at the time chasing their white whale that was project titan instead of giving Overwatch the love it needed. It just makes a lot of sense why the story content is lacking and the lore is so stagnant and that's so damn sad.
wait what do you mean? I know Project Titan was what became Overwatch and roughly the kind of game it was planned to be but idk the broader story there
SOMBRA IS SO INTERESTING AND HAS SO MUCH STORY POTENTIAL AND THEY JUST DON'T DO ANYTHING WITH HER. BANGING MY HEAD AGAINST MY DESK.
Well a lot of Ruenterra’s (Leagues world) is expanded through external places, short stories on the website, an interactive map of the entire world (not too in depth but fairly competent without being overwhelming), and especially through Legends of Runeterra the online card game which not only highlights the locations and champions but the world that exists around them. It fleshes out cultures, flora, fauna, as well as just some incredible details that don’t even matter to major possible events, places, and characters that aren’t playable but play a big part in the world itself. As well as the most recent game and book about a major world event called the Ruination. The world is just amazing TBSkyen and Necrit are two channels I would recommend if you want to learn more because it really is just a different level.
I often imagine a complex & character driven Overwatch Netflix show of at least 2 seasons for adult audiences (PG13 rating), like a animated cross between Westworld & Battlestar Galactica of constant emotional intensity but set in a modern day cyberpunk-like setting.
.
-While the world is still trying to rebuild from the Omnic wars and the shock of the Overwatch group being shutdown due to corruption, crime & brutality; poverty and injustice is everywhere for both Omnics and humans alike.
Its a time for new heroes and new leaders but will they try to remake the old groups, make new ones, expand existing factions or bring up old conflicts and battle lines?
But also like a 'whodunnit' across the 8 or so factions with shocks around every corner. who will betray who? who will change sides? who will end up with the key to saving the world in their devoted beliefs? …and who will die trying?
.
And for awhile it looked like Overwatch was going that way of a rich setting (Overwatch Dev's where the same ones that made WoW & Starcraft after all!) but then Activision wanted to turn this fan laden opportunity into a nasty cash grab, make Overwatch to be a copy of Fortnight at best.
…and they did, that's what Overwatch 2 is now. its just a empty, shallow deathmatch (no one pushes the cart) full of micro-transactions. What made the game good has been stripped out of it.
~ 8:00 I disagree that the Sombra vid was what pushed OW's story over the edge. Tbh there just wasn't anything there to begin with. At the time, this was the story:
"Overwatch used to be this big famous heroic organization during a war with robots that's now over and the org was disbanded in a fishy way. Now, in the current timeline, "bad things" are brewing and maybe Overwatch needs to come back to save the world!"
... but they NEVER told us what that new threat was. It was always SUPER vague and they've never given us any solid info. Is it Talon? The Omnics again? Probably. Maybe. They never told us! So I see the Sombra video not as some complication to that story but rather another example of them vaguely gesturing at an actual plot without ever really committing.
The setting they gave has cool lore but only for it's distant past. There is no clear central tension in the current OW timeline for our heroes to react to and be heroic.
Good video. I've always been deeply deeply disappointed with how squandered these characters and the setting is with Blizzards neglect toward giving us a cool story to work with.
I'm glad you enjoyed the video! It's definitely disappointing that Overwatch never really seized the opportunity, so many good characters have been wasted by Blizzard.
And I guess I think of Sombra (particularly her "Introducing Sombra" 2D animated video) as locking them into a storyline that they weren't prepared for. As you mentioned, they were always very vague about what the nature of the new threat was, but it was definitely initially presented as Talon being a primary symptom of the problem if not the problem themselves - that's why it was Widow and Reaper as the villains in the first few animated shorts about the main story, and it would've been a pretty simple story to tell. But then Sombra comes along, and while the Infiltration short pushes along the existing story, her backstory suddenly spins it on its head - suddenly *everyone* is being manipulated by this secret big bad super organization based on the web of connections she shows, and everyone from Talon to Overwatch is connected to it. Now it's definitely not Talon, Overwatch, or Null Sector/the Omnics who are the most important force, it's this random mysterious new organization. I think the reason why the Sombra introduction is what broke the story is because I don't think they thought through the ramifications of introducing this new organization until it was too late, and I think the fact that they haven't really *done* anything with the information Sombra's supposedly found is pretty telling. It wasn't just that Sombra complicated the story (although I do think she also did do that) but also that she locked them into a lot more elements of the narrative than I think they intended her to, and it meant that they couldn't keep telling a story that was vaguely "Who's the big bad?" because now we know who it is - it's the people controlling everything. Who are they? No idea, bc Blizz didn't think that far ahead.
@@TheViveros I see your point, Sombra did kind of lock them into a more complex story then they could have gone for. I guess I'm just doubtful that not doing the Sombra vid would have changed anything. I think the issues with telling OW's story run pretty deep into the company.
I got into overwatch very recently and am currently trying to catch up on all the lore and can't help but notice the huge plot holes that have so much potential to be filled. Just a glimpse into talon's everyday dealings, slice-of-life episodes about life at the base post-recall. The voice line interactions between the characters are so much fun and really adds to the gameplay. Absolutely binge-watched all the cinematics, origin trailers and event gameplays too and it's somehow still not enough.
The reason why is simple: The Overwatch League. They wanted to make their money by taking e-sports to the next level and become the next NFL since kids weren't trying to become athletes, they're training to become pro gamers and youtubers. The Problem is that even the NFL can't match the NFL so they tried to back a falling trend.
this literally sums up ALL my thoughts about this, as a huge fan of league lore and overwatch! very good video!
To me Lucio will always be wasted potential. I remember back when Overwatch came out while in highschool and I'd listen to remixes of the music he uses while healing and speed boosting. And now that we are talking about music: if I am not mistaken they made some music themes for some characters not long ago but the devs don't even use them or standardizethe practice. Tho even if they did from what I've heard almost all of them are pretty unimpressive imo.
I was also super into the lore and mainly Lucio since he eventually ended up being my most played. Same with Sombra though I mainly liked her as a character and not as a hero (I'm pretty sure the devs just have no idea what to do with her kit lol) but they never did anything and, like you mentioned, what they did with Sombra never really went anywhere. And they've always had a clear message from the fans that a TV show would be well liked thanks to the many animated shorts. Even if it sucked a bit with its writing it would at least be something.
remember music videos often have a lot of views because of ppl re-listening so the same amount of people who watched 'dragons' the most viewed ow vid watched an ow music vid it would probably hit 400-600m
Overwatch's original conception was that it was going to be a movie so obviously there's some form of lore for the og characters like Soldier and Reaper, but Blizzard decided to make it a competitive game instead.
The game has been out for 7 years now and we still barely have lore for the characters.
Hopefully the PVE fixes this but I doubt it
It has been a long time since they released a short or anything, to be honest i forget overwatch had a plot
Think about Warhammer 40K, starts off as a neat table top figurine based strategy game. Now there are like 15 totally separate videogames of multiple genres set within the games setting, like 50 giant books of lore, endless cinematics/trailers and soon an actual show with the legend Henry Cavil as the glorious Emperor of Man.
If you truly want to and have a dedicated fanbase, you can expand the lore of anything in media.
KDA is my personal definition of a Guilty Pleasure
Another thing, it could've been quite simple to expand the lore/narrative: short/color stories, like in LoL, require little resources besides a thumbnail (which is optional) and a single writer.
Also, they seem really adamant about believing certain heroes have no significance to the narrative: Wrecking Ball, Ashe, and Hanzo, to name a few. Even Kiriko and The Queen probably aren't going to be connected to the PvE, due to how isolated they are.
I know I am a month late but I just found the video. Riot has done lots of changes to their lore, from 2009 to 2014 that got scrapped and redone. Kits champions they got changed to fit the universe better. As for story events Riot games has done a few small ones to mixed results. Burning tides as an event in part of League of legends world that had a story around several characters even removing the character from the roster for a week as he was canonically killed. But then brought back with the time in the story. People loved it and payed attention to it (we had most of the lore team working with the game devs too for that event) Next was the ruination which has a book and a separate game and an event that spanned over their 4 other league games (league of legends, legends of runeterra, wild rift, teamfight tactics). It got a bit over hyped because of delays due to the pandemic and to some felt like a let down but still in my opinion it was good.
Story stuff for league of legends, there is no story in the game because all those working on the lore get to work outside league of legends itself to make other games, project L, anything from Riot forge (their separate game company) and their one day MMO.
I write fanfiction in my spare time and I was part of early 2016 overwatch hype. I love both worlds and wished to see so much more from blizzard for this world but am starved for it.
Overwatch could be so much more but they have to restart and Overwatch was the chance to do it. They fumbled that so for now Overwatch will remain what it is unless PvE will be retconning the story. Each hero for OVW has so much potential for their own set of mini movies like 40 mins long episodes to form a season for Overwatch, then Talon, then everonye in between.
Hello future me did a video series of rewriting legend of Korra, it would be really cool to see what you would do with the story if you could take the base of a character and make a story for them. What story threads would you take the most from.
That's a really cool concept! I'm a bit biased, but I really do think Sombra's storyline would be the most interesting to explore and would be a good entry point for exploring other heroes. From her origin story growing up as a hacker who had to play dirty to survive, to uncovering a global conspiracy, to completely deleting her past self so that she could go after it, I think her arc would be a good way to explore and explain how the world of the games actually came to be and the state of the world as it is now. But like you said, there are so many heroes with so much potential that it feels like Overwatch could do a six-episode mini-series for each of them and it still wouldn't be enough - like, what were things like for Widowmaker back when she was Amelie Lacroix pre- and post-brainwashing prior to the assassination? What kind of soul-searching did Ana do after Widow shot out her eye? You could tell a Red Dead Redemption-style story about the Deadlock Gang with Ashe and Cassidy, or follow Junkrat and Roadhog through their bank heists, or follow Junker Queen as she survived exile and prepared for her revenge. There's so much potential for interesting stories there.
@@TheViveros Going off the sombra route You could do like a megamind moment for a series and start at the end of the action, we see overwatch and Talon all together mid conflict with null sector also fighting so its a three way battle. Sombra 'pausing' in the moment narrating the opening. She wants us to see how she got everyone here because they all know pieces of a puzzle that she needs that was not kept digitally.
So going back in time for some heroes, if there are any things that need to be retconned Sombra can make a note on how not all records are kept clean the dirty stuff is scrubbed away, every organization has someone like her.
So Sombra is able to fix anything for the lore to make it fit better. Explain the shorts as old properganda, so take those 're-upload' them with new clips from their show or comics or whatever they make. Make it we will be nice 9 episodes make it match arcane, release in that style so you have enough time for 1 movie binge.
9 episodes lets it be 3 acts broken up and 3 parts to each act, each part you can focus on one part of a group since the overwatch world has so much working in a timeline at the same time. So give focus to the shimada brothers and underground world there while another is about early overwatch and Sombra trying to tug at strings on what got 76 and reaper falling apart to be the faces of blackwatch and overwatch.
Move to sometime later Cole and Hanzo talking away sorrows as Sombra is nearby for some part of her puzzle, old enemies from deadlock and yakuza catch up to them.
Genji and some of the older members in overwatch while they make reference to the blackwatch mission we got to play in the first game. Building on those stories to get up to a point where the lore is between overwatch 1 and 2 to then lead into the next part of overwatch. Or to give us this chance to have events tie in with shorts for the game.
But it is also a big risk financially for companies. (work in film industry) As these do not have theatrical releases. With how they are monetizing things now? I do not see something like this happening anytime soon. In film before streaming most money for fimls and TV shows are made off of Movie theater tickets, or ad space on with their show.
Warcraft the movie with a production budget of almost 500 million (for everything) only making 439 million. it showed blizzard that even their big IP's will not make that money they want by reaching out. It will need a miracle for an overwatch show or movie since the market they would cater to would not be the profitable ones they want, adults can buy tickets and the movies again kids get the toys, but 12+ they might have a few nerf crossovers, but merchandise is where money would be made back.
OR event lootboxes which is a slippery slope but it could work. Looking from marketing perspective, the company should be able to make this possible if they want to. But the risk would be putting many necks on the line that could devastate the company if it did not pan out perfectly like an arcane release. Arcane is guessed to be about 21 Million dollars to make but made a profit of almost 1 billion.
Overwatch has the potential to do the same, but I do not think blizzard is willing to take that chance.
yeah the reworks with characters like Fiddlesticks are really cool, he went from "heeheehoo evil scarecrow" to "jesus fucking christ that's horrifying"
Glad to see a fellow Danganronpa 3 enjoyer
There are dozens of us!
Unfortunately there's one massive problem with overwatch having expanded lore, characters serve a single purpose in the lore, take Genji for example, three characters within his lore only serve to further his growth. And he's not the only example but it's stuff like Hanzo and Zenyatta having no lore only for Genji' full story to get told to us just shows how one note a lot of the overwatch cast is. An animated show(Or promised story mode) might help but it might also show how one note many of these characters truly are
We can blame Actiblizz's corporate greed that rivals EA for this
Ngl, I really wonder how much of this issue is just because overwatch media constantly tries to position overwatch as the "good guys" despite it being an objectively indefensible organization. Winston getting the team back together for two doesn't feel as inspiring when you actually know the lore lol
You got me at Danganronpa V3
Edit: oh no not that one
If you wanna know something cursed, v3 was actually my first Danganronpa game. I went v3 to 1 to 2, bc I’m an idiot lol
@@TheViveros well actually i started with the Anime (summarizing the first game) then gave the second game in the series a try and then played one game after another.
It certainly helps to have Extertal Media to attract new players because its easier to invest time in a anime/show then blindly buy a game from a genre you are not familiar with like a MOBA or Visual Novel
@@TheViveros i wish i could experience tsumugis powers for the first time without knowing the references tho
Lemme tell you it was WILD to learn who Junko was bc of Tsumugi. And then watching her cycle through the other characters was like getting a teaser for all the other characters I was about to meet. It’s controversial but I genuinely do think it was the best way to experience the franchise, and I’m so excited for the new game Chunsoft is putting out that’s clearly leaning into the Danganronpa vibes (can’t remember the name off the top of my head though)
@@TheViveros ah yeah, the mystery game with the detective boy and the Sonja Nevermind lookalike. Master Detective something something
im so glad you made this video because it absolutely drives me crazy. i literally got into overwatch through the bits of lore they have available and as someone who is pursuing screenwriting seeing all the narrative opportunities from the released cinematics and new characters that could potentially expand already established things like the omnic crisis or diff parts of the world (and more), it just blows to see how much of it goes to waste for literally no reason. blizzard seriously needs to get things in order, im confident they actually have people on staff who care and feel the exact same way about overwatch's wasted potential, but there has got to be a serious issue of higher-ups failing to listen to those staff and the fans who collectively wish the best for a series that has gone through so much over the years. would seriously love an animated show that you discussed, especially if it followed a new character much like edgerunners did to explore the world through new eyes--the omnic crisis is something that only ever really explained to us but to see its actual devastation through animated media would be such an effective way to actualize what it was in lore. it could also be a new opportunity to release a new character (or characters) + garner more hype and excitement for the game they haven't seen in years if handled right, esp if blizz can finally stop postponing what they actually promised for ow2 with the release of new out of game content. literally sm excitement and love for ow could be restored and gained if they actually put in the effort to give it a proper chance, it makes me so sad to be honest : (
you could argue that it's better that we don't see the Omnic Crisis like what Tehsnakerer said about Half-Life's Seven-Hour War (the alien invasion that happened in between Half-Life 1 and 2; the name should give you an idea of about how well it went for humanity) in his Hunt Down The Freeman video but I think they're different, because we learn enough about the Combine (i mean, they're literally Still There and oppressing everyone, the War was just their initial attack before humanity collectively surrendered like "please don't kill us all") that it's easy to imagine what it was like, and Half-Life's slight horror bent encourages leaving things to the imagination. but the Omnic Crisis unlike the Seven-Hour War was something that humanity won and has largely rebuilt from, not to mention they're the glory days that Winston, Pharah, etc. want to recapture so that whole facet of the plot would be more effective if we got to see what they actually did/were like back then
Funny how Blizzard put more effort in making Overwatch 2 F2P and building the microtransaction store but if they had focused more on making multimedia related stuff, they would've made a lot more from it
Absolutely binging your videos rn i love them
K/da was an INSANE move for riot because it got so many people to try out league, myself included. I liked ahri so much in pop/stars that I wanted to play her. Blizzard couldve done the same thing but the bag they fumbled was too bug for them clearly. The amount of money i would have payed to own SOMETHING of a kpop idol mercy or widowmaker concept is a lot.
Thank you so much! And yeah, I was absolutely the same way - I had zero interest in League and hadn't heard of K/DA at *all* until Spotify recommended Villain to me because I follow Kim Petras, and I don't think I would've tried League without it. For me it was Evelynn, but I think that's kind of a good example of how good the concept was that people were legitimately gravitating towards different characters in the lineup. It was a completely absurd move that still makes zero sense, but Riot's definitely proven that there's real rewards to be gained from straying from the beaten path and doing something weird and different.
And yeah if Overwatch did a K-pop idol skin line it'd pop tf off. Imagine Kiriko as an Akali-esque rapper, or Widowmaker in a similar position to Evelynn. It'd be hard to resist picking up a skin or too.
Hey they got your message with the Le Sseraphim event, Sombra got one of those skins, also Junkrat somehow got the free skin for that event because Blizzard loves Junkrat and so do I, but I'm a Kiriko main.
I'll be honest, this is the first real time that I've heard Danganronpa 3 discussed in a semi positive light, since it's highly polarizing in the community (which is something you acknowledge, I know). But then, I guess it's more an example of expanding a universe more than on good writing in general. I think outside of the anime, Danganronpa's a good example for this with just the extensive list of light novels it has. Danganronpa 0, the Kirigiri novels, the Hagakure novel, Danganronpa If. They make the universe feel larger and give depth to previously shallow characters (Danganronpa If is my favorite example of this. It made Mukuro Ikusaba one of my favorites). Its the kind of thing Blizzard could have easily done, but chose not to.
Danganronpa definitely did a good job with it with the light novels and expanded stories, and there are a lot of OW heroes who would've benefited from the kind of attention Mukuro got. A lot of Danganronpa characters easily could've been one-note one-offs, but the writers managed to pull a ton of depth out of them and made them really enjoyable. Part of why I think Danganronpa 3 is relevant is just because you're also dealing with two primary storylines in Overwatch - one pre-crisis and one post-crisis - and a TV show that covered both the days immediately preceding the fall of Overwatch and the beginnings of the recall could've been really interesting and done a lot to connect both timelines narratively.
That being said, I do shamelessly enjoy the D3 anime, it's dumb cringe and I love it for that lmao
overwatch's lore is why i got into it in the first place and the way its never been expanded on TRULY is such a huge disappointment to me. its worldbuilding and characters intrigue me like no other..
Thanks for voicing my discontent for me. I absorbed all OW media the second it released for 4 years, and would have 100% parted with money to have devoured more
K/DA has five songs
Meanwhile Pentakill the original musical band:3 full albums and a remix single for lor.
It is wild that I had to wait till almost the end of 2022 to get a little more Null Sector lore. I was interested in them since even before that one Cairo short that teased Ramattra, which is practically ancient by now by game standards. We get crumbs of lore. It's not enough to keep us invested in the long run. Zenyatta is _still_ just a side character in another person's story after Ramattra released. Ashe... knows Cole.
Lúcio actually has out of game things like an album and a cereal brand. They should release another Lúcio album, but give the process some lore.
I really hope this single player mode adds something.
Blizzard is ridiculous. They're gonna waste this amazing IP out of pure laziness and greed. I love OW but I hate the way it's being run, they're gonna kill the game. 😔
The best example? Hello, Pokémon?
If there is an Overwatch TV show, Blizzard could have made even more banks by timing new skin release to when the episode first aired/streamed. Free limited time giveaway for finding clues or codes in the episodes themselves as a bonus to drive up hype in the game. Encourage fans of the shows to buy the game by adding in map exploration mode with cast, writers, and director's commentary like how Valve did with Half Life 2 and Portal. Time in-game event with climax of the show.
oh sorta like how the Gotham Knights game had skins that you unlocked through buying issues of the tie-in comic
PvE is gone. I literally have no words.
Honestly the only enjoyment I got from overwatch were those old comic dubs that came when the game as first out. Some of those had better character development then anything blizzard has made.
I remember being blown away by the animations. Unfortunatly, Blizzard is one of those companies that would prefer to not listen to their customers, but wonder why everyone is complaining.
It all goes back to them announcing Diablo Immortal.
No one wanted it. But they did it anyways.
From what I understood, Arcane is actually set in a different universe.
I really hope they're able to develop the lore of the characters through the PvE mode.
We can currently hope on the release of the PvE parts to massively increase the amount of stories being told, and maybe then they will also start looking into multimedia stuff again. Based on interviews with the new devs, one can still hope that the content drought was a major mismanagement and that the new team will correct this. But this is still just a hope.
My friend and I switched over to Apex three years ago and had this debate every now and then. Apex, while being a bit weak at times, featured in our opinions characters with so much more personality. The maps change per season and the events are often recent, meaning, the interactions reflect the current season's main conflict and even legends that aren't in the focus can react to the new map changes. It feels alive. While all we learned about overwatch was from the past and in ow1, there was no real information of the current state and the one's we got taught were just shallow points of a checklist.
Apex is definitely a good comparison. Imo, Overwatch has better characters in isolation, but it's done a far worse job of using them than Apex has. If Overwatch was worldbuilding on the same level as Apex, Overwatch would blow Apex out of the water, but Apex is proof of how much greater a game's story can be than just the sum of its parts if it's handled well.
@@TheViveros You pretty much hit the nail on the head. While Apex's characters aren't as noteworthy individually, they're very interesting when they come together. A notable example is how Caustic was more or less defrosted over time by Wattson reaching out to him or how Mirage and Crypto have a long-running rivalry between each other that's mostly playful now. Octane and Lifeline are really good too as they have a very good sibling dynamic. But Bangalore and Newcastle are probably the best pair because you can feel how their relationship changed over time and why Newcastle is here as well as why Bangalore isn't on the best terms with him. It was great because prior to his introduction, Bangalore was a rather flat character that just felt like a generic "military" lady but with the introduction of her brother Jackson/Newcastle, her personality has been recontextualized as being serious because she doesn't want to lose anyone else.
It's small things, but at the very least Respawn does at least TRY to develop their characters unlike Blizzard and Overwatch has.
It always makes me sad to hear a discussion of League of Legends music that sleeps on the Pentakills