Factions, new heroes and hype
Dumb analysis on why new heroes get very different level of hype from a “faction” point of view, that I've made for reddit but is a cool topic so give me your opinion tumblr
So with d.mon released, a topic is back in the overwatch Fandom : lack of diversity when it comes to new heroes and hype for half of them
As d.mon finally got playable, lots of people where hype to have another meka hero, and lots where angry because it's “again a typical attractive Asian girl”. The one thing that kinda save her is that she is older than most recent characters.
I'm quite glad that d.mon is 28, even though the main thing i like about meka as a faction is the “kids used as propaganda” aspect.
If meka has been around for 3 years, that would have made her 25 at the beginning, it's young but definitely not as bad as like d.va being 17/18 and overlord being 16/17. (Though I love the idea of 19yo d.mon being one of the pilot used back when the mekas had distance control, like actual drones, that was then kinda forced to become an in person pilot due to prior engagement)
So yes, we loose that aspect but there are still lots of interesting things to do, she is still forced in a “perfect girl “ role that seems heavy to carry (love the interaction with illari for that!)
Back to the main topic
There were a lot of discussion concerning the other meka pilots (overlord, king, casino) and why people don't or do want them as playable.
The lack of diversity aspect was brought back regarding factions : why would we get another meka pilot when there is so much more to the overwatch lore !
Because meka is an established faction
And it's easier to build hype regarding existing faction
The og characters could be randoms, not all link to overwatch because, it was the beginning of the game
Having a Brazilian dj, a vishkar architect and a Korean mech pilot didn't seem odd as the world was still not build yet, even if we had no idea what was vishkar, and what was meka, we where more open to discover them.
For example, before ow 2 (long ago lol) if i had to make a list of potential heros that are highly anticipated, I would have put : lynk 17, Maximilian, emre, sanjay corparl, d.mon and ofc ramattra back when he was just a nameless omnic.
All characters that are either already part of the main story or of important factions events for other characters.
If we look at the views of the trailers (thanks u/Kxtenn for the cool post btw)
Most hyped of course is Ram, make sense as null sector is with overwatch and talon the main faction, and he was literally introduced with doomfist. Of course bro got aura
Kiriko is next, she is linked to genji and hanzo and helped developing the ashimoto lore that was a really expected thing (also she had a 3d cinematic, and we love those)
Skip hazard for now
Shion continue the hashimoto hype, plus femal omnic, something highly anticipated but we see complaints about her design
Mauga and sojourn have similar hype though I think even more were expecting sojourn, both established characters of important established factions and highly linked to other characters.
D.mon, already mentioned before but a meka hero, lots of expectations (remember the talon d.mon theory) and with the recent junkers invasion in Busan, even more reasons to watch her carefully for lore enthusiast.
I do think Hammond being in her trailer added to the hype, we were mourning the lunar colony lore.
As it’s new we can expect it to get more views (currently at 1.2m)
All the next one : illari, lifeweaver, junker queen, juno except Illari who is a surprise that i cannot explain but a really cool one (i love her), are highly connected to anticipated part of the lore : vishkar, junkers and mei's /luncheng interstellar
I take vendetta out of the list as I consider the reign of talon trailer to be her main intro, and it's at 1.4m, so expected
And if we look at who is “behind “ we have : Sierra, Freja, Wuyang and Venture
And except freja who is ex overwatch: all of them are from new factions or underdeveloped one in lore
And even freja's link to overwatch other than emre seems so weak compared to others
And Sierra has connections to the super soldier program, but it is one of the least developed aspect of solider 76 and reaper's lore.
Venture is the least popular character of the new gen, because they are still not that much connected to others, of course we can care about their story, but the overwatch team has so much other things to develop that it is overlooked.
Because objectively, design wise, they are one of the most original one, so it's clearly a lack of story interest
Same goes for the heroes who where released but not with trailers : emre was one, if it's not The most anticipated one, plus with connection to the eye/conspiracy and Domina (more than obvious arguments) is literally one of Vishkar higher-up.
And I think overwatch's story team knows this : either you get an already known character, that get the hype from existing lore, or you add someone from a new faction, but you need to build interest around them
And it's hard, because ow is limited by its different media.
A overwatch animated show could easily get ride of this, but it requires budget and time.
That's the main reason why we have so many characters that share similarities, they are from the same units, so it's easier to connect them together.
I love Sierra and Venture, design wise and personality wise, they are really good characters! But they need more connections to the lore
For now it's slowly building : solider 76 and sombra getting Illari and probably Venture to fight the conspiracy is one of the best idea of the ow lore for me.
Sierra, Wuyang and Anran are part of the main overwatch (the faction) lore, so we get to know them a bit more.
We need connections of different factions, and time between release of characters from the same one.
Like Casino as meka pilote becoming playable in 2 seasons with no more link than meka would be boring as hell… but Casino (ex f1 pilote ) as meka pilote becoming playable due to evolution in Maximilian and montecarlos’ lore in 7 or 8 season would be interesting!
I really wouldn't mind the devs starting to build really intricate and almost impossible connections that allows to develop characters
(Totally 0 chance but dumb example : overlord being the child of a scientist that lost custody of her kid because she was doing illegal experiments at oasis and boom : potential new chara, link between characters that seems to have none so in game interactions, oasis lore and moira lore)
In a world where gorilla from the moon fight gladiator mafia boss on a daily basis, they can totally allow themselves cool and weird connections.
This is my analysis and take on the faction part of overwatch's diversity. Because another big problem is characters looks, ages and nationalities. We need more diversity for sure
For the “origines” part it can be linked to factions, apart from overwatch and talon, there isn't any big international groupe, so all heroes from the same team have similar, if not the exact same nationality.
We need to hype heroes that are new and try things lore and diversity wise. Show the devs that yes! That's what is cool about overwatch, see how different people around the world reacts to a world that is changing in such uncertain ways.
Because the story is the one thing that makes Overwatch different from most games.
