#michael chu

Now, I figure that the franchise has to have a backstory to explain its playable characters’ backgrounds; TV Tropes refer to it as an “excuse plot”. But, the lore has so much substance and content that it shouldn’t be swept aside and left out for so long. I mean, I became a huge fan of Overwatch’s story from its animated shorts, and the last one I saw was “Infiltration”. I honestly feel like this story could have benefited better if it was told through either a single-player story mode (excluding the upcoming indefinitely cancelled PvE mode), a standalone single-player FPS game, or, even better, an animated series made by the same studio that made these shorts. I’m a bit skeptical about following the story again and watching the other shorts I missed, largely because I’m unsure if the writing and overall lore is good or not. Many people say that the shorts’ writing was plain and shallow, as if they needed to be made as soon as possible to appeal to the fans who adore the animation and story, and the animation is wonderful, I tell you what.

Some people say that some of these shorts don’t entirely match with a player character's overall personality and backstory. Take Hana Song, for example. In the game, she is characterized as a snarky, giddy Gamer Girl™ and mech pilot who spouts annoying quips at her enemies, and I love that about her. But from what I’ve heard, in her own short, “Shooting Star”, D.Va is characterized as a war-torn soldier who apparently uses her Gamer Girl™ personality as some sort of public façade, as she retains a vigilant, worried demeanor in case the “enemy” ever comes back, whomever that is. It’s almost as if her joy and spunky personality had already diminished, and we didn’t get to see any of that happen. It could have been better if we could see some flashbacks about her career as a skilled, popular gamer and her good times with her teammates before things went south. I mean, “Honor and Glory” did this better with Reinhardt. Plus, wasn’t D.Va supposed to be a StarCraft gamer? Because I heard that got retconned by Michael Chu.

And that brings us to another issue with the franchise’s lore: the retcons. From what I heard, Overwatch’s lore suffered from so many retcons, and I don’t know why. I think the first instance I heard of such a retcon was when Moira was introduced. Before Moira, it was heavily hinted that Mercy was responsible for  Gabriel’s transformation, when she botched a resurrection that turned him into a shadowy freak. But in Moira’s origin story, she was the one responsible for giving Gabriel the spooky sublimation powers he currently possesses. At first, I thought that it was Mercy’s resurrection ability that further fucked up his body, but after reading some Wiki pages, Gabriel was resurrected into Reaper by Moira after his supposed death. Adding to this retcon, Brigitte (or Birgitta as I prefer to call her as such) was supposed to be 28 years old before her age was retconned to 23 years. Another instance of these retcons is that, from what I read from this post, Gabriel rebelled against Overwatch because of his bitter jealousy of Jack when he got promoted as strike commander, not because of his dispute with his team from their differing ideas and methods. One other retcon is that, from what I was reading from this page on All the Tropes, Pharah was supposed to be fully Egyptian until her ethnicity was retconned to be mixed race, Egyptian and First Nations to be precise, granted that it was probably because of her Thunderbird skin.

But then again, after reading this excerpt, some of these retcons were probably misinterpreted as such because they somehow interfered with the fandom’s overall headcanon, like Mercy being responsible for Gabriel’s transformation. But then again, when it comes to the writers adding in new stuff into your game’s story, especially when it comes to adding in new characters, and especially when it comes to adding in new stuff through mere snippets (the animated shorts and comics), you think that they should have planned the full story ahead much earlier instead of later on. I’m not saying that they should have added in some sort of story mode early on in the first version. I’m saying that they should have made a complete outline of the game’s story instead of making it up as they went along, not that this method was bad. I’m sure that there are other stories that were made up as the writers went along and were handled well, too.

(incoming rant)

I began writing this post around a couple of months ago. I was largely neutral with what Liar Entertainment has in store for the PvE mode. I never planned on getting it and playing it right away, largely because I’m not a PC gamer and I don’t want to sell my personal information. I was waiting for the playthroughs that were to be uploaded onto YouTube. But then, on May 16th, Bl*zz*rd had announced that the PvE mode has been cancelled. Not only that, but from what I’ve heard, it had been cancelled ever since around 2021, largely because of management issues and executives prioritizing the oh-so most popular PvP mode more than anticipated PvE mode. So essentially, Overwatch Lite (that’s what I’m calling the current version) was not only a glorified update that dared to call itself a sequel, but it was also a complete scam from the beginning. Fans had been waiting for a story mode ever since, especially those who are diehard fans of the game’s lore, and the PvE mode was basically what they were itching for. Sure that it wasn’t like a single-player campaign like in other games like in Call of Duty or Halo, but it was a campaign mode nonetheless, at best a multiplayer campaign similar to Left 4 Dead and Call of Duty: Zombies mind you. And yet, Bl*zz*rd decided to pull the plug on it and focus on the traditional PvP mode, and more likely what to put in their shitty online store. I heard that the company had been declining ever since *ct*v*s**n merged with them, and I’m no avid gamer, but I feel inclined to believe as such. Maybe if that merger had never happened, Bl*zz*rd would have remained as the most popular, most beloved video game company ever known. Maybe if that merger hadn’t happened, Overwatch, or even Project Titan, would have flourished as one of the most popular FPS games of all time.

Sorry that I almost turned this post into a rant there. I’m still a bit agitated that content like the game’s lore and story is currently being handled by a diminishing video game company, with the PvE mode being split into fragments locked behind a battle pass paywall. I have no idea what’s going to happen with this franchise at this point. Maybe these missions would be fun and engaging. Maybe the story is still happening. Who knows? All I know that, now that Liar Entertainment had come clean to the PvE mode being cancelled, I think that the game’s playerbase will diminish as time rolls by. I know that there will be a couple of players still latching onto the Overwatch scene and sticking around for future seasons. I honestly can’t blame them. I mean, you got to at least stick around to see if those battle pass-locked missions and cinematics are worth the money. But at this point, now that the company had wiped out all faith in the playerbase, Overwatch will fall, no one wins, and that planned lore that people had been waiting for is lost in time. But, it doesn’t mean that it could be the end for the fandom, or the remains of the fandom at this point. We could still make some fan works here and there, do some fan art and even make some fan-made shorts if we could. If Bl*zz*rd couldn’t deliver the story as promised, we might as well make it ourselves. I know that there are a lot of fan stories out there that explores the many concepts of Overwatch. I still remember some comic dubs of such. Heck, we could even explore cut content from the game, like the heroes from Prometheus.