Tag: Overwatch
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Happy Birthday Overwatch: A Look Back
On May 24, Overwatch celebrates its first anniversary. And it’s been a hell of a year. The game has been front and centre in major industry talking points without pause: sexualisation, diversity, harassment, fan culture, Doing It Right™ versus getting away with its continued failures, and, of course, a deluge of memes. In short, Overwatch has…
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Relatability and Symmetra’s Autism
Earlier this spring, Jeff Kaplan, game director of Overwatch, replied to a young fan’s letter about Symmetra. She is the only autistic character in Overwatch, and perhaps, in all AAA games. In Kaplan’s response, he stated that the Overwatch team felt Symmetra “does a great job of representing just how awesome someone with autism can be.” As someone not on…
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How Can Overwatch Deal With its Toxic Players?
If you’re playing any online game, you’ll run into toxic players. This is an accepted inevitability. But it shouldn’t be. Overwatch in particular is intentionally welcoming and joyful. It’s about hope and heroes in a colourful world that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Plus, Blizzard has intentionally focused on inclusivity through its characters. And so it…
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Crumbling The Tower of Babel with Cinematic Storytelling
As technology advances, video game cinematics play an increasingly important role in games with heavy narratives. Trailers and cutscenes become a shared talking point amongst players. An individual’s play style may vary from person to person, but the cinematics they watch remain the same – most of the time, anyway. Sometimes, translation gets in the…