A Cowboy by any other name, the McCree Debate

His name is McCree, and should be left at that.

No matter what is done, the character will always be McCree to the players, and developers.

Changing his name does absolutely nothing to change what happened, who the character is, and how much of a jerk his name sake is. His name has been cemented as Jesse McCree since the release of the game 6yrs ago, with a strong foundation of media, lore, and merchandise built around the character and just who he is.

This does nothing to touch the underlying issue which lead to having to rename a fictional character in the first place. It does little to nothing to those who were directly affected, or abused by the characters namesake.

If Overwatch was still in development, then his name could be changed easily, but not only is the game out, but it has been out for 6yrs now. Jesse and McCree are both common names, and this is one of those times that it just absolutely fits the character to a T.

You have to be able to separate the Fictional Character from the real life DoucheWad. They are separate entities, and when working on one, you don’t think of the other… period.

No matter what is done to McCree from this point on, he will always be McCree. We’ll still have countless media, lore, and etc on the market from before the name change stating his name is McCree People who have been playing the name since before this “Change” will still think of him as McCree And the developers working on the character, will know they are working on "McCree, just under a different name.

If they delete McCree, and make a new gunslinger to replace him… people will just refer to the new character as “McCree’s” replacement. He’s that cemented into the game, and even pop culture at this moment.

The only true way would be to retire the character all together, and not offer a replacement.

Someone said there is no good reason to not change his name…

Here’s my thoughts on that
This may even be harder for Devs then people think depending on how the reference and file system in Overwatch really is. What is his file name and tag in the code?

Are all the referential files “McCree” is his Skin, and Model and colors named like “McCreePalette” etc etc… if not then the devs will have to go in and change every single instance of this name to his new name which will take hundreds of hours of man power. Miss just one and the character won’t work properly.

Not to mention all the recorded in-game character dialogue.
https://overwatch.fandom.com/wiki/McCree/Quotes

If they DON’T change it in the code, then this entire thing is as transparent as it appears to be. It feels nothing more than a stunt, a knee jerk PR stunt to some how save face, regain faith, and favor. This is also a minor diversion so we don’t hear the paper shredders in the background quickly being bogged down and clogged as they try to hide an destroy evidence to the point they’ll probably have to set the building on fire to get everything.

I have even been told I don’t understand Sexual Abuse, and how this is for the victims of real life Jesse McCree, so they don’t have to see his name when working on this character/game.

No, I know abuse all to well.

My middle name is named after my father.
He was a physically, mentally, and sexually abusive man. He was a scum bag, and I wish I had stood up to him and gotten him out of my life sooner than I had.
The horrible things he did have left a scar upon my mind and psyche, and far worse to other family members.
Do you think the people who know my full name think of him when they see my middle name?
When my full name was called out at graduation, and during honors, do you think my family thought of my father and his actions?

My first name is after my Grandfather, Uncle, and Cousin. They all have done great things in their lives, do you think when someone refers calls my name, they think the others who share it in my family.

Simple answer… NO, they think of me. I am a separate person. I am myself and though I share these names with great men, and a horrible man… I am my own person and not held accountable to the actions of others.

The same goes for Jesse McCree. He is his own character, and not his fault his name sake is a total his pressure douche nozzle.

We have to be able to differentiate between the actions of a real life person, and a fictional character.
If not, then we’re headed for a very slippery slope.

Keep his name McCree, there really is no reason not to. Most people didn’t even know it was a reference to an employee until events of what happened behind the scenes got leaked. The name was picked because it fit the character simple as that, and it still does to this day.

You’ve already gone one step further and made the fictional character a much better person than the real life McCree ever could be. I think of the gunslinger as an outlaw with a true heart of gold. Go further with this, make him an outstanding honorable man, blatantly in the face of the jerk he was named after.

Heck, I’ve even heard people thought it was based off the Mad Dog McCree arcade games of the 90s, which I can totally see. The name just fits.

Thank you.

28 Likes

how many of you actually play McCree?

3 Likes

That one I will give you!
I only play McCree during events.
I love using him during the Co-Op missions.

Which makes me curious, is there an official list of who the most and least used characters are?

It’s not for the people who play the hero. It’s for the people that develop the game.

Can you imagine the person that worked down the hall from you, that you admired enough to add to your game, was a PoS and you had a constant reminder in the game you develop?

18 Likes

I know the story. the damaged is done, might as well cancel the game since it was made by sneaky people, same with other blizzard games.

it´s a good thing I don´t run the company :grin:

2 Likes

I directly reference that in my post.

No matter what, they will know it’s McCree.
Any developer working on the character, no matter what his name is change too, will know they are working on “McCree.” Changing his name will not change the fact they will know this is still the same character who was named after an jerkhole coworker.
The character will still be McCree to them, and changing the name will do nothing,

Same for removing and replacing McCree with another gunslinger. The developers will think of it as “McCree’s Replacement” when working on it… (at least during the development and implementation)

The character is so cemented in the game, it’s impossible to not have such mental connections.

However at the same time, how many employees really did think of of their coworker when coding and working on McCree. Or did they just take it as working on a character.

I also referenced the sexual abuse suffered, and how they are still separate entities and most employees probably treat it as such.

3 Likes

You can complain about it all you want.

But the decision was already made.

Mccrees name will get changed and we should accept the decision the ow team made.

Unlike us they work there and if they believe that it helps them to move on then its the right decision no matter what we may think.

5 Likes

I’m just throwing my two cents and thoughts in.
Decisions can change, grow, or be modified like this.

I know I have no sway, but just throwing my argument out there to get it off my mind and move on to other things.

6 Likes

Your reasonings don’t actually matter here. They are all trumped by feelings because feelings are the only legitible argument to make. You either feel the name should change or you feel the name should stay the same. Beyond that, yours and my feelings don’t matter beyond to request this or that. Ultimately the decision was made by the dev teams feelings.

You can’t logic your way out of this one. You can’t tell a dev that their feelings are wrong. This isn’t a matter of 1 add 1 is 2.

It’s like how I want sugar plum fairy wings to not be yellow. I could and have explained why from a color theory and character design angle its bad but ultimately its on the devs to decide based on their soft, squishy human feelings if the wings should be horrid yellow or glorious teal, purple or pink.

4 Likes

Oh, I fully understand.
As I said it was just to get my argument out there.

Though I do still feel this is more about saving face, and giving a facade of looking like they are actively looking after people. However that’s my more cynical feelings about many large corporations.

Also, I can see that, but I don’t mine a golden or silver winged fairy… though gold can be taken as yellow under the right light.

5 Likes

I understand that we’re all attached to the cowboy because he’s a cool character with a fitting name, but honestly? I haven’t been able to find an argument for why he should keep his name past that.

People either slam the devs for being ‘sensitive’/making an irl problem a problem for their game (which was a mistake made the minute they named a character after an irl person, NOT when that person did something reprehensible. You don’t name characters in big franchises after people, esp not your workers) or claim its a pr stunt so they appeal to the ‘sjws’, which I also don’t believe for hopefully obvious reasons

If the devs who are going to be working on overwatch for years to come don’t want the name of someone attached to their game, even if that person did nothing wrong, I don’t see the issue. You can learn new names for people, even if you’ve known them as something else for years, ppl do it irl all the time :slight_smile:

1 Like

Since development who knows when* but probably 8 years ago

1 Like

While I fully understand, that post reeks of PR.
It feels cold, and systematic.
As if “Look, we care about our workers and people” etc etc boilerplate.

This does nothing to touch the underlying issue which lead to having to rename a fictional character in the first place. It does little to nothing to those who were directly affected, or abused by the characters namesake.

I’d like to hear more of what the devs feel, at the same time, just how much can they say?

They had to keep a closed mouth up until now, how much else is being silenced.

1 Like

Changing his name doesn’t delete him as a character. It’s just a name, it can be something else and his character will be the same.

2 Likes

The guy has not been convicted or tried. And people already condemned him. Guilty until proven innocent as always it seems.

5 Likes

From what I understand, the guy wasn’t someone they admired or even had in mind when they picked the name. They just saw his name and thought it sounded like a good cowboy name.

5 Likes

I honestly couldn’t care less about the real person.
As for throwing a person under a bus once bad media surrounds them, is a common thing for a corporation to do to save face.
Guilty or Innocent, it’ll be an uphill battle for that person to get work from then on.

Blizzard already did this before with Kael’s voice actor from Burning Crusade.
https://nichegamer.com/2021/04/19/quinton-flynn-replaced-as-kaelthas-voice-actor-in-wow-despite-judge-ruling-sexual-misconduct-allegations-came-from-obsessive-stalker/

Same also happened to Victor Mignogna, and Johnny Depth.
The former of which they even went through some of his work, and hired people to go over his old lines (Funimation) for a new release.

Guilty until proven innocent is sadly a fable, people always want to assume the worst, even courts you have to prove your innocence.

3 Likes

sadly this is how it works. look at amber herd and Johnny Depp case. he gets canceled while innocent while she runs free, that has changed now which is good.

7 Likes

I gave a few examples.

The best one being based around how the file system and coding handles the character.
Seriously, if they have his object and code name as "McCree’ and all his files named similarly like “McCreePalette, McCreeMesh” etc etc.
It’ll take hours upon hours of work to clean the mess and change all the code. Miss one line and the whole character doesn’t work.

Same with all the recorded lines and call outs.

BUT if he is listed as McCree in the code, and all his reference code and they don’t change it along with his name… then this entire thing will be exposed as not truly being for the devs, but just a PR Stunt to try and earn good will and player faith.

2 Likes

No it wouldn’t. When changing variable names you can apply a new name to every variable with the same name in the entire program.

1 Like