I feel like like the only one though.
There’s a lot of negativity towards the short on the forums, but in all honesty it isn’t that different from many of the other shorts that came before it. It was a brief, over the top, character driven backstory that was intended to basically introduce the hero and provide some insight into their character. It was exactly what I had expected it to be.
Lots of the other shorts basically suffered from the same flaws that I see people pointing out in this one. So, I was wondering, what is different this time? Here’s my thoughts.
- For an introduction to a hero, it’s pretty late in the game. D.Va has been in the game since beta, so this short would probably have been much better received if released around the same time as Dragons or any of the earlier shorts.
- It’s been a long time since the last short. There’s been a short drought. So, having so much time between shorts has, in my opinion, made us want more out of them. If they were frequent, I think people would be more forgiving. But because lore is given in such small quantities, people are thirsty for it and this didn’t satisfy that thirst for a lot of folks.
- I hate to say this, but there are a lot of people who hate D.Va. As much as I love her, and people who main her love her, there are some people who feel pretty strongly about her in the opposite direction too. I don’t understand it, but I’ve seen people have small mental breakdowns on the forums over D.Va. And it’s not just about game play. Some people just legitimately hate her for some reason that I don’t get. I think anything that makes her more likable offends these people.
- People are very hungry for lore that drives forward the main story. D.Va is not part of the main story. She’s part of the omnic crisis and has her own story. But she’s not a member of Overwatch. It’s not like you’ll see D.Va fighting along side Reinhardt or Winston in her first cinematic. Maybe in a future D.Va story you’ll see her run into Overwatch or Talon, but it’s a bit of an unreasonable expectation for the first one. But people DO want to see more of that main story, Sombra’s web, what Talon is up to, how did people respond to Winston’s call, etc. That desire is out there.
For me, I am happy with what we got. I think it served it’s purpose. I really like the way she was portrayed where she is basically wearing a mask all the time but is much more down to earth. I really liked that. People are free to critique it, but at the same time I think maybe they are being overly harsh. The timing did make sense with the Busan map too.
I do hope we get a new cinematic pretty quickly on the heels of this one that does satisfy some of the longings for story progression and bringing us up to speed with present day events. But only if it makes sense with the character they are highlighting. I don’t want it to be forced. With D.Va, I think it would have felt forced.