Hot Take on the Name Change

[Koechophe-11425]

I disagree with the name change, but not because it hurts McCree’s identity, or anything like that.

I think that this name could’ve served (and continue serving) as a powerful reminder of what Blizzard needs to stop being. They had a staff member sexually harassing and abusing other employees, and despite complaints made about him, he kept his job, and was respected enough to have a character named after him.

That is not okay.

A lot of people are commenting on how changing the name helps the OW team move past that past, or not be reminded of it when they work with McCree. And yeah, maybe taking away that reminder would be a good thing if the problem wasn’t still there.

After they improved, they could’ve shared that story with new people, saying, “This is how bad we used to be, use this character as a reminder to never be this bad again.”

But they haven’t fixed their company culture. The problem is still there. And removing the name, to me, feels like an attempt to sweep the problem under the rug rather than dealing with it.

McCree’s name could’ve been a powerful reminder that Blizzard glorified and enabled abusers. Whenever they saw “McCree”, it could’ve reminded them how much of a problem there is and how far they still had to go to fix things.

I worry that removing it is just their way of saying “this never happened, let’s forget about it,” instead of taking real, actionable steps towards a better work environment. If they had released any other info, done any concrete thing towards fixing the problem, then maybe this would seem a bit better.

But no, changing his name does not change the culture. I fear that all they’re doing here is continuing to pretend that they don’t have a problem.

[Cake-12334]

@Koechophe-11425

a powerful reminder of what Blizzard needs to stop being. They had a staff member

It’s easy to use Blizzard as a whole umbrella term and Overwatch team interchangeably, but it’s important to make the distinction in this case.

Jesse McCree was never on the Overwatch team. He worked on WoW and Diablo 3/4

@Koechophe-11425

And removing the name, to me, feels like an attempt to sweep the problem under the rug rather than dealing with it

They did deal with it, Jesse McCree the employee has been fired

@Koechophe-11425

I worry that removing it is just their way of saying “this never happened, let’s forget about it,”

The OW team is mainly changing McCree’s name not to sweep under the rug, not necessarily for assault victims in the world, but for themselves.

Quoting Dysvalence for truth:

@Dysvalence-1915

It’s for the dev team itself. They don’t want to be working on a character that reminds them of the that used to work down the hall.

They have no financial incentive to change it

A dev confirmed this in the same thread:

@AndyB-11735

It’s a keen observation that this decision was made with the people who work on Overwatch in mind. At the same time, I don’t want to diminish the fact that we also considered how players would respond to this change. We knew that this would be a polarizing choice.

For the last 5+ years we’ve all created a personal connection to the heroes of OW, Cowboy being no exception. It’s understandable that emotions are high, and feelings are strong.

It wasn’t a kneejerk reaction to quickly retcon an unsavory part of the game, they obviously thought long about it and decided its the best choice moving forward

And I agree

Everyone on the forums right now…

Don’t let a name have so much power over you

If the name stays, cool. It’s a cowboy af name and that’s the original reason they used it, not as some “tribute” to honor the Jesse M. employee, but just because it sounded cowboy and cool.

If the name goes, cool. Life goes on, all current voicelines and cinematics will not change.

Everyone’s probably gonna just call him McCree in voicechat anyway. The only thing changing is cutscenes/interactions in OW2

[Koechophe-11425]

@Cake-12334

They did deal with it, Jesse McCree the employee has been fired

First, there’s no direct “he was fired” just that he is no longer with the company.

Second, firing one person is not “dealing” with the sexual harassment issues at the company at large.

A lot of your arguments here don’t have anything to do with my thread. I never called it kneejerk, I never said the name itself was important to me.

Dysvalence’s quote is exactly the problem. They don’t want to be reminded of the awful stuff that happened, so they’re getting rid of it. My point is, at least until Blizzard has cleaned up their culture, maybe they need to be reminded of the awful things that happened.

When I started working at Jack In The Box in highschool, they told us that a lack of food safety had killed a bunch of people that ate at their restaurant. They shared that story, and stressed to us how important food safety was for the company now. That’s what a company does when they genuinely want to move past bad things.

My point is, changing the name seems like a way to “forget” the awful stuff. But honestly, it’s better to use it as a reminder of what happens when you let work culture turn so ugly.

[brokenstyli-1993]

@Koechophe-11425

This is how bad we used to be, use this character as a reminder to never be this bad again.

This is a very lukewarm take that actually mirrors real life politics. But aside from that, it’s also not a very good one.

Having something of yours immortalized into the game is supposed to be one of the highest honors. You’re honoring a bad actor. You’re not supposed to honor bad people, that’s almost unilaterally accepted.

@Koechophe-11425

But they haven’t fixed their company culture. The problem is still there. And removing the name, to me, feels like an attempt to sweep the problem under the rug rather than dealing with it.

This is the same vein of “this is just a PR stunt”.

The culture can’t change unless the policy changes. The policy change isn’t up to the dev teams. It’s up to HR, executives, and their attorneys.

Once you realize that dev teams are actually a small portion of the full company at large, and that they’re not the ones with the keys to actual change, this changes the renaming gesture entirely.

Dev teams have very limited control over the company, they just produce the content. They’re only doing the things they can do for their coworkers’ sake, while the ones that actually do have the keys to change things have been fighting them at every turn and giving the exact opposite of what they want.