It’s just no use anymore. We are over 2 years into this game and the lore didn’t even move a little bit. We almost don’t know anything about anyone and the stuff we know is just generic and cliché.
It also doesn’t help that the team randomly decides the change the lore (remember the D.Va Starcraft stuff 
)
I don’t need expensive Animations or comics, just give this game some lore ingame. The recall stuff is still going on what a joke.
The blog posts they did in the style of a letter from Torbjörn and mission report in the run-up to the Brigitte reveal really gave me hope that was gonna be a new way to deliver lore but more easily and frequently.
Alas, I was let down 
I hate to break it to you, but Blizzard’s writing style has always been rife with cliches. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing in my opinion, since cliches are typically impactful and easy to grasp.
Another thing worth mentioning is that Overwatch is not a story-driven game. Yes, the world and the characters in it are made much more interesting when we understand their backstories and personalities, but OW is not like WoW (for example). With WoW, a constant progression of the lore is necessary to make sure players feel like their actions in game are impacting the world around them. In Overwatch, we essentially play in a slice of the world frozen in time. No one expects Eichenwalde to be cleaned up and repaired in an upcoming patch (even if that might be kind of neat), and doing so would require enormous effort (designers and artists to re-make the level, voice actors to record new lines since the old ones would no longer make sense, QA to test all the new stuff, etc).
Now, I’m not trying to say that you shouldn’t feel disappointed. I think pretty much everyone who plays Overwatch enjoys the lore, the characters, and the world itself and wants to see them fleshed out as much as possible. I just think you’re setting yourself up for disappointment if you think of OW as a story-driven game.
We’ve gotten so little lore recently, it kinda feels like we straight up have less than what we had before.
This. I was hoping they’d do more stuff like this. I am glad we got the short, but didn’t expect most lore with it because half the others didn’t have much lore either.
The comics have no excuse. It’s been almost a year and only one comic has been released since January. Even the most slowest webcomics I follow release 12 pages every 3 months. Blizzard being a multi million dollar company has no excuse.
They can easily release tidbits off lore like a newspaper detailing Sombra’s sighting, Junkrat and Roadhog’s latest crime, a letter from Torb to Brigitte, Orisa’s bug report, Moira’s art critique of the newest painting… anything while be a lore thing at this point.
For some characters, I think we really do know less than before because of retcons…
They said there’s be lore unlike other shooters, just as well as it’d be a mix of a moba and a shooter. It’s what sold me and a lot of other people.
Right now, we’re feeling cheated on that respect of the game.
Edit: we’re looking for lore not even story at this point. Not the extent of WoW story, no. But just something that tells us this world matters.
It’s been two and a half years and so far the only official members of Overwatch 2.0 are Winston and Tracer.
Well it has yet to reach tf2 long hiatus (or some mangas), but at least t2f’s comic is an amazing story that is coming to an end.
A little clarification on my post since I don’t think I focused on this aspect as much as I meant to.
My point was simply to say that looking for lore that moves the story foward is setting yourself up for disappointment.
Looking for lore in places where there isn’t much (or any), however, is entirely warranted IMO. There are still a lot of heroes who need some lore-love and would benefit immensely even if it’s just a blurb from Chu here on the forums.
And Mei (who returned to Gibraltar before heading out to investigate closed research stations in the Himalayas, as shown in her journal) and Reinhardt (who brings Brigitte with him).
There is a lot more to the lore than people think - yes they have been slow, but Blizzard is telling a long-term story. They are still laying the groundwork for a story that they expect to last 15+ years.
Ohh, okay. That makes more sense, and I daresay I agree to an extent. I think a little bit of the story moving forward to say hint at something huge about to happen in the universe is perfect for this game. Just hint it across the boards (Australia, Nubani, etc) like they did with Doomfist so far.
Major lore going forward isn’t needed. Lucio telling us that his father realized the error of his ways to his son (cliche, but that’s blizzard) is the lore we’re looking for.
As a Zen main, I’m just desperate for my main omnic monk to get a little love.
From the summary on his hero page,
Zenyatta is an omnic monk who wanders the world in search of spiritual enlightenment. It is said that those who cross his path are never the same again.
Years ago, following the Omnic Crisis, a group of outcast omnic robots experienced what they described as a spiritual awakening. They abandoned their preprogrammed lives to establish a communal monastery deep in the Himalayas. After many years of meditation on the nature of existence, they came to the belief that they were more than artificial intelligences and that, like humans, they possessed the essence of a soul.
Recognizing the spiritual equality they held with humans, the monks, led by the enigmatic robot known as Tekhartha Mondatta, sought to heal the wounds caused by the Omnic Crisis a generation earlier and bring humans and robots back into societal harmony. Their message was embraced by millions around the world, and they became global celebrities.
But one monk, Zenyatta, disagreed with this new direction. He believed that the way to repair the problems between humans and omnics was not through dogmatic teaching but through interpersonal connection and engagement.
Ultimately, Zenyatta followed his own path. He chose to leave the monastery and wander the world, helping those he meets to overcome their personal struggles and find inner peace. But, when necessary, he will fight to protect the innocent, be they omnic or human.
There’s actually a lot of really awesome stuff in here, but there’s also a lot of room for elaboration and expansion. Personally, I would love to see a short that delved into the Zenyatta/Mondatta ‘dispute’. We already know how influential Mondatta was (RIP), so it would be great if he had a little screen time with Zenyatta.
Now that I’m thinking about it, I’ve already got a basic structure coming to mind! Start off in Nepal with Zen and Mondatta reflecting on the fractured state of the world. Flashbacks to the Omnic Crisis interspersed throughout, they discuss how to address these issues, and eventually realize that they are on two different paths. Zenyatta leaves to wander the world, and we get a series of interactions with those he encounters, showing the variety of people/omnics he helped and how he did it. To tie it up nice and neat, we end with him approaching one last person in need… and just before cutting to black, we see it’s… Genji!
Sorry, couldn’t help myself there. Blizzard, just send the check to the usual spot.
Wasn’t Mondatta his brother? I swear there was a voice line mentioning it. They could play with that easily, perhaps that’s why he understands Genji?
I think that’s meant in the colloquial sense rather than the literal.
There are two reasons on why I think there is an absence of lore.
A) The writing team (or to be a lil more precise, Mr. Chu) intentionally left a majority of lore missing to allow players to fill in the gaps and use their imagination. Whether it be fanfiction, ships (yes, ships), or my most favorite…inhale HERO CONCEPTS!
B) They are planning something really big with the lore and are taking some time to write it down. This might be the easiest option to consider, but undoubtedly, if it is this long they haven’t produced lore…then I am not sure then.
I wanna remain hopeful they’ll release something amazing or cool to compensate a lack from the lore, but so far, but the most recent “story” we’ve gotten was an animated short about Mary Sue shooting down robots (which DID NOT progress the lore whatsoever!). Fine, I guess you could say that the Retribution event may have added some lore, but that gets me thinking. Possibly, they are just having difficulty finding a way to execute and send out the next big chunk of lore. Really, that just might be the answer, but who knows?
Cheers,
~ PyroPanda
have you watched “Recall”?
we didn’t set ourselves up for disappointment, blizzard did, lol
literally every single thing they released prior to the game looks like the start of a plot that is going somewhere. not merely introducing a cast of characters. if that was their goal then they failed miserably - every character is an empty silhouette of what they could be.
like, I have been assuming the whole air of mystery surrounding literally everything is because they want to avoid stepping on their toes and screwing over future developments. but if ‘setting the stage’ is the only function of the story there is no reason not to nail down the particulars.
basically, the less ‘significant’ you try to make the story of Overwatch seem, the more pathetic the complete lack of any developments seems to me
I’ve long since given up. It’s become obvious, from my perception of things, that all of it was just Blizzard Marketing to move copies of the game. Even the D.Va animated short was such a blatant move to then do the Nano Cola challenge mini-event to get people back into the game.
Where do you get these rules from? Who says it has to be that way? I agree that they tend to resort to kind of cliche writing because that’s what masses are familiar with and it’s fine. However there’s been no shortage of teasing with bits of lore and they’ve definitely established an interest from people, so who are we to say there’s some sort of unspoken rule that we can’t expect them to flesh out the lore?
I’d agree if we were talking about HotS because it’s a mash-up title with everything thrown into a melting pot. That isn’t the case for OW though. It’s an original title with characters that all individually suggest they possess a lot of character and backstory. Tangible lines of writing that could easily progress into a story in the making. I highly disagree with you. There’s no excuse for blizzard not capitalizing on this. Not the one you stated either.
I wasn’t trying to make a list of rules. These are just my opinions on how I think Blizzard approaches lore.
You’re free to disagree with this, and I might even disagree with this to some extent, myself, but a “progression” of Overwatch’s story wouldn’t necessarily make it better (and very well might eliminate a lot of what makes it good in the first place).
The issue I see (and it sounds strange to even call this an issue) is that every character is largely defined by their relation to the rest of the cast, the world, and the events that we’ve learned about (Omnic wars, dismantling of Overwatch, Talon, etc). By progressing the world’s story, the cast would be reshaped in the process. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but a lot of what makes so many heroes unique would be called into question. Would Jack Morrison ever come back to Overwatch? If so, he’d lose a lot of what makes him such an interesting hero (being a vigilante who was forced to adopt a codename after the dismantling of the organization he used to lead). Would Angela Ziegler come back? She doesn’t seem to approve of the violence, injury, and death (not that she should be too bothered with res on a 30 second cooldown) that Overwatch inevitably leaves in its wake.
It’s these gray areas that make the heroes interesting in my opinion. There are also a great number of heroes who aren’t even directly affiliated with Overwatch (D.Va, Lucio, Symmetra, Zenyatta, etc). If the main thrust of the lore has to do with Overwatch (and Talon as the antagonist, most likely), where would all the unaffiliated characters fit in? Would they eventually “pick a side”? Perhaps that would be interesting, but I think it’s more likely that it would feel like a homogenization of the cast.
Again, it’s kind of weird getting into discussions like this since they’re inherently subjective. What one person might enjoy, another might detest. Personally, I think Overwatch has always been more character-driven than plot-driven. The audience is passionate about the cast because of their personalities and character traits, so it makes sense that these are the elements Blizzard focuses on when they release new lore. We learn what drives each hero, what scars (physical or psychological) they’ve picked up, what they want from the world, and so on. I’d rather have a dozen more shorts/comics/whatever that flesh out the cast than some sort of grand Overwatch v Talon storyline. But that is just my opinion, of course.