I ask because he’s completely mute, and servile unlike an Omnic like Zenyatta. Also, Sombra hacks completely shut down BOB, but not Zen.
Sombra’s hacks don’t shut down Zen because that would not be fun for the player. If Sombra were to hack Zen in a comic/short, it would probably disable him completely, like she did with Lynx-17.
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Not inferior model, just a custom made one without working voicebox. Her family was rich and they didn’t need a butler omnic who talked back. =p
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Bob’s silence may be either by design or by choice. Bob was originally a butler type Omnic who served either Ashe’s family or was Ashe’s personal servant. So, his voice could have either been turned off or simply not a feature that was built in to him. There is also the possibility that Bob has decided not to speak and merely serve quietly.
I think the OP is confusing game mechanics with lore. If Sombra were to hack Bob or Zen, they would be disabled for the duration. Depending on the hack, I suppose Sombra could completely turn off an Omnic. But I have a suspicion that Omnics have fail safes to prevent that. Or, at the very least, make such an attempt temporary (like Data repairing himself with diagnostic circuits.)
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That actually raises a lot more troublilng questions. And makes me wonder why he is loyal at all
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Bob is likely significantly older than Zen who is only 20.
It’s not 100% clear how old Bob is or what Bob is.
He might not be sentient at all, he might be less effective since he’s older, and he might be more effective because he’s older and because he was probably a high quality item.
In this house we respect BOB.
but I’m gonna go with the “they didn’t need a back talking robot, so they opted out of the voice function” theory. The rest is just gameplay mechanics.
Interesting thing is B.O.B is big. And why would a butler have to be big? B.O.B’s size looks like he is made for heavy work. Maybe there is more to his origin than butler. ( Kind a reminds me of “Black Butler”).
I wonder what is the story behind him and Ashe. There is certainly a deep connection between 2. And it can’t be just a normal servant master relationship.
I think he’s just a bot, while omnics are true AIs.
The thing with sentience, is the ability to make choices.
B.O.B likely has the purest heart of all the Heroes. Maybe more so than Bastion.
He saw how young Ashe was all alone and decided to become a parent figure. Even with Ashe becoming a criminal and treating him poorly. I fear for B.O.B:
The moment we hear him speak will be at a major crossroads. Likely a catastrophic event for him or Ashe.
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oh interesting i kinda get why Ashe is a rebel then… her parents where total bigoted jerks…
That totally makes sense!
could be that b.o.b. is like that just because he’s an older model. not as glitzy, high-speed, complex as the “younger omnic population” (to which zenyatta belongs), by whose standards he’s probably entirely obsolete.
ofc, you could say the same thing about bastion just by its sheer age, but bastions are highly specialised models that have never been outdone in the field of siege engines, while b.o.b. seems to be some kind of general-purpose make (along with zen), so they would “age” faster in terms of processing bandwidth, speed and economy.
which really just slaps us with the following question: how mutually different are pre- from post-crisis omnics, and what could we find out from particularly “old-timer” omnics that would be significant to the lore? it’s likely that older omnics had to overcome some kind of hardwired block to disobey (hence how the crisis had come about as an opposite-extreme reaction), which is something that newer omnics don’t have in the first place.