Lore, characterization and story. Is it important?

General Discussion
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I firmly believe that the story, characterization and lore of overwatch is the number one driving factor behind its popularity, diverse characters from all walks of life make the game appeal to more than just the usual gamer audience who don’t care about those things.

I feel that even if you don’t personally care about these things its hard to argue that the game would have a larger playerbase without them and more people getting into gaming is a positive thing! I don’t see any reason why I wouldn’t want more people to enjoy gaming as much as I do.

I’ve seen some who are incredibly against story in any form, this doesn’t make that much sense to me, story is similar to cosmetics, they both don’t do anything purely in a mechanical sense to change your experience but can still change it for the better in other less quantifiable ways.

You might say “cosmetics are for making money by selling loot boxes” but so is adding a story because like I said it makes the game appeal to a wider audience.

Also its not always about money, businesses are perfectly capable of making decisions that are good for thier customers without money being thier primary goal, its a kinda flimsy excuse to justify stuff because this isn’t about what is its about what should be.

Now I have some questions:

Is story important?

Even if you don’t care about it do you think its important for a story to be there to appeal to a wide audience?

If story is not important to you are cosmetics? If they are why?

Should story be removed and If story should be removed shouldn’t cosmetics also be removed?

Final question:

Games aren’t purely about gameplay, they are also about story, story, characters, lore, etc are all important parts of many many many games, I just… don’t get why some people are so hard set against story in games? Can someone maybe explain?

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No one cares about the lores or story anymore, it’s all about the multiplayer nowadays. Do you know why the only memeorable villians and heroes come from mainly games that have little to know multiplayer, because that was the selling point of the game, the singleplayer. Take a look at a recent one; Far Cry 5. Joseph Seed is an amazing villain when compared to the newest villains in video games today.

Overwatch is in kind of a limbo. It has many rememberable and loveable characters, but the lore lacks because all they care about is the multiplayer. Multiplayer now runs the gaming world and it will probably stay like that forever.

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I am in complete agreement with you - although the first thing that got me playing this game was the characters themselves, the color, and finally a non-militaristic shooter fps.

There is a huge sect of OW fans in love with the lore and world of OW, they have a team for this specifically. The info is just so slow to come out -_-

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I started playing the game because of the gameplay.

I actually fell in love with it through the characterization and lore.

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Really depends on how you look at it.
From a gameplay perspective the lore means nothing.
From the idea that it will help us get invested in these characters and is great to see more than just ‘pew pew’ in a FPS game … ya it’s awesome.

I fell in love with the characters and lore which made me want to play a game in a genre I am not a fan of (FPS) then enjoyed the game.
reading more of the OP :slight_smile:
Cosmetics are important to people like me as they allow me to envision the heroes better.

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I do, many of my friends do, The huge fandom making art and comics of the characters show that a lot of people do.

Please provide evidence to back up your claim, I have provided evidence that a non insignificant portion of people do, people ask for more lore on these forums! Theres another one

it’s all about the multiplayer nowadays.

for some people sure but i don’t think the majority of the playerbase players multiplayer super seriously? Thats why quick play has a lower q time than ranked? Afaik casuals make up the largest part of the playerbase.

Do you know why the only memeorable villians and heroes come from mainly games that have little to know multiplayer, because that was the selling point of the game, the singleplayer

yes story based games have more compelling characters and multiplayer games, until now, do not, that doesn’t mean multiplayer games cant have compelling characters! “hero games” are relatively new and I think, with the advent of overwatch, we are witnessing the birth of a new type of multiplayer game that also places emphasis on story in addition to gameplay, I beleive this type of game is going to get more popular as we journey on!

Its very exciting

Oh league is sort of a forerunner but I feel It hasn’t entered the consciousness of the general population as much as overwatch has.

It has many rememberable and loveable characters, but the lore lacks because all they care about is the multiplayer. Multiplayer now runs the gaming world and it will probably stay like that forever.

I agree the lore has slowed down, but it doesn’t have to, im certain that its possible for a game to have deeper story and characterization and be purely multiplayer or even singleplayer and multiplayer, I don’t understand why some people are so resistant to this amazing new dawn in gaming!

right but you could just have different colors or simple shapes for differentiation? Unless you mean something else?

My point is that from a purely gameplay perspective cosmetics aren’t neccesarily past using them to differentiate and you can use simple shapes and colors for that purpose.

That might be a pretty interesting game actually, a game that purely focuses on gameplay over story and expansive aesthetic, but it wouldn’t be a perfect game, I don’t think its possible to have a perfect game haha cause so much of it is subjective.

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Take a look at the Call of Duty franchise especially zombies. Or even the TF2 franchise. Such a lack of care about the lore or development of the game anymore and only caring about the popularity.

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Going to add :
One of the reasons I play Blizzard games so much (Diablo series, WoW, now Overwatch and to a much smaller extent Hearthstone) is because of the story telling. The gameplay is great too but the story is what draws me in and makes me want to succeed with these characters.
Games with just story and bad gameplay or just gameplay and bad story are ‘meh’ at best. Combining both is important and something that Blizzard does so well which is why they are so successful as a company.

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sorry i don’t see how this is related to my responce

Totally!! thats the same for me

Games with just story and bad gameplay or just gameplay and bad story are ‘meh’ at best. Combining both is important and something that Blizzard does so well which is why they are so successful as a company.

yea! now if only they could bring thier balancing up to par with thier storytelling.

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I started because my friends told me about it and showed me the shorts. I loved the story. I always love the story, and that tends to be my driving reason for playing most of my games.

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Providing evidence on how no once really carea about lore anymore, just the multiplayer aspect.

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I’m a role player, will always be a role player, how my character looks, acts and the story of the character is important, D’va in her pink default mech is a different character in a way then when she is in her cat suit mech or cruiser etc. I know it doesn’t affect gameplay but it does change how I ‘see’ the character.

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It’s as important as developers want it to be. There are plenty of games with no story whatsoever that still are fun, and a lot of story-centered games with minimal gameplay. And everything in between, naturally.

Since Blizz decided to do quite a number of cinematics, and whole series of comics - yes, story is important in OW. And underdelivered AF.

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Overwatch having no story development makes as much sense as…well, something that doesn’t make any sense.

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which leads to a question for you, if this game was from any other developer and was just dropped as team FPS game with no shorts, no long write ups in game / online etc. on the characters would you still say this ?
Do we, as gamers, hold Blizzard to a higher standard because of the storytelling they have done in the past ? I believe we do btw. I know I hold Blizzard to a high standard because of what they have done in the past

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thats not evidence though? Those are just popular games that don’t have much of it, games with lore are popular too, league and overwatch for example.

Yup! I agree, what I don’t understand is the people rallying so hard against anyone who makes lore suggestions because of some vague idea that “games don’t need story” Blizzard invited story suggestions by making story a central part of the game. Games without a story whatsoever probably get fewer if any lore requests.

yea i agree with you and im the same,

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I guess. I mean, blizz games always have a certain level of polish that really makes them shine. That alone guarantees a certain amount of success.

Sort of? Like I said before, blizz goes hard on the quality and does well with that, but I think the story helps spread it’s popularity to a large extent.

ehh…I guess? Story, to an extent, dictates the characters, which works out well for overwatch. Ana is a great example of this imo. it’s easy to build off existing lore and make people like her or Orisa or Doomfist. The unique characters is a big draw of OW imo.

Nope.

Nope. And it shouldn’t be abandoned either, which is what it feels like a lot of the time.

I don’t think anyone is set against it? Where is this coming from?

Yeah, I sort of feel it’s like this. Story gives OW it’s heart/soul, so to speak. I probably wouldn’t have tried it if it didn’t have a story.

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True a big company backing the game guarantees a certain amount of success but i just cant imagine it would reach anywhere near the current levels if it was something closer to cod or csgo in terms of aesthetics and gameplay because the market is a bit over saturated with those types of games.

The unique characters is a big draw of OW imo.

exactly and part of the uniqueness is also in the story!

it shouldn’t be abandoned

I agree I wish they would put out more lore and balance updates instead of mostly new skins

I don’t think anyone is set against it? Where is this coming from?

Whenever someone makes a suggestion for the lore that is controversial, even though it shouldn’t be, some people use the excuse that “story doesn’t matter” and tell others to stop making suggestions and that they are “forcing change of and censoring artistic vision”.

I suspect this is done to hide what their true feelings are, possibly even from themselves, because less controversial suggestions get far fewer if any people making objections based on “nothing but gameplay matters”, its a frustrating double standard.

I just didn’t wana say this too clearly in the title or op because the thread would probably turn toxic if I did.