Story Expression vs. World Expression

So I’ll be interested in how well the Overwatch story elements continue to resonate - or fail to resonate - among the audience given the enormous controversies that have blown up around the company and real world events recently.

Does a story about fighting for freedom have an emotive meaning among an audience when the storytellers themselves (or perhaps more accurately, the story publishers) are caught up in a very different tone of story in the real world, that in some cases may directly contradict the story the game is trying to tell?

I mean, obviously a lot of authors write stories that don’t reflect their own views - no one assumes that Stephen King runs around consorting with ghoulish murderers every day between writing his books - but its also true that a lot of storytellers are trying to posit a particular worldview through their telling, and in this case I think that it is safe to say that the OW development team have been trying to present a story worldview that is very strongly based around personal identity, freedom of expression, and political freedom in general - and that has now come into conflict with the reality of publishing in some of the market sectors that Blizzard now occupies (or is trying to occupy).

So… Thoughts?

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I really don’t quite understand the position Blizzard has taken…

The Overwatch League stitched rainbow flags onto it jerseys during Pride month. The LGBTQ community isn’t inherently political, but much of our history, our triumph and our future resides in being aggressive towards injustice, politically and socially. When you put a rainbow flag, or a pink triangle on your clothes, you aren’t just celebrating or stating a preference- you are saying, “I will fight for my rights. I will not rest until you see me as human”. It’s a memorial, it’s a battle flag. It’s not a simple decision.

Blizzard can not support the rights of one group to free speech while suppressing another. Suppressing hate speech is their job, but protecting, encouraging, promoting free speech is one of the primary goals as a producer of entertainment and media. What the controversy around the Hearthstone tournament says to me is that the moral constitution of the executives is questionable at best.

I definitely think the story stands at odds with the current decisions taking place in the company. Recent events are starting to make me question if Overwatch’s story is appropriating the imagery of struggles for human rights to spice up a science fiction setting. The story hasn’t entirely lost its way, but even I’m starting to lose some confidence.

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They think they’re being neutral, but this is condoning oppression. They don’t get to be neutral here. Either they support the crackdown or they support the protestors.

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I mean, yes, and by itself in a vacuum I don’t actually have a problem with that - but when the real world context around it begins to operate at odds with the setting and messaging of their fiction, it does become much more deeply dissonant and it seems to take on a crass, cynical tone that it never had before. :cry:

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Quality response to this issue :+1:

Personally I think that along with everything mentioned, some of The Heroes who want to make a difference have to fight in order to make it real, and Businesses and The Government and even other people won’t help you.

The people in Overwatch wanted to make the world better but the World decided to ban their activity and force them to make sacrifices with little to no help in order to make a difference. That’s essentially what I see going on here.

With Blizzard banning Blitzchung, they are essentially telling him that he can fight if he wants to, but they won’t help him. It’s how the world works, if you want to fight, you have to take the risks and make the difference because the companies can’t fully support you.

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The story in every Blizz game is about fighting an oppressive, tyrannical force. Beijing is the Confederacy/Legion Horde/Dominion/Burning Hells/Omnic army. They want everyone to obey the PRC, even if the people are in another sovereign country. Beijing doesn’t care, and will use every bit of leverage they can to compel people to kneel.

Every story from every Blizzard game is about responding “No” to that.

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I though Overwatch was a story of a fight between humans and omnics and military corporations fighting military corporations for control and power… And accepting omnics as members of human society yadayada…

“Fighting for freedom” I didn’t see

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Beijing is a real human city with real people who are complex with complex history and complex issues… Not some one dimensional fantasy horde with evil principals, jesus christ.

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And that is the true tragedy. Activison has supplanted the Blizzard we knew and trusted.

I assume Stephen King consorted with drug dealers writing some of his books. :thinking: But this is bigger than just Blizzard right now. Blizzard, Apple, Vans, The NBA and more are caught up in a similar situation.

A related thought is…if you wanna stay out of real world politics, does that prevent you from telling a political story? I think Blizzard thinks of themselves as being a “neutral” party who just wants to be able to sell their games and associated boot loxes to everyone on Earth.

Some claim corporations are “very liberal” in their politics, but I don’t really believe that.

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Horde isn’t “the bad guys” though

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Here you go:

en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Metonymy

They were from 1993 - 2001

Oh, unquestionably the people of China are not to blame for any of this upset as individuals - but we do know for a fact that societies operate on a sort of collective acquiescence to authority.

If that authority is employed abusively and the population continues to acquiesce, then they become partially complicit - though certainly the leadership of that structure retains the bulk of the blame for how their society is functioning.

Only the leaders of a country have the ability to really set forth a different course in a distinct manner, while the population can only really lash out in disquiet if they don’t like the current shape of things (or vote for different leadership, if in a democracy).