Try inviting a friend of yours who has never played Overwatch, what exactly happens? There are several scenarios that can have a fairly important consequence:
- “what is this game about
?”: you could tell him the lore in broad terms, show him how beautiful the Pixar style cinematics are, but he will probably say “ok, but is there a plot in the game without someone else having to explain it to me?”. awkward silence over sobbing lore, and maybe he’ll pretend to understand that this is a G.I. Joe task force. good guys, bad guys (
)
- “let’s learn this game”: he does his tutorial with Soldier 76, but then he is hit by an absurd multitude of characters, roles, maps, objectives, communications, BP progression, etc. you can certainly try to help him face a team of bots, but… maybe the only instructions in the game are just those tabs that will appear every now and then and you who constantly correct him on how that character or that other should play. in short, so many instructions at the same time
;
- “Ok, maybe I understood this character”: but then the patch arrives and possible exceptions, and he no longer understands what has changed in the relationship with the other heroes. let’s take as an example when they changed the effects of kiriko’s suzu which previously cleansed everyone and now makes exceptions if it’s sleep, rein’s ultimate, etc. at that point either you, a veteran player, explain to him what happened and what happens now or he’s forced to read a wikia / a mythbuster video, etc.
- “I’d like to play at my first rank”: but he doesn’t know anyone, he has difficulty playing players more or less of his level, and so he is thrown into the lions’ den, with possible players who have now mained particularly insidious heroes (ana, widow, zarya whoever you want) and he is defeated.
- “why is it called 2, anyway?” and you, a veteran, explain to him a whole epic story of the success and tragedy of the game’s development, of 6v6, of monetization, of the lore…
at that point the new player might simply say to you “maybe it’s a game dedicated only to those who already knew it, I didn’t understand much about it and it’s asking too much of me to understand it and/or become fond of it like you do”. GLHF
generally the new player will not care at all about what 6v6 was, if there is a sad development story that prevented the promised PVE development, or if it’s a PVP game that (like many others) continues to update new heroes / maps, bugfixes or effectively fight cheating every day (These are literally its basic duties, right?): Overwatch is very prohibitive in creating an initial interest in a natural way in those who don’t know it. Not having invested well in the in-game narrative and especially in an introduction path to the gameplay is the biggest problem today.
can no longer afford the benefits it had in 2016: the media celebrity of being the first IP in years from Blizzard (when it was still respected by gamers), having a start with few features compared to today that could allow the “fail, learn, try again” approach (today you practically fail as soon as you turn the corner, and the tutorials are terrible), and above all the voicelines no longer create a new story but rather contextualize a lore that technically began years ago but which dissatisfies both those waiting for real news and those who are now learning to understand what the hell this guy is saying in my gameplay .
Let’s answer this very stupid question for 2025: