Venture - The Ultimate Cringe

General Discussion
1

Back when OW1 launched, I felt like each hero had a cool design, storyline, and distinct appearance. But with each new hero released, they feel more and more uninspired, bland, and unoriginal.

This has culminated with the release of Venture. Watching the character trailer video with the ad-quality music pretty much says it all.

First off, I could gripe about the name, which is not even a name, its a verb/noun to say “Hey look! An EXPLORER!”
An effort to force a design down our throats. But fine, it’s not that bad, I can deal with “Venture”.

My main problem is with the artistic design and voice lines.
It looks heavily influenced by Dora the Explorer, only beaten with a brown sack of potatoes then dressed with it.

The artists even knew its design is bland by giving it a horribly out of place neck tattoo and a chipped tooth in an attempt to give Venture some, ANY, kind of edge, personality, or identity. The hero looks like it was designed by a loaf of bread.

Lastly, hearing “Excavation Initiation!” during the ultimate makes me nearly invert myself by cringing and fills me with the desire to end its life as soon as possible. Oh a rhyme, how original…only you used the suffix “ation” twice so its not even an interesting rhyme, just lazy.

I feel like we have fallen so far from the cool and unique designs that attracted me to OW in the first place.

Just my opinion. Anyone is free to disagree. In fact if you like Venture’s design, that is great! I am truly happy you like it and there is nothing wrong with your opinion…wish I could say the same myself. I am just curious if anyone feels the same as me.

70 Likes
3

I’m curious why venture in particular is getting these reactions. Actually now that I think about it, so did Lifeweaver…

I really don’t want to be the one to point out the obvious bias that has root in this community for the reactions to these two heroes to be so starkly different than other new heroes… But here we are.

56 Likes
4

Hopefully space ranger seems like is going to be closer to a proper hero if they don’t screw her up.

6 Likes
5

I don’t have issues with Venture’s appearance, but that’s pretty funny.

9 Likes
6

The initial outrage for Venture is x10 more than the initial outrage for The Rock with gattling guns. It doesn’t feel like design is the problem…

34 Likes
7

It sounds like your internal bias is causing you to lash out.

10 Likes
8

Mauga is still cool even if is a stereotype and a shameless ripoff.

3 Likes
9

Very true, he’s super cool. My point was that there was less of a problem with him due to him being a straight male character, and all the complaints about Venture are being masked by an “unimaginative design” narrative.

16 Likes
10

/Shrug. I don’t mind the hero, tbh. I actually wish they’d kept the chipped tooth. lol I thought it was quirky.

But eh, I have a soft spot for this type of character personality. Tracer and Reinhardt share it, too. It’s the eccentric, energetic, curious type. I think it makes for a good character, tbh.

If you know Objective Personality coding, I think it’s more of like the savior Play ExxP types. I love them IRL too, but fictional ones are always turned up to 11. XD

And as for the aesthetics, eh, it’s different. I don’t mind it. And it’s pretty accurate - isn’t it common for non-binary people to dress in things like hoodies or big layers? I mean maybe that’s a stereotype, idk. But eh, either way, makes sense to my brain so I’m fine with it.

9 Likes
11

Let’s be honest with ourselves here, if Venture was a hot girl then we would be seeing rave reviews. Venture is getting extra criticism because they’re non-binary and not as conventionally attractive as most female heroes.

31 Likes
12

do we even know that?

imo mauga is boring too but he at leas has the characteristics of hero/villain.

1 Like
13

“Venture” as an uninspiring name?
Mercy, Soldier, Reaper, Widowmaker just to name a few
They sound very much like rooted in the 80s/early 90s comic era rooted characters, Ventures name is more than fitting

Venture style is very reminiscent of the early 2000 with wide and baggy clothing, also his whole character feels like early 2000
I’m pretty sure here are many who are too young to remember or even experienced the 2000

8 Likes
14

While I think it’s important to not try to silence actual criticisms as some type of phobic, I personally think it has to do more with the not being conventionally attractive thing. It’s not that they’re non-binary, it’s that lots of people only like characters they find attractive.

Which is kinda weird, but it’s undeniable there’s a pattern.

15

What about Hogs popularity?

16

I’ve seen a lot of criticism of Kiriko for lacking a personality too.

Personally, I’ve not liked any of the new Heros since Echo. Venture is just the worst I’ve seen thus far IMO

4 Likes
17

Weaver was a disaster of a hero and the “pansexual” part was never the problem there. To this day, he has a clunky weapon and ability functionality. Not to mention that he was the most UNimpactful hero launch in history, that needed to be reworked in terms of weapon usage and buffed like crazy, only for him to be ending up as a mid hero anyway, that most people dont want to play or play against.

Ventures problem is also mostly about the design of her. Pronouns or not, the hero model looks crap, no matter how you approach it. It has alpha or beta vibes in terms of product design and they should cook the model a few more months until they are ready to ship them.

The gameplay while fun, does not seem to fill a niche in the game that is needed or effective against something. Not to mention that they telegraph every single move they want to make.

Its fine if you want to wave the “diversity” or “inclusion” flag, but please look past this at the problems. Kiriko was good. JQ was good. Ram was good. Illari had also her fair share of problems (and still has) and she is not from the rainbow group.

Believe it or not: if they would made Venture hot AF and “waifu bait” like people would call it, 90% of the people would not have a problem with it. What is up with the hero design of those “inclusive” heroes? Just make them look normal.

Even Weaver (while he looks like a Chad), has a different design than the others and remembers people of Paladins heroes.

5 Likes
18

I think how they are introduced. Like lifeweaver is a plant based pansexual. Thats cringe. But honestly i didnt have a problem with lifeweaver until i heard his interractions with some other characters. Hes a slob who leaves messes for others to clean up, and asks inappropriate personal questions to junkrat about junkrat and hogs relationship.
Lw is just an insuffferable jerk.

6 Likes
19

He came with 20 other characters so it is not like he has been the star of a solo release for anyone to care that much.

1 Like
20

That’s probably due to a couple of things.

1.) He’s an OG hero. OG heroes tend to get somewhat of a pass. I mean Zarya and Mei had their critique too, but it wasn’t like these new heroes.

And 2.) He’s kind of bada- er, I might not can type that. He’s “cool.” :sweat_smile: So people can relate to him (or think they do), or at least admire him in that aspect. He’s a beacon of masculinity and all that.

That’s why we can have cool cowboys or ninjas or w/e who are male. But if a hero is a woman, she has to be appealing.

And in Lifeweaver’s case, he’s neither a woman nor cool bad-boy masculine, so he also makes them feel uncomfortable and has to go.

Venture breaks the mold, but is probably seen as more feminine by this group. So they’re probably seeing them as “Ugly woman character, no want! >:(” Or that they’re a lost potential in some way.

These are just guesses, but you kinda get a feel for the pattern as you keep reading feedback from similar communities and types of players.

5 Likes
21

No. Characters in general should either be sexy/hot, bada** or a funny stereotype people can laugh at (like Torb - dwarf).

But Venture is nothing of the above, it seems. Not from the design at least.

3 Likes