Here’s the part I don’t get. There are sexist people who just hate Mercy players because the majority happen to be women. So they use the term “Mercy main” as an insult.
But why would Mercy players themselves take offense to it and reaffirm their beliefs? Why not respond with something like “yes I main Mercy, what’s wrong with that?”
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Is ‘Mercy main’ treated as an insult? First time I heard about this
I personally never saw it as an insult
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You seem to be thinking too far into it… Anyone who hates on a SOLID Mercy main is a fool, as they CAN be a fantastic addition to many team comps. I feel like most women I get paired with are D.VA or Zarya queens, didn’t realize the majority of Mercy mains were women, news to me.
I don’t know if Mercy main is an insult but people are overly critical on how Mercy players perform to the point I’ve seen threads about it, but never seen any threads on any other heroes, it’s honestly bizarre
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You could call someone a purple picked potato as an insult if you wanted, it’s the tone that matters.
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The Moth Meta and a certain Mercy youtuber has scarred the community.
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People use “rat” as an insult. I like rats. I had two pet rats when I was young. When I picked them up, their tails would spin around like a helicopter rotor. 
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it’s an hold over from early overwatch. Basically back then mercy was seen as the “girlfriend pick”, the pick dps mains made their gf play cause mercy is very easy and also popular among women.
Her gameplay style really complements well a good dps and back then SR algorythm really favored mercy. This meant many mercys could climb VERY easily and could rarely play any hero but mercy at their rank and considering mercy was considered a throw pick till her rework.
So having a one trick mercy in your team often spelled defeat and mercy was consistently the most one tricked hero (and still is to this day), so people took notice.
Right now it kinda lost its meaning due to the rework, game changes and SR gain changes, but the stereotype still stuck
Is “Hanzo main” still an insult? 
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Hanzo main is definitely an insult IMO
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I don’t think it’s gender-related.
Since Mercy is a hero that isn’t mechanically required, aim dependent as Ana, Baptiste, Zenyatta. Thus, they assume whoever mains her have poor aiming skills.
Somehow nobody judges Reinhardt + Winston players negatively since they both aren’t mechanically demanded as well.
Back in the days when you could climb with a negative winrate to GM (even Top500) on certain characters
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In that case it’s very likely sexism but could be some other reason however it’s never a valid reason.
They say this for almost every hero. I’ve had “bastion main” used against me in what’s clearly intended as an insult.
But these abusers are tricking you.
They’re trying to trick you into playing by their rules where they control language, where “mercy main” is an insult because that’s how they use it. Don’t let them get away with it, be proud of it or else they will control the conversation.
Proudly say you’re a mercy main and tell the haters to read the Code of Conduct.
To all the abusers on the forums: there is no statute of limitations on abusive posts. You can’t complain you didn’t know what’s in the code of conduct.
Unfortunately, it’s the way Mercy works. Her damage boost allows you to boost certain people who can carry a game. There are people who have abused her mechanics in order to boost their accounts. I’m saying this as a mercy main who solo plays her. Basically, a group of people ruined it for the rest of us.
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Mercy has quite some history
There was a time Mass Res could boost Mercy’s SR a lot,then came the Moth Meta which needs no explaining
But its mainly from the Moth Meta,these days Brig takes the spot for most hated tho
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I’ve had too many occurrences where I simply ask a 99% playtime Mercy player to play mercy with a neutral tone and they get offended.
I even actively stop myself from saying “Mercy main” and say Mercy player instead because some people take offense to the word main
Look I was a D.va otp once and wouldn’t have been bothered if someone called me a D.Va otp. I would be happy if someone asked me to play D.Va and didn’t judge but apparently other people are not like me… or maybe they are just looking for excuses to act upset? it’s so odd to me.
Mercy is hated throughout the community for being an “easy hero”. So Mercy Main can be used offensively, meaning that they are a bad player, so bad that they need to play mercy. Because a lot of Mercy mains are women (I don’t even really think that this is true), people can use it in a sexist way too. And you can combine it in a misogynistic way, meaning that “Women are bad at video games”.
I don’t know the difference between sexism and misogyny. If someone could tell me the difference would be nice.
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Sexism is prejudice against a certain sex
Misogyny is prejudice against women
Misandry is prejudice against men, less often used becauae almost every society that exists today is patriarchal
I thought it was deeper than just that but okie dokie.
Or Moira, I realize now she may not be as easy but originally she required almost no skill. IMO apart from mercy & Torbjorn she was the easiest Hero to play.