Would you read OW short-stories if there were any?

Story Discussion
1

I would.

I know less and less people tend to read, but still, I believe that when you love a universe, even if reading is not your thing, reading a block of text can be a pleasing experience.

And that’s for people that dont like reading. For those of us who do, picking a good book is always a delight.

And man, it would be delightful to pick an OW book… or, more realistically, read short-stories online that would expand the lore and the universe.

We are thousands of writers out there who would jump on such an occasion. And I know Blizz recently hired a new writer for OW (well, I applied knowing full well I didnt stand a chance but… well, we dont care about that, not the point)… but… but I’m still waiting to see the real impact of her hire on the regularity of lore updates.

Anyway, I would love Blizz to hire a little group of dedicated writers to partner up with Michael (Chu) in order to deliver, on a monthly base, a series of OW short stories.

I’d even be ready to pay for it… but, well, that’s mostly cause I’m a writer myself and know how tough it can be to get a financial stability in this domain.

Anyway, all that to say : plizz Blizz more lore !

tl;dr : what’s preventing Blizzard to hire a few writers to publish online, on a regular basis, short stories expanding the lore ?

Cause yeah, it’s not with two animated shorts and one comic a year the story will really progress.

26 Likes
2

HELL YES.

To be quite frank, any sort of long form media at this point is going to be a welcome change. Anything that lets me consume more Overwatch lore over 15 minutes is going to be a god send.

6 Likes
3

Dude, this is why I read fanfiction. Because canon doesn’t provide.

13 Likes
4

I would love any long form of content. The fact of the matter is, for 2.5 years from Recall, we’ve seen characters react to the recall, but not act on it yet. The urgency of telling a narrative is stilted when dealing with a story so slow.

Even a weekly story article/chapter would be a massive improvement. Some sort of regular schedule of written content would be a godsend. Something more consistent and forward facing than our current story drought.

4 Likes
5

Only if they were official.

6 Likes
6

I would. No doubt (I’m assuming we are talking about official stuff).

I would read even a simple blog.

7

A bit of a bias here, but I’d probably only read the ones that have Hanzo, Genji, Talon and Blackwatch involved.

Because it has to match the idea of what they, the Overwatch team, wants for Overwatch. The game clearly has a direction it wants to go, and too many writers will write things that will contradict with one another. And to all have the same kind of direction, it will take time too until every writer settles for a story that will have a seamless flow.

We have amazing writers already, and I don’t mind the slow progress if it means giving more depth to a hero and the story overall. It would be nice to have it regularly, but rather slow than rushed and bland.

Did you know that Matthew Mercer voiced over the Ashe short a year ago? A year? Pretty sure that’s why it takes long to release cinematics. It was probably just a bunch of stickmen polygons and not even near done. It takes forever to make a cinematic and I don’t blame them.

1 Like
8

I need more lore. I would read/watch/play, whatever they’re willing to give us, I’d consume it!

1 Like
9

Absolutely yes.

2 Likes
10

You know, I never thought about this, but it definitley sounds like a good idea. The story is proceeding snail slow, and I understand why: making cinematics and even comics takes some time, and money. Short stories would speed up the plot-hole filling a lot.
I’m into it 127%.

11

Even if you don’t like to read, novels and short stories are fantastic for giving insane amounts of details over how a character thinks, their backstory, the fonctioning of their relationships, the universe’s core system, etc. Novels can do in one page what a comic would need ten pages of dialogues to accomplish. It needs time, but less people to work on it. Short movies are gorgeous, but I always thought they revealed too little. I’d much prefer novels, or even short stories on a blog, like Dragon Age: Inquisition did for Samson and Calpernia. So yeah, I would totally read. I’ve been hoping for that for three years.

12

It would definitely help the lore and would give another medium other than comics and animated shorts which would also be way less expensive for them to make and does not rely on outside sources.
Overwatch has potential but it’s gimped by the slow af pace they are going for. I doubt it’s the writing that takes all the time, but having to pay outside sources for a comic/using the animation team (which works for all the other blizzard game too).
Also given how barebones some character are, I doubt it’s that difficult to write some lore to get things starting. If it would the problem would come from the writers wanting things to be too perfect.
Honestly I just want more written lore in general like letters and reports.

2 Likes
13

Given what I just read about Activision and it’s desire for increased microtransactions in Destiny 2…

…are those who would read OW short-stories willing to pay to do so? Or for any kind of lore related thing (comics, small ‘story missions’ etc)? Not even specifying a price point here, just…curious.

14

I would pay for gameplay missions or novels, but I wouldn’t pay for comics or short movies. I haven’t read their comics except one or two of them, and I’ve stopped watching their short movies after Bastion’s. I haven’t even watched the Junkrat one even though he’s my second favorite character.

15

Remember Overwatch: First Strike? I really love the idea of more stories and direct lore given to us in complete context instead of the short little bursts that Michael Chu occasionally gives us on his personal twitter account.

16

God, yes.

Jeff said (either in FRAN or Emongg’s interview, not sure) that comics were for sure coming back. I have a feeling they’ll be physical publications that you have to buy, and I’m perfectly fine with that. I already collect comics. Give them to me.

17

I still read a lot of books and am writing stories (short fairy tales). I bet that in the future there will be Overwatch novels since many games including Warcraft have released a series of books already.

18

I would definitely pay normal comic price for a physical copy of a normal-issue-sized Overwatch comic.

If they were really good, I’d probably even buy two copies: one to keep/collect and one as a reading copy.

19

One day I saw a compilation of the overwatch comics in a library. It was pre-searching iirc.

20

Wow, I can see it now. It could be WEBTOON-style and have short animations on certain parts with dramatic music. I’m all for it.

It’s better than spending years developing these short movies that only add to the lore rather than explaining it.