Overwatch’s Lore Problem

Blizzard's Overwatch is a well developed game but it clashes with its lore in the worst possible way. Blizzard attempts to fix this mistake by claiming their game "is not canon" to the world they've created but that's a cop-out if I've ever heard one. #activisionblizzard #blizzardentertainment #consistency

[DiscoMan]

Nobody knows what ludonarrative dissonance is. It exists in almost every game. Why single out on Overwatch when many games do this.

[JMRamee]

Because it won GOTY at the Game Awards and is probably on the forefront of most gamers' minds.

[JMRamee]

I also do not pick on Overwatch. I state very clearly in the article that there are many other games that do this (like FFXV, Dragon Age, Mirror's Edge Catalyst, and Dead Space 3). I just open with Overwatch because, like I said, it's at the forefront of people's minds. I know ludonarrative dissonance exists across a lot of video games. This is a call to action of why it needs to stop.

[TankCrossing]

I think Overwatch is a pretty extreme case and fair to call out.

"We used to be heroes! Now bad stuff is happening, we have to do something!!!"
"Yeah let's form teams of 5 and fight against each other, that'll fix it!"

[Aloy-Boyfriend]

Gameplay and Story not always have to be 100% true to each other. Not every game succeeds doing so. TLoU is one of the few that did this right, and Bioshock. Other games that fail to do this end up limiting the Gameplay choices to players.

In the case of Overwatch, every player knows or could careless about the lore. It is about having fun. Overwatch is a competitive game at heart, not a SP game or anything else. Blizzard could just dump the lore and players wouldn't even care because the MP is the meat of the game.

[ravinash]

I do think the Developers have to take on a little bit of artistic license to make the game enjoyable.
The game would be very different if the teams were set so that only one side got Reaper or Widowmaker.
But on the flip side, if you created a story where everyone was on the same side or was all against all, it would make for such an interesting story.
Sometimes like in Overwatch, the Lore is just the hook to get people more involved with their characters, nothing more.

[spicelicka]

Overwatch has a story?

It's a multiplayer game with wild characters. The "story" is just there to give context to those characters. If people take the story seriously they need to play games with actual stories.