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Since its release in May, Blizzard’s Overwatch has managed to get glowing reviews, massive
sales and millions of hardcore fans worldwide. It seems like everyone from critics to Pornhub
users cannot get enough of the game, making it the latest in Blizzard’s long line of
successes. Surprisingly though, things didn’t always look like they were going to turn out
that well, in fact in many ways the Overwatch gamers know today was built on the ashes of
one of Blizzard’s biggest failures: Project Titan.
Originally meant to be the first completely new IP in over fifteen years, the initial
idea for Project Titan was to create a new superhero themed MMO similar to games like
City of Heroes and Champions Online. And featuring factions, similar to the Alliance and Horde
in the Warcraft franchise. But with one big twist: players would have to alternate between
being an ass kicking hero and working their alter-ego’s regular day job. The concept
was definitely ambitious, but there was one big problem: it wasn’t fun to play. At all.
According to Blizzard designer Jeff Kaplan “You had a really amazing group that was
working on Titan. They were really talented individuals, but we failed horrifically in
every way...In every way that a project can fail. It was devastating…It was kind of
a crisis of confidence and identity, where you start to ask yourself, 'Did we lose it?[...]
Are we not capable of making a great game anymore?'”
Thankfully for Overwatch players everywhere, this failure is what inspired the great game
we have today, as Kaplan added “When it came time to move to Overwatch there was an
extremely tight bond on the team and a ravenous hunger to show the world that we’re not
failures and we can make something really fun."
Moving past the initial inspiration for the game, Overwatch’s characters also get their
names and in some cases personalities from a lot of interesting sources. Take the western
bounty hunter Jesse McCree, who shares his name with one of Blizzard’s employees, also
named Jesse McCree. The real McCree, now a lead game designer, has worked on Blizzard
games ranging from the Diablo series, to WoW among many others.
Genji, another popular character in the game, gets his name from a pretty unexpected place:
classic Japanese literature. Written by Murasaki Shikibu a Japanese noblewoman in the early
11th century, The Tale of Genji is regarded as a masterpiece by scholars and many historians
even call it the world’s first modern novel. Overwatch’s Genji and the book’s Genji
even have a lot in common, as both were known for living a decadent, playboy lifestyle.
No word on if the Genji in the book was actually a cyborg though…
Genji isn’t the only character to have roots in Japanese history either. Many fans have
speculated that Hanzo’s name may be taken from Hattori Hanzō, one of the most famous
samurais of all time. Eventually known as one of Japan’s most brilliant strategic
minds, Hattori Hanzō began life as a fairly unimportant, minor Samurai before saving the
life of shogun leader Tokugawa Ieyasu, who he then helped unite all of Japan under his
rule. So it’s safe to say he was a pretty big deal. In fact, Overwatch will only be
latest piece of media to reference Hanzō, considering there is characters that share
his name in everything from Kill Bill, to Pokemon Conquest, to the manga series Path
of the Assassin. He’s even included as a “Great Spy” in the Civilization 4 expansion
Beyond the Sword, as well as being a recurring character in the Samurai Shodown series.
Jumping over to Pharah, the Egyptian themed soldier started life as a very different kind
of character, well actually she didn’t begin as a character at all, just a set of gameplay
mechanics that the Blizzard team wanted to include in the game. Eventually they sketched
out a character named “Rocket Dude” who, unsurprisingly, was a guy who ran around while
strapped to a rocket. Thankfully the team decided that they could do better, going through
a lot of concepts and finally settling on Pharah.
Speaking of Pharah, her facial tattoo also happens to have roots in Egyptian culture,
as it’s a reference to the Eye of Horus. Personified by the goddess Wadjet, the Eye
of Horus is an ancient religious symbol of protection and good health for the people
of the Egypt. Very appropriate considering Pharah’s altruism and dedication to the
protection of the innocent. In the game, Aleksandra Zaryanova, or just
Zarya, is one of the world's strongest women and a devastating opponent. But the character
also has the distinction of being the only Overwatch hero modeled directly after a real
person. That’s because Zarya bears an obvious resemblance to Tamara Bakhlycheva, one of
Diablo 3’s character designers. Making this connection even stronger is the fact that
like Zarya, Tamara was born in Russia. No comment showcase this week but be sure
to like, subscribe and comment, and if we like your comment enough we’ll be sure to
include it on a future Overwatch episode! And now it’s time for some trivia! Last
week we asked you who the goddess of beauty was in High Rock’s Bretony Pantheon and
the answer was D) Dibella. This week’s question is about one of Overwatch’s most well-known
characters: what was the name of Lucio’s debut album? Was it...