The Overwatch team recently showed a new tweet about Vendetta, the new hero who can be described as a flying nightmare with a blade at least. The tweet was short but succeeded in expressing a lot of excitement: ‘If you ever see Vendetta in the air, then you know it’s over ⚔️💥’, and later on, they asked gamers to post their greatest plays and moments with the hashtag #OWClipThis. Players’ feedback was incredible and varied, consisting of pure love for the new character and very loud complaints about everything else. I must say that the entire thing was a classic case of Overwatch community interaction.
Firstly, I would categorize the conversation around Vendetta’s fandom as overwhelming. Players are actively and openly sharing their insane multi-kills and slick plays in the thread thereby displaying the character’s popularity. One of the players, who goes by the name Kayffeine__, for instance, expressed ‘Love playing her sm, best addition to the game so far<3’ along with a video clip. Another user, Mizu_E8, went over the moon and said: ‘Oomg it’s Me!!!!! VENDETTA IS SOOOOO FUNNNNN!!!! 🥳🥳🥳’. One might argue that this type of atmosphere is actually one of the features of new hero release. Players are getting lovely sprays, executing five-kill ultimates, and most of all, they are having great fun. The player, who calls himself needyynasa, even had his video included in the official Overwatch response and got just one word from the account ‘LET’S GOOOOO 🙌’, which is really cool.
The video footage itself shows the exact reason why this new character is feared. The midair stance that she takes up? It’s as if the opposing team is being told to simply accept their defeat. Players are combining her abilities with other ults, for instance, Zarya’s Graviton Surge, and completely mopping up the teams. This is precisely the kind of highlight reel material that makes you want to jump into a game instantly and try to do something like that. The community engagement here is powerful, people are posting their experiences and celebrating this new character.
What was I saying? Oh yes, the flipside of the coin. Because smack in the middle of the hype clips there are some… very… passionate… complaints from the console player community. And I mean passionate. Like, all-caps, must-revert-commands passionate. The most recent update has altered the aim assist and sensitivity settings on console and apparently a large number of players are extremely unhappy with it. I mean, really not happy. Adam James King’s response articulates it very clearly, questioning how it became a priority to fix Sigma while the matter of ‘game breaking aim BS’ is not. He goes on to say it is ‘literally unplayable’. Some others like BammTNT and lilakel94 are outright asking, or let’s be honest, telling the Overwatch team to roll back the change. ‘Just fix the console sensitivity, bro. Just revert it 😋’ one of them is saying and the smiley is probably meant to hide the suffering of a high-level kind. It is a stark reminder that every new hero with amazing effects always has behind-the-scenes workings that determine player experience for the majority of players.
Random requests of various kinds have been popping up every now and then and this is, as usual, quite fun. One person wants Junkrat’s mythic trap tongue to return (valid request, honestly). Another one is calling for the nerf of the Predator Scan Ashe since she is everywhere and should be removed. And, naturally, there is the old ‘kill this hero I just lost to’ vibe, with Salvi Almighty saying ‘Guys. What do MEAN, you buffed her???’ in reaction to the Vendetta clip. It’s chaotic but the kind of chaotic dialogue that keeps live service gaming alive.
So what’s the take-home message? Overwatch 2 has once again been able to successfully introduce a hero that players feel very enthusiastic about. The character’s kit, especially that famous mid-air attack, is facilitating people to have incredible experiences and also uniting them to display their wins. The #OWClipThis initiative is meant to bring the community highlight reel to life. Nevertheless, at the same time, the developers must be very cautious because there are some major pain points, particularly for console gamers who are dissatisfied with the recently modified control settings, that if not managed properly will result in players losing the goodwill. It is a balancing act—creating a buzz about the new and the flashy while making sure that everyone can still feel the essence of the game. For now, if you’re a PC player or just having an average time on console, it looks like now is the right time to dive in and secure your own Vendetta high-up kill.
