Communities affect everything that go around you. From small town to big urban communities, they affect almost everything around. Communities come together to help nature, plant seeds or pick trash along the beach. They come together to make fund new projects or help out people that are raising funds for a good cause. That goes to same for video games. The amount of support from people to kick start the development of game, or just talking about the game to build up excitement before its release. What really makes a game is the people that play it. But that’s only one aspect. Today I’m going to be talking about a game that had a lot of anticipation and start of as a big success, but kind got pushed into the background. I’m going to talk about Overwatch, and primarily how it has affected first-person shooters and ultimately, the face of the gaming with a different look, style, and its community.

Many games like Call of Duty, Battlefield, and Counter-Strike:Global Offensive are all about real life scenarios. It’s all about things like taking out the terrorists or winning the war for your side. These games usually have you fighting with real guns and using real life mechanics, but Overwatch is different. In Overwatch, you play as these cartoonish looking character. These characters are also from all different types of cultures and ethnicities. You can play as anything, from a Robotic monk you uses magic orbs to heal allies and weaken opponents, to a giant gorilla that gets very angry and destroys anything in its way. From Korean to Egyptian, there are many different choices for who you can play as. There are currently 23 characters you can play as and more are still being made. But they don’t just have this diverse character selection for no reason.

Along with many different unique characters, there are also many different styles. In Overwatch, there are 3 types of maps: Payload, Capture the point, and Hybrid. Payload maps have the attacking team escort the payload to one end of the map to the other. Capture the point maps usually have both sides fighting for a point in a best 2 out of 3 style. But there are some maps where you have to capture 2 separate points capturing one first, then the other. Then there are Hybrid maps. On these maps, you have to capture the point and then escort the payload to the end of the map. Not only are there more than one game type, there are also more than one class of heroes. Overwatch has 4 classes: Attack, Defense, Tank, and Support. Attack characters accel at charging and maneuvering around the maps. These characters usually fit the team best in capture the point maps. Defense heroes are good at protecting the objective after it is secured. Defense characters are tough to beat when it comes the Payload maps. Tanks usually charge to the front lines of the battle. They are mostly used for attacking, but if you practice enough, you can good with them when defending as well. Vice versa for supports. Supports usually stay back to help out the team. Whether that’s healing them, or making teleporters to get to the action quicker, these heroes work best when playing defensive, but can be used for offensive attacks. Unlike most First-Person Shooters, Overwatch doesn’t have you playing as one team or another. You can choose different classes at any point in the match. That’s what sets the game apart from others. When playing a game of Overwatch, it’s all about the objectives, not kills and deaths. That means switching a to a different character when your team needs it the most. Games like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, you have one team of 5 people, all with the same look who usually use the same gun. But in Overwatch, the characters all have their own strengths and weaknesses. It adds a lot more strategy into the game. The style is completely different than other games, but so is its community.

Overwatch was one of the most anticipated games of the year. There was so much hype behind the game that when it released, it had the biggest community ever. Now that we reached a new year, the community has gotten significantly smaller. There is not as many people playing the game anymore, but Overwatch still has one of the most dedicated communities in any game. There are lots of fan art that showcase character concepts and new map designs as well. Small is not always bad. Games like Call of Duty and CS:GO are getting a bad reputation because of their communities. Fans of those gaming franchises are expecting too much from the companies and feel as if the games were under delivered. Overwatch is not like those games. Blizzard Entertainment, the makers of Overwatch, always strive to create better content the the community expects. And with a small community, there is usually less expectation. Creators can evolve the game and the formula of how it’s played without much backlash from the fans. That’s what makes the Overwatch fan community one of the best in all of gaming.
With Overwatch having different looks, styles, and community from other games of its genre, like Battlefield, Call of Duty, Halo, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, it has easily changed the face of gaming. Not only has Overwatch’s community help influence new ideas for the game, they sometimes directly create new concepts. The community not only helped over watch become a better game, but it also helped other creators look at First-Person Shooter games in a whole new light. Overwatch truly changed the formula of shooter games to better the future of gaming.