Last updated on November 5, 2024
We have all wanted to be a hero; to swoop in and save the day with a smile. Overwatch is a team-based first person shooter released by Blizzard Entertainment that allows you, the player, to become a hero. Players can select a hero from over twenty characters that each have a unique style of play. The characters are divided into categories that convey their purpose on a team. When in a game, players work together with five other players to secure and defend an area on the map or escort a payload across the map within a limited amount of time specific to each map(“Overwatch (Video Game)”). Competition comes into the game as two teams of six face each other as either the attacker or defender. Having such a large player base combined with the competitive nature of the game leads to issues of toxicity that can be found in many online massive multiple online games. A toxic player is usually an extremely negative player that complains, bullies or simply spreads hate amongst the games community. Overwatch was no different that other games in possessing such players however; they are the only game that I know of with a development team that did not simply urge the playerbase to be less toxic or create tools that would help decrease toxicity such as guilds, a mechanic where players can make their own teams with friends. Overwatch’s development team instead focused the toxicity onto a character in the game called Mercy. Players already expressed some dislike for the character early in the game’s lifetime(Cliff). The question of why Mercy was detested so early into the game and how the development team used her to try and cleanse the toxic community they created can be explained through scapegoat theory.
The most necessary mechanism to allow scapegoating to function is the crisis(Bremmer; Kearney; Girard; Burke) Fundamentally altering a community, a crisis forces the members of the community to adapt. The difficulty of a community to change is arguably the most common cause for the practice of sacrificing a pharmakos, a scapegoat(Szaz). The extraordinary events classified as crises create both the sacrifice of scapegoats, as well as the religious rituals that come to replace them(Bremmer). The crisis leads to chaos in the community and creates a purpose for the scapegoat — to purify society and return order to the community. Plague, famine, drought and other forms of a natural disaster are the more commonly thought of crises. However, French theorist Rene Girard conceptualizes a crisis that occurs outside the physical world called the crisis of distinction. A crisis of distinction occurs in society when the individuals that exist outside the system are no longer differentiable from those inside the system creating confusion due to the universal lack of distinction. According to Girard, humans have an unconscious desire to obtain what is desired by others, termed mimetic desire. Mimetic desire is when an individual uses the opinions of others to determine a goal in what is called a model-subject relationship where the subject imitates the mannerisms of the model to obtain their similar goal. Imitator quickly becomes rival as the relationship shifts to one defined as model-obstacle(Girard). This is the relationship where mimetic rivalry rears its competitive head. The two individuals who could have once been collaborators or even friends are now rivals who both desire an object that only one can possess. This king of the hill dynamic where the top spot is an object, the attention of another person, or the title of number one is the individual’s internal crisis of distinction as they try to distinguish themselves from their rival. These internal crises, according to Girard, can be just as dangerous for a community and create the need for a scapegoat.
Overwatch’s competitive ladder encourages mimetic rivalry as players rise through the ranks to try and obtain the title of “rank one” (GameSpotTrailers). Overwatch’s status as a team-based FPS without team building, role select, and guilds creates an inevitable crisis of distinction as well as mimetic rivalry amongst players — it makes the toxicity the players experience unescapable according to the community member with over one-thousand posts on the Overwatch forums, BEAST. Throughout their post titled “Overwatch Identity Crisis” BEAST highlights the hypocrisy of the development team in the fundamental game design and environment they are creating. The game’s design is supposed to be approachable for casual players yet Activision Blizzard’s Overwatch League has no clear application process for players looking to play professionally other than streaming your gameplay and hoping to garner attention(Junglebutt). Indecisiveness on the part of Blizzard and the Overwatch development team to determine who Overwatch is marketed to has seeped into the competitive ladder. The only way for players to climb the ladder is to gain skill rating or SR by winning a competitive match, a common goal amongst the teammates(“Welcome to…”). This motivates players to do whatever it takes to make sure their team is the one posing on the victory screen. A shared desire to win triumphs over the desire of individual players to play a specific character as many players are pushed onto heroes they either do not want to play or are uncomfortable playing. This process is called filling: Filling in Overwatch to create synergized team composition, the characters selected by the team have abilities that work well together, is an issue that would easily be resolved by the implementation of a game mechanic called role select as community member BEAST stated in the forum post previously mentioned. This has been an issue amongst players for many competitive seasons as meta’s have shifted and could no longer be ignored following the release of Mercy 2.0. Mercy’s rework was the catalyst for Overwatch’s crisis of distinction when the logic of “no Mercy, no win” became contagious and forced at least one player every game onto the hero due to her must pick status(Cliff ). This is the true crisis of Overwatch — a crisis of distinction — masked as a crisis of toxicity by the development team as they state in their developer update videos(PlayOverwatch). The purpose for their deception, in my opinion, is purely economical. Their fear of players losing interest in their game justifies the development team’s belief that outrage is better than silence and condones their prolonging of Overwatch’s inevitable drop into the pit of irrelevance as has been the life-cycle of previous massive multiplayer online games. Overwatch’s attempt to mask their design issues by pointing the finger at player behavior is futile as any crisis whether an economic, cultural disaster, or crisis of distinction, is still extremely damaging to the community — vocal or not. Placing blame does not save the society.
Throughout history scapegoats have been held responsible for the ills of the society they live in with hopes that their sacrifice would cure society by distinguishing the identities of those inside and outside the community(Kearny; Girard). That is why an outsider, a marginal individual that society can project their monstrosities onto, is the key marking of a scapegoat or as Rene Girard referred to them, the stereotypes of persecution. There are of course the obvious features of an outsider to society — the poor, foreigners, and scum of the polis are common representative outsiders– there are the more abstract representations of scapegoats such as the disturbing and the taboo(Kearny; Girard: Breemer). These are the stereotypes most important to the selection of the witches from the The Great Witch Craze. In his book Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches the American anthropologist Marvin Harris stated that among the crimes of the witches were pacts with the Devil and “kissing the Devil under the tail”(207). Communication with the Devil was certainly considered taboo between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries. Viewing a witch as a seductress and the perception of one’s sexuality as taboo, an individuals’ eroticism would mark them as a scapegoat. In contrast to the times of the witch craze, expressing one’s sexuality is more accepted in today’s society. In spite of this acceptance, monstrosity in its most beastly form is still unmentionable. According to Irish philosopher Richard Kearney many scapegoats in ancient myths had “goatish characteristics” while still appearing “at least half-human”(Strangers And Scapegoats 29). These unnatural hybrids were another example of undesirables that were used to differentiate man from monster and project the beast within the man onto a tangible representative: the scapegoat whose markings now justify their expulsion from society.
In Overwatch every character is designed with unique abilities to give them different advantages/disadvantages and make selecting a hero part of the strategy to win. Mercy is no different than the other characters in this regard possessing a movement ability that allows her to fly to allies called “guardian angel” every two seconds, attach a healing beam or damage boosting beam to allies and resurrect her dead allies(Overwatch Wiki, “Mercy”). Originally “resurrect” was an ultimate ability — a high impact and game changing ability that must be charged over the course of the game — that allowed Mercy to revive up to all five of her dead teammates before they respawned as long as they were within range of her spell when cast. This defiance of nature in her abilities is not the only similarity Mercy has with witches: her healing beam comes from a staff called the Caduceus staff that is retextured in her Halloween skin called “witch” to look like a broom(Overwatch Wiki, “Mercy/Cosmetics”). For those unfamiliar with Greek mythology this is the staff of Hermes the god of “trade, thieves, travelers, sports, athletes, and border crossings”(Hermes) . The reference to the god is quite fitting for Mercy’s pitch as the guardian angel who could give her allies another chance to fight by using medical technology that is magical in appearance. Her sorcery does not end there as the character model for Mercy is a sexualized thirty-seven year old who appears to be closer to twenty. The supernatural design of the character can shift from different cosmetics the players can apply to the character in game but besides her defiance of nature with her appearance, necromantical abilities and allusion to the almighty gods of ancient myth there is a consistent marking. Angela Ziegler only becomes Mercy when wearing her Valkyrie swift response suit; a suit that gives her the appearance of a hybrid. Mercy’s position as Overwatch’s guardian angel is taken literally with the addition of wings to her suit. Whether angelic or witchlike in appearance, her unparalleled ability to resurrect teammates makes her a devil to the enemy team, ironically this is also an available skin (Overwatch Wiki, “Mercy/Cosmetics”). The combination of all Mercy’s abilities and physical appearance lead me to believe that Mercy was not marked, but designed to be the perfect scapegoat.
Every action taken against a scapegoat is for the sake of purifying the community. Purity is a commonality in the scapegoat ritual amongst the many myths in ancient Greece such as “the Aethiopians, in order to purify themselves, put two men into boats and sent them away over the sea, never to return again” (302). This expulsion from the community by eliminating a marginal member was often a sacrifice that stopped the crisis and saved the community. The scapegoats branding as evil allows them to be punished not by torture or imprisonment but excommunication as Marvin Harris stated in Broomsticks and Sabbats. The scapegoat who was once an outsider to the community is brought inside to bear responsibility for the crisis before being forced back to margins. By casting out the impure, the society is able to confirm themselves as holy(Bremmer). This motif, found throughout history, is the purpose of the scapegoat: cast out an individual that holds the blame for the ills of society to restore order and clarity. Chaos becomes order once again as a single individual is unanimously abhorred and discarded from what was once a welcoming community.
Overwatch’s single target primary healer Mercy was an outsider to the game not being truly meta — considered useful in a way that placed her above the other heroes in the support category — in the game’s beginnings(Cliff). The other support characters had high skill abilities that surpassed Mercy’s low skill consistent healing and risky mass resurrect ultimate. The development team made Mercy meta with the release of Mercy 2.0 in September of 2017(Cliff). This was the community bringing a marginal inside to later be blamed for the ills of the community. Demands for her character’s kit to change were unanimous with the ever “memeable” Mercy players agreeing with the community that the hero was overpowered. This was the patch that forever changed not only Mercy by moving her resurrect ultimate to a thirty second cooldown ability and implemented an ill-balanced replacement ultimate called Valkyrie. Valkyrie in its original release form reset the cooldown of resurrect and reduced the cooldown of the ability for ten seconds. Having a duration of 20 seconds, Valkyrie allowed Mercy to resurrect once, activate her ultimate and resurrect two more times if the player timed the abilities correctly. On top of these consecutive revivals that countered any advantage the enemy team could gain for killing a key opponent, Mercy gained high mobility with increased movement speed and flight. Her new found ability to soar in the skies before quickly using guardian angel to fly to a nearby ally made it nearly impossible to kill Mercy when Valkyrie was active. This increased the enemies’ hatred for the character exponentially as there was very little they could do to stop the heroine. Mercy, a character who was once outside the meta and thus the community, was brought in and made important. Through a series of nerfs — reconfiguring a character to make them less powerful — Mercy’s popularity lessened until the most recent changes taking place in August of 2018. Mercy’s healing was reduced from sixty health per second to fifty health per second(Cliff). This change destroyed Mercy’s must pick status and she became almost a troll pick as her mediocre abilities and ultimate no longer allowed for any game changing plays. Mercy was expelled from the community with clipped wings and toxicity that was once spread amongst the players was directed to her as she fell to Earth.
While the scapegoating of Mercy helped decrease the toxicity of the community in some ways, it still exists with a new target. Players who like the character of Mercy and regularly play her — called Mercy mains — often bring up the current issues with the character only to be bullied by other community members on forums(Rose). The active Mercy mains on the forums are subjected to name-calling and accusations of being part of a “Mercy cult” (Rose). Equally absurd were the eerily similar claims against the witches of Europe during the witch craze where they belonged to the sabbat and flew in the night sky on brooms(Harris). Whether or not the scapegoating of Mercy effectively cleansed the Overwatch community enough for the game to be considered pure or even the validity of the community’s hatred is irrelevant to the facts. There is a crisis occurring in Overwatch’s community, Mercy’s design consists of the stereotypes of persecution which would easily brand her to be scapegoated and, the purification ritual performed by a community through scapegoating can be seen in the changes Mercy has received. Now members of the Overwatch community must try to find a better solution before the events that doomed Mercy repeat themselves and hurt real people.
Works Cited
BEAST, et al. “Overwatch Identity Crisis.” Overwatch Forums, Blizzard Entertainment, 15 Apr. 2018, us.forums.blizzard.com/en/overwatch/t/overwatch-identity-crisis/68101.
GameSpotTrailers. “Introducing the Overwatch League.” YouTube, YouTube, 4 Nov. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sje3GuTGtqU.
Junglebutt. “What Is the Application Process for Joining an OWL Team?”Overwatch Forums, Blizzard Entertainment, 10, Jan. 2018, us.battle.net/forums/en/overwatch/topic/20760748505.
PlayOverwatch. “Developer Update | Play Nice, Play Fair | Overwatch.” YouTube, Blizzard Entertainment, 13 Sept. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnfzzz8pIBE.
Rose, Aria. “Mercy Mains Are Now Cultists? (Toxicity, Racism and Corruption).” YouTube, YouTube, 11 Sept. 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0KmKcIrI34.
Terios, Cliff. “The History of Mercy in Competitive Overwatch.” YouTube, YouTube, 21 Sept. 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=RllUb-oC2Fs.
“Overwatch (Video Game).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 18 Oct. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overwatch_(video_game)#Overwatch_League.
Overwatch Wiki. “Mercy.” Overwatch Wiki, Gamepedia, 19 Oct. 2018, overwatch.gamepedia.com/Mercy#March_21st.2C_2017.
Overwatch Wiki. “Mercy/Cosmetics.” Overwatch Wiki, Gamepedia, 14 Apr. 2017, overwatch.gamepedia.com/Mercy/Cosmetics.
“Hermes • Facts and Information on Greek God Hermes.” Greek Gods & Goddesses, 19 Sept. 2014, greekgodsandgoddesses.net/gods/hermes/.
“Welcome to Season 12 of Competitive Play.” Overwatch, Blizzard Entertainment, 31 Aug. 2018, playoverwatch.com/en-us/news/22456347.
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