Gameplay Journal Entry #1: Overwatch

The game I chose to write about is Overwatch released in 2016 by Activision Blizzard. It is a team-based first person shooter game, with moba class type artifacts. The game is played in a 6 versus 6 setting, typically with one team being the attackers and the other being the defenders. Teams are defined into 3 roles: tanks, damage, and support with 2 of each role on each team. This mechanic allows for a more balanced gameplay where teams are even in their classes of characters on the field. Both teams can run the same composition of six players, typically referred to as the meta, allowing for the battle to come down to a testament of skill where the better team prevails.

The technicities of this game demonstrate a specific game feel, different from any other first person shooter game I have played before. In some ways, it can be compared to games like Team Fortress Two by Valve, but in many other ways it is vastly unique. The different characters all have their own unique set of skills and abilities which allow the player to interface with the game’s physics and mechanics in a very new way each time. For example some characters are faster or slower, some can fly, some can grab other characters from far away, some can snipe, some must be upclose to do melee damage. This player/character relationship links the real life player to their in-game character in a unique way, allowing for more agency within the game. (Dovey, pg. 91) The disciplines of the game allow for a lot of different ways to play, especially as a player gains more expertise.

Gameplay Video:

“Computer Game as Media Text? | Avatar as ‘Vehicle’.” Game Cultures: Computer Games as New Media, by Jon Dovey and Helen W Kennedy.