I loved Overwatch, but now I’m done

It’s possible to love a video game. To be devoted to it, to value what it does for you, and how it makes you feel. To want the best for it. Not in the same way you love a person — or at least, I hope not. But take a look at any major fan convention for video games, movies, TV, or almost anything that develops a subculture, and you can see this love is real, active, and powerful.  And of course, profitable.  And if it’s possible to love a video game, then of course it’s possible to fall out of love. To feel disconnected from what first drew you to it. To realize that it isn’t giving you everything it once did, and you can’t give it what it needs from you. Especially if what it needs is regular digital purchases in order to get a competitive advantage in gameplay. I loved Overwatch once. I don’t anymore. How that happened is, I think, worth examining. This Dear John letter is a broad history of the game Overwatch itself, and its relationship with both its own players and the company that made it.  The honeymoon phase  In 2016, Overwatch was a big deal. A Team Fortress 2-style team shooter, made by the people who brought us Starcraft and Diablo, with incredible character designs that looked like Pixar had decided to reboot G.I. Joe? Players couldn’t get enough of it. And indeed, for the first couple of years Overwatch was a 600-pound Winston of the gaming landscape, dominating game coverage, showing up constantly on Let’s Plays, and causing an excited... Continue reading at 'PC World'

[ PC World | 2022-11-01 15:51:22 UTC ]

Other news stories related to: "I loved Overwatch, but now I’m done"


Whose Community Is It Anyway?

I had begun to conceive this essay after rereading a magazine interview I’d done months prior. The interview was about my then new book of short stories A Dream of a Woman, and the interviewer had asked me about community. I’m a trans woman, and specifically the interviewer asked about community... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-11-07 09:30:36 UTC ]
More news stories like this


A Summary and Analysis of J. G. Ballard’s ‘Motel Architecture’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘Motel Architecture’ is not one of the best-known short stories of the British author J. G. Ballard (1930-2009), but it’s one of his most prescient. And this is an author who anticipated everything from Ronald Reagan becoming US President (in the... Continue reading at Interesting Literature

[ Interesting Literature | 2023-11-03 15:00:16 UTC ]
More news stories like this


A Quiet Author’s Written Rebellion: An Interview with Ananda Devi, by Dinah Assouline Stillman

A Quiet Author’s Written Rebellion: An Interview with Ananda Devi, by Dinah Assouline Stillman Interviews [email protected] Wed, 10/25/2023 - 09:46 Photo by Harrikrisna AnendenAnanda Devi is a noted francophone poet, writer, ethnologist,... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2023-10-25 14:46:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


20 spooky short stories you can read for free online.

The leaves are amassing, the skeletons are out, and enormous bags of candy fill the grocery store aisles and threaten to spill their chocolates right into your mouth, through absolutely no fault of your own. Yep, it’s officially spooky season. But if you still need some help getting into the... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-10-23 16:13:33 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Halloween Short Fiction: 9 Short Stories to Get You Ready for Spooky Season

These Halloween short stories are free to read online! They're deliciously unsettling, genre-bending, emotional, and even humorous. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2023-10-16 10:33:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Tobias Wolff Will Receive Our 2024 Hadada Award

“His memoirs, novels, and short stories express, in infinite variety, the human struggle to reconcile the truth we wish for with the one we get.” Continue reading at The Paris Review

[ The Paris Review | 2023-10-11 15:15:29 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Pratchett power: from lost stories to new adaptations, how the late Discworld author lives on

It’s 40 years since The Colour of Magic hit the shelves. As newly unearthed short stories are published, fans and friends celebrate the late author’s enduring legacy“Of all the dead authors in the world, Terry Pratchett is the most alive,” said John Lloyd at the author’s memorial in 2015. This... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-10-07 10:00:09 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Isle McElroy on the Art of the Sex Scene

This first appeared in Lit Hub’s Craft of Writing newsletter—sign up here. The sext, even more than short stories or poems or novels, is the ultimate plea for a reader’s attention. Stakes are rarely so high. John Gardner’s fictive dream is never more delicate and alive than when it’s being... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-09-29 08:30:13 UTC ]
More news stories like this


The FTC is challenging Microsoft’s $69 billion buyout of Activision again

Just when Microsoft's buyout of Activision seemed to finally be near complete, the Federal Trade Commission said it will revive its attempt to block the $69 billion deal in an adjudicative process. The FTC plans to restart its in-house trial against Microsoft’s... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2023-09-28 16:28:44 UTC ]
More news stories like this


“Bitterness Incarnate:” Douglas J. Weatherford on Juan Rulfo’s Pedro Páramo

In 1953, the relatively unknown Juan Rulfo (Mexico, 1917-1986) published The Burning Plain (El Llano en llamas), a collection of short stories set in rural Mexico during the first half of the twentieth century. The novel Pedro Páramo (1955) appeared two years later. These innovative works... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-09-27 08:50:35 UTC ]
More news stories like this


15 Small Press Books to Read This Fall

As we move into the fall reading season, deeply imagined short stories and inventive linked essays are having a moment alongside novels. What’s thrilling about the books coming out from small presses is the breadth of range—there are intentional and accidental murders, family drama and... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2023-09-26 11:15:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


The Morning After: What to expect at Apple’s Wonderlust iPhone event today

Apple’s annual iPhone event kicks off today, so if you can’t stand the company’s presentations or devices, you might want to disconnect this afternoon. But for anyone interested in what the most influential tech hardware company is doing, expect to see a new iPhone… obviously.All the iPhone 15... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2023-09-12 11:15:10 UTC ]
More news stories like this


“Vessels of Yearning”: A Conversation with Nishanth Injam, by Renee H. Shea

“Vessels of Yearning”: A Conversation with Nishanth Injam, by Renee H. Shea Interviews [email protected] Fri, 09/08/2023 - 14:14 Born and raised in Khammam, a small town in the state of Telangana, India, Nishanth Injam published The Best Possible... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2023-09-08 19:14:01 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Can Short Stories Boost Financial Literacy?

The Principal Foundation and the Center for Fiction are teaming up with French independent publisher Short Édition on a short story contest meant to entice readers to consider the almighty dollar through “the universal art form of storytelling.” Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-08-29 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Is ‘War Games’ Homeworld 3’s secret weapon?

If one thing kept me coming back (and back) to Homeworld, it was skirmish mode. Setting up a quick (“quick”) battle against the CPU would often rob me of a whole weekend while at college. Homeworld 3 sees a new mode arrive on the second sequel, a roguelike-inspired multiplayer co-op called War... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2023-08-25 15:30:05 UTC ]
More news stories like this


A Summary and Analysis of Katherine Mansfield’s ‘The Fly’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘The Fly’ is not one of the best-known short stories of the New Zealand-born writer Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923), but it is significant for being one of her few stories which deals directly with the First World War. In the story, a man is reminded […] Continue reading at Interesting Literature

[ Interesting Literature | 2023-08-21 14:00:52 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Six books to read this Women In Translation month – recommended by our experts

Mysteries from China, short stories from the Balkans, a French-Morrocan autobiography and more. Continue reading at The Conversation

[ The Conversation | 2023-08-17 13:31:43 UTC ]
More news stories like this


A Summary and Analysis of Raymond Carver’s ‘Happiness’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘Happiness’ is a poem by the American writer Raymond Carver (1938-88). Carver is probably best-known for his short stories, especially the anthology favourite ‘What We Talk about When We Talk about Love’, but he was also a gifted poet, and his poetry... Continue reading at Interesting Literature

[ Interesting Literature | 2023-08-12 14:00:47 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Author says the Apple TV+ 'Tetris' movie ripped off his book

The Apple TV+ film Tetris was copied from a book written years ago, according to a lawsuit filed against the tech giant and the Tetris Company. Dan Ackerman, the editor-in-chief of Gizmodo, has accused the plaintiffs of ripping off his book The Tetris Effect, which tells the history of the game... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2023-08-09 06:17:44 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Is Jamel Brinkley the best short-story writer of his generation?

The short stories in Jamel Brinkley's second collection, 'Witness,' don't just reveal stories of violence, gentrification and racism — they put you inside them. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2023-08-01 13:00:50 UTC ]
More news stories like this