Overwatch 2 removed hostile architecture from new map at fan request

Thread: Overwatch 2 removed hostile architecture from new map at fan request
Helljumper

Helljumper

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Blizzard has made a notable change to one of its new Overwatch 2 maps thanks to player feedback.

As spotted by Polygon(opens in new tab), Twitter user ClearTogether pointed out the use of hostile architecture in Midtown—a New York-inspired map being introduced in Overwatch 2. The first beta had the map dotted with sectioned benches, a common structure used to deter homeless people from sleeping on them. "Overwatch being an 'aspirational universe,' I just find it depressing at worse and out-of-place at best," ClearTogether had tweeted about the map decor in early June.

Now, in the game's second beta, those benches have been altered. ClearTogether followed up on Wednesday, tweeting "thank you SO much to the Overwatch team for deciding to change this!! It's honestly overall a small change but goes a long way." Lead narrative designer Gavin Jurgens-Fyhrie called it(opens in new tab) "great feedback," adding that "'how we hope the world will be' is a big part of our story dev."

It's not the only alteration the Overwatch team has recently made in an attempt to distance itself from crappy things happening in the real world. Last year, damage hero McCree received a name change(opens in new tab) after his namesake was dismissed from Blizzard for his involvement in the infamous "Cosby suite" group chats.

Of course, Blizzard still has a long way to go. Less hostile benches don't exactly make allegations of misconduct and sexual harassment go away overnight. Unless you're Activision Blizzard, conducting an investigation into Activision Blizzard, finding that there's no evidence of any wrongdoing(opens in new tab) at Activision Blizzard.
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ClearTogether's tweets (they/it has since restricted who can view the original tweet):
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www.pcgamer.com

Overwatch 2 removed hostile architecture from new map at fan request

A small change, but a welcome one.
www.pcgamer.com www.pcgamer.com
 
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I love this notion the leftoids have about these measures taken to keep homeless people from congregating.

If it was their house, they wouldn't want homeless people grouping up there. If they somehow owned a business, they wouldn't want homeless people grouping up there. But, as long as they have nothing to do with the property, then they decide it's ok for homeless people to group up there. It's completely selfish morons parading around pretending to be selfless.
 
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Grinchy said:
I love this notion the leftoids have about these measures taken to keep homeless people from congregating.

If it was their house, they wouldn't want homeless people grouping up there. If they somehow owned a business, they wouldn't want homeless people grouping up there. But, as long as they have nothing to do with the property, then they decide it's ok for homeless people to group up there. It's completely selfish morons parading around pretending to be selfless.
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I'm guessing very few people have their house on public property. The benches in question in the game were in public spaces. True, people don't want homeless people in their space, but that doesn't mean they are incapable of compassion.

This is a meaningless gesture by the developers of course.
 
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kingpotato said:
I'm guessing very few people have their house on public property. The benches in question in the game were in public spaces. True, people don't want homeless people in their space, but that doesn't mean they are incapable of compassion.

This is a meaningless gesture by the developers of course.
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It's just an argument I see all the time in a more general sense and people will start attacking a business that tries to keep homeless people away. That business loses money if customers don't want to come inside because the outside is littered with human shit and used needles.

But someone living in a gated neighborhood in their parents' house will be the first to tell that business how wrong it is to hurt homeless people for capitalistic greed. And that little shit, if he/she/they/xher/it somehow made it to the point of owning their own business, they'd be the first ones trying to keep homeless crackheads away from their business on "public property."
 
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They should have just modified the bench texture for the middle seat to have an X on it. Voila! Homeless benches changed to covid Social distancing benches.

Still, only person that would bitch about this would be the homeless. Haha.
 
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Grinchy said:
It's just an argument I see all the time in a more general sense and people will start attacking a business that tries to keep homeless people away. That business loses money if customers don't want to come inside because the outside is littered with human shit and used needles.

But someone living in a gated neighborhood in their parents' house will be the first to tell that business how wrong it is to hurt homeless people for capitalistic greed. And that little shit, if he/she/they/xher/it somehow made it to the point of owning their own business, they'd be the first ones trying to keep homeless crackheads away from their business on "public property."
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Where do you live? I'm in the southwest US, and all the people who focus on homeless issues where I'm at focus on resources at parks and encampments where the homeless naturally congregate. I've never seen anyone argue for that stuff near any business, but it could just be a difference of culture between countries, cities, regions.
 
Disgusting act from the patriarchy to not think of the digitally homeless. This will be the end of Blizzard for sure.
 
It really highlights how completely unhinged and entitled the gaming community can be at times.

Who the hell sees these benches and then goes screeching to the developers because a bench design from real life is part of a videogame? Oh no these benches look like they were designed for sitting on, not lying down on, how could you include this in your game!? Won't you at least think of the homeless people who might use these benches for sleeping on?

What are the chances that the person complaining about this has never actually done anything to help actual homeless people in real life?

Also just a quick LOL at the writer of this article. They mention the name McCree in reference to the name change without actually mentioning the new name given to McCree and in doing so have accidentally shown why the change was such a futile exercise. Haha.
 
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