Overwatch's McCree is being renamed

Thread: Overwatch's McCree is being renamed
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Earlier this month, Diablo 4 lead level designer Jesse McCree was dismissed from Blizzard when his involvement in the now infamous "Cosby Suite" group chats came to light after the company was sued over allegations of widespread sexual harassment and discrimination. For that reason, some Overwatch casters stopped using the name of the Overwatch character McCree, who was named after the former Blizzard employee, while a large segment of the player base demanded that the name be changed.

Today, Blizzard announced that it will rename McCree.

"We built the Overwatch universe around the idea that inclusivity, equity, and hope are the building blocks of a better future," Blizzard said in a statement. "They are central to the game and to the Overwatch team.


"As we continue to discuss how we best live up to our values and to demonstrate our commitment to creating a game world that reflects them, we believe it's necessary to change the name of the hero currently known as McCree to something that better represents what Overwatch stands for."

It's a big change—Overwatch lore runs deep—and because of that, Blizzard is delaying a narrative arc that was planned for September, "of which McCree was a key part," until later in the year. It also promised that in-game characters will no longer be named after real people, and to "be more thoughtful and discerning about adding real world references in future Overwatch content."
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Activision Blizzard is currently embroiled in a lawsuit filed by California's Department of Fair Employment and Housing over allegations of sexual harassment, discrimination, and a "frat boy" culture at the studio. Earlier this week, the DFEH accused Activision Blizzard of stalling and disrupting its investigation of the company, including by shredding relevant documents.

It's worth noting that changing the name of an Overwatch hero is probably a much larger job than editing a text field. McCree has been one of the most present and recognizable heroes in the game since its 2016 release.

Changing his name could also mean altering in-game sprays, hero skins, maps, and even re-recording voice lines that mention his name. And not just lines from Matt Mercer's McCree performance, but also the countless lines of random banter between McCree and other heroes. Heck, one of McCree's most common voice barks literally goes, "The name's McCree."

According to a report from The Washington Post, references to the real Jesse McCree, as well as former Diablo 4 director Luis Barriga and former WoW designer Jonathan LeCraft, will also be scrubbed from World of Warcraft. Blizzard confirmed the planned removal of references to Barriga and LeCraft to the Post, but not those to McCree.

The latest round of edits comes nearly a month after World of Warcraft developers said they will remove content that is "not appropriate" from the game, including references to former senior creative director Alex Afrasiabi, one of the central figures in the DFEH lawsuit.
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www.pcgamer.com

Overwatch's McCree is being renamed

The character was named after a former Blizzard employee who departed amid company-wide sexism allegations.
www.pcgamer.com www.pcgamer.com
 
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This sort of thing might backfire. The adults won't actually care, and the kids will be like "wtf why did they change McCree?"

Then again, Blizzard is sliding in the same direction as Origin Systems and Sony. Maybe people won't actually care about Blizzard in 20 years. If you asked a lot of modern gamers who 'Sierra' or even 'Electronic Arts' were they'd blank. Blizzard isn't immune.
 
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What is this high level maggotry!? Only ever seen it played, so I'm not too invested, but some sad sack out there has him and his name tattooed on themselves. Rekt.
 
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Calcium said:
Holy shit, that is just pathetic. What percentage of Overwatch players are even aware of the origin of the name? The change is going to get more backlash than keeping it the same would have.
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Now everybody will associate the character with a rapist lmao.
 
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while a large segment of the player base demanded that the name be changed.
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I'm curious as to how large that segment of the player base was exactly? I mean jeez are the game's number so low now that a few screechers on Twitter constitute a large number of the player base? Or is it simply yet another case of 'Hey Twitter saying we need to do this, so it much be everyone right?' Because let's face it, absolutely everyone uses Twitter and absolutely everyone follows all the gaming news religiously.
 
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Kadayi said:
I'm curious as to how large that segment of the player base was exactly? I mean jeez are the game's number so low now that a few screechers on Twitter constitute a large number of the player base? Or is it simply yet another case of 'Hey Twitter saying we need to do this, so it much be everyone right?' Because let's face it, absolutely everyone uses Twitter and absolutely everyone follows all the gaming news religiously.
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Literally nobody was asking for it. There's a segment of woke twitter trannies on overwatch forums that go in every thread to defend the decision. They are a minority.

My thread: https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/overwatch/t/if-mccree-is-renamed-im-out/630032
 
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HE1NZ said:
Literally nobody was asking for it. There's a segment of woke twitter trannies on overwatch forums that go in every thread to defend the decision. They are a minority.
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I think we are all aware of the problem. Twitter is the microphone an ever online ever outraged vocal minority use to bludgeon publishers and developers over the heads with their constant complaints till eventually, they throw up their arms and kowtow to these oft times absurd demands. The frustration lies in the fact that unfortunately (so far) even though everyone knows this (no ones that naive in these companies) not many have the balls to say

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When it comes to dealing with these complaints. I'm not saying companies shouldn't listen to complaints (Saints Rows blanket dismissal of peoples thoughts on their reboot for instance leaves a lot to be desired as far as PR goes), but when it's to the point of absurdism (Overwatch commentators not even saying a Characters name anymore because obviously 'trigger warning') it's like 'enough with this pantomime already'. It wouldn't be half as bad though if sadly we weren't lumbered with a gaming press that unfortunately is more than happy to amplify the signal on a lot of this stuff in terms of presentation as if it was I'm some way some grand groundswell of public opinion, versus a few screechers. Who once they've gotten their satisfaction will then likely move onto the next issue they can raise a furore about.
 
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The thing with the casters never saying the character's name reminds me of bozo fighting game community (lmao) using Dictator, Claw and Boxer instead of Bison, Vega and Balrog. That's clownish as fuck. lol

I know it's to avoid confusion between Japan ans U.S. but it's retarded af.
 
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