A Overwatch tradition continues. Once again this year, Jeff Kaplan sits in front of the fireplace – but this time he is quite active!
When Jeff Kaplan, the Game Director of Overwatch, hosted a livestream in front of a fireplace last Christmas, where he simply sat quietly for hours, it was a huge hit. For this reason, the tradition has been repeated, allowing us to watch Jeff Kaplan again in 2018 – but this time he has guests.
More activity in front of the fireplace: Unlike the previous year, the “Overwatch Yule Log” this time is significantly more active than it was in 2017. This time, Kaplan is not only enjoying the evening motionless, but he also receives visitors and switches places with other people. Among those present is Matt Mercer, who provides the voice for McCree in the English version. Charlett Chung, who lends her voice to D.Va, also makes an appearance in front of the fire.
Kaplan addresses community memes: Although most of the stream proceeds “quietly” again, there are small highlights. For example, midway through the stream, Kaplan receives a call from Blizzard’s Lead Software Engineer, Bill Warnecke. He proudly explains that he received the “Play of the Game” and 4 gold medals, and Kaplan confirms that this is “very important and significant” – although that is not really true.
When Bill then reports that he lost his skill rating and rank, Kaplan admits, “Yes, that’s obviously my fault” as a nod to the fact that community members often write “Thank you, Jeff” when something goes wrong in the game.
At the end of the “phone call,” Kaplan even references one of the popular fan songs. He says:
“Oh, you were Reaper? Yeah, you should have chosen Mercy. You should have been some support.”
This is basically a direct quote from the fan song “No Mercy”:
At another point, he says, “What? No milk? There’s no milk?”, before he sighs and remarks, “Well, it’s just a small indie studio…” and goes to get the milk.
Free loot boxes: Those who log into Overwatch also receive a bit of Christmas flair. The developers are giving away 5 loot boxes to everyone who logs in over the coming days.
You can watch the full 8-hour stream here:
What do you think of this “Yule Log”? A funny, entertaining affair that provides nice “background noise”? Or is it rather silly?
