We may soon get deeper lore for Overwatch. After a discussion in the official forums, the lead writer of Overwatch is intrigued by the idea of incorporating gameplay changes into the story. He has done this before.
Story includes gameplay: The lead writer of Overwatch, Michael Chu, writes in the official Overwatch forums that he would like to hide allusions to patches in the lore. Something like that has even happened before.
The Overwatch story is being “patched”
The discussion in the forum was initiated by the user OhEmGee (via Blizzard Forums), who is looking for a reason in the lore as to why Hanzo no longer uses his scatter arrows.
Other users quickly agreed that gameplay changes would fit well into the lore, until the lead writer Michael Chu even responded.
Torbjörn upgrades Bastion: When Bastion was revamped, he received a passive ability called “Ironclad”. Through Ironclad, Bastion takes 20% less damage in the tank and sentry configurations.
This ability is thanks to Torbjörn – as explained by Chu in the shortly after released comic “Binary World”. Torbjörn first recognizes Bastion here as more than just a killing machine – and upgrades him.
“Ironclad” is the name of the group that Torbjörn was part of during the Omnic Crisis. Torbjörn himself also has an “Ironclad” skin. So there is even a connection between them in the game.
Hanzo as a negative example: Chu also addresses the issue with Hanzo’s rework. However, this is an example of a gameplay change that would not appear in the lore, as it does not fit.
Hanzo lost his scatter arrow with his rework, replacing it with storm arrows. However, Chu thinks that Hanzo still carries the arrows in his quiver and just does not use them anymore.
Hope for more: Chu says he is open to the idea of incorporating gameplay changes into the official lore. However, he states that it has to fit.
It really depends on the specific example whether a patch can be integrated into the lore or not. However, it has already happened with Torbjörn and Bastion.
