Why are the heroes of Overwatch fighting

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Most FPS games at least have a semblance of story in the gameplay. We understand who the two sides are, what their positions in the conflict is, and its members.

One thing I don't understand is, why are the heroes of Overwatch fighting? Overwatch is long dead; S76 (aka, Jack Morrison) is proof of this. Most of the Overwatch heroes have drifted away to join other gangs or simply vanished off the grid. The rest of the heroes are former outlaws and enemies of Overwatch.

Regarding Cinematics:

  • The trailer Alive shows us Mondatta's assassination. A poster in King's Row mourning Mondatta (omnic gandhi) is proof that the game takes place after that. Widowmaker is part of Talon, and Mondatta is her first confirmed kill.
  • The trailer Recall shows us Winston "getting back into the fight" after Reaper attempts to steal some data. But there are some other elements I am heavily confused about.
  • Blizzcon's 2014 trailer shows Tracer and Winston stopping Reaper and Widowmaker from retrieving Doomfist's Gauntlets from a museum.

Regarding Maps:

  • On Hollywood, defenders are apparently trying to prevent a limousine from getting to its parking spot. There's a voice from inside the limousine that sounds like some actor (sounds like Tony Stark oddly)
  • On Dorado, attackers escort a truck containing some EMP device to the factory in the city.
  • On Numbani the defenders are preventing a vehicle containing Doomfist's Gauntlet from reaching the museum?

And on some other maps, it becomes increasingly unclear exactly why the heroes are fighting and what for. On Watchpoint: Gibraltar we are pushing some rocket car to an oil rig? And on the capture points, it's still unclear why we're trying to capture Volskaya Industries, Nepal, Ilios, etc.

What exactly is the conflict here? Are the bad guys, Reaper, Widowmaker, the members of Talon, are they becoming more deadly?

Best Answer

From an interview with Michael Chu, a Senior Game Designer on Overwatch (emphasis mine):

If you look at a game like World Of Warcraft, the Horde/Alliance split is such a big deal and such a defining aspect of the game. But Overwatch, pretty much from the start, we didn’t want to restrict ourselves that way. Because the game is so much about having the flexibility to play all these heroes and finding all the ways they play well together or against each other. Because of that we decided that the gameplay of the Overwatch universe wouldn’t be bound by that.

Our story justification – what I usually tell people – is that I think of it as, it’s clearly not canonical, but I think of it as how in comic book stories sometimes Iron Man and Captain America fight each other. Maybe in this instance on this map they’re fighting – for some reason they have some ideological difference or something that’s bringing them against each other.

But I think ultimately it was important for the game that you were able to play whatever characters you want. Blizzard has this development philosophy which is ‘Gameplay first’ and this is definitely an example of where we’ve gone with that.

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