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By Kemmer Cope
What’ s a first person shooter without a gun? Of course, you have a pistol, but that’ s more for aesthetic than utility. Your tricked out caduceus staff is the only item you should need. No, the staff isn’ t for hitting people. It’ s for healing. You have one mission: keep your team alive. You are Dr. Angela Ziegler a. k. a. Mercy, a literal guardian angel of a healer who can fly to any of your five teammates when they’ re in need— and you’ ve just been brutally cut down by the other team’ s hammer-swinging juggernaut, Reinhardt. Again. For the second time this round, this eight-foot-tall giant clad in half a ton of steel armor has taken leave of his team to charge directly at you.
You resist the urge to flame, to go off on your teammates because they aren’ t protecting you. You don’ t respond to their repeated calls of“ I need healing!” with a snarky“ It’ s hard to heal when I’ m dead.” Instead, you respawn and run back towards the action. By the time you find what’ s left of your team, Reinhardt’ s hammer descends on your last living ally.
HE SEES YOU.
He doesn’ t charge this time— he has to wait a few more seconds before he can do that again. You press‘ 2’ to pull out your pistol. He runs toward you, and you take aim. You unload a twenty
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HEROES NEVER DIE
round magazine into his chest plate before running away to reload. He’ s almost on top of you when you turn around and shoot again, landing two lucky headshots and eliminating him. Fast forward to the end of the game. Your team wins, but just barely. On the written chat channel, one of your teammates thanks you for playing as a support class character. A Reaper player who goes by Edgelord326 disagrees, and over the voice chat he proclaims with an agitated prepubescent crackle that“ the heals sucked.” You finish the match with seven eliminations and over 5000 allied health points healed, earning a bronze and gold medal respectively.
Believe me when I say that a Mercy with her pistol out has seen enough shit to drive any sane player to the edge.
Before Blizzard’ s first person shooter Overwatch was released in May 2016, I had no idea that I would rack up most of my play time on support units. I don’ t play support out of some self-righteous motivation or compulsion to help others in a virtual world. Masochistically, I actually think that playing support is fun. Occasionally, however, the fun gets lost trying to collaborate with stubborn players who insist on trolling, separating from the team, or playing exclusively as a character they’ re terrible with. I have had few gaming experiences more frustrating than such rounds.