From Kiriko feet to Discord, Overwatch keeps ruining the joke

That’s it, boys. The joke’s dead. With the advent of official feet fan cams, Overwatch 2 has finally become self-aware.

The Overwatch universe has always been pretty wholesome. The lore, cosmetics, and art have always been PG without a hint of cleavage in sight. Hell, they even seemed to flatten Tracer’s booty after devs allegedly saw coomers drooling over her scandalous over-the-shoulder pose in the first game.

Exhibit A: 

Tracer’s booty before, a Level 10 gyatt

Blizzard never confirmed that Tracer’s butt shape was changed after the original pose was sexualized all over the internet — so do with these photos what you will. Oh, don’t do that though. C’mon.

Tracer’s booty after

No matter if it was an intentional change or not, it’s not really debatable that Blizzard doesn’t do fan service. Yes, gamers have found Cassidy’s chalant cowboy persona hot and commented on Widowmaker’s back-breaking arch. But that’s just the heroes being attractive — and that’s okay with Blizzard. It’s natural to find various heroes appealing.

It’s different, however, when you realize that Rule 34 is one of the most common Overwatch 2 searches outside of the game itself. Ever since the first game came out, there have been pornographic videos and photos featuring the heroes in compromising poses and situations. This X-rated content takes modest and wholesome heroes like Mercy, D.Va, and Hanzo and imagines them in positions that Blizzard did not intend. It’s not illegal or anything, but it’s definitely not publicly supported by developers.

We have the numbers to prove it

And that was part of the fun. The entertaining aspect of Overwatch Rule 34 is not just that you see naked heroes — it was the tantalizing and scandalous juxtaposition of taking an innocent hero like the dorky-smiled Venture or PTSD-riddled Bastion and doing the unthinkable.

This is what made Sigma’s arrival so entertaining. When the insane scientist came to the roster as a tank, players weren’t talking about Sigma’s abilities or backstory. No, they were zooming in on his exposed feet. For free? Blizzard? Hello? There were memes, videos, articles, forums, and fan art all featuring Sigma’s toes. Gamers were having a blast giggling about something Blizzard probably thought nothing of while designing the villain. But again, that was what made it so funny to zoom in on his feet and feel as if you were being blasphemous and weird.

Sorry to ruin your gooning streak

Blizzard, you ruined the feet joke. You really ruined it.

Unfortunately, feeling like a naughty high schooler giggling at an image on your laptop in the back of class has been ruined. It’s all been destroyed. It’s been taken from us.

Why?

Blizzard has become self-aware. The company is no longer offended by degenerates making nasty artwork of its heroes and has decided to embrace it. And the worst part? It’s overdoing it.

First, Overwatch 2 announced the Kitten of Discord player title in Season 13’s battle pass. It’s locked behind tier 175, meaning Blizzard genuinely thinks this is a desirable and funny in-game award. The reaction, however, has been quite negative. The issue? Some felt that Blizzard was openly encouraging sexual roleplaying while others just felt it was a tired and uncreative joke.

DMing you for alcohol money on a Tuesday

But Blizzard wasn’t done. The Overwatch 2 account shared a new skin for Kiriko (who already has 203,492,349 skins, let’s be real) that focused very closely on her feet. Not only did the video zoom in on her painted, exposed toes, but the text read: “Kiriko has grippers??” It then asked fans to leave a foot emoji in the replies.

This immediately read like Blizzard wanted to recreate the hype around Sigma’s feet back in 2019. The difference? The Sigma one was an organic, unexpected response from the community. This very much feels like “We know you love Kiriko and we know you make fan art of her so we have given you a skin with exposed feet so you can make jokes about it and make art about it. Please?”

Reaver 939 was making Kiriko foot art well before Blizzard did

Responses ranged from confusion to anger, with one reply even saying to fire the marketing team while another said it was their worst tweet yet. Another pointed out that the developers got mad when players sexualized their characters, but were now doing it themselves, which felt hypocritical. To me? It just feels tryhard, like they want to capitalize on the fun gamers were having with Kiriko against Blizzard’s will. But now that they are in on it, where’s the fun in that? You are literally forcing her feet upon us and demanding we draw them and make thirsty 4chan posts about her. Why? So weird.

So yeah, the joke is ruined. Thanks a lot Blizzard.