Overwatch Barcodes Leave Fans Guessing What Blizzard Is Saying

Is it even an online multiplayer game if it isn’t rife with fan theories and conspiracies? With the emphasis Blizzard puts on lore, Overwatch is the perfect game to obsessively analyze and the developers know this well. In fact, they invite it. We saw this as they teased their latest hero, Hammond. And just look at this reddit user stmaurer piecing everything together. Now, barcodes are appearing all over the game and people are bringing out their detective skills once again.

Reddit user Karahe breaks down all the instances of barcodes in this post. Some of these have been on character skins, armor, maps, and even loot boxes. But what’s notable is that some barcodes have been added to new things such as Brigitte’s armor and Hammond’s wrecking ball mech. The barcodes don’t scan, obviously, and are pretty blurry so people are trying to decipher them as letters from some sort of custom font.

Lately Overwatch seems to be an ARG as much as it is a MOBA, with players rushing to pick apart the world and connect dots that may or may not be there. For those unfamiliar with the concept of an ARG it’s the meta of a game. Playing an ARG means picking at the fabric of the game itself and using real life elements and analysis to discover something new. It means that

players [are] working collaboratively through email, phone/sms contact, real-time interactions and extensive online engagement. Players generally react to narrative cues that are projected across numerous forms of media…In doing so, ARGs make players step outside the restrictions of mono-genre game boundaries. Instead of requiring the player to enter a fictional game world, ARG designers attempt to enmesh the game within the fabric of the player’s real world by harnessing as many media technologies and interfaces as possible.

It’s pretty trippy and honestly kind of impressive. I respect it, mainly because I could never bring myself to do all that work. Redditor, Karahe also links to a tumblr they made called Obscure Watch; it’s aptly named and provides a fascinating journey down the rabbit hole of Overwatch lore.

Have you ever played or followed an ARG? Do you have an opinion about them or are you barely familiar with the concept?

[Source: Game Revolution]