Blizzard’s been hinting at a new Overwatch hero, Sombra, for months. What began with cheeky easter eggs has evolved into a full-blown alternate reality game (ARG). After the latest countdown-based twist, people are worn out.
The ARG kicked into high gear earlier this month, upping the difficulty to an echelon so high that Blizzard had to step in (as Sombra) and tell people they were looking in the wrong places. Ultimately, sleuths uncovered a skull, and people were feeling pretty good about the whole thing. “This is certainly one of the better ARGs we’ve seen in recent months,” imnotgoats, an admin of Reddit’s Game Detectives board, told Kotaku’s Cecilia D’Anastasio a couple weeks ago.
What a difference a little time makes. The most recent breakthrough came in the form of a “glitchy” post on Overwatch’s official forums that appeared to come from Sombra herself. It led players to a site that seemed to be counting down to an impending reveal. People were stoked. Finally, all that hard work was about to pay off.
And then the page’s percentage stopped moving. At five per cent. Cue: rage. Fans thought they saw a light at the end of the tunnel, but instead they got a cave-in. It’s been stalled for quite some time now, and nobody can figure out what they need to do to budge it.
While the Game Detectives and corners of Overwatch’s official forums and subreddit dutifully smash their brains against the wall, others are throwing their hands up in frustration and resignation:
The Overwatch subreddit even added a filter to hide all Sombra-related posts.
For now, people are trying to figure out how Sombra’s site works, but there aren’t any definitive leads. People have found that the percentage is likely updated manually — not by way of an automated program — so Blizzard’s waiting for players to do… something. After a series of “hacked” Twitter accounts appeared and the percentage increased, some think they need to alter their own accounts similarly. But that might have been fake, so nobody’s entirely sure. Precise science has once again gone out the window, and most people are clutching at straws.
The hunt continues, and Blizzard is watching closely. How will they react, now that enthusiasm is clearly on the wane?
Comments
8 responses to “Overwatch Players Are Getting Sick Of The Sombra ARG”
Enh, Blizz should just complete it manually or slip an insider the requisite knowledge to get the community over the line.
Ultimately, this should be a game, like any other. And any game that you can’t finish stops becoming fun. And for the overwhelming majority of the time, games are meant to be fun. That’s when you turn to cheats/online guides, or… quit with a bitter taste in your mouth.
I can’t think of much that kills hype as quickly or efficiently as a countdown to nothing. The only thing which might is a countdown to another countdown, which is essentially what we have here.
Agreed,…..5 ….4….3….
or like me, just ignore the pointless mind games blizzard is playing and just enjoy playing overwatch. she’ll be released eventually anyway.
ARG as marketing is dumb… smart people have to figure it out to get a dumb answer or reveal your going to tell them anyway… and at he end of the day the achievement to solve the ARG wont be worth anything cause it will be swallowed up by the official announcement, trailer and ptr date.
They are going to release the info on schedule by default tells them to. Its not like if you dont solve the ARG your not getting Sombra… you get to get whatever breadcrumbs they decide to feed you nothing more
A count down to a loading screen that terminated. My interest just went from 100 straight to 0.
We aren’t getting the info when we demand it. Better have a cry about it.
Not like everyone is gonna lick Blizzard’s arsehole once the character is available to use.
Can’t blizzard just release new champions without doing this shit?
People like me who have full time responsibilitys don’t wan’t to spend what little time we have trying to solve cryptic internet puzzles just for new characters that we might not even pick, we just want the content.
Just release new content regularly without the puzzle BS.
Maybe i’d enjoy this shit if I was still in highschool working part time stacking shelves at woolies – Now I’m a grown ass man boy 🙁