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The Overwatch community has been defined not just by its competitive gameplay, but also the passionate fan community that sprung up around it. Every day, artists sit down and pen epic prose or draw their favorite Overwatch characters. Heroes Never Die salutes these fans, and the artist spotlight allows us to showcase this community. Overwatch’s fan community has an unparalleled passion, and it’d be a shame to let the cool stuff they create slip between the cracks.
Our first highlighted artist is xuunies. “My name is Diana. I work as a freelancer and hopefully as a webcomic artist in the future! I like making and focusing on LGBT+ content, and primarily known for it. When I’m not working, I play games, especially Overwatch!” she says.
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Diana got into Overwatch early on, after hearing about the game from a friend. Despite not having much FPS experience, she quickly grew to love it. “Compared to what I’ve played, Overwatch felt different and unique to me. The main FPS game I played before was Destiny, so adjusting to Overwatch was quite a ride for me.” she says. “But luckily the game mechanics were fairly easy to learn, and adapting to different Heroes was fun! (But I still have trouble learning how to snipe, I’m getting there though.)”
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Diana is just one of many women who got into Overwatch despite previously not being interested in the competitive FPS genre, and she credits Blizzard’s lore department for helping to spark that interest.
“Besides playing, the lore and characters of Overwatch was interesting and more diverse than most video games, especially something like an FPS. It’s really amazing to see a woman, and a lesbian at that, to be the face of one of the most popular video games.” she says.
An inclusive game allows players like Diana to get on board and join in on the fun. “I really appreciate what Blizzard has done for the LGBT+ community, and hope to see more of this in the future. Overall, the game has quite the charm to it, and it’s nice to see all kinds of players join in and play together!”
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“I grew up loving anime and games, and it’s the main reason I became an artist in the first place.” Diana says, and Overwatch brings a similar kind of inspiration. “Belonging to the LGBT+ community myself, I make content pertaining to it, and including the elements in types of media that have scarce sources of it. Representation seriously matters, so it’s awesome to see a big company like Blizzard take their chances to make a game having this kind of representation and paving the road to more possibilities!”
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“The Overwatch world is vast and so fascinating, it’s hard to wait to see what Blizzard has in store for us next.” Diana says. She, and artists like her, represent a new frontier in fandom for big games. When Overwatch enjoyed 10x the success of any other game on social media platform Tumblr, it’s impossible to ignore that aspect of the fan base.
You can find xuunies’ work on Tumblr and support her on Patreon.