Interview: Why Overwatch skins matter to player identity and fandom

Whenever a new Overwatch season or shop update drops, many players check if their main or favorite heroes have new customization options. However, according to digital culture anthropologist Adrian Lugo, also known as WolfShatterDown on X, not every hero receives the same level of cosmetic support. In an exclusive interview with esports.gg, Lugo talked about his academic research on how Overwatch skins shape identity and fandom.

In his interview with esports.gg, Lugo shared that his interest in digital spaces and online interactions influenced the focus of his master's thesis. The strong fan behavior in other communities like the Swifties sparked his interest in studying gaming culture, and that eventually led him to examine identity and fandom within the Overwatch community.

To him, Overwatch also stands out for its strong representation. The game's heroes are fully fleshed out, which means players can see aspects of their personality or cultural background represented in it.

"Overwatch is a game that does a really good job of representation and showing off different aspects of identity," Lugo said. "Every one of the characters in the game is a really fully fleshed out character. And they do a lot of research on ethnicity, and nationality, sexuality, gender, and all these other specific identity markers that people see themselves in."

There is some room for improvement in terms of cosmetics, however. In the Overwatch franchise, Venture is the game's first hero who uses they/them pronouns. The reveal arrived during a BlizzCon 2023 panel where game director Aaron Keller used these pronouns for them. Venture's trailer also confirmed this. According to Lugo's research, players engage with favorite Overwatch heroes primarily by purchasing and collecting skins, and some of them often feel neglected due to Venture's lack of skins.

"Venture was a really big thing when they came out. People really gravitated towards Venture and were really interested in them," Lugo said. "One of the things that I've noticed doing the research is people want to feel like they are connecting with their character. And the way to do that, I think primarily, is through purchasing skins and collecting skins because Overwatch isn't necessarily a story-based game the way that's like some single player games can be -- even though Overwatch has lore and cinematics and stuff like that."

He continued, stating that Venture released in April 2024 but had almost no skins by the fall. At the same time, however, Juno already had legendary skins. Venture fans, Lugo observed, were upset about this.

"They felt like Venture's release was a little bit performative and they were neglecting their first non-binary character," Lugo said. "And it really emphasizes, I think, how important skins are for people. They engage with the fandom and their favorite characters in that way. And so it was really upsetting for people to have such an important character be more or less neglected in the skin department. I think that's a really huge aspect of the game for people. If their character doesn't have any skins, it's hard for them to engage with the fandom."

Lugo then shared that without skins, players often have to create fanart, fanfic, or original content. Skins allow fans to more easily participate in the game's community and express their support without creating content themselves. He also said that consistent skin releases are key for continuous engagement and connection.

"If your character is not getting skin, like Zarya or Lucio, if your character is not getting content, not getting skins, not getting stories, [then] the way that they have to engage with fandom is by doing things themselves," Lugo explained. "And not everyone that does fanart or fanfics is filling that role. Sometimes, people just really like their characters. But what I've noticed is for a lot of people, it's like, 'I don't have any other way to engage with this, so I have to do fanfic, I have to do fanart, I have to create original characters' or stuff like that."

Reinhardt, Lugo's main, has many skins connected to lore in addition to special collaboration skins. Greifhardt, for example, is Lugo's favorite Reinhardt skin because it references the hero's mentor from the animated short. This adds depth to the tank hero. Is there potential for meaningful Venture skins in the future? Lugo told esports.gg that in terms of moving forward and improving, consistency and accessibility are key.

That is, rather than making a skin only earnable through a particular livestream on Twitch, for example, there could be other ways to add that skin to one's collection. Additionally, since players cannot often predict when fan-favorite skins return to the in-game shop, this can limit engagement. Players simply want to feel seen and represented, and meaningful representation via skins can even benefit developers by encouraging spending.

Lugo brought up an interesting point about an argument loop as well. He noted that there's a recurring debate on X where fans argue that a hero has to be popular in order to get skins. However, a hero cannot become popular without skins in the first place.

"And, you know, it's a difficult thing to do," he continued. "I know that it's easier said than done, but I hope the developers understand how important it is to have consistent skins for characters -- a consistent release. Not every character is going to be popular in the same way, but people want to engage with the stuff that they are making."

As for parting words, Lugo said that studying human experiences and culture ultimately helps us understand ourselves.

That's all for now. Stick around on esports.gg for more Overwatch news, interviews, and updates!