Bright-eyed and hopeful Blizzard shooter Overwatch nearly had an f-bomb problem.
It relates to new hero Emre, who’s Turkish, and to his Ultimate ability which, for a long time, was called “Seek and Destroy”. It wasn’t until Turkish actor Kerem Erdinc stepped into the booth to record Emre’s lines that Blizzard was alerted to the mistake it nearly made.
“I got a story for you,” Erdinc told me during a group interview at Blizzard last week. “I got to name Emre’s Ultimate line, and the reason behind it is hilarious.
“Originally the line for Emre’s Ultimate, where he jumps up in the air and does his thing, was ‘Seek and Destroy’. But the word ‘seek’, if you translate it into Turkish – don’t look that up – it is a very bad word. It is the bad word. The f-word – that’s what it means. So I said, ‘Guys, you might want to avoid that one.’
“I said how about ‘Search and Destroy’? And Miranda [Moyer, lead narrative designer] said, ‘Well that’s what we’re calling the comics, so that works.'” Erdinc added: “It would have been the butt of every Turkish player’s jokes about Emre where he’s just saying eff and destroy.”
Emre is one of five new heroes coming to Overwatch on 10th February. He’s the last of the characters seen on that old Overwatch group image from years ago, and when played, he feels a lot like Soldier 76 – a kind of run-and-gun first-person shooter hero. Emre can aim down sights – a first for Overwatch – and has bouncy grenades, a semi-automatic sidearm, and various movement and health regen boosts. His Ultimate makes him hover in the air, in a Tron-like AI form, and fire charged explosive blasts that explode upon impact.
Kerem Erdinc shared the story of the Ultimate line tweak by way of highlighting how Blizzard allows voice actors to inform the design of the characters they’re playing. This is a game that tries to create characters from every region of the world, so having a Turkish actor make a Turkish character feel authentic is important to Blizzard.
“Our philosophy is always to lead on our actors a lot because, as a diverse game, we’re looking for people from all walks of life to tell stories from all walks of life,” Overwatch senior lead narrative designer Joshi Zhang said in the same interview. “And what makes that come to life is by leaning on real experiences from real people.
“I didn’t grow up seeing Turkish characters in anything” -Kerem Erdinc
“As writers, we don’t know what those experiences are. We target them, and when our actors are able to lock on to that, that’s amazing, that’s where the magic happens. But we need the actors and their incredible thinking in order to make that happen.
“It’s always really important for us that the actors have a say in: what does this line mean to you? Because what it means to you will probably be a lot closer to whatever it means to someone like you, and someone like you might be seeing themselves in the game for the first time.”
Erdinc said he’s been an Overwatch fan since the game came out, and for him, the idea of a Turkish hero being added to the game – for Emre has been long-rumoured – was mouth watering. “I was wishing for this character, just as a fan, for eight years since it was covered in Overwatch Declassified,” he said – “just obsessed with like ‘oh a Turkish hero!’. It would be so cool.
“I didn’t grow up seeing Turkish characters in anything,” he added. “I can count how many are in video games on one hand, and the Overwatch team putting such care into introducing him, fully authentic, as a Turkish character with Turkish lines…” He paused here to say he’d thrown various jokes into the Turkish localisation “to make Turkish players smile”. “That means everything to me,” he said.
“But it also comes with a sense of responsibility that if I goof this up, then that would be horrible. It’s hallowed ground for me and I take it very seriously.”
Overwatch – the “2” has been dropped from the name – will welcome its first expansion-like release on 10th February, which will bring new heroes but also a UI overhaul and a serious story-delivery rework and push. It also kicks off a year of various additions grouped under The Reign of Talon banner, during which five more heroes will be added to the game. It’s a big, exciting moment for Overwatch.
