Cards on the table, right up front: I have never played Overwatch.
I feel like I'm in pretty good company with this; lots of people have never played Overwatch. In fact, I'm fair certain that more people haven't played Overwatch than have.
Like a lot of those non-Overwatch players, though, I definitely know a lot more about Overwatch than I normally would know about a game that I've never played. I can recognize, and name on sight, most of the characters from Overwatch, which is better than I can say for most IRL people that I've met in the same span of time.
Tracer, Mei, D.Va, Zarya, Bastion, Winston, McCree Cole Cassidy, Mercy, Widowmaker, Brigitte, Pharah, Roadhog, Junkrat, Lucio, Torbjörn, Genji, Hanzo... the list goes on, and on, and on. Almost everyone can recognize at least ten of these characters on sight, and will have at least low-key crushes on three of them. No matter what appeals to you, at least one of Overwatch's heroes will appeal to you. No matter how you identify, you will identify with at least one of these people.
And they do feel like people, don't they? Even though they aren't.
Rare is the game which ever becomes this much a part of the pop culture zeitgeist. Overwatch had managed it before even being released. Which is why it hurts to see how badly Activision Blizzard have fucked up Overwatch 2, even though I've never played Overwatch 1.
