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"Why Does Everyone Hate Mercy?" [Overwatch exploration of support stigma/misogyny]
- Thread starter Spring-Loaded
- Start date
I'm a feminist and literal Mercy stan (see avatar). The hate towards her has nothing to do with misogyny.
There is a particular strategy employed by many Mercy players that is rewarded by the game's skill rating system. This strategy -- hiding from your team to resurrect them after they all die -- is not a very good strategy. It is apparently quite effective at low levels of the game, but it is really useless at higher levels to the degree that there is a perception that Mercy players of this kind are making games harder to win for the rest of their team in hopes of potentially getting a better SR payoff if they do.
Mercy is a very popular character and it is not a secret that she is particularly poised to benefit from the SR system as it is now. The combination of these two facts has made Mercy ubiquitous in high level games. This wouldn't normally be a problem, but Mercy requires so few conventional FPS skills that experience with her doesn't provide you with the skills necessary to play other heroes. This is a big problem if there are two Mercy mains on the same team since one of them will be forced to play something else and they probably won't be very good at it. This is a really big problem when you're playing in the highest matchmaking tier and you've got Mercy players that have dramatically climbed in a short period of time, who, on top of probably not being very good Mercy players, almost certainly can't play any other character at a level appropriate for the game they've been matched into.
It's also worth noting that Mercy has been reviled at lower levels of play since the game came out as her central mechanic is rather tough for players with... less than ideal aim to deal with. This is particularly pertinent on console, where Mercy's numbers make her a far more viable choice than she otherwise would be.
Mercy is definitely a problem in competitive but it has absolutely nothing to do with the strength of the character. In fact, I would argue that Mercy probably needs to be buffed (although not until they do something about her frankly absurd SR gains).
It matters because at the higher skill levels these Mercy players are ubiquitous and aren't particularly good at the game. I'll attempt to explain:
There is a particular strategy employed by many Mercy players that is rewarded by the game's skill rating system. This strategy -- hiding from your team to resurrect them after they all die -- is not a very good strategy. It is apparently quite effective at low levels of the game, but it is really useless at higher levels to the degree that there is a perception that Mercy players of this kind are making games harder to win for the rest of their team in hopes of potentially getting a better SR payoff if they do.
Mercy is a very popular character and it is not a secret that she is particularly poised to benefit from the SR system as it is now. The combination of these two facts has made Mercy ubiquitous in high level games. This wouldn't normally be a problem, but Mercy requires so few conventional FPS skills that experience with her doesn't provide you with the skills necessary to play other heroes. This is a big problem if there are two Mercy mains on the same team since one of them will be forced to play something else and they probably won't be very good at it. This is a really big problem when you're playing in the highest matchmaking tier and you've got Mercy players that have dramatically climbed in a short period of time, who, on top of probably not being very good Mercy players, almost certainly can't play any other character at a level appropriate for the game they've been matched into.
It's also worth noting that Mercy has been reviled at lower levels of play since the game came out as her central mechanic is rather tough for players with... less than ideal aim to deal with. This is particularly pertinent on console, where Mercy's numbers make her a far more viable choice than she otherwise would be.
Balance-wise, Mercy isn't a particularly strong character, especially on PC. In fact, she's almost certainly the weakest healer overall and only gets any tournament play because Pharah is now usable on certain maps. In terms of ladder performance, her aggregate win rate is pretty average and she only outperforms Ana in this regard, and the reasons for that have nothing to do with balance; Ana is just a mechanically difficult character that needs to be played close to her potential to perform well, and that's simply not in reach for most players.
Mercy is definitely a problem in competitive but it has absolutely nothing to do with the strength of the character. In fact, I would argue that Mercy probably needs to be buffed (although not until they do something about her frankly absurd SR gains).
AlexFlame116
Member
What the freak? What an odd post.
Royce McCutcheon
Junior Member
If you thought people hate mercy now, you should have seen it before her buff. Shes trash, me and my team ridicule anyone who chooses Mercy over Lucio by calling them racist. Works most of the time.
Her Resurrection is very useful but I'd rather have a healer who can also kill on my team otherwise she's entirely reliant on the rest of her team being competent enough to kill more than the other. I feel like the problem with Mercy is she's a crutch character for people who think they can't aim and then can't be bothered to grit the teeth and practice.
Btw when peopke asked Blizzard to change Symmetra achievement (so it could be given for destroying 3 shield gens,not just TPs), Jeff said that Sony and Microsoft don't allow this. They can't change it.
So because of Mercy achievement changing her ultimate to "Rez 1 person but gain ult faster" is impossible. Nobody will ever get the trophy for rezzing 4 people.
So because of Mercy achievement changing her ultimate to "Rez 1 person but gain ult faster" is impossible. Nobody will ever get the trophy for rezzing 4 people.
Spring-Loaded
Member
Nothing to do with misogyny? No one's refuting there are gameplay reasons for people disliking the character, but it seems hard to ignore the gendered abuse.
What about the incidents mentioned in the article?
Nuno Pinto
Member
Hopefully Blizz won't care about that, if they find a way to make the game better by changing the characters abilites then they should go for it.
Shit sucks for people that care about that stuff but that's on Sony/Microsoft, not them.
giancarlo123x
Banned
She's the best though. I main the shit out of her but if someone picks her I have no problem using anyone else.
TheRedSnifit
Member
The Medic isn't built around a concept as fundamentally broken as rez, and he drops Uber when killed. The vast majority of players also aren't playing in a setting with skill rank and class limits.
Newtype-001
Member
I think pretending there is absolutely 0 hate for her cause of gender reasons is wrong but it is by far not the reason why the vast majority of peoples dislike of her comes from.
Its overlooking alot
Its overlooking alot
That stuff has very little to do with Mercy herself and more to do with age old ass gaming misogyny in general. The only thing about that which could be related to misogyny is the fact Mercy is a mechanic-less champion. You get people saying girls only play Mercy because she has no mechanics and they can't learn them cause sexists reasons. That's not even Mercy specific though, it goes into every mechanic-less hero in other games.
There is a trend I'll admit happens. A lot of high profile Mercy streamers/content makers are women. Mercy gets shit on, people see they are women too, then they get all sexist and gross on top of it. This wasn't really a thing until Mercy hate in general exploded and those people got more popular. It seems like the same old shit that's happened before in other games. It's not a Mercy specific problem at all.
I don't wanna say it's nothing to do with misogyny since this is the gaming community we are talking about, but I think at the moment it's mostly because she is bad at GM level right and so all the popular streamers are complaining about her since there are a lot of one-tricks.
In my plat games people are way more likely to give abuse to people picking Hanzo/Torb/Widow
In my plat games people are way more likely to give abuse to people picking Hanzo/Torb/Widow
Mercy's self-heal is also extremely fast, meaning she is punished less for positioning mistakes than other supports as well.
toastyToast
Member
Her ult is awful to play against and shouldn't be in the game.
ZeroGravity
Member
I'm well aware of her pick rate, her strengths, and her weaknesses. It doesn't change the fact that she is oppressive at all ranks of the game except for the highest level, a problem which is only exacerbated on console. She is the most picked hero in the game by far (as revealed by the developers), and the fact that, for 97% of the people playing this game, it has become an experience that revolves around Mercy is an issue.
Mercy doesn't need to be buffed. What she needed was what the community originally called for months ago: a rework. She needs to be given abilities that give her utility outside of her ultimate. Instead, Blizzard ignored that and buffed her in ways that made the only thing is she good at oppressively strong against the majority of the playerbase. Her ultimate has no counter, and she cannot be punished for using it the same way other heroes can. That's a balance issue. They absolutely need to scale back her previous buffs and give her something else of value besides resurrection.
Yeah, nothing to do with misogyny. It's really a disservice to the... I don't know, thousands of women who have to tolerate abuse on the internet because they have the gall to use voice chat while playing a video game to say that this has anything to do with Mercy.
Women on Overwatch get abused and screamed at no matter who they play as and no matter how well they're playing. The only connection to Mercy here is that there's a rather prevalent stereotype that women play as Mercy and women who pick other characters, particularly in comp, are subject to a second layer of abuse where their abilities as those characters are questioned simply because they're women.
I have a friend who likes Overwatch. She's a really tough woman and she gets in voice chat every game -- if you're not otherwise aware, team co-ordination is essential to playing this game at a high level and not joining the voice chat is a large handicap -- and is consistently abused and derided for it. It's actually relatively rare for us to play a game together and for nobody to comment (negatively) on the fact that she is a girl on the internet. It would be altogether stupid and disrespectful to chalk up this misogyny to bias against a certain character since it is actually much simpler than that: A large and vocal percentage of the player base is vehemently sexist and they bring that sexism into the game. What's more, in the context of Overwatch they've largely gone unpunished when doing so and as a result Blizzard has turned competitive Overwatch into something of a sounding board for sexists.
I really don't get this article.
Is it positing people hate Mercy (which itself is flawed - constantly upvoted end-of-match and begged for over all other healers - she wins games more than Rein) because she's a woman?
Or because women are more apt to play her? (I recall an article about ladies being hired as pocket Metcies).
Or because she has a perceived lack of skill with non-aiming?
Or because she's overpowered? (Which I will agree with).
Is it positing people hate Mercy (which itself is flawed - constantly upvoted end-of-match and begged for over all other healers - she wins games more than Rein) because she's a woman?
Or because women are more apt to play her? (I recall an article about ladies being hired as pocket Metcies).
Or because she has a perceived lack of skill with non-aiming?
Or because she's overpowered? (Which I will agree with).
She might need a rework, but the rework needs to amount to a buff. She's, again, not a strong hero and her success at low ranks has little at all to do with her strength as a character. There's a pretty significant subset -- by all accounts a subset that is larger than master and GM combined -- of the player base that hasn't figured out how to beat Junkrat, a character that is countered by not walking into slow-moving bright red balls. There's nothing wrong with that; it's just a game and not everyone who plays it needs to be good at it. But it would be silly to balance around these people since it would make the game very unfun and unrewarding at high levels of play.
Mercy has the same problem that Roadhog did: She's not a very strong character but is nonetheless perceived as very strong outside of the high ranks because when her mechanics work they really work. The data does not support the assertion that Mercy is oppressive at lower levels of play; she simply doesn't win enough to be categorized as such. Even on console, where I have to believe Mercy is pretty strong (due to her mobility remaining more or less the same while the ability of players to aim is, on average, much lower than what is possible on PC), her win rate is below 50% until diamond, where the aggregate win rate is well above 50%.
Lucky Seven
Banned
Anecdotal evidence huh? I'm far away from being the manliest voiced Mercy player but I don't really see insults against Mercy aside from not being able to ult. The only insults I get are from white dudes making fun of what I say or Genjis trying to troll, nothing really about the game itself.
DealWithIt
Member
The author is trying to infer an elephant through a mouse hole.
TWrecks310
Banned
Some of the hate is because people associate her with girl gamers and say they are trash.
Most of it is because they are one-tricks who abuse the SR system.
Most of it is because they are one-tricks who abuse the SR system.
Sora the Cat
Member
I never heard anyone complain about mercy until this neogaf thread.
It's shipping nonsense, better ignore, for your own sanitys sake.
Gentleman Jack
Member
Article is fine, for the most part. Mercy mains get shit on because of their 'force a second team fight' ult and because the enemy team has to worry 100% about where she is during any given engagement, in order to force her to ult suboptimally or to die with ult up. The association with 'girl gamer' and 'support class' earning the ire of upset manbabies in twitch chat and voice comms is spot on.
This paragraph is trash tho:
Every player playing every character in any role had better master these basic elements of game awareness. Knowing when important ults like grav, shatter, EMP, nano are up are essential in competitive, and it's not entirely on supports to be aware of this. There's nothing special about supports and their need to know the state of the game. A DPS that solo ults into an awaiting trance/sound barrier/etc is just as much of a waste of a team slot as a mercy who doesn't watch her flank.
This paragraph is trash tho:
Every player playing every character in any role had better master these basic elements of game awareness. Knowing when important ults like grav, shatter, EMP, nano are up are essential in competitive, and it's not entirely on supports to be aware of this. There's nothing special about supports and their need to know the state of the game. A DPS that solo ults into an awaiting trance/sound barrier/etc is just as much of a waste of a team slot as a mercy who doesn't watch her flank.
Ok, I barely played OW, and I didnt know who all the characters are, were...but I liked using the soldier just because of the way his healing is.
But he isnt support. I take it her healing is better? I thought the soldier was a good mix based on the little time I played.
One day I will learn the characters. I had a hard time trying to figure which character I needed to pick.
I never used Mercy..
Human Trashcan
Banned
Article is a huge stretch trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. "Games have a sexism problem" and "Mercy is a disliked character" = / = Mercy is disliked because she's a female character. Enough has already said about why this is already but articles like this are just targets for ridicule from feminists who actually know anything about comp OW and people who hate "the SJWs ruining all our fun"
Probably because you either play on console or play at a rank below Master.
Nothing wrong with that either way, it's just that most of the hate towards Mercy is concentrated to the higher levels of play on PC.
Exploratory
Banned
This is the biggest load of bullshit I have ever read on these forums. What is this? Lmao what is this?
People hate Mercy because there's no way to outplay her ultimate which requires no skill to use at all and is supremely unfun to play against. Sure there are some people I'm sure who don't like her because of misogyny but that is not where the general ire comes from.
People hate Mercy because there's no way to outplay her ultimate which requires no skill to use at all and is supremely unfun to play against. Sure there are some people I'm sure who don't like her because of misogyny but that is not where the general ire comes from.
The misogyny angle is a lot stronger than people would want to admit. It's not that Mercy is just a female character she's the stereotype character female gamers gravitate towards.
And that will beget a lot of hate. Doubly so with the angle that she requires no skill which connects the link to 'female players have no skill'
I'm sure a lot of people here don't intend it that way but that's the implied connection that comes with it.
And that will beget a lot of hate. Doubly so with the angle that she requires no skill which connects the link to 'female players have no skill'
I'm sure a lot of people here don't intend it that way but that's the implied connection that comes with it.
Gentleman Jack
Member
This isn't the conclusion I got from the article. More like "Games have a sexism problem" and "Mercy's design and encouraged playstyle are frustrating to play against" == "If something can be blamed on the Mercy, it instantly becomes 'lol girl gamers and their support fetish ruining games, play a skilled class lol'"
Same here. 99% of the time I've spent with the game was playing Mercy. I don't like (and I'm not good at) competitive shooters, so playing as someone who can support the team without having to have good shooting skills should be great... But the toxicity of the community prevents me from even trying to engage with Overwatch beyond the odd PvE event.
Exploratory
Banned
Also a ton of these responses on this thread come off as very uninformed.
The person saying they visit the Ow Reddit ow community thread etc and they've never heard of this mercy hate is like saying I visit the nba reddit and watch espn everyday but I've never heard of Lebron James.
The person saying they visit the Ow Reddit ow community thread etc and they've never heard of this mercy hate is like saying I visit the nba reddit and watch espn everyday but I've never heard of Lebron James.
This is literally relevant to every hero in the game. Mercy is the only hero that doesn't have to entertain the idea of CD management or mechanical skill whilst also being rewarded for throwing games as long as they have a high res count.
That's why people hate her. Not because they hate women lmao.
Bet you're a mccree main who thinks he's hot shit. Would be nothing without your mercy healing you. Healing is harder than clicking heads.
Sorry to burst your bubble but Mercy is the easiest healer in the game... clicking heads in high elo isn't easy as you think. When there are platinum mercys who climb to Top 500 in one season, you know somethings wrong with that character AND the matchmaking system. You can become insane with some healers (Lucio (stance switching), Ana (since she aims, coordinates ults with someone), (Zenyatta (since he has to discord and call out targets... All mercy has to do is get good at hiding and press q; thus why is she is so relevant and abused right now because of the invuln buff.
Exploratory
Banned
The person you're responding to may be a shit head. They may be just joking around.
But you cannot possibly think that playing Mercy competently is harder than doing the same on McCree. One of the big reasons people hate Mercy is because she gets a shit ton of SR for multi Rez and you can play hero poorly, lose most of your games, and still get a very higher competitive rating.
Mercy sucks because she invalidates the other healers and the meta is almost exclusively focused around her resurrect which can completely save a game for a team over and over again.
You can play another healer....but only if you already have a Mercy.
lol.
Good jokes. The skill ceiling on a dps player is far higher than Mercy.
In fact, I think all the other healers take more skill than her.
You can play another healer....but only if you already have a Mercy.
lol.
Good jokes. The skill ceiling on a dps player is far higher than Mercy.
In fact, I think all the other healers take more skill than her.