Everyone has bad days, even the game director of Overwatch Jeff Kaplan.
The thing is, if you rub a person who's having one of those days the wrong way, you're in for a world of hurt, not to mention that when you wrestle with Jeff, prepare for death.
Sometimes, that's not the case, though.
Overwatch Player Insults Devs, Gets Wrecked
A player who goes by the name of SharkyMarky started a thread in the Overwatch Battle.net forums, asking whether or not Blizzard even plays its own game.
Sure enough, it got downvoted quickly, he was quickly labeled a troll.
Little did he know his post would not only get the attention of his fellow players but also the game director himself.
"We play the game a lot. Looking at your profile, I've won approximately 800 more games than you have. That's not counting the daily internal playtests I am in, the time I spent in Alpha and Beta. Did you have a specific question or are you just here trolling?" Kaplan replied.
Needless to say, SharkyMarky got — for want of a better word — pwned.
Overwatch Player Who Insulted Devs Gets Rewards
After that ordeal of sorts, he went on to Reddit to share his story.
He got ahold of a Blizzard support rep named Kallafrax and asked them to relay an apology to Kaplan. To his surprise, the Overwatch dev responded to him, apologizing for his "unprofessional" behavior.
"So first, I'm sorry for calling you out publicly on our forums. It was unprofessional and lacked good judgement on my part. To explain (and not excuse) what I did, I was simply feeling worn down at the moment ... I'm really sorry I replied the way I did and I hope it hasn't brought any unwarranted attention from other players to you. If anyone is harassing you, please let me know," Kaplan wrote.
He also thanked SharkyMarky for providing some feedback regarding Widowmaker, explaining why the team can't just apply changes willy-nilly.
"I hope you forgive me and realize that my actions are a reflection of my own personal flaws and don't speak directly for the awesome folks I work with here at Blizzard," Kaplan continued.
As for his postscript, he gave away a one-year subscription to World of Warcraft.
SharkyMarky then replies, apologizes again, and thanks Kaplan for the reply, also mentioning that he doesn't play World of Warcraft and that maybe he could trade the key for a Widowmaker Noire skin.
As if things couldn't get any better, Kaplan tells him to check his account, and it should have the Widowmaker Noire skin there.
Long Story Short
Moral of the lesson: Catch Kaplan on a bad day, insult him, apologize, and then get a free one-year subscription to World of Warcraft and perhaps a free Overwatch skin. Jokes aside, doing the right thing can go a long way.
It's also worth mentioning that this shows how much the Overwatch team cares for its gaming community and how it doesn't just look at it as a group, paying attention to each individual's opinions.
With all said and done, what do you think of this little squabble SharkyMarky started with Kaplan and how it ended? Feel free to drop by our comments section below and let us know.
