Feudalism and Intercommunity Feuds: A look at the rivalry between the Overwatch and Valorant Community

Shashvat Singh (Uppsala University)

One of the most defining hierarchical systems in Europe during the medieval period was the feudal system. The feudal system existed in a myriad of forms over time and land. The lords had the utmost authority over land – sometimes spanning across national boundaries. These pieces of land would then be further split and put under the authority of lesser lords and vassals. All of this carving up of land led to Europe being divided along seemingly arbitrary lines all to benefit the chain of power while the wishes of most of the common folk who resided on the land were not taken into consideration. The feudal period was also marked by conflict which arose between these smaller land states. The conflict would in the end benefit the ones in power, who would use the plebians to fight their wars.

Something similar exists in the gaming industry today when it comes to power dynamics. The industry titans, large companies and hardware manufacturers are not that different from feudal lords. They own the market which spans across multiple nations of genres. These entities often bully and influence smaller companies and studios which are, in turn, not that different from lesser lords. The final piece seems to be the content creators who make content based on the game, expanding the player bases and controlling the narrative when it comes to games. These content creators can range from video content creators and streamers to journalists and modders. At the very bottom, the common folk of this allegory are the players and consumers. They exist in the larger picture to play games and, in turn, give the entities above them in the ladder, money and power.

One case of this happening right before our eyes is the animosity between the player communities of Overwatch 2 and Valorant. On paper, these 2 games are extremely similar. Both of the games are class-based first-person shooters. We acknowledge that the aesthetics and experiences of both games are different. On the other hand, one has to also acknowledge the overlap and inter-migration of the player bases between the two games. There exist more similarities than differences when it comes to these communities, yet, there is conflict. In an attempt to get a clearer picture, we circulated a survey through the subreddits for both of the games in order to get data on their opinions. When asked about the source of this negative opinion both of the communities had similar trends. The two reigning opinions are that either the animosity does not exist or the animosity is perpetuated by the community. This split between communities, though arbitrary, seems to have some community-backed ill-will. These communities and group identities have been identified in other gaming literature however the wars that they go to are both lesser studied and definitely medieval.

Further Reading

Kim, D. (2021). For the Horde!: Nationalism and Group Identity in World of Warcraft.