Back in 2016, I sat in the popcorn-stained cushions of a movie theater, consciously ignoring the pretrailer advertisements and diligently scanning my phone. Then the annoying chatter of soda and candy commercials faded into a quiet screen showing the Blizzard Entertainment logo on a dark background.

For the next minute, I watched colorful heroes stand up to protect the people around them, speaking in accents from around the globe about the ideals they clung to. Hope, courage, justice -- each paired with a scene illustrating that concept, until an astronaut-looking bespectacled gorilla proudly declared, "We are Overwatch."

I immediately turned back to my phone to look up what the hell kind of game this was.

I got my first taste a month or two later, when visiting a friend who'd picked up the game.…