What Went Wrong with the Sombra ARG

Sombra is undoubtedly being revealed at BlizzCon. There's pretty much no denying that. So I wanted to take a moment to really break down the journey that Sombra has already had. More than any Blizzard before her, Sombra had a huge amount of player interaction over the past months. That's definitely impressive for a character we have never seen and know nothing about. To be sure, the ARG Blizzard played with Overwatch players was an impressive one. So what went wrong?


And I mean other than the fact that this is ridiculous.

The first thing that comes to mind is the countdown for amomentincrime.com. However, I've already covered that in great depth, so I'll focus on the full ARG itself. You could blame the issue on a few different things, but it all comes back to one. Solving the ARG took tons of work from both sides (Blizzard and the fans), but it gave no rewards at all. Every step of the puzzle was for the sake of itself. Every clue just brought players to a new puzzle. That's it. That alone would have even been fine if the entire ARG was about 10% of the size it ended up being. But it was exceptionally long and detailed, leaving many players with dozens of hours spent on literally nothing.

Basically, there were two things Blizzard could have done differently. The easiest one would have been to make the ARG much shorter. Given, plenty of gamers would complain about how short it was, but a cute, little game letting players know Sombra was going to be released at BlizzCon would have been a great way to generate hype. I know I'd still be hyped for her if that had been the case.

The other way they could have saved it is to offer rewards for the game. A puzzle who's reward is another piece to a different puzzle is unsatisfying. Having the game go this far, Blizzard should have been prepared to offer players some sort of incentive. Specifically, information about Sombra. Even now, we all know nothing more about Sombra than we did four months ago. If the clues had also revealed facts about her, like her kit, weapon, or looks, then it wouldn't have felt so empty.

I'm still impressed with how Blizzard handled Sombra's ARG. It was their first run with it, and a lot of their methods and puzzles blew me away. I honestly hope this isn't the last one they try. However, I do hope they learn from Sombra's shortcomings.