A personal message from Claud Morris in Overwatch Newspapers
Hey, have you ever looked real close at any of the newspapers in game?
Yeah right?
Why would you, it’s all blurry and probably just some nonsense lorem ipsum anyway !
But for the lolz, just once, let’s quickly look at a newspaper
Ew. Blurry text. Ew.
This is extracted straight from the game files and it’s still too blurry to read.
Not worth my time.
Or is it?
Look at the top right corner.
I had noticed it months ago but dismissed it because I couldn’t get anything interesting when searching online for “Cloud Morris”.
But yesterday I thought “What if it’s not Cloud, but Claud?”
And Claud it is.
World, meet Claud Morris. Born in 1920, died in 2000, he was a british man known for owning multiple newspapers and being a true advocate for peaceful coexistence in the Middle East, especially the whole arab-israeli conflict.
He was one of the founding members of a non-profit organization and think -tank called the “Next Century Foundation” based in London and still in activity today.
He wrote a two-volume autobiography I Bought a Newspaper (1963) and The Last Inch: a Middle East Odyssey (1997).
There’s really not a lot you can find online about the man, other than two obituaries in big newspapers and since he died nearly 20 years ago, it’s hard to figure out who the man really was.
In game, the newspapers’ top right section says “A personal message from Claud Morris”.
Is Claud Morris still alive in 2070+ in Overwatch? Or is the newspaper quoting a famous thing Morris wrote? I couldn’t find any famous quote, or really anything he ever wrote online :/
But most importantly, assuming I have the right guy, why would the Overwatch team bring him up and “have him” write a personal message in ALL THE (small and local) NEWSPAPERS from around the world. Is Overwatch’s universe’s Claud Morris still alive and does he own all the newspapers still printing today (newspaper in 2070 Hmmm...)? And who is this personal message for anyway? Why make it personal if you’re gonna print it in newspapers worldwide?
I guess they put it in all the newspapers because they wanted us to notice it. Either that or good old asset reuse. Maybe a bit of both ! Either way, I’ve noticed it, are you proud? :D
Now, it could be a different Claud Morris, several exist in the world. Would be a huge coincidence though.
Advocate for peace, newspaper owner, founder of an organization/think tank that works in the field of diplomacy and mostly focused on bringing peace to the Middle East, it has to be the man. Hell, he sounds like an Overwatch hero, all this optimism, all this passion.
“A personal message from Claud Morris” makes it sound like he’s still alive, and addressing someone in particular. A friend of his? Why in a newspaper.
If it’s just a namedrop, it’s a bit of an awkward one :(
But I don’t think it’s the case. I think there’s a deeper meaning and we just can’t see the whole picture yet.
Like most/all of the obscure details I find in the game, I can only guess what the Overwatch Team’s intentions were. As great a dude as he seems to have been when he was alive, I don’t see why he was namedropped right there and in such a way. Is it a hint towards the Next Century Foundation? Should I try to track down copies of his autobiography or his old publications in the newspapers he owned?
How did the Overwatch Team even heard of Morris?
Why him when lorem ipsum or blurry text would have done the trick?
I don’t think any of the investigating we could do on our own would bring any answers, it’s too obscure, even for me :I
We’ll have to patiently wait for a developer’s answer. As Mei says, I'm sure there is a reasonable scientific explanation for this :3
Until then, make sure to always check out the blurry stuff in Overwatch it could be interesting, who knows !
If you’re open minded and if you enjoy wasting time hunting for the many obscure things the devs have put in the world of Overwatch, I have an all new discord server :D
https://discord.gg/Eg8pZdn
(free tin foil hat for all new members)
And if you notice something in the game that looks suspicious or interesting or anything, please bring it on, I live for this !
