Being the face of a video game is a demanding role, as the people who step into these positions involved in these roles often find themselves on the receiving end of a lot of toxicity. Former Overwatch game director Jeff Kaplan knows this all too well, as he promoted the hero shooter for several years and regularly interacted with its fans--albeit at a "personal cost." 

After leaving Blizzard Entertainment in 2021, Kaplan has been quietly working on The Legend of California, the in-development game at his new studio, Kintsugiyama. Reflecting on his time as the face of Overwatch, Kaplan spoke to GameSpot about how Overwatch needed someone to fill that role. For Kaplan, this was part of Overwatch's growth and continued existence, and he felt it was needed at the time.

"This is going to sound ridiculous, but I'm not someone who likes attention," Kaplan said of his time in the public-facing position. "I'm not much of an extrovert. I don't have a heavy social media presence. And so, a lot of me putting myself out there when I was at Blizzard was sort of to serve my game and my team--doing a job and a role."

Overwatch--and Blizzard as a whole--has had tremendous highs and lows over the years. During periods of content droughts or Hero changes, players would often target Kaplan and other developers on the game with verbal abuse and threats. There has never been a silver bullet to eliminate player toxicity, but Blizzard discovered that dropping a ton of content into Overwatch helped change player sentiment .

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