PAX East 2016: The Overwatch 'monster truck' got into a car accident last night

We guess that payload's not going anywhere.

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PAX East started with a bang yesterday, and apparently a car accident as reports came in overnight an Overwatch "monster truck" struck a civilian vehicle.

The accident occurred at the end of the first day of PAX East, roughly around 7:00pm ET. One PAX East attendee took video of the accident, which you can see for yourself below:

In addition to this eyewitness video, Gearbox Software CEO and president Randy Pitchford gave a quick play-by-play of what occurred just outside of the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center:

At the end of his report of the accident, Pitchford took a photo of the Overwatch Supertruck and the vehicle it struck:

Blizzard Entertainment announced a special promotion with Uber for PAX East 2016, which it called UberWATCH. Between April 22 to April 24, Uber would provide free rides for PAX East attendees in three different Overwatch-themed vehicles, which would be driven by their respective costumed heroes. The monster truck-like vehicle that got into last night’s accident was the Ford F650 Supertruck, which had Soldier: 76 behind the wheel.

Here are images of the Supertruck prior to last night’s accident, with who we assume would be the man behind the wheel dressed up as Soldier: 76. Judging by the images provided by Blizzard, we have a strong feeling the driver's visor may have played a part in the accident:

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    April 23, 2016 5:15 AM

    Daniel Perez posted a new article, PAX East 2016: The Overwatch monster truck got into a car accident last night

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      April 23, 2016 5:16 AM

      Oh that sucks

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      April 23, 2016 5:29 AM

      no one seems to know what a monster truck is.

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        April 23, 2016 6:38 AM

        I mentioned it was a Supertruck at the end of the story. I'll edit the story in a bit to put monster truck in quotes.

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      April 23, 2016 5:30 AM

      lol at Pitchford loving every second of it

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        April 23, 2016 6:20 PM

        haha he goes out of his way to say "a competitor" then takes the photos. Might as well have just called them out lol.

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      April 23, 2016 6:01 AM

      This'll probably add fuel to the dumb proposal to ban Ubers from the convention center area

      http://www.boston.com/news/politics/2016/04/20/convention-center-upset-bill-ban-uber

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        April 23, 2016 6:07 AM

        Yes, let's just hold progress back to prop up an old industry. It's not like we're replacing cab drivers with autonomous cars (yet). Can't wait to see what they try to pull when that happens.

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          April 23, 2016 6:14 AM

          "Progress"

          Crowd sourcing transportation to avoid paying benefits/liveable wages for a job.

          Yeah taxis have a lot of problems, but calling uber progress irks me because all it is just adding a layer of technological obfuscation to avoid the local regulatory framework and national employer requirements. If taxis got off their asses and made more apps and used data for for better deployment of their assets it would be just as much "progress."

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            April 23, 2016 6:34 AM

            It's certainly a step forward. Public transportation service has been a huge monopoly for nearly as long as cars have been around. You can slowly try to improve the service over time in a long, drawn out, uphill battle or someone can come in from left field, shake things up, and give us a chance to re-evaluate an industry.

            It's absolutely not perfect right now, but in 10 years, whenever the dust settles, we will have progressed much further because of these ride sharing services than we would have without them.

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              April 23, 2016 6:39 AM

              Or an occupation will be destroyed and it will be side work for 20 somethings and people in the poverty trap until we fully replace it with robots.

              The hard work of shaking things up through the system where you come to understand your opponents and how their interests tie into the bigger picture just isn't as sexy as disruptive unicorns who conveniently serve the whims of the affluent.

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                April 23, 2016 6:55 AM

                Yes, an occupation will be destroyed, but through automation more than anything. Just as automation has taken away plenty of jobs in the past. It's a good change and the sooner the inevitable is accepted the longer people have to prepare themselves.

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                  April 23, 2016 6:56 AM

                  Time for those cabbies to take on some student debt. Get at it.

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                    April 23, 2016 7:02 AM

                    Whatever the case, it will lead to more problems (opportunities) to solve in other areas. Maybe this leads to making our education more accessible.

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                      April 23, 2016 7:13 AM

                      It is amazing how centralizing profits and lowering labor to the lowest common denominator somehow becomes a boon to education. I have no idea how that sales pitch works and I am someone who still basically buys into globalization and technological progress.

                      Just because cars will eventually be automated doesn’t mean that an organization that uses phones to bypass local laws and extract money to a centralized "contract manager" is progress. There is no necessary connection there other than putting cabbies out of work earlier.

                      This is especially since Uber circumvents localities and extracts money through electronic transfers that are then largely outside the realm of taxation. In theory the extra wages of Uber drivers will come back in local sales earnings and sales taxes, but if that is cheaper than the taxi driver's wages, then there isn't exactly net positive. Plus, if income which was a salary becomes supplemental income, economic drivers like home ownership get pushed downward.

                      Why are taxes important then? Because someone has to pay to retrain people and pay for the social safety net while they figure things out. The unicorn handlers are off in other places with most the money in tax havens anyway.

                      The idea that I should support Uber because it pushes cabbies along to their inevitable obsolescence faster is absurd to me. Yes, it will happen. But we don't have to kill the liveable wage and benefits of those who are doing it until the robots arrive since we don’t know when that will be.

                      Do you figure we should turn every job that can be automated into a contract only technologically centralized position?



                      Progress isn’t always so simple as "look where the tech is an follow it."

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                        April 23, 2016 7:22 AM

                        "Just because cars will eventually be automated doesn’t mean that an organization that uses phones to bypass local laws and extract money to a centralized "contract manager" is progress. There is no necessary connection there other than putting cabbies out of work earlier."

                        100% agree. I hope to see ride sharing services forced to pull back some. My point is we'll be in a much better place 10-15 years out because of them.

                        Look how far the space industry has come the past 15 years with companies like SpaceX. Certainly not an apples to oranges comparison, but I prefer radical ideas because it spurs significant growth.

                        • DM7 legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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                          April 23, 2016 2:01 PM

                          Don't argue with TrapNSuit he was born to be contrary.

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                            April 23, 2016 4:48 PM

                            I knew what I was getting into. It was more an experiment to see if I could get the last reply in :D

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      April 23, 2016 1:05 PM

      A "civilian car"... as if that's some sort of military vehicle. lulz

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        April 23, 2016 1:07 PM

        And they couldn't even be bothered to clean the smeary dirt off the tires in their promo photos?

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      April 23, 2016 1:21 PM

      This is a game that has a gorilla with a jetpack and lightning gun. And when they choose a character to be featured in swag they choose "generic shooter guy"??? I seriously don't understand why Soldier 76 gets so much marketing play :(

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        April 23, 2016 1:35 PM

        They couldn't train the gorilla in time

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        April 23, 2016 1:53 PM

        That's exactly why he gets so much marketing play - he's the character meant to ease the pseudo-military shooter crowd into the game.

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        April 23, 2016 4:48 PM

        Younger players do mostly military shooters where dudes with hitscan weapons can also sprint, not Tribes style rocket launcher dudes who fly around. He's there to ease those players into the game.

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          April 23, 2016 5:30 PM

          He even self heals. Its almost a parody of modern shooter archetypes thrown in the middle of all this other goofy shit.

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      April 23, 2016 1:55 PM

      Soldier: 76 continues to suck.

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      April 23, 2016 2:32 PM

      How does blizzard go about setting that up? It's a rental and they had wraps made? Must be a fun job

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        April 23, 2016 4:42 PM

        Well - first you give a driver a visor that reduces visibility. Then you sit him in a "Supertruck" in the middle of Boston and at night. Then you find any car and ram into it.

        I think I may have misunderstood your question

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      April 23, 2016 6:37 PM

      Soldier 76's F650

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      April 23, 2016 7:41 PM

      I don't knows funnier. The fact this happened. The whole silly Soldier 76 thing. Or the fact that a driver whose outfit was paid for by Blizzard looks like a cheap display knockoff.

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