Dispatch Morale Debate Highlights How Players Shape The Superhero Narrative

Dispatch morale has become a focal point inside AdHoc Studio after millions of players completed the game and steered its narrative toward an unexpectedly gentle path. The eight-episode superhero drama, designed to accommodate a wide span of reactions, produced a clear pattern: most players kept Robert polite, patient, and almost unfailingly considerate, even when the moment allowed sharper choices.

More than two million people played Dispatch across its run, producing countless branching paths, missed scenes, and uncommon variants. When Polygon asked narrative director Pierre Shorette and creative director Nick Herman which statistics surprised them most, the pair pointed to a trend that cut across every major decision. Players did not test the boundaries that the team built into the story. They played safely, and they played nicely.

"Very often, people pick the most boring thing," Shorette says. "Everyone wants to be nice, a lot of times we're trying to keep it entertaining for them. I'm so disappointed in so many choices." — Pierre Shorette

The team expected a more even split between gracious and abrasive decisions, especially because Robert was never written as a blank slate. He has a clear personality, a sense of humor, and an instinct to de-escalate. The player’s task is to guide him, not rewrite him, and the difference matters. Shorette stressed that Dispatch was designed for role-playing within defined limits rather than as a direct projection of the player.

"Robert is a character," Shorette says. "You roleplay as Robert, and this is going to piss some people off, but this isn't about you. It's about you and Robert, about you roleplaying as this type of person." — Pierre Shorette

Herman added that the range of acceptable behavior was always wider than most players realized. A central example comes from episode four, when Robert helps Mandy — Blonde Blazer — prepare for a date. The scene gives the player the option to encourage her, ignore her, or deliver a rude remark. Despite longstanding audience suspicion toward Mandy, a suspicion often amplified by the wider genre’s cynicism, the overwhelming majority still chose kindness. The contradiction amused and confused the developers. Players talked boldly on streams, Herman noted, only to retreat to safe answers under pressure.

"You talk a big game on stream, and then the second you get the opportunity, you do the boring thing," Herman laughs. — Nick Herman

Polygon’s report highlights how this pattern extends across the game. Players could respond sharply to Golem early on, ejecting him from a meeting after his outbursts. Instead, most kept the peace. That route blocks an alternate scene in which Robert asserts himself and Golem sulks through the following shift. Similar gaps appear in the game’s romance arcs. Many players did not realize they could refuse every romantic outcome in the story or allow Invisigal’s arc to unfold without a kiss. AdHoc structured her trajectory as an evolving personal journey shaped by support, job assignments, and practical choices, not a single romantic hinge point.

The developers also acknowledged where design shaped these outcomes. Mandy appears less often than Invisigal, leaving some players with one grounded relationship and one distant one. Shorette and Herman said this imbalance likely contributed to the public’s attachment to Invisigal and distrust toward Blonde Blazer. They called it a mistake they would correct given the chance, though some structural issues sit too deep to patch now.

Dispatch’s conclusion was built as if a second season were uncertain. The team adopted a “burn the boats” mentality and produced a finale that answered core questions while leaving the door open for future stories. Whether they get that chance remains unresolved, but the conversation around Dispatch morale suggests they still see room to challenge their audience. Their hope is that, in a future season, more players will step outside their comfort zones.

Read also, Dispatch Review: AdHoc Studio’s Episodic Superhero Comedy Balances Chaos, Humor, and Humanity — a closer look at how the early episodes established the tone, the humor, and the grounded character work that shaped the entire series.