Ok, I bet most of you already know the Blizzard Team Fortress clone called Overwatch, right? Google it if you haven't heard of it.
The latest scandal concerning it is that after each round is over the winning sides characters do a victory pose and one of those is this:
And one of the players in the Beta-test wrote to Blizzard and asked them to remove it. This is not the part that made people rage. They got furious because Blizzard removed the pose. Now there are complaints about SJWs ruining everything, claims of censorship and demands to boycott Blizzard.
The funny bit is that the original request was well written and made sense:
http://us.battle.net/forums/en/overwatch/topic/20743015583?page=1 63 Posts
So I wanted to start off by saying, I think the development team has done a pretty great job with the cast of female hero's in Overwatch. They are diverse, interesting, and compelling. From Mei to Zarya to Widowmaker the female cast reflects a large spectrum of personalities and player fantasies.
With that being said, lets talk about Tracer. From a marketing standpoint, she's the star of the show. She's a great hero. When we look at the way she's portrayed in promotional media, lore, and art in game we know a few things about her..
She's Fast.
She's Silly.
She's Kind.
She's a good Friend.
Her body seems to be comprised of about 95% spunk.
Almost all of her art reflects this. She's got cool skins: http://static.mnium.org/images/contenu/actus/Overwatch/Heros/overwatch_skin-tracer_11_hd.jpg
She's got fun poses:
http://cdn.blizzardwatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Tracer_waving_header.jpg
She's got amazing victory animations:
https://youtu.be/MFbXd3KIvhQ?t=224
All of this art reinforces the great character you've built around tracer.
Then out of seemingly no where we have this pose:
http://overwatch.blizzplanet.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/tracer-victory-pose-2-over-the-shoulder.png
WHAT? What about this pose has anything to do with the character you're building in tracer? It's not fun, its not silly, it has nothing to do with being a fast elite killer. It just reduces tracer to another bland female sex symbol.
We aren't looking at a widowmaker pose here, this isn't a character who is in part defined by flaunting her sexuality. This pose says to the player base, oh we've got all these cool diverse characters, but at any moment we are willing to reduce them to sex symbols to help boost our investment game.
Getting art into a triple A game isn't a small task, it has to go through an implementer, a team lead, an art director, and a creative director. This is a team effort. And I believe the team is responsible for upholding the great example overwatch can set to the rest of the industry for creating strong female characters.
I have a young daughter that everyday when I wake up wants to watch the recall trailer again. She knows who tracer is, and as she grows up, she can grow up alongside these characters.
What I'm asking is that as you continue to add to the overwatch cast and investment elements, you double down on your commitment to create strong female characters. You've been doing a good job so far, but shipping with a tracer pose like this undermines so much of the good you've already done.
Note: a) He doesn't complain about sexualized characters for whom that is clearly part of their character design and theme. Widowmaker is a femme-fatale who uses her looks as a tool while being an assassin. Tracer on the other hand isn't a femme-fatale or a vamp and for her sexy posing comes out of nowhere.
b) The player specifically said that his daughter loves the game and the character and he would like there to be strong female characters that his daughter can idolize over.
c) Blizzard didn't cave in due to a boycott, SJWs didn't attack them and in fact the executive producer for the game said they already had concerns over that pose and were thinking of an alternative for it. In fact, he wrote a rather good response to this:
http://us.battle.net/forums/en/overwatch/topic/20743015583?page=11#post-211Well, that escalated quickly…
While I stand by my previous comment, I realize I should have been more clear. As the game director, I have final creative say over what does or does not go into the game. With this particular decision, it was an easy one to make—not just for me, but for the art team as well. We actually already have an alternate pose that we love and we feel speaks more to the character of Tracer. We weren’t entirely happy with the original pose, it was always one that we wrestled with creatively. That the pose had been called into question from an appropriateness standpoint by players in our community did help influence our decision—getting that kind of feedback is part of the reason we’re holding a closed beta test—but it wasn’t the only factor. We made the decision to go with a different pose in part because we shared some of the same concerns, but also because we wanted to create something better.
We wouldn’t do anything to sacrifice our creative vision for Overwatch, and we’re not going to remove something solely because someone may take issue with it. Our goal isn’t to water down or homogenize the world, or the diverse cast of heroes we’ve built within it. We have poured so much of our heart and souls into this game that it would be a travesty for us to do so.
We understand that not everyone will agree with our decision, and that’s okay. That’s what these kinds of public tests are for. This wasn’t pandering or caving, though. This was the right call from our perspective, and we think the game will be just as fun the next time you play it.
If it isn’t, feel free to continue sharing your concerns, thoughts, and feedback about this and other issues you may have with the game, please just keep the discussion respectful.
Thanks,
jeffrey
(btw, unlocking this thread. please continue the discussion here)
I for one am happy to see that Blizzard is thinking of this aspect in character design.