Blizzard to Remove "Sexy" Tracer Pose in Overwatch - Update

Yuuki

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Bob_McMillan said:
I don't get why the lady was "offended".
That's easy. She was offended based on her own opinion/beliefs.

What people should be confused about is why the devs cared about her being offended, even going as far as apologizing. Now THAT is the truly baffling part. If Blizzard's reasons for the change were "we made our own decision", then why the fuck did they apologize to the woman?
I have never heard of Blizzard apologizing to an individual complaint over an artistic decision. I can't even begin to comprehend it.
 

Gone Rampant

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I think the article should be edited, given it's come to light that the original poster is a dude.

So yeah, another example of so-called protectors of women deciding in place of actual women what is and isn't sexy.
 

ThatOtherGirl

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Sexual Harassment Panda said:
As much as I appreciate that considering the moral implications of, or... I suppose "what could arguably be inferred" by x does have it's place. If we're doing the "won't somebody please think of the children?" thing, then my primary concern isn't "what does this piece of media say beneath the surface?" so much as it is "what kind of culture are we leaving for them?"
I touched on this in my post several pages ago. I think this is the important point in this entire conversation, though I think I am coming at it from a different point of view than you. I am not particularly concerned about the fact that Blizzard is making the change. What bothers me is the reasoning behind the original complaint and the initial, unthinking response Blizzard gave that basically endorsed the line of thinking as valid and correct.

What matters here isn't what actually gets into the final game. What matters is how we got there. The original feedback by fipps was many things. It was well worded, it was designed to be inoffensive and reasonably put as possible. I also think it was very sexist.

The core of Fipps issue with the pose was that a character they thought shouldn't be sexy was being mildly sexy, that this instantly "reduces her" to a sex symbol, that this sexuality conflicts with her other core character traits (kind, funny, good friend, ie, the archetypal good girl character), and that this sort of pose should be confined to characters who are defined by flaunting their sexuality.

This lands a bit too close to the mindset of "good girls shouldn't be sexy" for me. It isn't slut shaming, it is the far more insidious root that leads to slut shaming. It attempts to draw a line in the sand that says one kind of woman on the left side, other kind of woman on the right side, and all the women on the right are better (remember that he actually makes the argument that including a minor sexy pose reduced Tracer in his eyes.)

I don't like that. And I especially don't like that Blizzard agreed with the line of thinking.
 

Yuuki

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ThatOtherGirl said:
What bothers me is the reasoning behind the original complaint and the initial, unthinking response Blizzard gave that basically endorsed the line of thinking as valid and correct.
Agreed. I don't even care about the reasoning behind the original complaint (stupid people will always exist), but Blizzard actually responding with an apology?? That blew my mind.
 

Cati

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Sep 4, 2014
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@ThatOtherGirl - you've hit the nail on the head there. Excellent post!

The initial complaint and arguments supporting the pose's change are so obviously old-school sexist. And it is aggravating and disappointing to see people happily going along with it. People who claim to be against sexism, and who claim to want women be seen and treated as equals.

I see it all unfolding this way and feel like I've been taking crazy pills.
 

Cati

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Yuuki said:
Bob_McMillan said:
I don't get why the lady was "offended".
That's easy. She was offended based on her own opinion/beliefs.

What people should be confused about is why the devs cared about her being offended, even going as far as apologizing. Now THAT is the truly baffling part. If Blizzard's reasons for the change were "we made our own decision", then why the fuck did they apologize to the woman?
I have never heard of Blizzard apologizing to an individual complaint over an artistic decision. I can't even begin to comprehend it.
The original complaint came from a man btw. That normally wouldn't matter, but this guy conveniently omitted that fact when using his daughter to divert attention from what his real motivations could be. Usually when someone points to their kids in that way, it's accompanied by a phrase like "I'm a [father|mother] of [child] and..." That wasn't the case here, and subsequently everyone assumed the complaint was coming from a woman, giving it more legitimacy in the eyes of the game director and initial supporters.
 

EternallyBored

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Jun 17, 2013
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Cati said:
Yuuki said:
Bob_McMillan said:
I don't get why the lady was "offended".
That's easy. She was offended based on her own opinion/beliefs.

What people should be confused about is why the devs cared about her being offended, even going as far as apologizing. Now THAT is the truly baffling part. If Blizzard's reasons for the change were "we made our own decision", then why the fuck did they apologize to the woman?
I have never heard of Blizzard apologizing to an individual complaint over an artistic decision. I can't even begin to comprehend it.
The original complaint came from a man btw. That normally wouldn't matter, but this guy conveniently omitted that fact when using his daughter to divert attention from what his real motivations could be. Usually when someone points to their kids in that way, it's accompanied by a phrase like "I'm a [father|mother] of [child] and..." That wasn't the case here, and subsequently everyone assumed the complaint was coming from a woman, giving it more legitimacy in the eyes of the game director and initial supporters.
That's a stretch, you are asserting that it is usually accompanied by the phrase mother or father, but that's basically just an assumption to support your interpretation that his lack of mention over his gender was deliberate. I've seen these types of complaints before without the parent identifying their sex, both from mothers and fathers, I work with kids and parents, and usually such things are not some obfuscation tactic.

Could he have hid it on purpose? It's possible, but casting aspirations on intentions with such flimsy evidence that you have to pick apart the language of the post to such degree and assert that parents always call themselves the father or mother when talking about their child, strikes me as reaching for a narrative.

There's plenty of avenues to criticize both Blizzard and the original poster from, I think this is one of the weaker ones that looks more like confirmation bias.

Don't let me stop you, but I find it wholly unconvincing.
 

BoogieManFL

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Look, Blizzard caved in to some random whiners again. Just like a several of the emote jokes in WoW. The game is rated T. I think teens who are allowed to play violent video games can handle some tight pants.

If a character wants to be sexy, alluring, or just gently showing off the goods - why not? So long as they all aren't sexualized. I've read that the females in the game are diverse. So I guess diversity is only acceptable if you're not trying to be sexy.

Why is it such a big deal? Why not look at it like she's comfortable with her body and doesn't care what you think? But I guess that isn't as empowering or acceptable as taking away that choice to make some overly sensitive types (who don't mind violently killing people in the game) more comfortable with it. Solid logic guys.

Better get rid of the "BAMF" belt buckle too. That's alluding to a naughty word!
 

SlumlordThanatos

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Aug 25, 2014
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BoogieManFL said:
Look, Blizzard caved in to some random whiners again. Just like a several of the emote jokes in WoW. The game is rated T. I think teens who are allowed to play violent video games can handle some tight pants.

If a character wants to be sexy, alluring, or just gently showing off the goods - why not? So long as they all aren't sexualized. I've read that the females in the game are diverse. So I guess diversity is only acceptable if you're not trying to be sexy.

Why is it such a big deal? Why not look at it like she's comfortable with her body and doesn't care what you think? But I guess that isn't as empowering or acceptable as taking away that choice to make some overly sensitive types (who don't mind violently killing people in the game) more comfortable with it. Solid logic guys.

Better get rid of the "BAMF" belt buckle too. That's alluding to a naughty word!
Honestly, I think this whole mess happened because Jeff Kaplan wanted to show the world how progressive and inclusive he was. I think the developers were already talking about changing the pose to begin with for entirely different reasons (they felt like the pose didn't fit the character). Instead of quietly swapping the animations around, Kaplan decided instead to make a big deal about the change and the reasons behind it. He was trying to make himself look good, only for the community to call him out on it.

I really doubt this was a case of Blizzard caving to a single whiner.
 

EternallyBored

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Jun 17, 2013
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SlumlordThanatos said:
BoogieManFL said:
Look, Blizzard caved in to some random whiners again. Just like a several of the emote jokes in WoW. The game is rated T. I think teens who are allowed to play violent video games can handle some tight pants.

If a character wants to be sexy, alluring, or just gently showing off the goods - why not? So long as they all aren't sexualized. I've read that the females in the game are diverse. So I guess diversity is only acceptable if you're not trying to be sexy.

Why is it such a big deal? Why not look at it like she's comfortable with her body and doesn't care what you think? But I guess that isn't as empowering or acceptable as taking away that choice to make some overly sensitive types (who don't mind violently killing people in the game) more comfortable with it. Solid logic guys.

Better get rid of the "BAMF" belt buckle too. That's alluding to a naughty word!
Honestly, I think this whole mess happened because Jeff Kaplan wanted to show the world how progressive and inclusive he was. I think the developers were already talking about changing the pose to begin with for entirely different reasons (they felt like the pose didn't fit the character). Instead of quietly swapping the animations around, Kaplan decided instead to make a big deal about the change and the reasons behind it. He was trying to make himself look good, only for the community to call him out on it.

I really doubt this was a case of Blizzard caving to a single whiner.
Uhh, not exactly "entirely different reasons" when the original complaint also said one of the reasons they were complaining about Tracer but not Widowmaker was that they felt the pose didn't fit the character.

It sounds more like the original complaint mirrored BLizzard's own concerns to an extent, sans maybe the parts about oversexualization, but if Blizzard thought the pose didn't fit her character, then the original complaint is, at least partially, BLizzard's own views on the character.

The stuff about Kaplan stepping in to try and score brownie points is something I am willing to believe though.
 

Yuuki

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SlumlordThanatos said:
I really doubt this was a case of Blizzard caving to a single whiner.
Jeff Kaplan himself said that this was a change the dev/art team had already decided to make a while ago. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and take his word on it. Minor artistic decision, adjustment made, job done, no biggie, move on.

BUT!

What I don't understand is how they handled this one particular complaint. Blizzard's standard practice of simply not responding to 90% of stuff would've worked perfectly fine here, but instead they went out of their way to apologize.
OF COURSE everyone assumed they "caved in to 1 whiner", because that's exactly what it looks like. Then Jeff has the gall to act surprised by it and tries to explain the full reasoning behind their decision...is he dense? It's far too late to undo the damage.

This shit is all over the web on every gaming forum/reddit, and everyone is backlashing their disappointment with another developer who has caved in to oversensitive sheltered whiners. The kind of typical backlash that is getting increasingly common.

Even /r/Kappa, a subreddit community dedicated to fighting games (namely Street Fighter), is talking about it and making mockery of Blizzard.
 

SlumlordThanatos

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Aug 25, 2014
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Yuuki said:
SlumlordThanatos said:
I really doubt this was a case of Blizzard caving to a single whiner.
Jeff Kaplan himself said that this was a change the dev/art team had already decided to make a while ago. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and take his word on it. Minor artistic decision, adjustment made, job done, no biggie, move on.
Yes, YES!! If they had said that this was the reason for it, or if they had said nothing about it, some people would've complained about it. But that's it! No shitstorm!

BUT!

What I don't understand is how they handled this one particular complaint. Blizzard's standard practice of simply not responding to 90% of stuff would've worked perfectly fine here, but instead they went out of their way to apologize. OF COURSE everyone assumed they "caved in to 1 whiner", because that's exactly what it looks like.
Then Jeff has the gall to act surprised by it and tries to explain the full reasoning behind their decision...is he dense? It's far too late to undo the damage.

This shit is all over the web on every gaming forum/reddit, and everyone is expressing their disappointment of another developer who is caving in to oversensitive whiners who get offended by the sun rising in the morning.
...But instead, the director wanted to toot his own horn and show the whole world about how progressive and inclusive he and his team was being, throwing his art and animation teams under the bus while he was at it. The decision might have been a group effort, but if you ask me, the entire shitstorm can be blamed on one person: Jeff Kaplan. In his eagerness to pat himself on the back, he failed to consider that altering content for sketchy reasons would touch a nerve in the gaming community.

So...yeah. I'm just gonna assume stupidity on one person's part for this.
 

The Material Sheep

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Yuuki said:
SlumlordThanatos said:
I really doubt this was a case of Blizzard caving to a single whiner.
Jeff Kaplan himself said that this was a change the dev/art team had already decided to make a while ago. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and take his word on it. Minor artistic decision, adjustment made, job done, no biggie, move on.

BUT!

What I don't understand is how they handled this one particular complaint. Blizzard's standard practice of simply not responding to 90% of stuff would've worked perfectly fine here, but instead they went out of their way to apologize.
OF COURSE everyone assumed they "caved in to 1 whiner", because that's exactly what it looks like. Then Jeff has the gall to act surprised by it and tries to explain the full reasoning behind their decision...is he dense? It's far too late to undo the damage.

This shit is all over the web on every gaming forum/reddit, and everyone is backlashing their disappointment with another developer who has caved in to oversensitive sheltered whiners. The kind of typical backlash that is getting increasingly common.
The backlash is warranted at this point. Socjus, and puritanical views towards sexuality are becoming all the more pervasive among devs and journalists in the gaming industry. In large part though, the majority of gamers either don't care or are in disagreement with many of these sentiments. So when the media and other devs over amplify the vocal minority of people who advocate for these kind of things, the majority have realized they have to have a vocal backlash against it for their opinions on the subject to be heard at all. There isn't a large voice in media speaking for view points of the majority so a good chunk of gamers have realized they have to speak up every time they see something they don't like. This leads to problems like every nontroversy getting turned into a battlefield but this is what happens when you use media to isolate unpopular opinions.

This is quite the nontroversy. I always thought part of Tracers design was partially inspired by airplane pinup girls, so her having a few sexy poses seemed fitting to me. It seems that this was a planned change to begin with, and a dumb ass dev wanted to score progressive points with an audience that largely doesn't care or actively despises that kind of pandering. By and large I think everyone sees this as a fairly obvious foot in mouth moment and we can all have a good laugh at the situation. If it weren't for this vastly skewed perception of their audiance on the part of the devs, and the active obfuscation of where exactly popular opinion lies in the gaming community by the media, this would have been a simple change with no issue. Here we are though. A relatively small change, turned into a horridly over blown PR nightmare for blizzard and overwatch.
 

Cati

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Sep 4, 2014
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@EternallyBored - i admit usage of that phrase may be different based on location or environment, so yeah that particular bit could be a stretch. I hear it used all the time, so not seeing it said - especially when it's relevant to the discussion - raises some suspicion.
And I've seen more than enough from men on the topic of women an female characters in games, to know when one isn't being entirely honest with their intentions.


Besides, none of that changes the fact that he used women's issues, and specifically his daughter, to give his complaint more weight.

And whether he intentionally omitted the fact he was a man or not, that doesn't excuse everyone else for assuming he was a woman and therefore was some authority on how women and girls feel about characters like that. Nor does it excuse them ignoring all the actual women who objected to the original, sexist complaint and Blizzard's response to it.
 

Yuuki

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At least this mess has resulted in some lovely Tracer art which makes fun of the whole thing.

 

RobertEHouse

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Mar 29, 2012
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Did they somehow miss or not take a class in human sexuality in high school or college?
Do they not, or have they not figured out that the human race does have sexuality in its design?
Or do people think those inny and outty bits are just for decor?

Look if you create a human character in a game you're going to have some degree of sexuality displayed no matter the pose or the stance that character has. Anyone whom uses the "think of the/my children" line in a post seems to have forgotten what age group they were targeting with Overwatch. Teens and adults whom in one way or another though life have already been long "corrupted". Even the CDC census of high school student that had intercourse was at 47% in 2013. So who exactly is she protecting again? because it definitely cannot be teenagers or adults.

(info at http://www.cdc.gov/HealthyYouth/sexualbehaviors/)

Luckily this change will not affect the games mechanics, nor was the pose really needed. Do I personally think this is making Tracer a sexual symbol? No, because in order to do that, she would have to have no personality or such a weak one which would make her nothing more than a silhouette. Which is the completed opposite of what Tracer is, as both this post and Fipps has established. The last question is how did a single company pay more attention to a single voice then the rest of Overwatch's community that didn't have a problem with the pose?
 

Tilly

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Mar 8, 2015
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Lol well I read about this story in about 10 different places before I even saw the pose.

THATS IT?????

That's barely even sexual. Simply having an ass is now a sexual thing? When did we unwittingly get invaded by Saudi Arabia?

Pluvia said:
The best part is the guy never even said he was offended, so the poster seems to be directed at everyone who got offended by Blizzard removing it.
I think whether someone appears "offended" or not isn't really the issue in these sort of things. The thing people care about is just whether you're going to complain or not. Usually being "offended" and complaining correlate highly. But no always.
I think what people dislike is the complaining. If you were just really outraged and angry about something but kept it yourself, no-one would care.