Blizzard "Trying Not to Oversexualize" Female Overwatch Characters

[Sarah LeBoeuf]

Blizzard "Trying Not to Oversexualize" Female Overwatch Characters


Based on feedback from female employees and family members, Blizzard is trying to make its next IP more representative of all gamers.

Two days ago at Overwatch [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/blizzcon%202014]. During a press conference for the forthcoming PC game, designer Chris Metzen revealed one of the developer's goals for Overwatch: avoiding the hyper-sexualization of female characters.

According to Kotaku [http://kotaku.com/blizzard-admits-to-over-sexualizing-women-trying-to-do-1656383872], Metzen said of the gender issue, "I think we're clear we're in an age where gaming is for everybody... Increasingly people want to feel represented from all walks of life, everywhere in the world. Boys and girls--everybody." As a result, Blizzard is "trying not to oversexualize the female characters" in Overwatch, a choice that was also influenced by the developer's female employees and Metzen's daughter. "She saw a World of Warcraft cinematic of the Dragon Aspects, and my daughter was like, 'Why are they all in swimsuits?' And I was like, 'I don't know. I don't know anymore.'"

This isn't to say that Overwatch--or any game--should cut out all female (and male, for that matter) characters with a hint of sexuality; but, in this era of boob-shaped armor and warrior women in metal bikini-esque outfits, "there's a lot of room for growth," as Metzen puts it. "We want girls to feel kick-butt. Equally represented." While admitting this is just the first step to a more representative and female-friendly industry, it's refreshing to hear about a major force in gaming making the effort.

Source: Kotaku [http://kotaku.com/blizzard-admits-to-over-sexualizing-women-trying-to-do-1656383872]

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[Hazzard]

Well, that's nice, but I suppose it's sad that this seems to be news-worthy now.

 

[Grizzly_Bear_1]

Considering this game is obviously designed for kids, there shouldn't be any revealing armour. It's not a big deal. If they are emphasizing this point so early on to get attention rather than talk about the game itself, it can't be very good, just a team fortress 2 knockoff.

 

[Nimzabaat]

So one out of five female characters not being in a form fitting outfit counts as "trying"? That's interesting. Considering that the remaining characters are male gorilla, male tank (why no female counterpart? something like Shale from Dragon Age for example), non-gender specific robot/turret, male assassin dude trying too hard to be dark and mysterious, male cybord-yogi (so far my favorite), and lastly male somewhat sexy archer guy. Admittedly the real issue is with the viewer and not the content, but I can see some people having problems with this.

 

[Baresark]

Haha, the source would be Kotaku.

That said: fine by me. It's super easy to avoid over-sexualization. You simply cover up all the bits that mark them female and treat your two genders the same. Guys where a sleeveless vest and an undershit, girls wearing a sleeveless vest and an undershirt. guys wearing baggy pants, girls wearing baggy pants. It's super simple.

The real challenge is going to be pleasing all the brain donors that do nothing but look for it. I'm sure they will still find plenty to complain about. I mean, I watched the video and for like 2 seconds this video followed a female character wearing tight pants and her ass filled most of the screen. That alone is enough to set off some of these people. And just for fun: If you took that archer guys outfit and stuck it on a girl, she would probably be consider over-sexualized. I'm just saying.... it is gonna be hard to please those types of people.

I do feel that comparisons to TF2 are 100% unavoidable though. I mean, it's the same kind of idea it looks like with cartoony characters and point captures and every class being unique and all... though Blizzard is not known for their hats, so that is kind of win in my camp anyway.

 

[synobal]

Wish they'd just take out female characters at this point, all these stupid articles are not worth it. Linking to Kotaku also, surely the escapist has better standards?

 

[nevarran]

Listen to Metzen, kids, and you'll go to heaven...

captcha: eat your dinner

 

[josemlopes]

Ah, thats a nice one

Spoiler: Ass Expansion

In the end no one can really complain about how the character designs are, the artists are the ones to create them and those artists usually create both genders that end up falling in their own stereotypes. We can choose not to buy it but to be a nagging floating conscience of "No, dont do that, do this, I dont care what you (the one actually doing it) want, I care what I want" really doesnt help anyone.

 

[nevarran]

That said: fine by me. It's super easy to avoid over-sexualization. You simply cover up all the bits that mark them female and treat your two genders the same. Guys where a sleeveless vest and an undershit, girls wearing a sleeveless vest and an undershirt. guys wearing baggy pants, girls wearing baggy pants. It's super simple.

Better yet, put them all in monk robes... and add masks, so we can't see their skin color, you must cover the racist bases as well. And they should all talk with robot voices, a perfect 50/50 male/female sounding voices. I'm sure I'm missing something, but with enough efforts, I'm sure all can be pleased.

 

[Erttheking]

Wish they'd just take out female characters at this point, all these stupid articles are not worth it. Linking to Kotaku also, surely the escapist has better standards?

Because art is something you have to work and suffer for and if you can't handle any criticism you probably should've picked a different career? Honestly, just because you don't care about these issues, doesn't mean other people don't. And if your biggest problem with this is that you're tired of reading all the articles about it, then frankly I think we're in a good place

OT: Overwatch is certainly a step in the right direction, I love the design for Tracer espically, but it's an example of "Evolution not Revolution". We've still got Widowmaker showing her boobs off, we've still got boob plates, we've still got all the female characters being attractive and obviously human, still limited body types (With the possible exception of Pahrah) all of the women being fairly small where as the guys can range from being small to huge, to being a gorilla or a robot.

Still I don't want to underplay the steps Blizzard is taking here and I am looking forward to this game. We've just got a long way to go.

 

[BrotherRool]

Particularly nice since it's Blizzard. One of their developers through a proper hissy fit when RPS asked about some of the stripperific Heroes of the Swarm designs (they weren't even too bad, but the developer just said the stupidest things in response. Blizards PR team had to step in and give him a talking too)

 

[PunkRex]

Just add a sexy dude and all points can be rendered mute, not that the Asian fella wasn't sexy, he's just not really sexual like the sniper girl.

Butt cereal though, that Pharah looks like a beast, DEATH FROM ABOVE!

Tracker looks like she has some interesting game mechanics, not to mention the English accent kind of tugged at my heart strings a little.

 

[The Goat Tsar]

I like how racially diverse it is. Germans, Swedes, Egyptians, Indians, Nepalese... Pretty good so far. Just needs a few black and Hispanic characters and it'll be set.

 

[josemlopes]

That said: fine by me. It's super easy to avoid over-sexualization. You simply cover up all the bits that mark them female and treat your two genders the same. Guys where a sleeveless vest and an undershit, girls wearing a sleeveless vest and an undershirt. guys wearing baggy pants, girls wearing baggy pants. It's super simple.

Better yet, put them all in monk robes... and add masks, so we can't see their skin color, you must cover the racist bases as well. And they should all talk with robot voices, a perfect 50/50 male/female sounding voices. I'm sure I'm missing something, but with enough efforts, I'm sure all can be pleased.

To be honest they could just have every class have a male and female model, like the clothing is almost the same but with both genders.
Team Fortress 2's community has already made most female versions of the classes and they are all very similar to the male models except different details (and gender of course).

Some of them

Spoiler

And Im not saying to make all the male characters first and then put female bodies inside, Im saying that for the female characters now to do a male version with a similar outfit (there are plenty of games out there with slim sexy, barely wearing anything, male dudes, especially Mobas)

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Well I seemed to see a lot of very slender women in skin-tight outfits in a trailer for a game that's trying not to oversexulize it female characters.

 

[Ishigami]

That said: fine by me. It's super easy to avoid over-sexualization. You simply cover up all the bits that mark them female and treat your two genders the same.

Let?s all play as bricks! ? If everyone looks literally the same its fair all around.

Seriously if there is no difference between male and female then there is little point in having the option at all.
So let?s have sausage fest or a veg fest which looks like a sausage fest instead? awesome?

And oh my god the world is going down a female shows of a bit of cleavage or leg...
Instead of being glad that there is an actually new IP by a major developer who could easily rest upon their already established IPs instead, like let?s say Nintendo, you guys talk about rather modest designs and make that somehow the main concern.
Talking about getting your priorities straight eh?

 

[Subbies]

I like how racially diverse it is. Germans, Swedes, Egyptians, Indians, Nepalese... Pretty good so far. Just needs a few black and Hispanic characters and it'll be set.

Spoiler

In the cinematic trailer, we see this image where there is indeed a black guy. Whether or not he'll be playable is up to guess, but I'm tempted to that that he will be, it's just that blizzard hasn't implemented the whole roster of heroes to pick from yet, hence why he wasn't seen in the gameplay trailer.

 

[Rag Doll]

Well this makes sense. Why do yourself what the internet is happy to do for you?

As in, I have already seen Overwatch porn. By accident. And I hear there was some for Tracer floating around *hours* after the press conference ended.