Blizzard "Trying Not to Oversexualize" Female Overwatch Characters

[Ticklefist]

People keep freaking out over oversexualized female characters in games lately, what about oversexualized male characters? No? Weeeeell, guess not. It's only ever about the oversexualization of females.

It's kinda amusing to see people try and claims that's a "Power Fantasy" as if the same couldn't be said about sexualised females.

They're basically saying "Yeah, men should feel empowered by being oversexualised, but for women it's a bad thing!".

The difference is that when a woman tells a man that she thinks he's sexy, he doesn't have to worry about where she's going with that compliment, and whether or not the wrong response (even if it's a fair response) will antagonize her. Meanwhile women need to be very careful about how they handle a man giving her a compliment, because sometimes (granted not always, but it happens) no matter how she reacts, the guy will act like he was already given permission by simple virtue of her passing across his line of sight.

In short, a guy will nearly-always regard it as a compliment when he's told he looks good. Meanwhile for a woman, being told the same thing can be the scariest thing she hears, because "Oh shit, was that just a random compliment, or him verbally marking his territory?"

Wow. Whoever fed you that one is completely irrational and should seek fear counseling.

 

[michael87cn]

while they tone down the female sexualization can they also tone down the male sexualization? I don't enjoy playing as a steroid junky that can lift a car. that'd be grrrrrrrrrreat..... but won't happen. women will look normal and the dudes will look like freaks....

 

[Gizen]

To be fair, there is (or was) someone on the League team who was trying. Annie, Kayle, Diana, Tristana, and several others are fairly well done, without oversexualization.

And then there's characters like Janna, Caitlyn, or Cassiopeia, who have no reason for the way they are dressed.

That being said, I still dislike the fact that so many characters are oversexualized, and that female characters who aren't the 'normal' model are few and far between.

Cassiopeia kinda does have a reason as her (original at least) background story was that she was a spy disguised as what amounted to a high-priced hooker who then became cursed. Janna you could make an argument about being 'free as the wind' or whatever. Caitlyn... has no excuse whatsoever and Riot has admitted as such and said that'll likely get fixed when she gets an inevitable-but-not-anytime-soon remake.

That said, as a whole they've been doing better with this as of late. The newest female champion, Kalista, they announced isn't very sexualized. The previous one Lissandra was also not at all sexualized. Before her there was Jinx, who does wear extremely skimpy clothes but at least gets some points for having an unconventional body type (at least unconventional as far as League goes).

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

Wow. Whoever fed you that one is completely irrational and should seek fear counseling.

I've seen it.

 

[Batou667]

Hey, whatever. They're free to use whatever style of art direction they like, and if that fits the demographic they're aiming for, that makes perfectly good financial sense as well.

I'm hesitant to hail this as some kind of step towards a more "enlightened" or "progressive" breed of gaming though, if all they're doing is making the wimminz cover up. That, in and of itself, isn't any better than WoW's boobplate - it's just different. Possibly less objectifying, possibly more female-friendly. But also possibly less sex-positive, and possibly more repressive. "More representative of all gamers" is also a non-sequitur, as I don't believe any of the game's characters are white, 30-something, middle class women working in administration or middle-management. It's clearly a fantastic, OTT, militaristic science fiction setting; the characters don't represent any gamers beyond superficial commonalities of sex or race.

Anybody trying to claim this game as a small victory for their pet social/political cause is grasping at straws, frankly.

 

[Popido]

Hourglass figured barbies all of them. Including the power armor. Only points they deserve from this attempt is pity points.

Here, let me help you to design "not so ovesexualized" female character.

Grizzly bear with railguns.

Done!

An attractive male with no drive, no friends, and no social skills is not going to get female attention.

Every god damn Sasuke in fiction.

 

[Something Amyss]

OMG this makes me so angry because....REASONS! Why do they have to consider other people? Not pandering directly to me is unreasonable!

Less "Fuck me" and more "I'm gonna fuck YOU"

Okay, that's my quote for the week.

 

[Nergui]

This whole issue seems a lot like clickbaiting by Blizzard for free publicity. On the other hand, it also worked well, so they can hardly be faulted.

Had they just made a female shaped version of the male characters with identical outfits, this would have been a non-issue and they would have had to pay for their PR.

Captcha - heavens to betsy
(how appropiate)

 

[Ticklefist]

Wow. Whoever fed you that one is completely irrational and should seek fear counseling.

I've seen it.

I'll top that, I've experienced it. I know I'm not the only one on this forum who has, either.

I didn't expect your irrational fears to be without precedent. People can't go around fearing the worst, it's not healthy and irrational. Seek counseling if you do.

 

[Ticklefist]

I didn't expect your irrational fears to be without precedent. People can't go around fearing the worst, it's not healthy and irrational. Seek counseling if you do.

Its not irrational if it happens all the time.

I'm 38. Well out of the dating scene. Forgive me if things have changed. In my experience when some guy was rude and overbearing like this, to the point that it made a woman visibly uncomfortable, there were about 5 standup guys right there that would intervene. They could possibly even be strangers. Are you saying the general attitude towards women has turned so hostile that this is no longer the case?

 

[EternallyBored]

I didn't expect your irrational fears to be without precedent. People can't go around fearing the worst, it's not healthy and irrational. Seek counseling if you do.

Its not irrational if it happens all the time.

I'm 38. Well out of the dating scene. Forgive me if things have changed. In my experience when some guy was rude and overbearing like this, to the point that it made a woman uncomfortable, there were about 5 standup guys right there that would intervene. They could possibly even be strangers. Are you saying the general attitude towards women has turned so hostile that this is no longer the case?

More like it never was the case, bystander effect is a thing, and for every time I saw random strangers stepping in to stop harrassment, I saw 10 incidences where everyone around decided to stay out of it. I responded because it was my job at the time as a club bouncer, but I could almost never count on bystanders to come in and stop it before I got there.

I still see cases of harassment that go completely ignored by bystanders. I'm not talking about small stuff either, I mean full on shouting or even physical violence that will be ignored until security or police show up. The shit I saw when I worked the security room in casinos was enough to make me downright depressed some days.

There are people willing to step in, but it's not an everytime kind of thing, and I wouldn't even call it the norm, and that was 10 years ago so this isn't some recent phenomenon, it's why emergency responders and professionals are often given classes that specifically train them how to not freeze up or ignore a serious situation. Everyone thinks someone else will take care of it, and it isn't their problem, this isn't new, I've heard stories from 60 year old guards of finding girls raped in the public restrooms at clubs, without a single report from the guests until staff stumbles across them.

You can't let fear rule your life, but it is not irrational to take precaution and consideration against a very real risk.

 

[Ticklefist]

Post removed.

 

[dragonswarrior]

The only sexualised man in this game is the archer. He's a hotty. The others are robots, gorillas, completely covered from head to toe in cloaks and masks, and a dwarf looking mofo.

I have never heard a woman describe the Marcus Fenix (sp?) body type as sexy. I'm sure they exist, but they're probably in the minority, if not a vast minority.

Whereas, in this game alone, every woman in it is attractive. Even the awesome armor lady has an element of sexiness to her character design. There is nothing sexy about the gorilla, or the dwarf dude. Well, let me correct that, nothing CONVENTIONALLY sexy. I'm not gonna diss ya if you're into that sorta thing. But every woman in this game, even the one that has nothing but a mouth showing, is conventionally attractive.

That's a problem.

For one, I don't think it's a problem. Every woman is attractive, because people are going to be looking at them. That's the fact. Every single character is designed to be aesthetically pleasing because people will look at them. It's the Tomoki effect, as I call it. Even if you are told that the character is Ugly, chances are their design as you see it will not be.

And also, there is no standard definition for what classes as a 'default' sexy man. Which is a GOOD thing! And we shouldn't be focused on GETTING any. More important is getting more variety in female character designs to match up with what is accepted for men. Which Overwatch has done to at least a small extent with Pharah, even if she's essentially Egyptian Samus with some Orbital Gear for good measure(side note, I don't think the Zone of the Enders comparisons and her Egyptian origins are co-incidence, someone at Blizzard likes Kojima).

*blinks* Uhm... How on earth can you not see this as a problem? I mean, I don't even know where to start. Yea, every character is designed to be aesthetically pleasing. It's just that all the women are designed to be sexually pleasing, while only one of the male characters is designed that way. Like... What? There is such a huge difference there I can't even understand how this is an argument.

You said it's okay because the women are designed for people to be looking at them. I mean... That IS the problem. These women characters are designed to be looked at by men. To appeal to men. Not to women. Not to just people in general. To men. There isn't a single female character in this game that was designed to not be conventionally attractive. Whereas of the male characters, only one seems to be designed to be conventionally attractive, to appeal to women, while all the others can appeal to anyone who likes good character design.

Then in your second paragraph you say this: "More important is getting more variety in female character designs to match up with what is accepted for men." And you say some cool if I think somewhat ignorant stuff about male conventional attractiveness. Which makes me wonder if maybe you just didn't understand my post? Because it almost seems like you agree with me at least in part anyway? *confused*

Also, while I wish we didn't have a male conventional attractiveness archetype, sad thing is I think we do. And the archer character kinda personifies it. Fit but not buff, some nice muscle definition showing, grizzled but still very attractive. That's sort of the "thing" that currently defines the attractive male at this point. At least as I've noticed media portraying it.

More or less, heh. I suppose we can agree to disagree at this point.

Still though, I guess it's okay if people feel strongly about this issue. I've just never concerned myself too much with topics like this. Sorry if I offended at all.

*laughs* Allright. Apology accepted, and I can totally understand that. *grins* Just realize... For a lot of folks this is a very serious issue. And many of them don't have the option of saying "this is just a game" because for them it can't "just" be that. Something they love has to be in so many ways offensive to them, at least at the moment. And for them (me, us) fighting against that is something that is really worth it.