New Overwatch Hero Is a Response to Body-Type Diversity Criticism

[theNater]

In a gunfight the last thing you want on your head is a really bright color... for obvious headshotty reasons...

You know that Zarya wants to be shot at, right? Because she has a force field, and people shooting at her are more importantly not shooting at Tracer and Hanzo?

 

[Skatologist]

Snip

And pray tell, exactly what does bright pink hair and tattoos give away about Zarya's personality? Heck, according to the official statement from Blizzard, her main personality trait is her desire to uphold the law. She's a protector, who sacrificed her pathway to fame and glory without blinking for a second to fight to protect those who can't protect themselves. And since neither of us could clearly tell that from her having pink hair and tattoos I think it's safe to say she hardly

were you going to say something else here? I usually leave stuff out myself until I catch it later.

Yeah well I do. I don't like blonde Zarya but you don't see saying "I can't believe you like that."

As I said before, Zarya is less of a stereotypical "Me big strong Russian," and more of a protector. Heck, really the only stereotypes about Zarya being a big strong tough Russian who fights bears seem to be the ones you're giving to her. She's a Russian with big muscles, that's all there is to her about stereotypes so maybe you should stop trying to read things where there aren't.

I'm still failing to see how pink hair is tough. It's way too bright and cheerful. Not to mention overall her facial expressions are kind of on the soft side. And her tatoos really don't have a "tough" vibe to her either. Also who said that the point of the design was to convey toughness? That seems to be a conclusion that you reached on your own.

Well actually, someone apparently overheard Chris Metzen discussing Zarya, this is what they said:

According to Chris Metzen, Zarya obtained her signature weapon, her particle-cannon, by literally ripping it off a nearby armored truck.

She is carrying around vehicular-mounted ordnance by herself.

She is definitely befitting of the title "Strongest Woman in the World".

Not sure if it should bare any weight given how I can only use this reddit thread as a source.

 

[theNater]

normal person: "Only the rich are priviliged, no matter what gender or skin color they have..."

Question: how does this view of privilege account for the fact that most US elected officials are men? Are men just biologically wealthier than women?

 

[Redryhno]

If male gaze weren't a form on pandering that companies use all the time.
Meanwhile, the new Katarina splash

There's just as much female gaze in alot of games ya know going by that logic, Gays and Bisexuals exist ya know. Not to mention there's more than a few artists that both like and dislike the porn drawn of the characters they helped create and have come out saying it, even so much as joked about it. What other reason would there be to have nearly all the MGS cast half naked at one point or another? Or pre-DmC Dante(this is my personal hate, I really dislike the new Dante design and personality, guy's a punk.)? Kinks, likes, and fetishes exist for nearly every game character, some more than others.

And I just saw the new Kat splash, I'll give you that one sorta for the sake of argument.

normal person: "Only the rich are priviliged, no matter what gender or skin color they have..."

Question: how does this view of privilege account for the fact that most US elected officials are men? Are men just biologically wealthier than women?

Well, you've gotta ask how many people want the stress of being an elected official first of all. That slices the available population into a tiny fraction, then there's who has the capital to finance election, then who either has the record-keepers or the morality to keep their image clean. There's alot of factors that cut down the population of who can be elected beyond just what jiggly bits are between their legs. Not to mention alot of elected officials have been elected officials since the 80's, and the lack of choice from a voter's perspective, because you don't have enough time to devote to having a well informed opinion of every name on the ballot, so name recognition plays a large part in this.

Everyone wants to change the world, but the reality is that it's not all that easy to change it even if you get elected since a brand new Representative has to get like 10k a week to finance his re-election. The party system in the U.S. is a clusterfuck, and everybody has known it since around Hoover's time when we started shifting from one side to the other every few years.

 

[The Lunatic]

Although, looking at those hair edits, I find it funny that in order to "fix" Zarya's hair, they want to either be more "nerd" stereotypical with the red hair (like the Mass Effect Femshep contest) or lean further into the Russian stereotypes with the blond hair.

To be fair, vibrant pixie cuts are gradually becoming the female equivalent of the Fedora, it's not terribly surprising people aren't too keen on it.

Besides, given they're basically copying TF2, it wouldn't be surprising to see skins resolve a lot of the issues people are having with the cringy hair.

 

[Aerosteam]

I dislike this new character.

Zarya's pretty cool though.

 

[Karadalis]

normal person: "Only the rich are priviliged, no matter what gender or skin color they have..."

Question: how does this view of privilege account for the fact that most US elected officials are men? Are men just biologically wealthier than women?

Oh that has more to do with old rich families traditions then the fabled "male privilige". Since youknow.. if you dont have money... good luck becomming more then a local politician... male or female.

Its kinda expected in those circles of priviliged (speak: filthy rich) families that the male Heir be groomed into becomming a big name politician if he wants to or not. This really isnt a privilige but more of a burden to fulfill daddy and mommys ambition for their child.

Also its a very US centric problem, if you look at europe you will find plenty of women in politics.

Germany for example had a female chancellor for the last 9 years or so and has a female minister of defense, and alot of other women in the parlament and in top spots in all the factions.

The USAs problems are old clunky traditions and the fact that you need to invest ALOT of money into a single person to place them into a top political position. And again: I dont believe that making the decision for your child to become a politician would be seen by said child as a "privilige" seeing how much sacrifice and effort goes into a political career if you are expected to aim for the top.

So in short the whole US politic system is kinda fucked from the getgo atleast from an outsiders perspective.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

Although, looking at those hair edits, I find it funny that in order to "fix" Zarya's hair, they want to either be more "nerd" stereotypical with the red hair (like the Mass Effect Femshep contest) or lean further into the Russian stereotypes with the blond hair.

To be fair, vibrant pixie cuts are gradually becoming the female equivalent of the Fedora, it's not terribly surprising people aren't too keen on it.

Besides, given they're basically copying TF2, it wouldn't be surprising to see skins resolve a lot of the issues people are having with the cringy hair.

Is it? Huh, I guess that's where the complaints about "SJW" or "Tumblr" hair come from.

______________________
It may be petty of me, but the fact that this haircut is "annoying" this particular segment of the gaming community amuses me to no end. Especially considering the "fixes" push the character further into the "stereotypical" range. Other complaints I tend to run into are based around the "manly" aspects of the character, "Man with boobs" or them wanting her slimmed down or whatnot. It's like they'd never seen a well-muscled female athlete before.

 

[Karadalis]

Other complaints I tend to run into are based around the "manly" aspects of the character, "Man with boobs" or them wanting her slimmed down or whatnot. It's like they'd never seen a well-muscled female athlete before.

Well if we go by anita logic here she is either a fighting fuck toy (boob breastplate)... or ms male character thought so its not really surprising that you saw these complaints.

I still really dont know what these people want in a female character since they basically ruled out any depiction of female characters from the getgo.. no matter what they look like in the end.

Make them unatractive... its a mockery of femminists somehow...

Make them athletic... then its objectivication...

Make them muscular... its just a male character with tits...

Jesus.. can these people make up their bloody minds?

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

Well if we go by anita logic here she is either a fighting fuck toy (boob breastplate)... or ms male character thought so its not really surprising that you saw these complaints.

I still really dont know what these people want in a female character since they basically ruled out any depiction of female characters from the getgo.. no matter what they look like in the end.

Make them unatractive... its a mockery of femminists somehow...

Make them athletic... then its objectivication...

Make them muscular... its just a male character with tits...

Jesus.. can these people make up their bloody minds?

I'm not seeing those complaints from "feminists". I'm seeing these complaints from people who whine about feminists.

Although I find it helps to
A) Realize that Sarkeesian isn't the end all and be all of feminist thought. They tend to disagree with each other about a lot.
and B) Don't strawman the arguments in the first place.

 

[The Lunatic]

Is it? Huh, I guess that's where the complaints about "SJW" or "Tumblr" hair come from.

Pretty much!

I mean, sure, it looks good on some people. I'm not fond of the colour myself, but, it "Works" to some extent on the character in question.

However, sadly, it doesn't work for many people, and much like a fedora, you get a bunch of people within a certain circle giving themselves haircuts that don't suit them, in colours that look very daft.

Personally, I just hope the next character they add is an overweight mid-20s guy, with a patchy beard, black fedora, leather trench-coat, jeans and an /r/atheism T-shirt. To achieve complete equality.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

Personally, I just hope the next character they add is an overweight mid-20s guy, with a patchy beard, black fedora, leather trench-coat, jeans and an /r/atheism T-shirt. To achieve complete equality.

Oh, please let that become a thing. I'd be able to feel the heat from Blizzard's server from here in Montana! XD

 

[Metalix Knightmare]

She's just a futuristic Heavy with boobs and pink hair.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

While true, it's still note-worthy. She's "just" something that doesn't show up very often, if at all.

I mean, Chell's "just" a floating arm, silent FPS protag. That doesn't mean she's less relevant or whatever.

 

[Lightknight]

While true, it's still note-worthy. She's "just" something that doesn't show up very often, if at all.

To be fair, they rarely show up in person too. I'd say she's about as common as girls her build are in real life and a fair bit prettier whereas a lot of male culture specifically glorifies that kind of musculature and requires significant less effort and so is significantly more common.

But hey, we can't all be the mountain. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpUrXJNcS_8]

Good on them for including her though. At least there's less for people to ***** about niche characters being produced that they don't personally care about but imagine other people they've never met do.

I mean, Chell's "just" a floating arm, silent FPS protag. That doesn't mean she's less relevant or whatever.

Maybe if you never set up two portals in a corner to see yourself and clearly see that she's a fully fledged avatar.

http://static.giantbomb.com/uploads/original/0/2179/1776452-chell_portal_1.png

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

While true, it's still note-worthy. She's "just" something that doesn't show up very often, if at all.

To be fair, they rarely show up in person too. I'd say she's about as common as girls her build are in real life and a fair bit prettier.

True, heavily-muscled, athletic women aren't terribly common in real life. Neither are heavily-muscled, athletic men. Or, you know, heavily-muscled dwarves with prosthetic limbs, supermodel snipers, uplifted gorillas, and spiritual robots.

EDIT:

Good on them for including her though. At least there's less for people to ***** about niche characters being produced that they don't personally care about but imagine other people they've never met do.

What's with this bizarre insistence that the people complaining to Blizzard about body diversity or whatever don't have a stake in playing the game, same as anybody else? Are "SJWs" not "real" gamers or anything? I mean, I obviously care, as do many in this thread. Do we not "count"?

I mean, Chell's "just" a floating arm, silent FPS protag. That doesn't mean she's less relevant or whatever.

Maybe if you never set up two portals in a corner to see yourself and clearly see that she's a fully fledged avatar.

*snip*

Yes, yes, you are technically correct. You can view her character model. Just like you can view the character model for any random floating gun FPS protag on occasion.

Doesn't remove the fact that said types of blank, everyman characters (whose race/gender I'm repeatedly assured doesn't matter) tend to be scruffy white males. Making Chell "note-worthy".

 

[Lil devils x_v1legacy]

Although, looking at those hair edits, I find it funny that in order to "fix" Zarya's hair, they want to either be more "nerd" stereotypical with the red hair (like the Mass Effect Femshep contest) or lean further into the Russian stereotypes with the blond hair.

To be fair, vibrant pixie cuts are gradually becoming the female equivalent of the Fedora, it's not terribly surprising people aren't too keen on it.

Besides, given they're basically copying TF2, it wouldn't be surprising to see skins resolve a lot of the issues people are having with the cringy hair.

Okay I'm gonna be that person and say that Zarya has isn't even a pixie cut. This is a pixie cut.

Spoiler

Its not a faux hawk either, which I've seen people saying. I don't what specifically you'd call that, but it certainly isn't either of those. I tried looking it up, and the following was the third result for "punk hairstyle."

Spoiler: Look familiar?

Just being nit-picky, don't mind me.

It is a pixie cut. just styled different, some make them go forward, some go to the side and some go back or stick out all over their head:

Spoiler: different styling but all considered pixie cuts

Most of the ones I have seen around here on women have it sticking out all over their head spiked with gel. You can have short pixie cuts, long pixie cuts, layered, non layered.. they are all still considered pixie cuts from the stylist book. Frequently you choose a different type of pixie cut by the shape of your face:
http://www.sheknows.com/beauty-and-style/articles/1032751/the-right-pixie-cut-for-your-face-shape

 

[Lil devils x_v1legacy]

-snip-

If you say so. I'd never actually seen a style like the first in those series of images described as a pixie, though.

That is because most women do not want to use the amount of gel and spray to make it stay like that. They get pixie cuts to have it easier to manage and that style is a pain to do and manage.
They have them as an option in the hairstyle books, just less rare for a woman to choose them. One of my roommates in college was a hair stylist and had a ton of these books and fake heads she butchered laying around... I still have some of those heads she gave me that we use on Halloween.. XD