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

[BeerTent]

She is still sexy though, in a body-builder kind-of way. And she has a pretty face. How about making fat, not pretty female character?

Sorry to burst your bubble, but we are just never going to see a non-pretty female character [http://i.ytimg.com/vi/s5rgkX5y4RA/maxresdefault.jpg] in this industry. I mean, Really now. [http://www.cheatcc.com/imagesfeatures/top10mostterrifyingvideogamecharacters_10.jpg]



On a side note, I dunno, I don't really see a problem with her. It'd be a better gesture if she wasn't a response, but other than that, the fans asked, Blizzard listened. Just balance her proper, because sweet Jesus she looks powerful in that vid. Then again, she does focus primarily on weapons I prefer to use.

 

[chikusho]

Design via checklist, whether that checklist was created by social justice advocates or a marketing team targeting specific demographics is artistically bankrupt.

Simply untrue. Some of the best art is created as a direct result of harsh limitation.

 

[Mister K]

She is still sexy though, in a body-builder kind-of way. And she has a pretty face. How about making fat, not pretty female character?

Sorry to burst your bubble, but we are just never going to see a non-pretty female character [http://i.ytimg.com/vi/s5rgkX5y4RA/maxresdefault.jpg] in this industry. I mean, Really now. [http://www.cheatcc.com/imagesfeatures/top10mostterrifyingvideogamecharacters_10.jpg]



On a side note, I dunno, I don't really see a problem with her. It'd be a better gesture if she wasn't a response, but other than that, the fans asked, Blizzard listened. Just balance her proper, because sweet Jesus she looks powerful in that vid. Then again, she does focus primarily on weapons I prefer to use.

I won't agree with you on Witch, because it is common knowledge that female enemies/antagonists are allowed to be not attractive, but yeah, I forgot about Helga (is that her name?)

Oh, and I too don't have problems with her. I don't really like pink hair, but otherwise I like everything about her. But I DO have a problem with rule "female character can be either pretty or on heavier side of weight". The example you've provided me with only serves to confirm my theory. I mean, chubby ladies can be pretty, you know. Oooooh, by the freakin way, I think the same situation is with male characters. Hmm...

 

[Charli]

I've always wanted a female heavy, so whatever hangups I have I'm going to shelf.

I love her.

Also Kotaku can shut up. Even (most of) tumblr seems to like her.

 

[Erttheking]

So we get a character made to combat complaints by the SJWs... and how do they take it I wonder?

Well going by Kotaku's article... The first comment you see is someone complaining:

https://archive.today/wOu3K

There's just no pleasing these cunts.

Well I rather like it and I've been labeled an SJW in the past plenty of times.

Also if you're hoping for something that will never be criticized by every single person on the internet, you're gonna be waiting for a LONG time. It's the human condition, not the results of a vague group you're determined to hate. I just poked into Tumblr and it's exploding over how much people love her. Overall the reaction to her is pretty damn positive so the SJW cunts that you speak off can totally be pleased. Not all of them because they're not a hive mind who want the same thing, but hey. Human beings.

 

[zinho73]

She looks pretty stereotypical to me: the big, burly, Russian strong woman - with a prettier face, sure, but still very grounded in the stereotypes.

Like the gunslinger, to be honest. The art style is cool, but the art design team is pretty dry on the character creation front in my opinion.

 

[visiblenoise]

So we get a character made to combat complaints by the SJWs... and how do they take it I wonder?

Well going by Kotaku's article... The first comment you see is someone complaining:

https://archive.today/wOu3K

There's just no pleasing these cunts.

I think what they ultimately want is something that transcends stereotypes like never before. A three-legged Olympian and furry who was born and raised on the sun, would be "quite cool."

 

[DoPo]

Zayra is the game's first female tank character.

In addition to Zayra,

*Zarya

Of course she is. I mean everyone knows Russia has the monopoly on big, strong women with kinda deep voices, right? /s

Not "monopoly", per se, but seems a lot of them come from there. I'd appreciate it if less of the big buff characters came from there. There are a few more countries than the USA, UK, Russia and China where it seems a lot of characters hail from (well, we could expand it a bit to, like, Germany and France but you get the idea).

 

[Baresark]

It looks like they took the stereotypical male body, stuck a female head on it, put some armor with boobs on it and called it a female. At least we are still seeing unrealistic women in games, so I guess that is never gonna change. Not that I need women to be realistic, I just need them to be as realistic as male characters, which is not at all indicative of what most men actually look like.

So I guess.... good design. At least she isn't like a twig with boobs.

Edit: OMG... is Blizzard condoning the user of steroids! Haha, I just couldn't help myself.

Edit2: Transgender? Perhaps XXY? Hmmm... could be interesting.

 

[Lotet]

Cartoon characters aren't the same as real people. I'm pretty sure most people look to real life human beings as role models, not a collection of pixels on a screen. Looking to cartoon fantasy characters to "feel represented", that's like scraping the bottom of the barrel, must be pretty depressing.

Yeah, it is somewhat depressing that the only fat guy with agency who isn't a bandit, thug, Peter Griffin or some such I can think of is Coop from Megas XLR. Though that's to be expected, fat people are bad and should feel bad so they can become better, normal people.

 

[Erttheking]

snip

Cartoon characters aren't the same as real people. I'm pretty sure most people look to real life human beings as role models, not a collection of pixels on a screen. Looking to cartoon fantasy characters to "feel represented", that's like scraping the bottom of the barrel, must be pretty depressing.

You do realize this is a website mainly dedicated to gamers correct? As in gaming is our preferred hobby? And short of games like Tex Murphy, games don't actually have real people in them, and I'm pretty sure a lot of gamers grew up idolizing game characters. Heck, we still do if the popularity of characters like Master Chief and Commander Shepard is anything to go by

And what's so bad about relating with someone who's a fictional character and not live action? I relate to plenty of video game characters like you wouldn't believe.

 

[Darth Rosenberg]

The specifics of design aren't that important in this instance, as I think simply acknowledging a need for greater variety is what's most important, so kudos to them for that.

As a relatively masculine Rusky female, however, it's still just another stereotype as opposed to anything particularly original or new. Still, big picture contexts are important.

Wholly subjectively, and whilst I won't be playing the game, I like the look of most of the designs.

 

[Zhukov]

So we get a character made to combat complaints by the SJWs... and how do they take it I wonder?

Well going by Kotaku's article... The first comment you see is someone complaining:

https://archive.today/wOu3K

There's just no pleasing these cunts.

Followed by a whole bunch of comments along the lines of "Cool" and "Hot" and "I totally want to play as that character."

Oh, and then there's a comment complaining that there's just no pleasing some people. Exactly like yours.

Wow, it's almost as if we're dealing with a collection of individuals with different opinions.

Naaaaah. Couldn't be.

 

[inmunitas]

snip

Cartoon characters aren't the same as real people. I'm pretty sure most people look to real life human beings as role models, not a collection of pixels on a screen. Looking to cartoon fantasy characters to "feel represented", that's like scraping the bottom of the barrel, must be pretty depressing.

You do realize this is a website mainly dedicated to gamers correct? As in gaming is our preferred hobby? And short of games like Tex Murphy, games don't actually have real people in them, and I'm pretty sure a lot of gamers grew up idolizing game characters. Heck, we still do if the popularity of characters like Master Chief and Commander Shepard is anything to go by

And what's so bad about relating with someone who's a fictional character and not live action? I relate to plenty of video game characters like you wouldn't believe.

They fantasies about being that character and/or elements of the ideas present in that character/story that resonate with themselves. Not idolize that character as if it were a real person with agency they can look up to.

 

[Teepop]

"We've been hearing a lot of discussion among players about the need for diversity in video games".

I haven't. E.g. I've been playing WoW for 8 years and never heard it once in guild/general/trade.

In reality what has happened is that gaming communities have been hijacked by two small but vocal groups of people engaged in a culture war that most gamers couldn't care less about.

But let's pretend for a moment they do care. Perhaps Blizzard can release the statistics for the racial choices that female players make in WoW. What do consumers actually pick when given the choice?

At last count WoW had what? 10 million subs? It also has a very large female player-base compared to other games (especially those in similar genres to Overwatch) and it offers a wealth of character choices. So WoW is the perfect subject to investigate if you really want to gauge the consumers true desires.

I mean...surely it wouldn't be the case that with the exception of a teeny niche of hardcore players who care about racial bonuses, almost all female players opt for the stereotypical beauty of the Humans, Night Elfs and Blood Elfs right...?!

I personally couldn't really care either way if there is a greater variety of body types and beauty levels. Makes no difference to me.

What I object to is the pretence that consumers have some raging desire for more diverse body types away from what is traditionally considered the idealistic depictions of beauty. I'd bet any money that consumers and in particular female players overwhelming favour traditional depictions of beauty for their avatars where such choices are purely cosmetic (no power perks).

I bet you the film Surrogates got it right! Now I've not played Second Life but I bet as in the aforementioned movie if you took photos of a thousand players at random and compared it to their avatar choices you would see the same preferences.

The consumer does not want to be "represented", they overwhelmingly and fully exploit every opportunity games afford them to live out the fantasy of physical perfection.

 

[kaizen2468]

Step in the right direction for sure. Still stereotypical since you made her Russian.

 

[KaZuYa]

You don't need to go to extremes to have diversity, physical strength or size mean nothing in equality. Take Vasquez from Aliens, she wasn't some massive muscle bound weightlifter she was just a badass marine like her entire squad and everyone respected her because she could do her job just as well as any of them. It's dangerous territory trying to portray the only capable women as muscle bound and unattractive/plain, Vasquez was a tough SOB but yet she lost none of her sex appeal.

 

[gamegod25]

Now I want a picture of Zarya and TF2 Heavy eating a sandvich together XD

But seriously I think both new chars look pretty cool and still looking forward to playing Overwatch.