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

[Lotet]

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...?!

Yeah, considering that Humans, Blood Elves and Night Elves are the most popular races in that order, I doubt you're wrong, but that would mean that guys are playing those same races, so having you make it sound like it's only female behaviour is a moot point.

To be specific, those 3 races make up 38% of all players.

 

[Garlador]

Oh no! Look at this, people! LOOK AT THIS! This is what your incessant demands for inclusivity and diversity has wrought! Look at all the artistic vision that's been tossed away! Look at how creativity has died and developer passion has ceased to exist! This is all your fault; you gamers and all you SJWs out there that demanded women be treated with more equality and respect. Look at this scourge, this abomination, this wastrel abandonment of everything gaming has always stood for!

This must be stopped. If we don't stop this right now, we may get MORE playable women in game, in possibly even MORE shapes and sizes! Don't you wish to preserve gaming's integrity? Do none of you care?

We all know that most women don't look like this, thus NO woman should look like this in a game. It's not like the male characters, whom we know men in real life come in all shapes and sizes. This is pure, wanton acquiescence to the whims of other people, not our special little bubble where everything must be made just for us, as it has always been and should always be. The developers have shown themselves to be cowards, COWARDS I tell you, taking an interest and effort in stepping outside of their comfort zone and trying something new because they felt it was worth doing and might make gaming a better, more diverse place. The fools; such choices make me actively lose interest in this game, so much so that I'm still writing about it at length!

I can't be alone. Surely other people see what a horrible state the industry is in once it starts catering to demographics outside of young men. Did you not see the signs back in 1986 when Metroid revealed it's super strong, super tough hero actually lacked a Y chromosome?

And, seriously, a butch strong Russian girl? How stereotypical can you get! This is not improvement. Remember the lessons Homer Simpson espoused, "you tried your best and failed miserably. The lesson is NEVER TRY." I think we could all learn from such a paragon of logic and common sense.

I'll leave you with this: should BLIZZARD's attempt to diversify the industry succeed, they will no doubt continue to do so. This may cause other developers to take risks on women, even minorities, and we may end up with games staring strong women, black people, or even, gasp, gay people, and those games could be great and be successful. Do you really want to live in a world where that's a possibility?

So look at this, gamers. Look at the face of regression, the face of devolution, the face of cowardice, and the face of lost artistic integrity.

You have no one to blame but yourselves.

 

[Cavouku]

To put another voice in the echo chamber, I think her design is overall well done. Obviously it's first person, but judging by the little animations of her, she's well defined in both appearance, movement, and (seemingly) gameplay. Kudos, looks fun.

On the political side of things, well... I'm not really sure there needed to be a political side to it, I suppose. I don't see how the bulky Russian female is really breaking open the diversity-sauce, and as others have mentioned, she's still rather attractive (I'm not much for muscly girls, but she has what I'd say is an adorable face, and I'm good with the hair). And that's not inherently a bad thing, I don't think.

Now if Blizzard wants to put more diverse characters in their game, go nuts. It looks like it's the kind of game where a bunch of radical character designs from across the spectrum of whatever spectrum everyone's got themselves in a tuss over will fly without much genuine complaint. But don't make this character your flagship for diversity, Blizzard. Just say it's a new character in the game, and I think we'll be okay.

Here's a fun little challenge for whatever game developer may stumble across it: make a paraplegic pansexual half-black-half-asian transgendered obese anorexic (technically speaking, not an oxymoron) bipolar guy woman intersex from Antarctica, and don't wave it around like you're the most inclusive thing since Lord Byron's bedsheets. Just have the character in the game. Make little cues like dialogue or pick-ups or something explain the non-visible components. Don't tell us. Show us.

Let us play it out. I think we'll be okay with that (for the most part). I think that's what made Bill from The Last of Us so memorable (to me, anyway); he wasn't trying to be a quota-requirement, checkbox, flagship, or anything other than himself.

I dunno. I'm not trying to be down on anyone, really, but I've always been a fan of the more implicit style of character exploration, rather than explicit announcements and such.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Yeah Zarya was definitely made to answer the female body type critism when it was first announced. Unlike McCree she did not appear in the cinematic trailer at all (MdCree had a small cameo if you spot carefully). Still I didn't know she was tank class, I thought she was support cos her ability to CC people.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

You know, I'm not sure about it. Not the diversity thing, that's all well and good. But this character just feels lazy. Like if you had told me she was a dude and 'he' was a new character I'd shrug and move on. My point is she simply looks like a dude, and I'm not sure that's the diversity people were hoping for. I mean if they cast The Rock as Little Orphan Annie no one would be saying "Oh wow, way to break the mold on what little girls can look like!" they'd just say "No, he's not."

And that's what this new character feels like. You didn't change the model or challenge society's rules of physical appearance. You just added an 'S' to the Bio of a new character and hope no one noticed.

 

[theNater]

I don't see how the bulky Russian female is really breaking open the diversity-sauce...

Can you name three AAA games in, say, the past five years that have had a bulky Russian female as a dev-designed playable character? 'Cause I sure can't.

 

[Teepop]

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...?!

Yeah, considering that Humans, Blood Elves and Night Elves are the most popular races in that order, I doubt you're wrong, but that would mean that guys are playing those same races, so having you make it sound like it's only female behaviour is a moot point.

To be specific, those 3 races make up 38% of all players.

I never made out that it is only female behaviour. Remember this topic is about female characters. The news story specifically mentions it. That is why I was referring to female players.

I am sure male players prefer traditional/stereotypical portrayals of attractiveness too. I talked about female characters because *that is what the news story was about*. That's the topic we are discussing.

However I believe that males have slightly different ideas of what constitutes attractive or cool in that a big muscle-bound orc is considered as attractive as a muscle-bound human male even though the former is "ugly". I mean I'm guessing here but I think males will favour traditionally desirable male traits such as strength, dominance, power, agility or general badassery over pure "beauty". This will lead to some deviation from the females choices.

Also in my experience the casual guilds have a higher percentage of female players than the hardcore raiding guilds so racial perks probably have more sway over male race choices. This no doubt leads to a more even racial choice spread for males.

I'd expect males to favour Human/NE/Belf too, but I'd expect female racial choices to be massively more skewed in favour of those races versus males.

E.g. you mention 38% of all players, I bet you for females it is close to double that. As I say I bet that Humans, NE, Belf and Draenai (I forgot them) account for almost all female player choices and those would be followed by Gnomes and Dwarves/Pandas.

I bet Undead for example are fairly well represented by males but extremely rare choices for female players.

Anyway there is no point debating over guesses and assumptions, I am calling on Blizzard to back up their statement by publishing the statistics that they most definitely hold.

At any time they can prove that there is genuine demand for diversity and that they are not just trying to get cheap headlines/publicity by exploiting the conflict between these two tiny but vocal pressure groups. My opinion is that they are exploiting (or being bullied by) the publicity over these pressure groups and that their own figures for female players categorically conflicts with their statement.

Blizzard can disprove my assertion any sweet time they like....

 

[Fappy]

I can't help but cry laughing when I see someone cry "culture war" with a straight face. Fucking Christ people, gaming is a hobby, stop taking yourselves so goddamn seriously.

 

[Newage]

Looks fun gameplay-wise, I don't care about the rest.

I'm pretty sure she's the first displacement/disruption ultimate announced. I can't wait to see some wombo combos with Tracer or Hanzo.

 

[Worgen]

She is, of course, from Russia.

Of course she is. I mean everyone knows Russia has the monopoly on big, strong women with kinda deep voices, right? /s
Honestly, this is just a gender-swap of TF2's Heavy, so it seems to me that Blizzard just made her for diversity's sake.

"There is also talk about diversity in different body types in that not everybody wants to have the exact same body type always represented. And we just want you to know that we're listening and [b/]we're trying hard and we hope Zarya is a step in the right direction."[/b]

That statement pretty much screams that Zarya wasn't created because it was a character design Blizzard thought would be cool, but because it ticked off a few boxes on a bloody checklist.

I'm sure I'm gonna get flak for this, but I'm not sorry. If a dev creates a character it should be because they've got a collection of ideas they think would be pretty cool together, not because a vocal portion of their consumer base is telling them what to do (that goes for you too publishers). Basically, let the artists create whatever the hell they want and either take it or leave it. But if you're one of the people telling devs what to make: congrats, you're one step closer to becoming a dev yourself! Get some skills, go grab some friends, and start up your own indie studio. Solve the character and workplace diversity issues at the same time.

Oh, and despite all that bitching I just finished, I actually like the character.

Probably what happened was instead of ignore one artists concept drawing of a female with out a standard body type, they instead decided to add it. Without the complaints about female body type the game would probably just be a mix of waifs like every other game out there. Because the thought process for making a female character seems to be, "if we are going to make something with boobs then it has to have those boobs hanging out for everyone to see, otherwise whats the point?".

 

[VanQ]

She looks a lot like a character that some folks on /v/ were working on and drawfa-drawfriending up with the intention of submitting their idea to Blizzard. I wonder if they ever actually did that, I was only in one of those threads. Would be pretty cool if that was the case.

The sad thing here is that people are complaining about her for some damn reason.

"SJW bullshit"
"It's just ticking off a checkbox"
"Not a woman of colour"

You just can't please anyone these days.

 

[Mong0]

B-b-b-but the artistic vision!

Won't somebody please think of the artistic visions being violated by all this diversity?

Stop stuttering; you're typing, not talking.

 

[Fappy]

"Not a woman of colour"

Have people actually been complaining about this?! They already have Egyptian and Indian women... do they not count?

The funny thing is that these complaints are the least of Blizzard's worries. You know they will be quickly replaced by people bitching about game balance two days after the game comes out.

 

[Ishigami]

Oh wow... racist instead of sexist. So much better I?m glad they improved it?

 

[Davroth]

Adding diversity by adding another cliche? Some people are really easy to please... I thought one of the ways not to make a compelling female character was by basically making a male character and slapping boobs on them. I guess it's all that it takes, after all.

 

[Weaver]

lol strong Russian soldier woman is a pretty "been there and done that" character.
Am I the only one who's watched an action movie from the 80s?

I'm not saying it's bad, but treating aping films and comics from the 80s as some kind of fantastic revelation is kind of laughable.

 

[loa]

"Muscular russian soldier woman" is an overdone cliche in games?
Surely you can name 5 examples of it then cause I can't think of any.

 

[Teepop]

Adding diversity by adding another cliche? Some people are really easy to please... I thought one of the ways not to make a compelling female character was by basically making a male character and slapping boobs on them. I guess it's all that it takes, after all.

Works a treat for Bioware. My DA:I character is simply a reskinned man in the cutscenes and in-game the only modification appears to be a slightly exaggerated female walking animation where as every other action I take is again a reskinned man.

Check out the "manspreading" when I'm sat down in a cutscene!

I literally cannot play that game as it is so jarring. I mean even playing as Lithariel in Shadow of Mordor is less jarring and that's saying something (but hey its free DLC so I'm cool)!

Yet the gaming press is all blowing sunshine up Biowares behind for being "inclusive".

 

[Cavouku]

I don't see how the bulky Russian female is really breaking open the diversity-sauce...

Can you name three AAA games in, say, the past five years that have had a bulky Russian female as a dev-designed playable character? 'Cause I sure can't.

Fair question, certainly not. Not under those conditions, and I'm admittedly kinda thinking more along the lines of some cartoons and films and the like, rather than video games. I've heard some people say she and Vi from League of Legends are pretty similar, but I don't know if Vi is Russian, and she's certainly not as large. Also, I don't play LoL, so I'm just going off of images.

I mean, it's not bad, and I'd say it's better than nothing. The article mentioned something about whether this was a step forward? I'd say yes, on the diversity scale. I'm just kinda iffy about it being a politically sound move to draw so much attention to just how diverse this really is.

I just... I don't think I've got the best vantage point on the issue, but something feels kinda off about being so explicit. Like there's too much focus on whether the character is diverse, and it feels like it marginalizes the character. It probably doesn't matter all THAT much in this game (I haven't kept up with it much, though I may peer into it more now), but there's still so much character to explore outside of whether or not they ARE diverse.

I felt like the Walking Dead did this pretty well. I was far more concerned with the character's personalities and motives than the fact that we had multiple non-white people and such. I mentioned Bill from The Last of Us, but Sam and Henry are another example. Yeah they were black, but that wasn't the point, and it never really felt like the point.

Actually, allow me to comment that the fact that the treatment of the (I feel, all of those) characters due to their differences felt very real without being something that tries to jar your attention so much on the fact that they're different. People have some prejudices against some things, and maybe not to others, and you're going to encounter these people, and they will respond accordingly. It's not a statement about diversity, it's a fact of life. I personally categorize that as "implicit", but that's just me.

I'm sorry, I jumped off on a tangent about far more narrative-focused games and their treatment of diversity, which isn't necessarily fair to Overwatch and its genre. To answer your question, I certainly cannot think of three AAA video games in the last five-ish years that have a dev-designed and playable bulky female Russian. Maybe if we crowbar those parameters open a bit more, I can google-fu something up, but we most certainly wouldn't be walking into my area of expertise one way or another. My personal game-favourites would certainly not see many of those anyhow (mostly western-style RPGs, fantasy settings, pre-industrial stuff, etc.).

Cheers, though. Maybe a little sauce spilled onto the plate. It's not ruining my dinner, but the sign-flipping waiter is kinda distracting.

 

[El Portero]

Meanwhile, Overkill is adding an obese chain smoking trailer trash character to Payday 2.
Great body diversity there, Blizzard.
But seriously, I like Zarya's design.