And I have a problem on how this went down
Here we go again folks. Apparently having a decent figure and showing any sort of sexuality is an issue in video games, that much we’ve seen through the past few years. More recently we’ve had to sit through tons and tons of internet flame wars due to the sexual appear of Street Fighter V‘s Rainbow Mika. Of course Capcom not being one to have any dirt flung its way, quickly “fixed” the issue with not only Rainbow Mika, but also her fighter in arms pal, Cammy. Interesting enough after everyone started to ask why they did this, it was cited due to the game’s rating.
Something many people called bullshit on and kept pressuring Capcom. Eventually the truth was made known and after some time everyone forgot about that. I mean, sure… Rainbow Mika and Cammy got lowered a tad on the “sexy” totem pole but we still have bouncy breasts Chun-Li and even an even sexier Laura. Well at least for now but I think their time is coming as well.
Sure….
So now it would seem we’re amidst of yet another “female shouldn’t be looking like that issue. This time around the hero known as Tracer from Blizzard’s upcoming Overwatch game is the target. Recently posted off at Blizzard’s official forums was a thread by the user Flipps, who by all means loves the character. Flipps loves the personality of Tracer, her animations, fun poses and thinks that she’s rather chipper. What Flipps doesn’t like however is one of Tracer’s win poses, mainly the over the shoulder pose that happens to show some butt cleavage.
Apparently this is the issue:
Then out of seemingly no where we have this pose:
WHAT? What about this pose has anything to do with the character you’re building in tracer? It’s not fun, its not silly, it has nothing to do with being a fast elite killer. It just reduces tracer to another bland female sex symbol.
So Flipps doesn’t like this pose, I get it. But what makes me a tad upset or rather frustrated is that we have to deal with this stuff all over again. Yet Flipps doesn’t have an issue with the apparent sexual nature of the other female in the game; Widowmaker.
We aren’t looking at a widowmaker pose here, this isn’t a character who is in part defined by flaunting her sexuality. This pose says to the player base, oh we’ve got all these cool diverse characters, but at any moment we are willing to reduce them to sex symbols to help boost our investment game.
Um, Flipps. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen anyone do that kind of pose in a pain of tight fitted pants, but you do happen to see that butt crack if said person has a decent sized behind. It’s a fact, sorry. I see this happening every day as I’m going about my daily life. Females wearing jergen pants or other types of similar type pants that allow every little motion of their behinds being show. This that includes their butt crack, such is life. I’m not even going to try and ask why you seem to have this agenda and being selective. If it’s an issue for one character, shouldn’t it be an issue for all the females in the game?
However, as a parent I do applaud you for worrying and being considerate of what your daughter plays. I’m a parent of two as well and I get the struggle. Though I do wonder about your choices. You’re here ranting about the looks of a virtual character’s pose and that your daughter seemingly idolizes her. And all your worried about is if she shows some butt crack in a pose? How about the fact she’s running around the screen shooting a pair of GUNS? Does not cause you any concern, more rather than what she looks like?
And to Blizzard, more so Jeff Kaplan, sometimes you have to stand your ground sometimes
We’ll replace the pose. We want *everyone* to feel strong and heroic in our community. The last thing we want to do is make someone feel uncomfortable, under-appreciated or misrepresented.
Apologies and we’ll continue to try to do better.
Either way the deed has been done and Blizzard has stated the pose will be removed. Problem solved, right?
I know you didn’t create Tracer to be what is being referenced here. If we as a people constantly changed our ideas or content simply due to someone not liking it or due to it not being how they would rather it to be then where would we be? The next thing you know we’ll see characters to other characters. Maybe someone doesn’t like the fact there there’s only one animal based character or perhaps there’s only one dark-skinned character and that they want more of them in the game. Hey maybe I’m upset that there aren’t more big breasted women in the game and I want to see more… I don’t by the way, but you get the drift.
Are you going to take heed to those criticisms as well, Blizzard?
I think Tracer is fine if you ask me. During my short time with the Overwatch Beta I didn’t even one think about looking at her ass or if she gave me a boner while I played the game. Sure I was busy looking at Widowmaker… just kidding, but seriously folks for once I would love a real issue to be debated, an issue that something really matters. That’s just me but what do I know.
