Diversity and inclusion are the heroes in Overwatch, a runaway gaming success

[Kontinuum]

then why are most WoW players human?

There are no other sapient species on Earth.

[Endus]

Besides, overwatch is hardly a paragon of diversity. Besides Zarya all the other women are either sexy or cutesy archetypes compared to the vast body diversity in men. Look at Black Widow's armor and tell me there's remotely any equivalent for the men.

ALL the other women?

I mean, we could include Orisa, the huge centaur mech. But that's on voice alone, so I'll give that a pass.

Pharah's in a mech suit, in basically every skin. So that lets us include Reinhardt, in HIS mech suit. If you actually LOOK at the male characters, they're all classically "handsome" in some way, save for three.

Torbjorn, who's only real flaw is that he's short.
Roadhog, whose face you can't even see.
And Junkrat, the lanky crazy man. But who knows, maybe that hits certain buttons for some gals.
Hanzo, Genji, McCree, Soldier 76, Lucio, and Reaper are all decent-looking highly fit-looking dudes, even if it's only apparent in some of their skins.

It's hardly that unbalanced, nor is there really that much body diversity among the men. Reinhardt's in a mech suit; he's not ACTUALLY 9 feet tall and built like fourteen brick shithouses. We're talking 8 svelte women vs 6 svelte men, at best. Maybe they could mix that up a bit, but hey, again, Orisa.

[xChurch]

They've done a pretty good job in adding diversity in a more in-depth way than just X char is gay or Y char is Asian. They also were clever with how they've added pretty much every char type you could want, makes it easier to go into people's backstory when their fans already are attached to their style. Though it can backfire with some fans.

[Lady Dragonheart]

I find the diversity of Overwatch to be a very interesting and fun element to the game.

[kail]

And Junkrat, the lanky crazy man. But who knows, maybe that hits certain buttons for some gals.

What?? Have you seen his body pillow design?



OT: Diversity or not, pretty sure most gamers care about the gameplay and Blizzard delivered.

[Sesshou]

Still happened. She got to speak at the UN because she got all that attention

I don't know that is a negative. It really shined a light on how crazy some of these people are. Remember, you never go full retard.

When she says stupid shit like how sexist some incredibly out of context part of a game is, if you don't really know anything about it then your takeaway is probably oh well I know sexism is bad and this game is apparently sexist. You'd have to be informed about the topic to know she is full of it. When she tells the UN how we should censor the internet, it is readily apparent that she is a dumb ass.

[Mister Cheese]

...are you high? Seriously? Do you realize what website you are on? What person on this website gives a shit about Overwatch's diverse set of characters? Diversity doesn't mean a goddamn thing if the gameplay is garbage.

Of course you linked an article by Anita Sarkeesian so why the hell should I even bother.

[Lolgo]

Diversity - when you represent all of Eastern Europe with it's worst stereotype, russians, but give Americans, Asians and Western Europeans at least 3 characters each

That aside, nobody cares about diversity. It's a great game, and would still be a great game if it had the "diversity" of CS:GO.

[satimy]

Its hard to say if Overwatch is a success because of how blizzard reports their numbers. They claimed 30 million copies of D3 vanilla were sold, but people found out 20 million of those were actually free copies given away in China.

[Kontinuum]

Its hard to say if Overwatch is a success because of how blizzard reports their numbers. They claimed 30 million copies of D3 vanilla were sold, but people found out 20 million of those were actually free copies given away in China.

1. They just said Diablo III which is ambiguous. (Diablo III has now sold-through over 30 million units life-to-date globally.)
2. Source on that China thing? Blizzard announced that D3 sold 20 million copies in August 2014. They released the game in China in April 2015.

[KrazyK923]

What?? Have you seen his body pillow design?

Junkrat is a fucking hottie. He is best waifu.

[Deleted]

People from China, Japan, India, etc like seeing a character that represents them. For us in Nevada we have McCree.

I agree that it's nice to have characters representing a country but Overwatch is more of a comical, cliché/stereotypical reference to a nation than a serious gambit for positioning diversification as a central theme in game development. What gave it away immediately was the choice of an English accent that typifies upper-class British; the accent that resonates more with the International community than the British themselves.

It's all about comedy.

This I am thankful of. The whole "I'm a binary, gay, apache-helicopter, multi-race, chimpanzee" bollox doesn't need to be forced. It should be used when it is a coherent aspect of the narrative. People trying to force the media to include political and social ideologies really grinds my gears. Tell a story, if they make the story better, include them. If not, don't force it.

Why? Because condescending token black/female/gay/whatever people included in a story are so obviously forced that it's an insult to the people it affects and a bad joke to those it doesn't.

[veehro]

Overwatch has gone on to great commercial success, demonstrating the effectiveness of diversity as a core design strategy.

Wrong. The game is popular because of its gameplay polish and brand and has nothing to do with diversity. This is easily proven as there are other "Diverse" games that did not reach overwatches success. (any other failed moba like heroes of newerth or battleborn)

Honestly this thing with diversity has no actual data to back it up that games sell BECAUSE they are diverse. Sure having some options is nice but i don't think a game that is JUST diverse sells well or a game that has all the other important bits but is not diverse would not sell (witcher).

People buy games according to statistics based on a) The price b) The gameplay c) The brand D) advertising E) if it has tits on the box (yes despite ideologues sex still seems to sell)

The main audience for videogames has historically been young white men

Sure if you ignore japan Korea and China. And if you ignore games like farmville sims and candycrush that are mostly played by women. Or hidden object games that has an almost 90% female audience

Also i find it kinda uneducated to say "white men" as if people from Romania are the same with people from italy or whites from africa. There are different ethnicities with different cultures and to throw them all in the same pot makes you look ignorant like some one saying "all blacks are alike"

"Anita Sarkeesian explains that women are commonly depicted as ‘rewards’ in gaming."

How often does it need to happen to be common? And i have yet to finish a video game and have a woman ring up my door to give me her tits.

oh ...wait she means like a pixelated character on my screen. Im sorry to say this but thats not a real woman anita. If you can't differentiate between reality and fiction go seek help.

A toxic culture

Don't like it? Leave. Or better yet create your own.

You've got 160.000$ for a kickstarter campaign and your company made over 2 million dollars during gamergate from donations.
Why did you not create the femfreq gaming comunitty where you could have any rules and regulations youd like?!

Most gamers are adults and the ones that are not already have parents. You're not their mother to tell them how to behave. You have no right.

While Gamergaters cited concerns over ethics in videogame journalism, the Gamergate movement was repeatedly linked to instances of online harassment including rape threats, death threats, bomb threats, and doxxing (the public release of victims’ private information).

I remember gamergate had members organising themselves into gamergate police reporting and calling out people that would try to harass.

Can you say the same about your movment anita? How many feminists on twitter doxxed and tried to get people they thought are sexist fired, harassing their employers with phone calls?
How many of your fans harassed game developers?
How many of your fans swated gamers?

Oh i am sure this is a conversation we will never get to have is it?

Most academics

You mean university professors of gender studies that openly call themselves marxists?! Oh i am so curious what comunists have to say about video games.

Unlike most FPS games, Overwatch doesn’t rely solely on precision targeting or twitch reflexes

Ah yes overwatch i saw you make a video on it anita. You complained that the game doesn't have any old women in it and its not diverse enough. AND YOU COMPLETELY LET OUT ANA because thats how dissingenious and cherry picking your videos are.

Woman you're a washed out youtuber. You're a joke. The only reason people still listen to you is because you have friends in the media that parade you like some sort of mascot.

- - - Updated - - -

That's really sad to call someone mentally ill because they place value on combating discrimination and racism.

Some one can still have the right heart and be mentaly ill. Its not the fact that they want to combat those things that make them mentaly ill.

Its that they think screaming whining and yelling at developers to have more diverse cast is somehow going to end racism or discrimination in real life.
Like these people actually think video games are more then entertainment and can affect people to such a degree in the real world that would turn a racist into a non racist.

So yeah if some one thinks like that they need help.

[Eldar45]

Diversity has nothing to do with it. Having interesting characters and good game mechanics is everything to Overwatch. The fact that it has a diverse cast isn't much at all. When Marval tried diversifying its cast of heroes it backfired on them because instead of creating interesting characters they created characters for the sake of diversity.

[Unhinged]

Diversity has nothing to do with it. Having interesting characters and good game mechanics is everything to Overwatch. The fact that it has a diverse cast isn't much at all. When Marval tried diversifying its cast of heroes it backfired on them because instead of creating interesting characters they created characters for the sake of diversity.

I agree with you though i don't think there characters sre particularly interesting. It is disingenuous to say it is successful brcause of diversity. It is successful necause blizzard built and marketed a polished fun game that a lot of people enjoy.

[Chinese Bootlickers]

-Snibbity snab-




On-topic; I dig how overwatch get's praised for diversity by the tumblr club, when it couldn't possible be more stereotypical.

They're having quite a spergout over D.Va's new skin.

[Deletedaccount1]

They're having quite a spergout over D.Va's new skin.
snip

That picture is the worst thing I've ever seen.

[Frogguh]

People who require diversity to enjoy a product are bigots.

[Kontinuum]

That picture is the worst thing I've ever seen.

http://elliexer.tumblr.com/image/159997306363

[Chinese Bootlickers]

That picture is the worst thing I've ever seen.

And with names like transbian-noctis, lesbiangender, transgirlnausicaa, mutagender and genderdeath it's like they're trying their hardest not to be taken seriously outside of their little piss pond.

http://elliexer.tumblr.com/image/159997306363

They even (terribly)forged a tweet from Chu.