Tracer confirmed first LGBT character

[Very Tired]

Let's be honest. The forums are outraged because the majority of the posters are male, and they don't want this storyline to end up being a sausagefest. Now, if Blizzard goes girl/girl, they'll calm down, provided they're the "hot" characters (i.e. Tracer & Widowmaker).

Macho male internet noise. I'm surprised you're even surprised by that.

Actually it's because most people posting about this topic on the forums are just doing it to troll. So you can imagine what they might think when Blizzard takes it seriously.

[Dispraise]

No, thanks. They don't like it, they can fuck off.

Boom. I really want to make this my sig now.

Personally, I would stick with this:

People need to grow up and realize that there are people different from them and learn to respect them.

I think it rolls better.

[xChurch]

I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't even 2 chars but just one char who mentions it in their animated short, or even a comic.

Isnt it obvious given the last animated short? Sombra/Zarya.

I'm confused, because it was in Russia?

[Shampro]

Ok cool who cares it's like its not going to be more than a name drop and maybe like 1 panel flashback.

[stomination]

Don't try and interject logic into this conversation.


How are people are still offended by this ? Are these the same people who say we can't recast old heroes in comic books/movies and they should just make new heroes that represent those groups?

A little consistency would be nice.

I don't find it offensive.

But I also find that the comics are doing it to just get ppl to buy comics and if that doesn't work well enough they scrap the recast and go back to what it was. I think they would succeed better if they create new heroes.

[stomination]

The statement that "Reality is often overused and predictable" is not the same as, "You are like your kin, therefore you are worthless" which is the conclusion of the whole "lol stereotypes r bd" trope.

Other than professional MMA fighters and athletes, can you show me one single example of a woman who is buff, has a haircut that lesbians typically like, who are not lesbians?

You essentially are upset with other Lesbians for creating the butch trope, and you are instead taking out your frustration on people who depict this (often true) trope.

Simply because Zarya in this circumstance would be a butch lesbian does not negate the existence of non butch lesbians. Also to make matters worse there have been people who this same forums who have argued that they are tried of lesbians being portrayed as soft and frail woman who are just window dressing for the desires of men.

Also the statement you made about muscular females being beautiful as long as they still have femininity implies that you think muscular females who do not portray their gender as you think their gender should be portrayed are somehow ugly. Just food for thought.

Something something its all a trap.

[Goldielocks]

This feels extremely forced. We don't need to know about their personal lives, because we don't know about any hero's personal life separated from the plot of Overwatch. Why should that change? We shouldn't be adding elements that have no purpose in core gameplay.

The only way I'd see this working is if it was a casual reference, something in which a hero like Mcree would casually mention he has an ex-husband, or Zarya has a wife, etc.

[Coffeexbean]

the amount of qq is sad lol. Who gives a fuck if they make a lgbt character

[tangers58]

And the forums are outraged over this? Lets face the truth: There are gays in the real universe so they WILL exist in Overwatch based on the REAL universe in the future. People need to grow up and realize that there are people different from them and learn to respect them.

http://www.overpwn.com/news/240-over...-blizzcon-2016

And with that, lets start guessing who the character is

Lucirat?
Tracemaker?
Pharmercy?
Zarmetra?
McHANZO?!

Hanzo Genji 2016, make incest great again

[NoiseTank13]

This seems much ado about nothing.

I'm usually the first to roll their eyes at corporate "look at us, look at us, aren't we so progressive" pandering but I don't really see that here.

[Kaleredar]

This feels extremely forced. We don't need to know about their personal lives, because we don't know about any hero's personal life separated from the plot of Overwatch. Why should that change? We shouldn't be adding elements that have no purpose in core gameplay.

They add lore all the time. And I don't really know what you mean by "we," it's Blizzard's game, they can add whatever the hell they want. All of the Overwatch Animated shorts have jack-all to do with gampeplay. They're there to look awesome and explain some of the backstory to characters. Presumably whatever Blizzard is going to do for the LGBT thing is going to do that... explain backstory.


The only nail I'm going to drive into the shipping is widowmaker/tracer. Widowmaker had a husband for one, and even if she's bi, I doubt she and tracer do much hanging around, seeing as they're basically mortal enemies.

[Liftbrul]

In the current climate of political correctness, social justice warrior garbage and gamergate fallout surrounding video games, any direct and obvious attention given to minorities of any kind is seen as pandering, and people hate pandering.

If this would've come without any kind of fanfare, people would probably care a lot less.

[Deleted]

That they bothered to make a point of it in a QnA shows quite clearly that this is diversity for the sake of diversity. It'll be ham-fisted in as a check mark on a list of "Things to do to appease SJWs", right below Tracer's pose.

You know what a Q&A is right? An audience member asked the question, they didn't know it would be asked.

I'm glad to see that their promise from last year hasn't been forgotten and they're confirming that we'll get some representation really soon (not TM).

[Darkeon]

As long as it's a character with a rich story - that happens to be LGBT -, instead of a character built up from the sole reason of "muh progressiveness", I'm alright with it.

[Kaleredar]

In the current climate of political correctness, social justice warrior garbage and gamergate fallout surrounding video games, any direct and obvious attention given to minorities of any kind is seen as pandering, and people hate pandering.

If this would've come without any kind of fanfare, people would probably care a lot less.

Seeing as the answer was given in the Q&A section, I'm fairly certain some attendee asked it of their own accord and Blizzard provided an answer.

Blizzard probably didn't go "Oh and btdubs, we're gonna be having some hot D.va-on-Mei action in an upcoming short! Jill Stein 2016! Peace out."

[Deleted]

There is a very, very real problem with that: you can't arbitrailly decide what is "right" and "wrong" for another person. Your ignoring what 3.6 billion Christian and Muslims believe are divine commands that homosexuality is sinful. Christiantiy says LGBT is a sin. In the case of Islam, Sharia law goes beyond just saying that lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transexuals are to be put to death. These aren't personal beliefs one can simply convince themselves to alter; they are divine beliefs rooted in the foundation of both religion's sacred text. Sure, you can be LGBT if you want, but you cannot force another to accept that, let alone respect them.

Fortunately, people can make up their own takes on a canon if they don't like an aspect of the original creator's canon.

Religious texts teach a lot of horrible things (like putting people to death for any number of crimes). The vast majority of religious people ignore the darker parts of their texts (as well as the straight up ridiculous, like not wearing clothes woven from multiple fabrics). When it comes down to it people are perfectly capable of recognising that their religious texts are not infallible, even if they are very devout. There's no excuse for not accepting LGBTQIA people at this point.

[Super Kami Dende]

I mean, if this was just a Generic shooter i'd argue that identity politics really has no relevance to characters. But since Overwatch Lore seems to be running pretty deep and they look to be really go in-depth with characters I don't really care.

My only issue would be if the characters Identity is solely attached to their sexuality, which I fucking hate.
I.e: "OMG HE DID THAT BECAUSE HE WAS BADASS GAY...and happens to be a ninja" - Shitty writting.
"OMG HES A BADASS NINJA...who happens to be Gay" - Fine writing.

When characters sexual identity becomes their largest known trait it is a shitty shoehorned character that just screams "HEY HEY LOOK GUYS DIVERSITY, LOOK HOW DIVERSE WE ARE!!!"

- - - Updated - - -

Religious texts teach a lot of horrible things (like putting people to death for any number of crimes). The vast majority of religious people ignore the darker parts of their texts (as well as the straight up ridiculous, like not wearing clothes woven from multiple fabrics). When it comes down to it people are perfectly capable of recognising that their religious texts are not infallible, even if they are very devout. There's no excuse for not accepting LGBTQIA people at this point.

I mean if there is 3.6 billion, even if the vast Majority is 99% of them, the 1% is still 36 million people (more people than some countries) that believe people should be put to death for their natural affinity towards their own gender. though we all know 99% isn't anywhere close, since I would say it would be much closer to 20% that would strongly believe in death penalty for homosexuality.

Which is extremely sad in this day and age.

[minteK917]

My only issue would be if the characters Identity is solely attached to their sexuality, which I fucking hate.
I.e: "OMG HE DID THAT BECAUSE HE WAS BADASS GAY...and happens to be a ninja" - Shitty writting.
"OMG HES A BADASS NINJA...who happens to be Gay" - Fine writing.

So we have another advocate for Reaper/Mccree falling out! We know little about both, we know both had a huge falling out. Something about gift guns. Something about picking up someone on Route 66. Sounds like a story to me. Brokeback route 66.

[Goldielocks]

They add lore all the time. And I don't really know what you mean by "we," it's Blizzard's game, they can add whatever the hell they want. All of the Overwatch Animated shorts have jack-all to do with gampeplay. They're there to look awesome and explain some of the backstory to characters. Presumably whatever Blizzard is going to do for the LGBT thing is going to do that... explain backstory.


The only nail I'm going to drive into the shipping is widowmaker/tracer. Widowmaker had a husband for one, and even if she's bi, I doubt she and tracer do much hanging around, seeing as they're basically mortal enemies.

We're not necessarily talking about animated shorts though. We're talking about straight up confirming in a tweet or something that one character is gay. Also, yes Blizzard can add whatever they want, but that doesn't make it right? That argument doesn't make sense.

We have these animated shorts and storylines so that we're attached to the characters we play. It is a game after all. One of those things we see is skin color. That's why race is being treated differently, because we as the playerbase want to know more about the character we're playing based on what we see on screen. Sexuality can't be visualized when in combat.

My point here is that the inclusion of LGBT has to be meaninful if they want it to resonate with the playerbase. That means not just straight up confirming something.

[Pawstruck]

Oh good, I can lampoon them like I did GW2 for inserting cringe-worthy homosexual drivel into their game.

Put your propaganda everywhere you want, folks... games, movies, whatever... you're still not the Pope of Gayness, it still feels like sanctimonious edgelording, and - oh yeah - it's still morally wrong, too.

Inb4 ban cause "HOMOPHOBIC!"

I hate this culture.