Blizzard Removes Tracer's "Suggestive" Victory Pose

Blizzard stated fairly early in its development that it had planned for its latest property, Overwatch, to be something of an expectations-defer when it came to diversity. They wanted to have a more international cast and a more diverse choice of bodies from the standard male-female stock. And while they certainly delivered that for the men, where you could choose to be a dwarf, a talking gorilla, and a... robot Buddha? Among the women you had, well... significantly less variety. And while Blizzard has tried to remedy that with the plus-sized Mei (although she's more 'video game fat' than actual fat) and the muscle-bound Zarya, it's still arguable that they haven't done quite enough to make the girls stick out from one another.

Case in point. Tracer, the orange-tight wearing, unapologetically British goofball of the Overwatch crew, was always kind of on the edge when it came to 'sexiness', and it was only when we got to see her in action that we got to see her as more than just a tight pair of pants. But that attempt by Blizzard to de-sexualize the British bombshell (or whatever nickname you want to use) was compromised somewhat by one of her victory poses, called "over the shoulder", which put heavy emphasis on her behind.

Players took issue. When they took issue, other players took issue with their issue. Battle lines were drawn. But things didn't really come to a head until one person wrote a rather heartfelt letter to Blizzard, appealing for them to remove the pose.

“What about this pose has anything to do with the character you’re building in tracer? It’s not fun, it's not silly, it has nothing to do with being a fast elite killer. It just reduces tracer to another bland female sex symbol.”

“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.”

“I have a young daughter that everyday when I wake up wants to watch the recall trailer again. She knows who tracer is, and as she grows up, she can grow up alongside these characters. What I’m asking is that as you continue to add to the overwatch cast and investment elements, you double down on your commitment to create strong female characters. You’ve been doing a good job so far, but shipping with a tracer pose like this undermines so much of the good you’ve already done.”

Now, people have argued both ways, of course, but the fact that the femme fatale trope has already been covered--so it's not so much 'censoring' as it is 'keeping in-character'--certainly is a strong point. Strong enough that Blizzard finally addressed this controversy, siding squarely with the 'remove it' camp, saying the following on a post in the forums:

"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."

He then followed it up with:

While I stand by my previous comment, I realize I should have been more clear... We actually already have an alternate pose that we love and we feel speaks more to the character of Tracer. We weren’t entirely happy with the original pose, it was always one that we wrestled with creatively... We made the decision to go with a different pose in part because we shared some of the same concerns, but also because we wanted to create something better.

We wouldn’t do anything to sacrifice our creative vision for Overwatch, and we’re not going to remove something solely because someone may take issue with it. Our goal isn’t to water down or homogenize the world, or the diverse cast of heroes we’ve built within it. We have poured so much of our heart and souls into this game that it would be a travesty for us to do so.

We understand that not everyone will agree with our decision, and that’s okay. That’s what these kinds of public tests are for. This wasn’t pandering or caving, though. This was the right call from our perspective, and we think the game will be just as fun the next time you play it.

Well said. A victory pose will hardly impact how much enjoyment you get out of the game... unless, of course, you're playing one handed. In which case, you've got some serious talent if you're still seeing victory screens. You should go into eSports or something.