Stop Sexualizing Overwatch Rant

Story Discussion
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Hello Friends,

Longtime Blizzard customer here, started with Starcraft in 1998, Diablo, Diablo II, Warcraft III, World of Warcraft etc. (I’ve played literally every one of their games).
#humblebrag

Loved almost everything about Blizzard game Development and it’s what got me into the technology sector today (Thank You). Obviously Blizzard isn’t perfect but, changes implemented seemed to make sense and had an actual balancing effect.
Every change always seemed to be done with utmost quality and care (debatable).

I myself and many others I’m sure, started noticing in recent years that started to not be the case, Overwatch became unrecognizable from it’s original calculated balances to the recent World of Warcraft class-esque throws of power.

Comparable popular shooters are almost never balanced this way for a reason, it makes other previously established competitive mechanics hilariously unreliable/unusable.

Yet, there’s more priority given to sexualize characters rather than balance the game’s obvious flaws. There seems to be a concern to curtail to some sort of political agenda whatever that may be.

I’m all for personal choice but, why is this any of my business and what is it’s importance to the quality and longevity of the game?
Why is this relevant? What does this actually have to do with the game’s mechanics and play-ability? These are questions that need to be answered that I feel are being overlooked to appease a minority of your player-base and shoving down what Blizzard believes to be virtuous in nature down our throats.

For something that’s supposed to be entertaining, I’m quite frankly exhausted of the toxic culture of both the Blizzard’s super woke virtue signaling and the community’s obvious trolling of their development team through forums.

In conclusion, I suggest Blizzard focus more on the quality of their games and less on the people you sleep with. Losing Overwatch players, losing two CEO’s and losing 40%+ stock value is probably more important than Soldier 76 being gay.

/Rant/Over

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Being non-heterosexual is not inherently more sexual or scandalous or something to hide from kids. I’m bored of people saying that kids need to be hidden from the fact that gay people exist because it’s “sexualized” or inherently not kid-friendly.

The lore team is separate from who balances the game and they’re not mutually exclusive. We even got a balance patch (a questionable one, but a balance patch) the same day as Bastet. You’re complaining about a nonissue.

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Yes because the people that write the lore and character stories and comics are also the same people doing game balance… LOGIC!

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Let me reiterate, I don’t care who you sleep with x100,000,000^. Has ZERO relevancy to the game’s entertainment factor that’s my point. Also, feel free to do what you want, I literally don’t care, be a shining star.

What do children even have to do with anything I stated? Why do you feel the need to inform children of your sexuality in detail? Is informing the kids of your explored sexuality exciting to you since heterosexuality is boring? Do tell.

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You’re using the word “sexualizing”. You’re either using it wrong, or you’re implying that being gay is somehow more sexual than being straight, which is what I’m referring to.

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Yeah let’s go those writers back to programming, what were they thinking?!

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I sort of agree. I don’t care if a character has a wife or a husband, is gay or straight, is trans or whatever. I just want know about the Overwatch side of things ie the stuff that actually affects the game.

Romance should be left to fan-fictions.

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Since you don’t work in development operations I’ll explain the logic; departments such as lore, programming and art are compartmentalized yet work together in coordination on a development life-cycle. Obviously the lore department isn’t making changes to the code, that’s not what I was implying haha…

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Sexualizing wouldbe more like mobas and Paladins do : suggestive cosmetics.

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You’re implying an other/or relationship for developing lore and balancing the game, a relationship that does not exist

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Because they know the patchnotes were going to cause a wave of mixed feelings, and also knew OW is falling out of relevancy for good topics, so Soldier’s sexual orientation reveal was 100% planned for this sort of thing.

Why not just reveal this to us the same time as Tracer? How come we go so long with little lore and little storytelling, only to get a short story which most likely was written as means to announce Soldier being gay. What is going on with Winston and his recall? What are Reinhardt and Brigitte currently doing? How’s Angela doing with her career and what are her thoughts on the recall? You know, actual story development that deepens the plot?

Also, if there is ONLY a team dedicated to storytelling, WHERE ARE ALL OF OUR LORE AND STORIES? I see both sides of it. We just want to see a better, more engaging Overwatch.

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Then here’s the double edge sword: If you care about mechanics and playability, then why should you care about the lore that’s directed to what some other people want?

If it has no effect on balance, why does it matter? I mean, if it was a world where 1 Dev did every job, from balance to OWL to lore, then I could see what your saying, but if Lore is it’s own (depressing) department then what does it matter to you?

True doe. That’s also why I question the timing and release of the story, which has nothing to do with Soldier being gay.

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Here you go, I’ll paste the definition for you because it seems you don’t understand the context in which I’m using the word :slight_smile:

Sexualization (or sexualisation) is to make something sexual in character or quality, or to become aware of sexuality, especially in relation to men and women. Sexualization is linked to sexual objectification.

Regardless of the sexual nature what relevancy does it have to the game’s play-ability and why did you bring children into it?

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That’s not the sexuality the definition refers to, mate.

Something that is sexualized is not kid-friendly. Being romantically interested in the same gender is not inherently more sexualized (ergo, kid unfriendly) than being straight. You’re dwelling a lot on literally nothing.

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This is the same reason why the heterosexual characters haven’t been thrust into the limelight.

Both Ana and Torb had kids, but it wasn’t super obvious that they were straight, or even still are. I mean with Torb, having 13 or so kids does allude to him loving his wife, but with Ana she has very little to do with Sam now. That opens up doors that I really don’t expect an answer to, nor do I want to find out.

Compare that to Vincent which the conversation goes on for 6 or so paragraphs.

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Thank You for being fair! See folks this is a rational person, with no rabid political agenda who just wants to play a good game! *let’s be friends, I have pizza.

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Idk, I kind of wish they just left EVERY characters sexual ambiguity intact and left the shipping to tumblr, it’s a good way for everyone to get a piece of the pie, and let our mind elaborate on the personal lives of these people.

Although, I definitely didn’t mind the way they introduced it, nor did I really care too much about it being there since it’s such a minor point that I don’t mind either way. But in a perfect world, just tell the story, and leave the shipping of heroes to tumblr.

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For obvious reasons sexuality is not-kid friendly and again this has nothing to do with my original post but, does seem to re-instate the idea that there is an underlying political agenda behind these development changes irrelevant to the game it’s self. I’m pro-choice and I’m also pro-that’s none of my business.:grinning:

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Sexuality and relationships are part of a story and can influence a character’s decisions, motivations and thinking. Why is that so hard to understand?

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Agreed! Let’s focus on things that make the game more fun to play!

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