Blizzard's Overwatch Catch-All

Signed up for the Beta. See you kids there.

Farscry wrote:
garion333 wrote:

I don't know why you are harping on this, pyxi yawned. Not exactly the biggest gauntlet thrown.

I wouldn't have tacked on my own posts to this topic if the response to her hadn't been patronizingly dismissive.

Yepyep. Mostly I'm just disappointed they didn't take the opportunity of a new franchise to try something a bit...riskier or unique with their art instead of a grab-bag of cliches cribbed from whatever they had left over from their other games.

Blizzard Wants it's Diverse fans to feel equally represented by Overwatches heroes.

The game's diverse cast of characters come in a variety of shapes and sizes, genders and non-genders, ethnicities and ages. Look at the game's 12 confirmed characters, and you'll see an eclectic bunch.

That's by design, the developer says. It wants players to feel well-represented by its cast of men and women (and robots and gorillas).

During a press conference at BlizzCon today, Blizzard's Chris Metzen and Jeff Kaplan were asked about the representation of women in their new game and their approach to designing female characters. Metzen responded that Overwatch is indicative of a change in how Blizzard thinks about and designs its heroes.

"We've heard [from] our female employees and ... even my daughter calls me out," he said. "We were looking at old Warcraft stuff on YouTube, a cinematic, and my daughter is like, 'Why are they all in swimsuits?' And I'm like 'Ugh, I don't know, honey.'

I'm....not certain they've succeeded as well as they think they have.

Speaking of which...because I'm bored and slightly grumpy from waking up with a headache

IMAGE(http://i1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj541/pyxistyx2013/misc/characterroster_zps279af307.jpg)

That's brilliant... that image *needs* to be on twitter! If you post it, link it so I can RT.

I don't really do the twitters, but feel free to steal it - 'tis but the product of sleep deprivation

Done: https://twitter.com/badkenbad/status...

Rehosted on imgur to prevent the howling masses from tracking you down via your photobucket feed and making your life miserable.

BadKen wrote:

Done: https://twitter.com/badkenbad/status...

Rehosted on imgur to prevent the howling masses from tracking you down via your photobucket feed and making your life miserable.

RT-ed and put it on Reddit lol

Amoebic wrote:

Signed up for the Beta. See you kids there.

I've had Blizzard accounts for 15 years. Signed up for all sorts of betas. Never once been invited.

pyxistyx wrote:

Speaking of which...because I'm bored and slightly grumpy from waking up with a headache

Raiden? That's GRAY FOX! Take it back.

TOO LATE! Mwuahaha

Blizzard's been good at refining things, but at first blush I'm having a hard time understanding how this is going to differ from any other FPS. I give it 7 "mehs"

We shall see, Hopefully there's some sort of real innovation in the game that just isn't apparent in that trailer.

Well, for starters, there's no deathmatch. That's a big plus in my book.

Really looks to me like a GI Joe version of TF2 set in a MOBA universe. Which is awesome. I'd never expect Blizzard to introduce something completely new and unique-- they never really have, and they're too big and risk-averse to ever be able to. What I do expect from them is to take something familiar and build on top of it, turning that familiar thing on it's ear. Seems Overwatch is no different.

I can understand the pushback on the character designs, but I think they're brilliant-- no scantily-clad women, a fairly-diverse range of ethnicities (though black guy is strangely missing), it's not all white, 'roided space marines. I mean, I can see where people feel they're "cribbing" from past sources, but I honestly feel like that's kind of reaching. Certainly we can recognize the influences in the designs, and certainly Blizzard is playing it somewhat safe, but those are both part and parcel to trying to gain mass appeal-- styles are fantasy/idealized because that's what most audiences are used to, and on a whole I think most people find these styles the most attractive, or at the least, acceptable to their tastes. Trying to subvert mass appeal requires bending the rules, not breaking them. And unfortunately still, the "rules" require super-skinny, big-breasted, half-naked babes and ripped alpha-men. I'm happy that Blizzard isn't towing that line, but pushing those boundaries into a more diverse and inclusive direction, however slowly.

Frankly, I think all the characters are cool takes on familiar tropes, and in spite of the disparity in a lot of those tropes, these characters all tie together really well.

WipEout wrote:

Trying to subvert mass appeal requires bending the rules, not breaking them. And unfortunately still, the "rules" require super-skinny, big-breasted, half-naked babes and ripped alpha-men. I'm happy that Blizzard isn't towing that line, but pushing those boundaries into a more diverse and inclusive direction, however slowly.

The only rules this is bending are physics.

WipEout wrote:

Really looks to me like a GI Joe version of TF2 set in a MOBA universe. Which is awesome. I'd never expect Blizzard to introduce something completely new and unique-- they never really have, and they're too big and risk-averse to ever be able to. What I do expect from them is to take something familiar and build on top of it, turning that familiar thing on it's ear. Seems Overwatch is no different.

I can understand the pushback on the character designs, but I think they're brilliant-- no scantily-clad women, a fairly-diverse range of ethnicities (though black guy is strangely missing), it's not all white, 'roided space marines. I mean, I can see where people feel they're "cribbing" from past sources, but I honestly feel like that's kind of reaching. Certainly we can recognize the influences in the designs, and certainly Blizzard is playing it somewhat safe, but those are both part and parcel to trying to gain mass appeal-- styles are fantasy/idealized because that's what most audiences are used to, and on a whole I think most people find these styles the most attractive, or at the least, acceptable to their tastes. Trying to subvert mass appeal requires bending the rules, not breaking them. And unfortunately still, the "rules" require super-skinny, big-breasted, half-naked babes and ripped alpha-men. I'm happy that Blizzard isn't towing that line, but pushing those boundaries into a more diverse and inclusive direction, however slowly.

Frankly, I think all the characters are cool takes on familiar tropes, and in spite of the disparity in a lot of those tropes, these characters all tie together really well.

Thank you!
I was just gonna post something snarky.
But seriously, go take a design class people, then none of this will seem like a surprise, at all.

If they just got rid of the high heels I would be fine with the designs. All the women have high heels, that just seems stupid.

Women fight better in high heels. Have you never played video games before?

NathanialG wrote:

If they just got rid of the high heels I would be fine with the designs. All the women have high heels, that just seems stupid.

Phara and Tracer don't wear high heels that I can see? Out of 5 women, 3 have heels from what I see - that's hardly "all".

(Nitpicking aside, heels in combat DO seem silly. Especially Symmetra's. Mercy's I could almost give a pass. Almost).

DOUBLE DERP-ification!

kyrieee wrote:
WipEout wrote:

Trying to subvert mass appeal requires bending the rules, not breaking them. And unfortunately still, the "rules" require super-skinny, big-breasted, half-naked babes and ripped alpha-men. I'm happy that Blizzard isn't towing that line, but pushing those boundaries into a more diverse and inclusive direction, however slowly.

The only rules this is bending are physics.

Is it though? (slightly NSFW).

I'm not saying the Overwatch designs are the epitome of diversity and gender-neutrality or acceptance, I'm just saying I think they're well done and a welcomed step in the right direction.

I'd say their designs aren't really any worse than what I've seen of Revolution 60. I haven't played it yet, though.

If, however, we start seeing more crotch shots and sexy poses and awkwardly long holds on women's backsides or breasts, I'll be right there with you. I just don't personally feel like it's that bad, though.

I do agree on the heels in combat sentiment, though. Kinda silly.

RolandofGilead wrote:

Even it if is, and it totally is, so what?

Well, I would have preferred their first new IP in 17 years to be something more substantial than an afterthought of a failed project that is just another shooter on the pile. I get that players these days have a high tolerance for F2P, early access, etc. and will be happy as clams to see Blizzard develop this piece of Titan into something more as they go along. I am just not one of those people. I am used to a high standard of releases from Blizzard and the way they're going about this one causes me concern.

They just checked the MOBA box with Heroes of the Storm, now they're checking the F2P shooter box off. Do something brilliant, Blizzard.

RolandofGilead wrote:

Thank you!
I was just gonna post something snarky.
But seriously, go take a design class people, then none of this will seem like a surprise, at all.

Telling people who disagree with the characters' design to go take a design class is actually fairly snarky. I think many see the problem as none of this being a surprise at all, and they want to be surprised in a positive way.

It's been my understanding that this essentially is Project Titan, or at least the final iteration, aside from Blizzard "cancelling" Titan. Kinda hard to really know if Titan was actually a failed project, or this is just the final result of their testing and the realization that WoW's popularity will likely never happen again.

WizardM0de wrote:

They just checked the MOBA box with Heroes of the Storm, now they're checking the F2P shooter box off. Do something brilliant, Blizzard.

I wouldn't expect Blizzard to do something brilliant ever again. They have made it very clear that they are only interested in iterating on what others have done before them or what they have already done. They play it as safe as possible.

If the game is fun, I will play it lol

RolandofGilead wrote:

But seriously, go take a design class people, then none of this will seem like a surprise, at all.

Actually, I have, and if this were the result of an assignment to design a diverse fictional cast, my professor would've docked points for the women all having nearly the exact same body.

Oh wait, sorry, I wasn't supposed to undermine your snark. Oops!

This looks pretty entertaining. I signed up for the beta as well just in case.

Can't wait to play against some bots ... err people.

I'm gonna guess that close to half of the characters in all games are going to be Hanzo.

I imagine they'll limit to one of each per game as they do with Heroes?

krev82 wrote:

I imagine they'll limit to one of each per game as they do with Heroes?

Probably, but really, who doesn't want to shoot that dragon ultimate?

Hanzo looks like he learned his special from the Katayanagi Twins in Scott Pilgrim.

Personally, I think this looks awesome. I gave up trying to play TF2 years ago when things just went goofy for casual players like me that couldn't keep up with the hat / stat collecting hardcore players or servers with wacky mods installed. A restrictive hero based MOBA like experience with TF2 gameplay? YES! Sign me up! Take my money!