New pose for Tracer #ButtGate

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

...Whether or not people cried over it wasn't going to change the outcome...

No. No that's exactly what happened. They came up with this new pose directly in response, unless they had already published this pose before removing the original one.

If they did do that, then I do stand corrected.

If not, then there's no reason to think they didn't listen to the protesters. No reason to think this is anything but capitulation.

 

[MysticSlayer]

You know they came out with this in response to the cries, not completely separately, right? Like no one actually believes this would have been the new pose if no one cried censorship/foul. I mean that's both cheeks and one leg down. That's 75% of the original pose.

It doesn't make the protest look like a joke, it makes it look like it worked.

If you want to spin it that way, go ahead. But something tells me Blizzard has been laughing their heads off non-stop for a few days.

Same way how Bioware coming out with an extended ending to fill in the massive plot holes in Mass Effect 3 didn't make the people who were protesting the massive plot holes look silly. Its not a retro-active sort of thing here. And no one actually believes the way things went down was the original intent for either company.

The difference between this and Mass Effect 3 is that BioWare had already released their "final" idea, and they hunkered down on it for a little bit before giving in. There was never a question about what there was to complain about, and it was blatantly obvious to those crying for a change where BioWare had failed.

On the flip side, we didn't know what Blizzard was planning until today. People complained about them removing the pose without knowing what the new pose would even be. Blizzard wasn't (to my knowledge) swapping out the pose daily based on customer feedback, and they haven't been spending the last few days defending the original comment. The only reason to think this wasn't the plan from the beginning is because we've spent the last week convincing ourselves that this wouldn't happen.

Sure, I don't doubt that people are going to say that it shows that their protest worked, but I think that's quite self-conceited.

Blizzard didn't handle this ingeniously. They shat themselves in public and eventually put on a new pair of clothes. But they didn't do it on purpose, and certainly not to then turn around and laugh at everyone who thinks there's shit everywhere because haHA! New Pants!

Of course, if this was planned from the beginning, their original comments look like a setup to troll everyone.

It's also possible that they realized that the person on their forums was a troll, and they decided to have fun with being embarrassed.

And yes, it is possible that this was based on customer feedback.

But in the end, we don't know for sure and likely will never know for sure. People who hated the outrage or those (like me) looking for some fun amidst all the rage will probably see it as Blizzard trolling. Those who complained will see it as Blizzard listening to them.

And honestly, it wouldn't surprise me if Blizzard says, "We totally listened to you all, like, for real we listened to you." It will make them look like they care about their customers and may even manufacture more outrage from those who want Blizzard to listen to them, which would continue all this free publicity. It would be a fantastic PR move, regardless of how true it is, and one that too many companies have abused to the point it is almost meaningless except to the few people that can feel special because of it.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

If not, then there's no reason to think they didn't listen to the protesters. No reason to think this is anything but capitulation.

Other than Blizzard's official statement that "this is not capitulation", of course. And, well...

There are two possibilities here.

1. Blizzard is telling the truth. Blizzard, a company that reacts with glacial speed to audience feedback at the best of times and more frequently ignores it entirely, had decided entirely on their own to change a placeholder pose on their most popular character to one more befitting her personality during a beta period. Kaplan saw someone complaining about the pose and decided to drum up some PR points by noting it was going to be changed, then later had to refine his statement because the usual brigade of "Censorship Kidz" got their panties ruffled.

2, Blizzard is lying. They decided to engineer the removal of a single butt from a butt filled game in response to a single piece of forum feedback. As a small developer, they cannot possibly endure the might of the SJW lobby. Kaplan unleashed a storm of prevarication to keep the Watchful Hounds of the gaming public off the trail, but they saw through his fables. Facing the even larger threat of the mighty throng of #ButtGate Warriors, a breathless Blizzard scrambled to put an even SEXIER butt pose back into the game.

One of those seems a lot more plausible than the other to me. Alas, I've been told there's "no reason" to believe any possibility but the latter, so...

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

And honestly, it wouldn't surprise me if Blizzard says, "We totally listened to you all, like, for real we listened to you." It will make them look like they care about their customers and may even manufacture more outrage from those who want Blizzard to listen to them, which would continue all this free publicity. It would be a fantastic PR move, regardless of how true it is, and one that too many companies have abused to the point it is almost meaningless except to the few people that can feel special because of it.

That's actually a really good point. I hadn't gone that cynical yet, but that makes a kind of sense.

But then I'd have to counter, why wait? You know? Lets say it was planned to a degree, troll or not. They had this new pose ready to go when they removed the new one. Why wait days and days? Why not release it at the same time as the old one was removed? I doubt anyone would have noticed if it was just a leg raise change with no fanfair.

Why invite the shitstorm? Why let this train wreck happen?

 

[The Lunatic]

Snip

Ah! Butt, you must understand.

This is #buttgate.

They were doing it to cover... Their butts.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

SNIP

You forgot the the third option.

3. Blizzard changes the pose of one of their characters in an effort to seem inclusive and modern in regards to current gender/sexual issues. Vocal fans protest. Dozens of articles are written. Hundreds of YouTube videos made. Tweets, emails and forum posts. All negative. All angry.
Blizzard, mindful of the shitstorm that was GamerGate and indeed all the other Gates and wise enough to know bad press is bad, desperately comes up with a new pose that's similar enough to the old one to stop the protests, but different enough to prevent counter-protests.
They then turn around and say "Oh yeah, it was planned all along. Totally meant to do that, you've totally be trolled! Ha ha. Aha. Hahaha. Lets all just laugh and be friends and buy the game and move on and never mention this again."

 

[CritialGaming]

And honestly, it wouldn't surprise me if Blizzard says, "We totally listened to you all, like, for real we listened to you." It will make them look like they care about their customers and may even manufacture more outrage from those who want Blizzard to listen to them, which would continue all this free publicity. It would be a fantastic PR move, regardless of how true it is, and one that too many companies have abused to the point it is almost meaningless except to the few people that can feel special because of it.

That's actually a really good point. I hadn't gone that cynical yet, but that makes a kind of sense.

But then I'd have to counter, why wait? You know? Lets say it was planned to a degree, troll or not. They had this new pose ready to go when they removed the new one. Why wait days and days? Why not release it at the same time as the old one was removed? I doubt anyone would have noticed if it was just a leg raise change with no fanfair.

Why invite the shitstorm? Why let this train wreck happen?

This entire situation could have been prevented. They way they handled it was terrible and only caused drama. They said that they were planning nose poses anyway for Tracer and other characters, so why remove the original over the should pose?

All they had to do was say this, "Thank you for your feedback on our victory poses. Tracer's current pose is a placeholder pose, as we are currently working on implementing more poses for her and other characters to replace some of the blanket placeholder poses that are currently in place."

Problem solved.

They not only address the concerns of the player that didn't like the Tracer pose, but also they appear to the rest of the community in a stronger way. Rather than quickly removing the pose and saying they will try to do better, which made them look like they were easy to cave to such weak criticism. Overwatch is in Beta, therefore they just toss down the placeholder excuse and LEAVE the original pose in the game until this pose was finshed, and Ta-da. Problem solved, controversy prevented.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

3. Blizzard changes the pose of one of their characters in an effort to seem inclusive and modern in regards to current gender/sexual issues. Vocal fans protest. Dozens of articles are written. Hundreds of YouTube videos made. Tweets, emails and forum posts. All negative. All angry.

Really? Everyone who commented on "ButtGate" was angry, were they? No one was amused? Or apathetic? 100% negative and angry? That's interesting! I've learned a lot from this.

Blizzard, mindful of the shitstorm that was GamerGate and indeed all the other Gates and wise enough to know bad press is bad, desperately comes up with a new pose that's similar enough to the old one to stop the protests, but different enough to prevent counter-protests.

Blizzard has never given two shits about "bad press". As a developer, Blizzard products generate more money than most large publishers. They consistently and persistently do what they want when they want. The outcry over Diablo 3's "always online" was louder than #ButtGate by order of magnitude, and the game is not only one of the best selling titles of all time, it's also still always online.

They then turn around and say "Oh yeah, it was planned all along. Totally meant to do that, you've totally be trolled! Ha ha. Aha. Hahaha. Lets all just laugh and be friends and buy the game and move on and never mention this again."

You're right though. I don't doubt for ONE SECOND that they were literally terrified of politicized forum mushrooms who escalate into incandescent rage every time a question of gender, political content or sexuality arises in a gaming product. A few of them are probably in therapy right now. "We thought the company was doing well, but then Buttz4Ever made that scornful YouTube video, and we were sent reeling".

 

[MysticSlayer]

But then I'd have to counter, why wait? You know? Lets say it was planned to a degree, troll or not. They had this new pose ready to go when they removed the new one. Why wait days and days? Why not release it at the same time as the old one was removed? I doubt anyone would have noticed if it was just a leg raise change with no fanfair.

The old pose was probably a lazy placeholder. Placeholders are pretty common to use when the final idea isn't ready yet or is still being worked on. Web developers even have websites [http://placekitten.com/] dedicated to providing these placeholders. And part of the reason to use them is the final design is not yet ready, but you can test everything else in the process of finishing the design.

So chances are, Blizzard didn't have the final design ready and probably weren't going to originally have it ready for a while. Even if the artwork was done, there's still the matter of getting it into the game, testing it, and doing any business and legal stuff associated with artistic changes.

Why invite the shitstorm? Why let this train wreck happen?

Controversy is free publicity. And when companies come out as well as Blizzard just did, it turns out to be very good publicity.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

I can't believe people still care about this. Don't you have real lives? Things like school, job, family, pet or any real responsibility that would make you question how much fucks you can give to things in a day/week/month? You should conserve your fucks for things that matter a lot more. You may think that you have plenty of fucks left to give but you're mistaken. It is a limited resource that depends on many other resources like time, money, physical and mental health etc.

 

[Dragonbums]

SNIP

You forgot the the third option.

3. Blizzard changes the pose of one of their characters in an effort to seem inclusive and modern in regards to current gender/sexual issues. Vocal fans protest. Dozens of articles are written. Hundreds of YouTube videos made. Tweets, emails and forum posts. All negative. All angry.
Blizzard, mindful of the shitstorm that was GamerGate and indeed all the other Gates and wise enough to know bad press is bad, desperately comes up with a new pose that's similar enough to the old one to stop the protests, but different enough to prevent counter-protests.
They then turn around and say "Oh yeah, it was planned all along. Totally meant to do that, you've totally be trolled! Ha ha. Aha. Hahaha. Lets all just laugh and be friends and buy the game and move on and never mention this again."

Denying direct evidence from the official source just to continue supporting your notion that they removed a butt pose over a simple comment shows how willing you are to be dishonest to continue your own manufactured rage.

The fact of the matter, regardless of your bending of the facts is that someone made an overall positive Overwatch feedback post and only noted that the butt pose was off for a character like Tracer.
Blizzard responded saying that the pose wasn't well liked within their own studio anyway and removed it. Feedback or not it was gonna get the cut.

 

[Godzillarich(aka tf2godz)]

Spoiler: oh my God

This is amazing! everyone just got trolled and it's amazing. No one comes out of this not looking like an idiot.

 

[Eacaraxe_v1legacy]

If you want to spin it that way, go ahead. But something tells me Blizzard has been laughing their heads off non-stop for a few days.

The first thing I really noticed about the pose, is that Tracer's calf clips into her thigh, that the mesh at her knee is a bit distorted, and the pose isn't rotated enough on the Y-axis to hide it well. That indicates a slight lack of polish, which tells me Blizzard likely didn't intend this to be the end product, but created and added it after seeing the backlash to the original pose's removal. Considering the timing, I'm guessing it was an eleventh-hour compromise pose.

The fact of the matter, regardless of your bending of the facts is that someone made an overall positive Overwatch feedback post and only noted that the butt pose was off for a character like Tracer.

As, as I stated in another thread, how exactly was that pose out-of-character again? And, as I stated in that same post, the more I read posts like this, how they are constructed, and to whom they're in response, the more I'm reminded of "the Civil War was really about states' rights!" arguments (because, about which states' right was the Civil War fought, again?).

 

[Sleepy Sol]

Do she got a booty?

SHE DOOOOOO

Looks fine. Wouldn't have mattered either way to me, though.

 

[Revnak_v1legacy]

If you want to spin it that way, go ahead. But something tells me Blizzard has been laughing their heads off non-stop for a few days.

The first thing I really noticed about the pose, is that Tracer's calf clips into her thigh, that the mesh at her knee is a bit distorted, and the pose isn't rotated enough on the Y-axis to hide it well. That indicates a slight lack of polish, which tells me Blizzard likely didn't intend this to be the end product, but created and added it after seeing the backlash to the original pose's removal. Considering the timing, I'm guessing it was an eleventh-hour compromise pose.

Really? It cannot be that this was the design team's intention the whole time? Just can't?

And honestly, what does that say about this whole outrage then? Doesn't it imply that the people so opposed to the SJW outrage machine are themselves an outrage machine, no less of a threat to creatives? Do you really want to mark this in the win column like that?

The fact of the matter, regardless of your bending of the facts is that someone made an overall positive Overwatch feedback post and only noted that the butt pose was off for a character like Tracer.

As, as I stated in another thread, how exactly was that pose out-of-character again? And, as I stated in that same post, the more I read posts like this, how they are constructed, and to whom they're in response, the more I'm reminded of "the Civil War was really about states' rights!" arguments (because, about which states' right was the Civil War fought, again?).

The pose looked seductive and deliberate, new one is dynamic, fun, and flirtatious. Guess which sounds like a better description of Tracer?

 

[GestaltEsper]

How did it look seductive? She's literally just standing. Doing nothing...but standing. I don't get it.

 

[Bombiz]

I honestly and truthfully don't get it.
What is this shit any more. Its like a never ending strem of people being offended everywhere and by everything. No one can just be in the middle. Its either you're a SJW/liberal who's easily offended by literally everything but also thinks any one who complains is just entitled or you're a GGer/conservative/alt-right who's easily offended by literally everything but also thinks any one who complains is just entitled.
What's the point any more. What does it all mean. I'm so lost and confused. Halp. Plz

 

[Zetman]

you guys will never be happy
"her models clips, this is not what they intended". Did you fmiss the inflation on widowmaker's ass/mound in the reveal trailer?