New pose for Tracer #ButtGate

[kris40k]

We're talking about hundreds of models that would have to be individually redesigned for...what? twenty-six distinct race/gender combinations? some, in many cases, for content that has been live over a decade.

You're right, a development studio would have to be anal retentive about aesthetic and visual polish to try to undertake something like that. I agree that Blizzard is not the kind of studio to try that.

 

[Revnak_v1legacy]

That the pose was didn't fit her character due to it being too sexual. Kaplan said nothing about the pose being sexual, just that they were replacing it and that they wanted people to feel heroic and comfortable. Then he stated that they had been planning to remove it for some time. Why must we assume the worst about every design decision?

Kaplan's initial response, the later (polished) response, and the end product are in contradiction, especially in light of the initial complaint. My interest, at this point, lies with how Blizzard handled this controversy and the decision to change the pose internally, and I believe the lack of polish on the pose holds insight.

You'll notice in my commentary on other threads, my chief point of contention with the complaint is how in the very process of complaining about objectification, the complainant perpetuates a larger, more pervasive, gender stereotype that is harmful to women. That being, and I'll restate here, that sexuality and sexualization are reductive forces in the quality of a woman's character. And, depending on Blizzard's own response, managing to perpetuate that harmful stereotype as a triple-A gaming company.

So -- please exercise caution in generalizations about me, and whatever perception you hold about my "righteous fury" or "outrage" in the future.

Now, had that pose been in development since prior to Kaplan's post, there certainly would have been time to polish it. Change the leg positioning to avoid clipping and mesh distortion, rotating the pose on the Y-axis to hide mesh distortion, altering the mesh to work around the distortion. However, none of this is the case currently -- it was added as-is. In fact, this change is undocumented in the patch notes,

http://us.battle.net/forums/en/overwatch/topic/20742886413

It strikes me, that considering how quickly this escalated, Blizzard would want attention drawn to the change, least of all by documenting the change. However, they didn't.

Fine, you outraged hard and won. Developers changed a game out of fear of your influence. Maybe this will even cost Kaplan his career, after all, who wants somebody with such a black mark on their record.

Never mind that the game he was leading design on was still anything but sex negative, still full of female and male characters strong in their personality and sexuality. He didn't toe the line in this case, he gaffed, he must be dropped like a rock. Criticism, correction, second chances, nobody believes in that anymore. Patience is foolishness, not a virtue.

Great job. You win. Be proud.

 

[Neverhoodian]

*Blizzard removes initial pose because they claim it overly-sexualized Tracer, people draw battle lines.

*Blizzard inserts pose straight out of a World War II pin-up, both camps have a congratulatory circle-jerk.

The internet is a weird place...

I'd like to invoke a <a href=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_truce>Christmas Truce for a second and point out the whole thing seems like a bad case of miscommunication at best and a shrewd PR stunt exploiting outrage culture at worst?

 

[Something Amyss]

This makes the uproar all the more hilarious.

*Blizzard removes initial pose because they claim it overly-sexualized Tracer

Not really.

 

[Vigormortis]

As for the pose itself, I actually prefer it to the old one. It's more playful, makes her look less awkward, and doesn't put all the focus on her wedgie.

It's the focus change that's the major thing. The last pose was designed to draw all attention to her ass, whereas this new one seems to shift the focus more to her upper torso.

Mmm, not really. All points now radiate out as though her ass is the center. They angled her arms, legs, foot, torso, and weapon positions so that they draw attention directly to it. They even brightened the highlight slightly so that it is much brighter than the rest of her. (save for maybe her face)

If anything, this new pose draws even more attention to the ass.

 

[Eacaraxe_v1legacy]

You're right, a development studio would have to be anal retentive about aesthetic and visual polish to try to undertake something like that. I agree that Blizzard is not the kind of studio to try that.

I must have missed that part where Blizzard has an infinite number of labor-hours and an infinite budget, to work on a game that's currently at its lowest in terms of subscription count and revenue generation since the first expansion released almost a decade ago.

 

[Wrex Brogan]

...That this is still being referred to as 'Buttgate' is the most disappointing thing in my life right now. Just... c'mon.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't those old? I think that is an old Paldain tier set and that is definitely TBC/Wraith-era hat. Blizzard said when they did the updated models in WoD that not everything from the past may work perfectly anymore.

...that's a Mage tier set! God! *angry muttering noises*

And no, it's not just a case of the older gear models clashing with the newer ones. Most of the MoP/WoD helmets and shoulders clip with Tauren (especially cloth/leather), Priest/Warlock armour sets clip horribly with most of the Night Elven hairstyles, Night Elf/Blood Elf ears still clip through most armours (which makes it weird when some of the newest helmets don't do it at this point - it's really inconsistent now) and the less said about the clipping problems with Goblins the better. Then there's all the scenery glitches, boss glitches, animation glitches...

Blizzard are very good at making highly detailed models, and lots of them in fairly rapid succession. Polishing everything up? Maybe 2 years into the expansion, but definitely not something they'd be pulling off in a Beta/Early release.

 

[Something Amyss]

Tracer's pose looks kind of dumb and difficult to maintain.

It's a game with superpowers. I'm not sure we have to worry about her stamina.

 

[kris40k]

It's a game with superpowers. I'm not sure we have to worry about her stamina.

Yeah, but won't someone think of the cosplayers!?!?

Someone's going to get injured

 

[Something Amyss]

Yeah, but won't someone think of the cosplayers!?!?

Someone's going to get injured

Then we must ban this for safety purposes!

#banthebutt

 

[kris40k]

Then we must ban this for safety purposes!

#banthebutt

Oh...oh god, what have we done...

The ride never ends!!!

 

[Something Amyss]

Oh...oh god, what have we done...

The ride never ends!!!

Could be worse. I could have come up with #buttbusters or #butthurt

 

[johnnyboy2537]

Bravo Blizzard. Class A trolling. Those annoying puritans deserve it anyway.

Those "annoying puritans" seem rather happy with the way things have turned out. So in a way they do deserve it.

Everyone I've seen so far who made a big deal of this seems to be grudgingly accepting it, although the reaction could be different from others. Others are still pissed off that she's wearing skin tight clothes. These people are the Christian Fundamenalists of the left and are never satisfied so the only thing to do is argue against their bad ideas and laugh at them.

Yeah, none of which seem to be around here, who only ever said that Blizzard had the right to take out the pose if they wanted to. And they did. So yeah.

And the argument was around her pose, not her outfit, so I don't know why you bring that up.

Then people on here aren't the problem. I'm talking about a lot of the people I've seen complaining about it on Twitter, Social Justice forums, and places like Polygon.

 

[Ryotknife]

Honestly this thread makes me feel like I've been living in some parallel dimension.

Blizzard is picky about aesthetic and visual polish?
I'll just be sitting over here with my derphound worgen and trolls that didn't blink for years, trying to figure out which hairstyles will clip into me the least. Hey at least female tauren's tails no longer clip through the back of their knees.

Seriously, I feel like a lot of people have a very different experience with Blizz than I do.

Hey I had to deal with the feral range bug ("you are out of range""you must be behind your target") which as far as i know they still havent fixed (and its been what? 8 years now?) and deal with the fact that tauren models were so big that you can hit them through walls which makes pillar humping a bit difficult. Yes, i pillar humped as a resto druid in BC arena for one season to get the best feral pve gear (which was pvp gear) and yes, i felt dirty the whole time (although 1+ hour arena matches definitely takes the shine off playing that spec). Playing resto in arena is the first time in a video game i literally started to lose the will to live, especially against druid/hunter comps. Randomly falling through the earth because of fear in AB was also fun.

EDIT: on topic, im actually kinda impressed with how Blizzard handled this. They utilized a scalpel instead of a sledgehammer (i still would have preferred with both poses were left in with a message saying more poses for other characters were on the way). Historically, this sort of thing never ended well. Blizzard has broken dozens of specs in WoW over the decades due to complaints and left them broken for years. I guess I was wrong to assume how Blizz handles Overwatch would be the same as how they handle WoW.

 

[Dragonbums]

Completely and totally unrelated, what doyou think sounds best?

- #McCreeButtgate
- #Justice4McCreeButt
- #CowboyButtsMatter
- #YesAllButts
- #NotAllPoses

Reduce, reuse, recycle; I reccomend we revive #IstandwithButts

This is relateable because everyone needs butts to stand. So everyone should stand for butts

 

[Drops a Sweet Katana]

Funnily enough, that is pretty close to the pose I imagined would be good replacement. Much better in my opinion.

 

[Captain Marvelous_v1legacy]

This gate thing needs to die in a fire, in the middle of a hurricane, during a planetary bombardment. Or maybe someone can just push it off a cliff or something. It really needs to go away.