Tracer #Buttgate - Shots fired by professional cosplayer at Heroes Championships

[Wrex Brogan]

Oh how the times do change


It seems not long ago people were all for questioning creators decisions and it seems very much that it's ok for certain people with certain views to challenge developers but not if they then get their way. Once the change is made somehow the artists vision is Sacred. and Blizzard cannot be questioned or criticised for their decision.

...or, and this is just going out on a limb here... maybe people are still criticizing/questioning the decision, but are understanding it's still Blizzard's call in regards to creative control and are thus not getting all bent out of shape with it?

Seriously. You can... do both of those things at once. The biggest problem I've seen people have with this whole thing is that it's even a controversy, which is understandable given it's seriously not the 'noble stand against Liberal conservative extremists' I've seen far too many people trumpet.

Blizzard made the decision, and cited that they themselves were debating the poses removal anyway. You can criticize or disagree with it all you please, but at the end of the day it was still Blizzard's decision.

 

[lionsprey]

i can't speak for everyone but personally i'm less annoyed that it was removed and more how it was handled.
what they did. someone complained on the forum they said, yes you're right we are going to remove it. but in a very ass kissing way. followed by backpedaling. what they should have done.
Either they should have said. we are already discussing the removal of this pose and we are currently leaning towards its removal.
Or they should have used common sense and not responded at all to a post basically saying "Think of the children"
this would not only have at least delayed the controversy it would give them plausible deniability for "pandering to SJWs" if they removed the pose and someone dug up the forum post.

 

[Elijin]

I feel like Blizzard didnt have strong feelings in either direction, and as the game is still in early stages shrugged and made the minor tweak because heck why not? No point fighting over something this minor, its a single moment, not a complete redesign of everything sexy.

And in turn, the internet exploded, and made it a big deal. The exact thing they couldnt be bothered dealing with.

 

[wulf3n]

this has got to be one of the strangest hills I've seen so many people want to die on (and we've seen some pretty stupid freaking hills lately...)

That seems a little dramatic.

I get that it's an adage and not something literal, but I would think it implies some sort of sacrifice.

Of all the last stands on all the gates I didn't think much if anything was ever really at stake.

 

[Bad Jim]

http://oddshot.tv/shot/heroes-of-the-storm-201604032644959

For those who can't see the video;

Um, the girl in the picture is not the girl in the video.

 

[Something Amyss]

Since the thread is now 48 pages long - and WoW forum thread discussing it 248 pages, since I didn't save it when it was relevant, it will likely be hard to prove again. However, on this page http://us.battle.net/forums/en/overwatch/topic/20743015583?page=18#343

The evidence OP lied is in the fact that he decided to clarify when other people assumed that he was a woman and started making generalisations about women. Is that really it? Other people brashly accused him of being a woman, he clarifies, and that means he was at fault? Did he also lie about posting on Tumblr because other people accused him of that?

Also can some one please provide evidence that the OP that started this whole thing was a troll post or is this just conjecture?

I'm not sure it's even conjecture. Sounds like it's straight-up fabricated if this is the standard of evidence we have going. Seriously, look at the link. It's not like Phipps was outed. He saw people saying nasty things based on his presumed gender and clarified he wasn't a woman--something he never said and seems to have been assumed out of malice.

You know you guys can just.. google butts if you want to see butts.

Butts? on the internet? Why, I've never heard of such a thing!

 

[sonicneedslovetoo]

What absolutely maddens me about this whole controversy is that Blizzard has tons of things wrong with their games(the entirety of Garrisons in WOD for example) and the one time they listen to somebody it's about this. Hey Blizzard if you listen to your customers so much, why the hell does Savage Roar still exist? Why is transmog so stupidly restrictive? Larvae Injects/Mules/Chrono Boost?

There are a ton of things that they should listen to players about, things that have literally destroyed their player-bases for at least two games now. And they change this. You know what Blizzard screw you I hope Activision pulls a Konami on you.

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

http://oddshot.tv/shot/heroes-of-the-storm-201604032644959

For those who can't see the video;

So we all know about #Buttgate by now and how Blizzard responded to one user's (fake and TROLL complaint) by removing pose considered "too sexy" for Tracer.

And now a professional cosplayer doing publicity and invited by Blizzard themselves fired straight them by doing the exact removed pose on Blizzard's live Twitch.tv stream of the Heroes of the Storm Championships. The Twitch Chat goddamn exploded when she did it, and it was hilarious. And the best part?

A real person, in a costume so close to Tracer that she might as well BE Tracer herself...looks perfectly natural and shows the pose suits Tracer just fine.

Yeah.

Blizzard just got slapped on their own freaking Twitch.

Well, at risk of sounding like a tool, that young lady has pulled off a fine cosplay and has a fantastic butt. Seriously, as derriere goes, its up there.

Other than that, if Blizzard got 'slapped' on their own Twitch, I think it's taking a while for the impulse to reach the brain because I'm not seeing them give much of a shit.

Cosplaying is a profession now? When did that happen?

OT - actually, no. I've got nothing. This is such a non-issue, it's disturbing how many keystrokes people are wasting on this.

In this case, think of it as a growing niche of modelling. That's functionally all it is: they are modelling clothes, only these ones were created by games designers instead of French meth addicts or Italian coke fiends. You hear that Pierre Cardin and Versace, fucking shots fired

 

[freaper]

Well I hope her protesting what has to be the silliest "controversy" I think I've seen in a long while was worth it. I imagine Blizzard is not terribly happy about that.

I suppose maybe this cosplayer feels so strongly about it that they're willing to take that hit but this has got to be one of the strangest hills I've seen so many people want to die on (and we've seen some pretty stupid freaking hills lately...)

I'd say she's got a perfectly fine set of hills.

OT: Are we so bored that every minor flatus of drama has to be labeled a controversy?

 

[wulf3n]

http://oddshot.tv/shot/heroes-of-the-storm-201604032644959

For those who can't see the video;

Spoiler

Um, the girl in the picture is not the girl in the video.

What makes you say that?

 

[Bad Jim]

http://oddshot.tv/shot/heroes-of-the-storm-201604032644959

For those who can't see the video;

Spoiler

Um, the girl in the picture is not the girl in the video.

What makes you say that?

It's a distinctly asian girl in the video. She has brown eyes, while the girl in the pic has blue or maybe green eyes. Hard to tell through an orange mask but they're not brown. The light on her back is white in the picture while the girl in the video wears blue lights. And the girl in the pic is posing with her butt to the right while the girl in the video poses with her butt to the left.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

Troll? Or false flag planted by Blizzard so they had plausible deniability and built in scapegoat so they could censor their own in-development game before release?

That would be absolutely pointless. Blizzard could have just said "we don't like that so many characters have generic poses, this one's a bit rubbish, we're going to make something better" and I imagine most people would agree with it. I know I would.

But when it was removed because, paraphrasing, 'someone complained it was too sexual so we capitulated', people are going to be ticked off at this bizarre kowtowing to a vast, vast minority.

Given how the other ButtGate started, I highly doubt it. R. Mika didn't even get a forum post complaining about it and somehow the nebulous "SJWs" were still at fault for a game dev "censoring" themselves by changing a game that was still in development.

 

[CritialGaming]

Aw man, it's as if surrounding context was the entire point of the initial complaint and pose removal. It's almost like taking things out of context can cause misrepresentations of the intended purpose. But, surely every time a character's ass has ever been on camera has the exact same intended purpose. /s

Actually I am mocking the fact that people complained that they purposely showed off Widowmaker's ass when she fell to the ground in the original cinematic trailer. Then, after just removing a butt shot from in-game, they reveal a featurette that has Tracer fall to the ground and show her in the exact same pose that people complained about Windowmaker months ago.

Now cinematic's are story-boarded and made over the course of months, even years. So that butt shot was probably animated and put into the short film months before #buttgate. However a simple two second cut, and it goes away. So why, after butt's became a no-no (at least for Tracer) did they leave it in?

All I'm trying to say is. Don't take my butt shots away from me in one place, but leave them in others. It makes my penis very very confused.

 

[Cryselle]

Actually I am mocking the fact that people complained that they purposely showed off Widowmaker's ass when she fell to the ground in the original cinematic trailer. Then, after just removing a butt shot from in-game, they reveal a featurette that has Tracer fall to the ground and show her in the exact same pose that people complained about Windowmaker months ago.

Now cinematic's are story-boarded and made over the course of months, even years. So that butt shot was probably animated and put into the short film months before #buttgate. However a simple two second cut, and it goes away. So why, after butt's became a no-no (at least for Tracer) did they leave it in?

All I'm trying to say is. Don't take my butt shots away from me in one place, but leave them in others. It makes my penis very very confused.

Because the problem from Blizzard's angle was never the butt? They don't have a problem with people seeing Tracer's butt, or characters with sexy poses. The problem was, very specifically, Tracer intentionally striking a pose to show off her butt, which was a dubious match for the personality that they are pushing with the character. I daresay that they'd be disappointed if nobody thought Tracer was hot, they're just going for the 'coincidentally hot' over Widowmaker's 'intentionally hot'.

 

[Dizchu]

Given how the other ButtGate started, I highly doubt it. R. Mika didn't even get a forum post complaining about it and somehow the nebulous "SJWs" were still at fault for a game dev "censoring" themselves by changing a game that was still in development.

"SJWs" are just a non-specific group of people to get mad at and declare "the enemy" without actually addressing any issues or putting any effort into identifying problems. I'm not actually convinced that the people whining about "SJWs" even want these "problems" to go away because then they'd have nothing to complain about.

A lot of the clever jabs the knee-jerk "anti-SJW" crowd makes can apply to them too. "If you don't like it, make your own game".

All I'm trying to say is. Don't take my butt shots away from me in one place, but leave them in others. It makes my penis very very confused.

I know you're joking here but considering the ridiculous reaction this "controversy" has brought, it seems like many people genuinely think this way.

 

[Zhukov]

(fake and TROLL complaint)

Citation needed?

Seriously, is this a confirmed thing? Did the the user come out and say something to the effect of "Haha trolled you all good" or the like?

Or are you just dismissing them as "fake and troll" because their complaint doesn't match your views and of course it's impossible that someone could earnestly have an opinion that is so different from your obviously objectively correct opinion?

 

[DeadProxy]

It's a distinctly asian girl in the video. She has brown eyes, while the girl in the pic has blue or maybe green eyes. Hard to tell through an orange mask but they're not brown. The light on her back is white in the picture while the girl in the video wears blue lights. And the girl in the pic is posing with her butt to the right while the girl in the video poses with her butt to the left.

Just going over some of your points...
The eye colour is almost impossible to tell from the picture, since the orange tint skews it too much to make any claim.

The light on her back is not making a white light, there's a blue or violet tint to the light, I'm not even sure how well a white light shows up on a camera without glare.

And the pose doesn't matter, since the picture is taken from a "red carpet entrance" area, while the video clearly shows her on stage, with no carpet on the ground.

Also, I'm pretty sure the lady in the picture, that has asian text at the bottom, is asian, because the jaw section is pretty similar to the person in the video.

 

[Something Amyss]

I feel like Blizzard didnt have strong feelings in either direction, and as the game is still in early stages shrugged and made the minor tweak because heck why not? No point fighting over something this minor, its a single moment, not a complete redesign of everything sexy.

And in turn, the internet exploded, and made it a big deal. The exact thing they couldnt be bothered dealing with.

I'm not sure that's the case. With the overwhelming response being negative to this change, if it was simply about avoiding a fight the easiest thing to do would be to bring back the "butt pose." Blizzard is, so far, standing by its decision.

That's the thing. There's accusations of Blizzard caving, but they clearly have not caved to the overwhelming majority response. They haven't caved to hashtags or threats of boycotts or anything else. The easiest way to avoid a fight would have been to say "Gosh, I guess butt poses are so important people are going to boycott our game, so here you go!"

Of course, Blizzard could be as incredulous as I am. I seriously can't believe that this is a real thing. I see #buttgate being passed around unironically and I start to wonder if my life is some sort of social experiment and I start looking for a hidden camera. I always knew there was something amyss with my life. >.>

Or they could not value people who are that insistent on the pose as customers, I suppose. Or not believe people when they claim they'll boycott. Or even think the publicity will increase sales.

But there's a missing element in all this, which is why they would cave to one group and not a larger, more vocal group who threatens to hurt them financially. And the reality is that they probably wouldn't. This whole idea relies on some sort of SJW Illuminati that's so powerful one wonders why sex and fun haven't already been outlawed.

Given how the other ButtGate started, I highly doubt it. R. Mika didn't even get a forum post complaining about it and somehow the nebulous "SJWs" were still at fault for a game dev "censoring" themselves by changing a game that was still in development.

But, I mean, that's the thing. We're so powerful that we have major developers preemptively shaking in their boots. We're not real consumers of the product, but we are apparently more capable of hurting it than the True Gamers who will buy their products.

Direct quote from the thread on this:

I'm sure you've seen the poll people have been posting, last i looked it was an overwhelming 94% saying it's fine. Now why on earth would you throw away a resource because one single person asked you to, when 94% of people said keep it? Can anyone explain that logic to me?

It doesn't seem to occur that if it sounds this ridiculous, maybe it really is. Maybe there's something other than this conspiratorial idea.

 

[Elijin]

snip

It was not my intent to imply they caved to the initial case, but simply were still in the design stage and saw no issue with tweaking it in the same direction as the feedback. They didnt care, so moving in the same direction was easy.

So yeah, I feel more like they were on the fence, and they got feedback in a particular direction, so they went with it.

Now they've gone with it, they're not going to backflip though.