As Blizzcon 2014 got underway, issues surrounding the harassment of females in the gaming community and the representation of women in video games took centre stage. Blizzard President and CEO Michael Morhaime sent a message to the gaming community to reject hate and harassment, and prominent Blizzard lore guy Chris Metzen discussed how Blizzard is attempting to promote a positive image with the female characters in Overwatch by encouraging diversity and not oversexualizing the characters.
Metzen related a story of how watching a cringey World of Warcraft cutscene with his daughter and listening to the input of Blizzard’s female employees prompted the Overwatch team to work on diversifying and attempting not to oversexualize the female characters:
“We’ve heard our female employees, and my daughter tools me out about it. She saw a World of Warcraft cinematic of the Dragon Aspects, and my daughter was like, ‘Why are they all in swimsuits?’ And I was like, ‘I don’t know. I don’t know anymore.'”
“I think we’re clear we’re in an age where gaming is for everybody. We build games for everybody. We want everybody to come and play. Increasingly people want to feel represented from all walks of life, everywhere in the world. Boys and girls—everybody. We feel indebted to do our best to honor that.”
“Specifically for Overwatch over the past year we’ve been really cognizant of that, trying not to oversexualize the female characters. I don’t know if we oversexualize the male characters. But it’s something we’re very sensitive to. We want that to be part of who we are, what our brand is. I think Mike Morhaime talked in a roundabout way to that in his speech. It’s something we’re very cognizant of. We want girls to feel kick-butt. Equally represented.”
There seems to be a solid mix of women in the game from all over the world, and while their figures are certainly trim and curvy, at least they’re not “wearing swimsuits.” If a young woman can look at a game like WoW and be concerned that all the women are all so scantily clad, maybe the gaming industry does need to step back and look at how they’re portraying their female characters so not to exclude those women from becoming gamers in the future. Meanwhile, Overwatch’s ladies do exude power, and we at Gamer Headlines can’t wait to get our hands on the game.
How do you feel about Metzen’s and Blizzard’s commitment to downplaying the sexuality of female characters in Overwatch? Let us know in the comments.
Source: Kotaku
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