The hilarious front line in the tragic war against ridiculous female armor
Tag: Blizzard
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So, Blizzard has announced to more playable characters coming up for Heroes of the Storm. Chromie and Medivh, and in an attempt to perhaps distract from how terrible the outfit is, the trailer features “super creepy future (Chromie)”, who is skin option:
Of course, the announcement also includes that there will be a new skin for Nova! One based off an Overwatch character! Can you guess which of it’s “improved” line up that Blizzard have chosen?
Probably a good time to bring this back since, well we’re still having people assuring us that Blizzard – a company with literally billions of dollars and armies of talent people… is really trying! Just look at them trying so hard with Overwatch! Examples include going from this:
To this:
This is not, by any stretch of the imagination – trying. There is no classroom in the world where this would be considered a passing grade improvement despite the claims of caring by lead. (If you missed the outrage by… people claiming others are outraged, there’s a great summary here.)
Yes, it is scary for companies to change up imagery when working with an established brand – but making the actual changes is the only way that it still perpetuates all the problems. Ultimately, all they’re doing is well…
The only way they’re going to fix things is to really take an actual whole new direction with it – and they probably won’t get that right the first time either.
Neither of these games improved by trying to get credit for minimalist changes and writing nice quotes about how their game is for everyone. They did by actually digging into what was wrong and looking at ways to avoid doing that.
Probably a good time to bring this back since, well we’re still having people assuring us that Blizzard – a company with literally billions of dollars and armies of talent people… is really trying! Just look at them trying so hard with Overwatch! Examples include going from this:
To this:
This is not, by any stretch of the imagination – trying. There is no classroom in the world where this would be considered a passing grade improvement despite the claims of caring by lead. (If you missed the outrage by… people claiming others are outraged, there’s a great summary here.)
Yes, it is scary for companies to change up imagery when working with an established brand – but making the actual changes is the only way that it still perpetuates all the problems. Ultimately, all they’re doing is well…
The only way they’re going to fix things is to really take an actual whole new direction with it – and they probably won’t get that right the first time either.
Neither of these games improved by trying to get credit for minimalist changes and writing nice quotes about how their game is for everyone. They did by actually digging into what was wrong and looking at ways to avoid doing that.
I don’t know if you’d seen these already but my eyes just rolled into the back of my head. Thanks for the crotch shot.
And of course the male equivalent is the opposite of sexualised.
Those posters sum up PERFECTLY the problem with gendered double standard in depicting fictional characters and how it traverses through various media, as an MMO gets adapted into a movie.
Everything about those characters that should be equal, isn’t: makeup, costume, posing.
@nicholaskoletook notice way back of how male orcs are big and unequivocally monstrous, while female ones are just conventionally pretty ladies painted green with small fangs (and that Garona’s mixed ancestry is not given justice either). Basically this:
edit: A number of people have rushed to remind us that in according to the character’s particular lore, she’s a half orc. While correct, this doesn’t address any of the key problems such as her pose and attire, that audiences unfamiliar with the lore won’t know that or that the character is essentially promoted as a sexy orc-like lady in juxtaposition to a powerful, well protected and dangerous orc man.
I don’t know if you’d seen these already but my eyes just rolled into the back of my head. Thanks for the crotch shot.
And of course the male equivalent is the opposite of sexualised.
Those posters sum up PERFECTLY the problem with gendered double standard in depicting fictional characters and how it traverses through various media, as an MMO gets adapted into a movie.
Everything about those characters that should be equal, isn’t: makeup, costume, posing.
@nicholaskoletook notice way back of how male orcs are big and unequivocally monstrous, while female ones are just conventionally pretty ladies painted green with small fangs (and that Garona’s mixed ancestry is not given justice either). Basically this:
edit: A number of people have rushed to remind us that in according to the character’s particular lore, she’s a half orc. While correct, this doesn’t address any of the key problems such as her pose and attire, that audiences unfamiliar with the lore won’t know that or that the character is essentially promoted as a sexy orc-like lady in juxtaposition to a powerful, well protected and dangerous orc man.
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One of these things is not like the other, One of these things just does not belong, Can you tell which thing is not like the others By the time I finish my song?
So the basis for Widowmaker is that she’s top tier assassin who is emotionally absent and conditioned to be the perfect operative *. For some reason her outfit doesn’t seem very much like those belonging to male characters from similar archetypes (all of them being the “best of the best”).
Which is kind of a shame, because I did a mock up of what she might look like if she took her clothing pointers from the more established members of the archetype and personally I think she still looks pretty damn sexy.
This is before we factor in all the options they had in terms of “inspired by but very different to”, future fashion trends, alternative themes, etc.
– wincenworks
* Of course, hers is a “I was a nice lady and then brainwashed into being a super assassin.” rather than anything that suggests she actively choose her profession – it’s unclear whether this is because Blizzard cannot envision a woman choosing to be an assassin for her own reasons, if they just felt the whole “she was once nice” cliche helps or if they plan to use “well a man picked her outfit” as an excuse later on.
